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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..c0ce64d75bbf --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/bcache.rst @@ -0,0 +1,649 @@ +============================ +A block layer cache (bcache) +============================ + +Say you've got a big slow raid 6, and an ssd or three. Wouldn't it be +nice if you could use them as cache... Hence bcache. + +Wiki and git repositories are at: + + - http://bcache.evilpiepirate.org + - http://evilpiepirate.org/git/linux-bcache.git + - http://evilpiepirate.org/git/bcache-tools.git + +It's designed around the performance characteristics of SSDs - it only allocates +in erase block sized buckets, and it uses a hybrid btree/log to track cached +extents (which can be anywhere from a single sector to the bucket size). It's +designed to avoid random writes at all costs; it fills up an erase block +sequentially, then issues a discard before reusing it. + +Both writethrough and writeback caching are supported. Writeback defaults to +off, but can be switched on and off arbitrarily at runtime. Bcache goes to +great lengths to protect your data - it reliably handles unclean shutdown. (It +doesn't even have a notion of a clean shutdown; bcache simply doesn't return +writes as completed until they're on stable storage). + +Writeback caching can use most of the cache for buffering writes - writing +dirty data to the backing device is always done sequentially, scanning from the +start to the end of the index. + +Since random IO is what SSDs excel at, there generally won't be much benefit +to caching large sequential IO. Bcache detects sequential IO and skips it; +it also keeps a rolling average of the IO sizes per task, and as long as the +average is above the cutoff it will skip all IO from that task - instead of +caching the first 512k after every seek. Backups and large file copies should +thus entirely bypass the cache. + +In the event of a data IO error on the flash it will try to recover by reading +from disk or invalidating cache entries. For unrecoverable errors (meta data +or dirty data), caching is automatically disabled; if dirty data was present +in the cache it first disables writeback caching and waits for all dirty data +to be flushed. + +Getting started: +You'll need make-bcache from the bcache-tools repository. Both the cache device +and backing device must be formatted before use:: + + make-bcache -B /dev/sdb + make-bcache -C /dev/sdc + +make-bcache has the ability to format multiple devices at the same time - if +you format your backing devices and cache device at the same time, you won't +have to manually attach:: + + make-bcache -B /dev/sda /dev/sdb -C /dev/sdc + +bcache-tools now ships udev rules, and bcache devices are known to the kernel +immediately. Without udev, you can manually register devices like this:: + + echo /dev/sdb > /sys/fs/bcache/register + echo /dev/sdc > /sys/fs/bcache/register + +Registering the backing device makes the bcache device show up in /dev; you can +now format it and use it as normal. But the first time using a new bcache +device, it'll be running in passthrough mode until you attach it to a cache. +If you are thinking about using bcache later, it is recommended to setup all your +slow devices as bcache backing devices without a cache, and you can choose to add +a caching device later. +See 'ATTACHING' section below. + +The devices show up as:: + + /dev/bcache<N> + +As well as (with udev):: + + /dev/bcache/by-uuid/<uuid> + /dev/bcache/by-label/<label> + +To get started:: + + mkfs.ext4 /dev/bcache0 + mount /dev/bcache0 /mnt + +You can control bcache devices through sysfs at /sys/block/bcache<N>/bcache . +You can also control them through /sys/fs//bcache/<cset-uuid>/ . + +Cache devices are managed as sets; multiple caches per set isn't supported yet +but will allow for mirroring of metadata and dirty data in the future. Your new +cache set shows up as /sys/fs/bcache/<UUID> + +Attaching +--------- + +After your cache device and backing device are registered, the backing device +must be attached to your cache set to enable caching. Attaching a backing +device to a cache set is done thusly, with the UUID of the cache set in +/sys/fs/bcache:: + + echo <CSET-UUID> > /sys/block/bcache0/bcache/attach + +This only has to be done once. The next time you reboot, just reregister all +your bcache devices. If a backing device has data in a cache somewhere, the +/dev/bcache<N> device won't be created until the cache shows up - particularly +important if you have writeback caching turned on. + +If you're booting up and your cache device is gone and never coming back, you +can force run the backing device:: + + echo 1 > /sys/block/sdb/bcache/running + +(You need to use /sys/block/sdb (or whatever your backing device is called), not +/sys/block/bcache0, because bcache0 doesn't exist yet. If you're using a +partition, the bcache directory would be at /sys/block/sdb/sdb2/bcache) + +The