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Managing storage devices

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Deploying and configuring single-node storage in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

This documentation collection provides instructions on how to effectively manage storage devices in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

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Chapter 1. Getting started with partitions

As a system administrator, you can use the following procedures to create, delete, and modify various types of disk partitions.

For an overview of the advantages and disadvantages to using partitions on block devices, see the following KBase article: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/163853.

1.1. Viewing the partition table

As a system administrator, you can display the partition table of a block device to see the partition layout and details about individual partitions.

1.1.1. Viewing the partition table with parted

This procedure describes how to view the partition table on a block device using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device you want to examine: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the partition table: 

    (parted) print

  3. Optionally, use the following command to switch to another device you want to examine next: 

    (parted) select block-device
Additional resources
  • The parted(8) man page.

1.1.2. Example output of parted print

This section provides an example output of the print command in the parted shell and describes fields in the output.

Example 1.1. Output of the print command

Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZNLN256 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  269MB   268MB   primary   xfs          boot
 2      269MB   34.6GB  34.4GB  primary
 3      34.6GB  45.4GB  10.7GB  primary
 4      45.4GB  256GB   211GB   extended
 5      45.4GB  256GB   211GB   logical

Following is a description of the fields:

Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZNLN256 (scsi)
The disk type, manufacturer, model number, and interface.
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
The file path to the block device and the storage capacity.
Partition Table: msdos
The disk label type.
Number
The partition number. For example, the partition with minor number 1 corresponds to /dev/sda1.
Start and End
The location on the device where the partition starts and ends.
Type
Valid types are metadata, free, primary, extended, or logical.
File system
The file system type. If the File system field of a device shows no value, this means that its file system type is unknown. The parted utility cannot recognize the file system on encrypted devices.
Flags
Lists the flags set for the partition. Available flags are boot, root, swap, hidden, raid, lvm, or lba.

1.2. Creating a partition table on a disk

As a system administrator, you can format a block device with different types of partition tables to enable using partitions on the device.

Warning

Formatting a block device with a partition table deletes all data stored on the device.

1.2.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

1.2.2. Comparison of partition table types

This section compares the properties of different types of partition tables that you can create on a block device.

Table 1.1. Partition table types

Partition tableMaximum number of partitionsMaximum partition size

Master Boot Record (MBR)

4 primary, or 3 primary and 12 logical inside an extended partition

2TiB

GUID Partition Table (GPT)

128

8ZiB

1.2.3. Creating a partition table on a disk with parted

This procedure describes how to format a block device with a partition table using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to create a partition table: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. Determine if there already is a partition table on the device: 

    (parted) print

    If the device already contains partitions, they will be deleted in the next steps.

  3. Create the new partition table: 

    (parted) mklabel table-type

    • Replace table-type with with the intended partition table type:

      • msdos for MBR
      • gpt for GPT

    Example 1.2. Creating a GPT table

    For example, to create a GPT table on the disk, use: 

    (parted) mklabel gpt

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  4. View the partition table to confirm that the partition table exists: 

    (parted) print

  5. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit
Additional resources
  • The parted(8) man page.
Next steps

1.3. Creating a partition

As a system administrator, you can create new partitions on a disk.

1.3.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

1.3.2. Partition types

This section describes different attributes that specify the type of a partition.

Partition types or flags

The partition type, or flag, is used by a running system only rarely. However, the partition type matters to on-the-fly generators, such as systemd-gpt-auto-generator, which use the partition type to, for example, automatically identify and mount devices.

  • The parted utility provides some control of partition types by mapping the partition type to flags. The parted utility can handle only certain partition types: for example LVM, swap, or RAID.
  • The fdisk utility supports the full range of partition types by specifying hexadecimal codes.
Partition file system type

The parted utility optionally accepts a file system type argument when creating a partition. The value is used to:

  • Set the partition flags on MBR, or
  • Set the partition UUID type on GPT. For example, the swap, fat, or hfs file system types set different GUIDs. The default value is the Linux Data GUID.

The argument does not modify the file system on the partition in any way. It only differentiates between the supported flags or GUIDs.

