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Documentation / device-mapper / log-writes.txt


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:52 EST.

1	dm-log-writes
2	=============
3	
4	This target takes 2 devices, one to pass all IO to normally, and one to log all
5	of the write operations to.  This is intended for file system developers wishing
6	to verify the integrity of metadata or data as the file system is written to.
7	There is a log_write_entry written for every WRITE request and the target is
8	able to take arbitrary data from userspace to insert into the log.  The data
9	that is in the WRITE requests is copied into the log to make the replay happen
10	exactly as it happened originally.
11	
12	Log Ordering
13	============
14	
15	We log things in order of completion once we are sure the write is no longer in
16	cache.  This means that normal WRITE requests are not actually logged until the
17	next REQ_PREFLUSH request.  This is to make it easier for userspace to replay
18	the log in a way that correlates to what is on disk and not what is in cache,
19	to make it easier to detect improper waiting/flushing.
20	
21	This works by attaching all WRITE requests to a list once the write completes.
22	Once we see a REQ_PREFLUSH request we splice this list onto the request and once
23	the FLUSH request completes we log all of the WRITEs and then the FLUSH.  Only
24	completed WRITEs, at the time the REQ_PREFLUSH is issued, are added in order to
25	simulate the worst case scenario with regard to power failures.  Consider the
26	following example (W means write, C means complete):
27	
28	W1,W2,W3,C3,C2,Wflush,C1,Cflush
29	
30	The log would show the following
31	
32	W3,W2,flush,W1....
33	
34	Again this is to simulate what is actually on disk, this allows us to detect
35	cases where a power failure at a particular point in time would create an
36	inconsistent file system.
37	
38	Any REQ_FUA requests bypass this flushing mechanism and are logged as soon as
39	they complete as those requests will obviously bypass the device cache.
40	
41	Any REQ_DISCARD requests are treated like WRITE requests.  Otherwise we would
42	have all the DISCARD requests, and then the WRITE requests and then the FLUSH
43	request.  Consider the following example:
44	
45	WRITE block 1, DISCARD block 1, FLUSH
46	
47	If we logged DISCARD when it completed, the replay would look like this
48	
49	DISCARD 1, WRITE 1, FLUSH
50	
51	which isn't quite what happened and wouldn't be caught during the log replay.
52	
53	Target interface
54	================
55	
56	i) Constructor
57	
58	   log-writes <dev_path> <log_dev_path>
59	
60	   dev_path	: Device that all of the IO will go to normally.
61	   log_dev_path : Device where the log entries are written to.
62	
63	ii) Status
64	
65	    <#logged entries> <highest allocated sector>
66	
67	    #logged entries	       : Number of logged entries
68	    highest allocated sector   : Highest allocated sector
69	
70	iii) Messages
71	
72	    mark <description>
73	
74		You can use a dmsetup message to set an arbitrary mark in a log.
75		For example say you want to fsck a file system after every
76		write, but first you need to replay up to the mkfs to make sure
77		we're fsck'ing something reasonable, you would do something like
78		this:
79	
80		  mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/mapper/log
81		  dmsetup message log 0 mark mkfs
82		  <run test>
83	
84		  This would allow you to replay the log up to the mkfs mark and
85		  then replay from that point on doing the fsck check in the
86		  interval that you want.
87	
88		Every log has a mark at the end labeled "dm-log-writes-end".
89	
90	Userspace component
91	===================
92	
93	There is a userspace tool that will replay the log for you in various ways.
94	It can be found here: https://github.com/josefbacik/log-writes
95	
96	Example usage
97	=============
98	
99	Say you want to test fsync on your file system.  You would do something like
100	this:
101	
102	TABLE="0 $(blockdev --getsz /dev/sdb) log-writes /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"
103	dmsetup create log --table "$TABLE"
104	mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/mapper/log
105	dmsetup message log 0 mark mkfs
106	
107	mount /dev/mapper/log /mnt/btrfs-test
108	<some test that does fsync at the end>
109	dmsetup message log 0 mark fsync
110	md5sum /mnt/btrfs-test/foo
111	umount /mnt/btrfs-test
112	
113	dmsetup remove log
114	replay-log --log /dev/sdc --replay /dev/sdb --end-mark fsync
115	mount /dev/sdb /mnt/btrfs-test
116	md5sum /mnt/btrfs-test/foo
117	<verify md5sum's are correct>
118	
119	Another option is to do a complicated file system operation and verify the file
120	system is consistent during the entire operation.  You could do this with:
121	
122	TABLE="0 $(blockdev --getsz /dev/sdb) log-writes /dev/sdb /dev/sdc"
123	dmsetup create log --table "$TABLE"
124	mkfs.btrfs -f /dev/mapper/log
125	dmsetup message log 0 mark mkfs
126	
127	mount /dev/mapper/log /mnt/btrfs-test
128	<fsstress to dirty the fs>
129	btrfs filesystem balance /mnt/btrfs-test
130	umount /mnt/btrfs-test
131	dmsetup remove log
132	
133	replay-log --log /dev/sdc --replay /dev/sdb --end-mark mkfs
134	btrfsck /dev/sdb
135	replay-log --log /dev/sdc --replay /dev/sdb --start-mark mkfs \
136		--fsck "btrfsck /dev/sdb" --check fua
137	
138	And that will replay the log until it sees a FUA request, run the fsck command
139	and if the fsck passes it will replay to the next FUA, until it is completed or
140	the fsck command exists abnormally.
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