backing device will still use that cache set if it shows up in the future, +but all the cached data will be invalidated. If there was dirty data in the +cache, don't expect the filesystem to be recoverable - you will have massive +filesystem corruption, though ext4's fsck does work miracles. + +Error Handling +-------------- + +Bcache tries to transparently handle IO errors to/from the cache device without +affecting normal operation; if it sees too many errors (the threshold is +configurable, and defaults to 0) it shuts down the cache device and switches all +the backing devices to passthrough mode. + + - For reads from the cache, if they error we just retry the read from the + backing device. + + - For writethrough writes, if the write to the cache errors we just switch to + invalidating the data at that lba in the cache (i.e. the same thing we do for + a write that bypasses the cache) + + - For writeback writes, we currently pass that error back up to the + filesystem/userspace. This could be improved - we could retry it as a write + that skips the cache so we don't have to error the write. + + - When we detach, we first try to flush any dirty data (if we were running in + writeback mode). It currently doesn't do anything intelligent if it fails to + read some of the dirty data, though. + + +Howto/cookbook +-------------- + +A) Starting a bcache with a missing caching device + +If registering the backing device doesn't help, it's already there, you just need +to force it to run without the cache:: + + host:~# echo /dev/sdb1 > /sys/fs/bcache/register + [ 119.844831] bcache: register_bcache() error opening /dev/sdb1: device already registered + +Next, you try to register your caching device if it's present. However +if it's absent, or registration fails for some reason, you can still +start your bcache without its cache, like so:: + + host:/sys/block/sdb/sdb1/bcache# echo 1 > running + +Note that this may cause data loss if you were running in writeback mode. + + +B) Bcache does not find its cache:: + + host:/sys/block/md5/bcache# echo 0226553a-37cf-41d5-b3ce-8b1e944543a8 > attach + [ 1933.455082] bcache: bch_cached_dev_attach() Couldn't find uuid for md5 in set + [ 1933.478179] bcache: __cached_dev_store() Can't attach 0226553a-37cf-41d5-b3ce-8b1e944543a8 + [ 1933.478179] : cache set not found + +In this case, the caching device was simply not registered at boot +or disappeared and came back, and needs to be (re-)registered:: + + host:/sys/block/md5/bcache# echo /dev/sdh2 > /sys/fs/bcache/register + + +C) Corrupt bcache crashes the kernel at device registration time: + +This should never happen. If it does happen, then you have found a bug! +Please report it to the bcache development list: linux-bcache@vger.kernel.org + +Be sure to provide as much information that you can including kernel dmesg +output if available so that we may assist. + + +D) Recovering data without bcache: + +If bcache is not available in the kernel, a filesystem on the backing +device is still available at an 8KiB offset. So either via a loopdev +of the backing device created with --offset 8K, or any value defined by +--data-offset when you originally formatted bcache with `make-bcache`. + +For example:: + + losetup -o 8192 /dev/loop0 /dev/your_bcache_backing_dev + +This should present your unmodified backing device data in /dev/loop0 + +If your cache is in writethrough mode, then you can safely discard the +cache device without loosing data. + + +E) Wiping a cache device + +:: + + host:~# wipefs -a /dev/sdh2 + 16 bytes were erased at offset 0x1018 (bcache) + they were: c6 85 73 f6 4e 1a 45 ca 82 65 f5 7f 48 ba 6d 81 + +After you boot back with bcache enabled, you recreate the cache and attach it:: + + host:~# make-bcache -C /dev/sdh2 + UUID: 7be7e175-8f4c-4f99-94b2-9c904d227045 + Set UUID: 5bc072a8-ab17-446d-9744-e247949913c1 + version: 0 + nbuckets: 106874 + block_size: 1 + bucket_size: 1024 + nr_in_set: 1 + nr_this_dev: 0 + first_bucket: 1 + [ 650.511912] bcache: run_cache_set() invalidating existing data + [ 650.549228] bcache: register_cache() registered cache device sdh2 + +start backing device with missing cache:: + + host:/sys/block/md5/bcache# echo 1 > running + +attach new cache:: + + host:/sys/block/md5/bcache# echo 5bc072a8-ab17-446d-9744-e247949913c1 > attach + [ 865.276616] bcache: bch_cached_dev_attach() Caching md5 as bcache0 on set 5bc072a8-ab17-446d-9744-e247949913c1 + + +F) Remove or replace a caching device:: + + host:/sys/block/sda/sda7/bcache# echo 1 > detach + [ 695.872542] bcache: cached_dev_detach_finish() Caching disabled for sda7 + + host:~# wipefs -a /dev/nvme0n1p4 + wipefs: error: /dev/nvme0n1p4: probing initialization failed: Device or resource busy + Ooops, it's disabled, but not unregistered, so it's still protected + +We need to go and unregister it:: + + host:/sys/fs/bcache/b7ba27a1-2398-4649-8ae3-0959f57ba128# ls -l cache0 + lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Feb 25 18:33 cache0 -> ../../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/0000:70:00.0/nvme/nvme0/nvme0n1/nvme0n1p4/bcache/ + host:/sys/fs/bcache/b7ba27a1-2398-4649-8ae3-0959f57ba128# echo 1 > stop + kernel: [ 917.041908] bcache: cache_set_free() Cache set b7ba27a1-2398-4649-8ae3-0959f57ba128 unregistered + +Now we can wipe it:: + + host:~# wipefs -a /dev/nvme0n1p4 + /dev/nvme0n1p4: 16 bytes were erased at offset 0x00001018 (bcache): c6 85 73 f6 4e 1a 45 ca 82 65 f5 7f 48 ba 6d 81 + + +G) dm-crypt and bcache + +First setup bcache unencrypted and then install dmcrypt on top of +/dev/bcache<N> This will work faster than if you dmcrypt both the backing +and caching devices and then install bcache on top. [benchmarks?] + + +H) Stop/free a registered bcache to wipe and/or recreate it + +Suppose that you need to free up all bcache references so that you can +fdisk run and re-register a changed partition table, which won't work +if there are any active backing or caching devices left on it: + +1) Is it present in /dev/bcache* ? (there are times where it won't be) + + If so, it's easy:: + + host:/sys/block/bcache0/bcache# echo 1 > stop + +2) But if your backing device is gone, this won't work:: + + host:/sys/block/bcache0# cd bcache + bash: cd: bcache: No such file or directory + + In this case, you may have to unregister the dmcrypt block device that + references this bcache to free it up:: + + host:~# dmsetup remove oldds1 + bcache: bcache_device_free() bcache0 stopped + bcache: cache_set_free() Cache set 5bc072a8-ab17-446d-9744-e247949913c1 unregistered + + This causes the backing bcache to be removed from /sys/fs/bcache and + then it can be reused. This would be true of any block device stacking + where bcache is a lower device. + +3) In other cases, you can also look in /sys/fs/bcache/:: + + host:/sys/fs/bcache# ls -l */{cache?,bdev?} + lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Mar 5 09:39 0226553a-37cf-41d5-b3ce-8b1e944543a8/bdev1 -> ../../../devices/virtual/block/dm-1/bcache/ + lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Mar 5 09:39 0226553a-37cf-41d5-b3ce-8b1e944543a8/cache0 -> ../../../devices/virtual/block/dm-4/bcache/ + lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Mar 5 09:39 5bc072a8-ab17-446d-9744-e247949913c1/cache0 -> ../../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0/ata10/host9/target9:0:0/9:0:0:0/block/sdl/sdl2/bcache/ + + The device names will show which UUID is relevant, cd in that directory + and stop the cache:: + + host:/sys/fs/bcache/5bc072a8-ab17-446d-9744-e247949913c1# echo 1 > stop + + This will free up bcache references and let you reuse the partition for + other purposes. + + + +Troubleshooting performance +--------------------------- + +Bcache has a bunch of config options and tunables. The defaults are intended to +be reasonable for typical desktop and server workloads, but they're not what you +want for getting the best possible numbers when benchmarking. + + - Backing device alignment + + The default metadata size in bcache is 8k. If your backing device is + RAID based, then be sure to align this by a multiple of your stride + width using `make-bcache --data-offset`. If you intend to expand your + disk array in the future, then multiply a series of primes by your + raid stripe size to get the disk multiples that you would like. + + For example: If you have a 64k stripe size, then the following offset + would provide alignment for many common RAID5 data spindle counts:: + + 64k * 2*2*2*3*3*5*7 bytes = 161280k + + That space is wasted, but for only 157.5MB you can grow your RAID 5 + volume to the following data-spindle counts without re-aligning:: + + 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,14,15,18,20,21 ... + + - Bad write performance + + If write performance is not what you expected, you probably wanted to be + running in writeback mode, which isn't the default (not due to a lack of + maturity, but simply because in writeback mode you'll lose data if something + happens to your SSD):: + + # echo writeback > /sys/block/bcache0/bcache/cache_mode + + - Bad performance, or traffic not going to the SSD that you'd expect + + By default, bcache doesn't cache everything. It tries to skip sequential IO - + because you really want to be caching the random IO, and if you copy a 10 + gigabyte file you probably don't want that pushing 10 gigabytes of randomly + accessed data out of your cache. + + But if you want to benchmark reads from cache, and you start out with fio + writing an 8 gigabyte test file - so you want to disable that:: + + # echo 0 > /sys/block/bcache0/bcache/sequential_cutoff + + To set it back to the default (4 mb), do:: + + # echo 4M > /sys/block/bcache0/bcache/sequential_cutoff + + - Traffic's still going to the spindle/still getting cache misses + + In the real world, SSDs don't always keep up with disks - particularly with + slower SSDs, many disks being cached by one SSD, or mostly sequential IO. So + you want to avoid being bottlenecked