From patchwork Fri Apr 29 21:55:42 2016 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Patchwork-Submitter: "Verma, Vishal L" X-Patchwork-Id: 8985701 Return-Path: X-Original-To: patchwork-linux-block@patchwork.kernel.org Delivered-To: patchwork-parsemail@patchwork1.web.kernel.org Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.136]) by patchwork1.web.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 100DD9F39D for ; Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:56:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.kernel.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C210200E0 for ; Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:56:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 332FA200D0 for ; Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:56:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752331AbcD2V4K (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Apr 2016 17:56:10 -0400 Received: from mga11.intel.com ([192.55.52.93]:54968 "EHLO mga11.intel.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751303AbcD2V4G (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Apr 2016 17:56:06 -0400 Received: from fmsmga004.fm.intel.com ([10.253.24.48]) by fmsmga102.fm.intel.com with ESMTP; 29 Apr 2016 14:56:05 -0700 X-ExtLoop1: 1 X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="5.24,553,1455004800"; d="scan'208";a="94526062" Received: from omniknight.lm.intel.com ([10.232.112.171]) by fmsmga004.fm.intel.com with ESMTP; 29 Apr 2016 14:56:05 -0700 From: Vishal Verma To: linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org Cc: Vishal Verma , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-block@vger.kernel.org, xfs@oss.sgi.com, linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, Matthew Wilcox , Ross Zwisler , Dan Williams , Dave Chinner , Jan Kara , Jens Axboe , Al Viro , Andrew Morton , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Christoph Hellwig , Jeff Moyer Subject: [PATCH v4 8/7] Documentation: add error handling information to dax.txt Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 15:55:42 -0600 Message-Id: <1461966942-21205-1-git-send-email-vishal.l.verma@intel.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.5.5 In-Reply-To: <1461878218-3844-1-git-send-email-vishal.l.verma@intel.com> References: <1461878218-3844-1-git-send-email-vishal.l.verma@intel.com> Sender: linux-block-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-block@vger.kernel.org X-Spam-Status: No, score=-7.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_HI, RP_MATCHES_RCVD, UNPARSEABLE_RELAY autolearn=unavailable version=3.3.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on mail.kernel.org X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV using ClamSMTP This just provides information of the basic paths that can be used to deal with (i.e. clear) media errors from the file system point-of-view. Cc: Dave Chinner Signed-off-by: Vishal Verma --- While this isn't a design document for new mechanisms for adding error recovery/redundancy at the block/fs layers, this attempts to explain the bare essentials required for anything operating above the pmem block driver in the stack. Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt index 7bde640..71cd8fa 100644 --- a/Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt @@ -79,6 +79,40 @@ These filesystems may be used for inspiration: - ext4: the fourth extended filesystem, see Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt +Handling Media Errors +--------------------- + +The libnvdimm subsystem stores a record of known media error locations for +each pmem block device (in gendisk->badblocks). If we fault at such location, +or one with a latent error not yet discovered, the application can expect +to receive a SIGBUS. Libnvdimm also allows clearing of these errors by simply +writing the affected sectors (through the pmem driver, and if the underlying +NVDIMM supports the clear_poison DSM defined by ACPI). + +Since DAX IO normally doesn't go through the driver/bio path, applications or +sysadmins have an option to restore the lost data from a prior backup/inbuilt +redundancy in the following two ways: + +1. Delete the affected file, and restore from a backup (sysadmin route): + This will free the file system blocks that were being used by the file, + and the next time they're allocated, they will be zeroed first, which + happens through the driver, and will clear bad sectors. + +2. Open the file with O_DIRECT, and restore a sector's worth of data at the + bad location (application route): + We allow O_DIRECT writes to go through the normal O_DIRECT path that sends + bios down through the driver. If an application is able to restore its own + data, it can use this path to clear errors. + +These are the two basic paths that allow DAX filesystems to continue operating +in the presence of media errors. More robust error recovery mechanisms can be +built on top of this in the future, for example, involving redundancy/mirroring +provided at the block layer through DM, or additionally, at the filesystem +level. These would have to rely on the above two tenets, that error clearing +can happen either by sending an IO through the driver, or zeroing (also through +the driver). + + Shortcomings ------------