by the SSD and having it slow everything + down. + + To avoid that bcache tracks latency to the cache device, and gradually + throttles traffic if the latency exceeds a threshold (it does this by + cranking down the sequential bypass). + + You can disable this if you need to by setting the thresholds to 0:: + + # echo 0 > /sys/fs/bcache/<cache set>/congested_read_threshold_us + # echo 0 > /sys/fs/bcache/<cache set>/congested_write_threshold_us + + The default is 2000 us (2 milliseconds) for reads, and 20000 for writes. + + - Still getting cache misses, of the same data + + One last issue that sometimes trips people up is actually an old bug, due to + the way cache coherency is handled for cache misses. If a btree node is full, + a cache miss won't be able to insert a key for the new data and the data + won't be written to the cache. + + In practice this isn't an issue because as soon as a write comes along it'll + cause the btree node to be split, and you need almost no write traffic for + this to not show up enough to be noticeable (especially since bcache's btree + nodes are huge and index large regions of the device). But when you're + benchmarking, if you're trying to warm the cache by reading a bunch of data + and there's no other traffic - that can be a problem. + + Solution: warm the cache by doing writes, or use the testing branch (there's + a fix for the issue there). + + +Sysfs - backing device +---------------------- + +Available at /sys/block/<bdev>/bcache, /sys/block/bcache*/bcache and +(if attached) /sys/fs/bcache/<cset-uuid>/bdev* + +attach + Echo the UUID of a cache set to this file to enable caching. + +cache_mode + Can be one of either writethrough, writeback, writearound or none. + +clear_stats + Writing to this file resets the running total stats (not the day/hour/5 minute + decaying versions). + +detach + Write to this file to detach from a cache set. If there is dirty data in the + cache, it will be flushed first. + +dirty_data + Amount of dirty data for this backing device in the cache. Continuously + updated unlike the cache set's version, but may be slightly off. + +label + Name of underlying device. + +readahead + Size of readahead that should be performed. Defaults to 0. If set to e.g. + 1M, it will round cache miss reads up to that size, but without overlapping + existing cache entries. + +running + 1 if bcache is running (i.e. whether the /dev/bcache device exists, whether + it's in passthrough mode or caching). + +sequential_cutoff + A sequential IO will bypass the cache once it passes this threshold; the + most recent 128 IOs are tracked so sequential IO can be detected even when + it isn't all done at once. + +sequential_merge + If non zero, bcache keeps a list of the last 128 requests submitted to compare + against all new requests to determine which new requests are sequential + continuations of previous requests for the purpose of determining sequential + cutoff. This is necessary if the sequential cutoff value is greater than the + maximum acceptable sequential size for any single request. + +state + The backing device can be in one of four different states: + + no cache: Has never been attached to a cache set. + + clean: Part of a cache set, and there is no cached dirty data. + + dirty: Part of a cache set, and there is cached dirty data. + + inconsistent: The backing device was forcibly run by the user when there was + dirty data cached but the cache set was unavailable; whatever data was on the + backing device has likely been corrupted. + +stop + Write to this file to shut down the bcache device and close the backing + device. + +writeback_delay + When dirty data is written to the cache and it previously did not contain + any, waits some number of seconds before initiating writeback. Defaults to + 30. + +writeback_percent + If nonzero, bcache tries to keep around this percentage of the cache dirty by + throttling background writeback and using a PD controller to smoothly adjust + the rate. + +writeback_rate + Rate in sectors per second - if writeback_percent is nonzero, background + writeback is throttled to this rate. Continuously adjusted by bcache but may + also be set by the user. + +writeback_running + If off, writeback of dirty data will not take place at all. Dirty data will + still be added to the cache until it is mostly full; only meant for + benchmarking. Defaults to on. + +Sysfs - backing device stats +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +There are directories with these numbers for a running total, as well as +versions that decay over the past day, hour and 5 minutes; they're also +aggregated in the cache set directory as well. + +bypassed + Amount of IO (both reads and writes) that has bypassed the cache + +cache_hits, cache_misses, cache_hit_ratio + Hits and misses are counted per individual IO as bcache sees them; a + partial hit is counted as a miss. + +cache_bypass_hits, cache_bypass_misses + Hits and misses for IO that is intended to skip the cache are still counted, + but broken out here. + +cache_miss_collisions + Counts instances where data was going to be inserted into the cache from a + cache miss, but raced with a write and data was already present (usually 0 + since the synchronization for cache misses was rewritten) + +cache_readaheads + Count of times readahead occurred. + +Sysfs - cache set +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Available at /sys/fs/bcache/<cset-uuid> + +average_key_size + Average data per key in the btree. + +bdev<0..n> + Symlink to each of the attached backing devices. + +block_size + Block size of the cache devices. + +btree_cache_size + Amount of memory currently used by the btree cache + +bucket_size + Size of buckets + +cache<0..n> + Symlink to each of the cache devices comprising this cache set. + +cache_available_percent + Percentage of cache device which doesn't contain dirty data, and could + potentially be used for writeback. This doesn't mean this space isn't used + for clean cached data; the unused statistic (in priority_stats) is typically + much lower. + +clear_stats + Clears the statistics associated with this cache + +dirty_data + Amount of dirty data is in the cache (updated when garbage collection runs). + +flash_vol_create + Echoing a size to this file (in human readable units, k/M/G) creates a thinly + provisioned volume backed by the cache set. + +io_error_halflife, io_error_limit + These determines how many errors we accept before disabling the cache. + Each error is decayed by the half life (in # ios). If the decaying count + reaches io_error_limit dirty data is written out and the cache is disabled. + +journal_delay_ms + Journal writes will delay for up to this many milliseconds, unless a cache + flush happens sooner. Defaults to 100. + +root_usage_percent + Percentage of the root btree node in use. If this gets too high the node + will split, increasing the tree depth. + +stop + Write to this file to shut down the cache set - waits until all attached + backing devices have been shut down. + +tree_depth + Depth of the btree (A single node btree has depth 0). + +unregister + Detaches all backing devices and closes the cache devices; if dirty data is + present it will disable writeback caching and wait for it to be flushed. + +Sysfs - cache set internal +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +This directory also exposes timings for a number of internal operations, with +separate files for average duration, average frequency, last occurrence and max +duration: garbage collection, btree read, btree node sorts and btree splits. + +active_journal_entries + Number of journal entries that are newer than the index. + +btree_nodes + Total nodes in the btree. + +btree_used_percent + Average fraction of btree in use. + +bset_tree_stats + Statistics about the auxiliary search trees + +btree_cache_max_chain + Longest chain in the btree node cache's hash table + +cache_read_races + Counts instances where while data was being read from the cache, the bucket + was reused and invalidated - i.e. where the pointer was stale after the read + completed. When this occurs the data is reread from the backing device. + +trigger_gc + Writing to this file forces garbage collection to run. + +Sysfs - Cache device +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Available at /sys/block/<cdev>/bcache + +block_size + Minimum granularity of writes - should match hardware sector size. + +btree_written + Sum of all btree writes, in (kilo/mega/giga) bytes + +bucket_size + Size of buckets + +cache_replacement_policy + One of either lru, fifo or random. + +discard + Boolean; if on a discard/TRIM will be issued to each bucket before it is + reused. Defaults to off, since SATA TRIM is an unqueued command (and thus + slow). + +freelist_percent + Size of the freelist as a percentage of nbuckets. Can be written to to + increase the number of buckets kept on the freelist, which lets you + artificially reduce the size of the cache at runtime. Mostly for testing + purposes (i.e. testing how different size caches affect your hit rate), but + since buckets are discarded when they move on to the freelist will also make + the SSD's garbage collection easier by effectively giving it more reserved + space. + +io_errors + Number of errors that have occurred, decayed by io_error_halflife. + +metadata_written + Sum of all non data writes (btree writes and all other metadata). + +nbuckets + Total buckets in this cache + +priority_stats + Statistics about how recently data in the cache has been accessed. + This can reveal your working set size. Unused is the percentage of + the cache that doesn't contain any data. Metadata is bcache's + metadata overhead. Average is the average priority of cache buckets. + Next is a list of quantiles with the priority threshold of each. + +written + Sum of all data that has been written to the cache; comparison with + btree_written gives the amount of write inflation in bcache. |