The following file system types are supported:

  • xfs
  • ext2
  • ext3
  • ext4
  • fat16
  • fat32
  • hfs
  • hfs+
  • linux-swap
  • ntfs
  • reiserfs

1.3.3. Creating a partition with parted

This procedure describes how to create a new partition on a block device using the parted utility.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to create a partition: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the current partition table to determine if there is enough free space: 

    (parted) print
    • If there is not enough free space, you can resize an existing partition. For more information, see Section 1.5, “Resizing a partition”.

    • From the partition table, determine:

      • The start and end points of the new partition
      • On MBR, what partition type it should be.

  3. Create the new partition: 

    (parted) mkpart part-type name fs-type start end
    • Replace part-type with with primary, logical, or extended based on what you decided from the partition table. This applies only to the MBR partition table.
    • Replace name with an arbitrary partition name. This is required for GPT partition tables.
    • Replace fs-type with any one of xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, linux-swap, ntfs, or reiserfs. The fs-type parameter is optional. Note that parted does not create the file system on the partition.
    • Replace start and end with the sizes that determine the starting and ending points of the partition, counting from the beginning of the disk. You can use size suffixes, such as 512MiB, 20GiB, or 1.5TiB. The default size megabytes.

    Example 1.3. Creating a small primary partition

    For example, to create a primary partition from 1024MiB until 2048MiB on an MBR table, use: 

    (parted) mkpart primary 1024MiB 2048MiB

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  4. View the partition table to confirm that the created partition is in the partition table with the correct partition type, file system type, and size: 

    (parted) print

  5. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

  6. Use the following command to wait for the system to register the new device node: 

    # udevadm settle

  7. Verify that the kernel recognizes the new partition: 

    # cat /proc/partitions
Additional resources
  • The parted(8) man page.

1.3.4. Setting a partition type with fdisk

This procedure describes how to set a partition type, or flag, using the fdisk utility.

Prerequisites
  • There is a partition on the disk.
Procedure

  1. Start the interactive fdisk shell: 

    # fdisk block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to set a partition type: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the current partition table to determine the minor partition number: 

    Command (m for help): print

    You can see the current partition type in the Type column and its corresponding type ID in the Id column.

  3. Enter the partition type command and select a partition using its minor number: 

    Command (m for help): type
Partition number (1,2,3 default 3): 2

  4. Optionally, list the available hexadecimal codes: 

    Hex code (type L to list all codes): L

  5. Set the partition type: 

    Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e

  6. Write your changes and exit the fdisk shell: 

    Command (m for help): write
The partition table has been altered.
Syncing disks.

  7. Verify your changes: 

    # fdisk --list block-device

1.4. Removing a partition

As a system administrator, you can remove a disk partition that is no longer used to free up disk space.

Warning

Removing a partition deletes all data stored on the partition.

1.4.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

1.4.2. Removing a partition with parted

This procedure describes how to remove a disk partition using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to remove a partition: for example, /dev/sda.

  2. View the current partition table to determine the minor number of the partition to remove: 

    (parted) print

  3. Remove the partition: 

    (parted) rm minor-number
    • Replace minor-number with the minor number of the partition you want to remove: for example, 3.

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  4. Confirm that the partition is removed from the partition table: 

    (parted) print

  5. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

  6. Verify that the kernel knows the partition is removed: 

    # cat /proc/partitions
  7. Remove the partition from the /etc/fstab file if it is present. Find the line that declares the removed partition, and remove it from the file.

  8. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new /etc/fstab configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  9. If you have deleted a swap partition or removed pieces of LVM, remove all references to the partition from the kernel command line in the /etc/default/grub file and regenerate GRUB configuration:

    • On a BIOS-based system: 

      # grub2-mkconfig --output=/etc/grub2.cfg

    • On a UEFI-based system: 

      # grub2-mkconfig --output=/etc/grub2-efi.cfg

  10. To register the changes in the early boot system, rebuild the initramfs file system: 

    # dracut --force --verbose
Additional resources
  • The parted(8) man page

1.5. Resizing a partition

As a system administrator, you can extend a partition to utilize unused disk space, or shrink a partition to use its capacity for different purposes.

1.5.1. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

This section lists key points to consider before creating, removing, or resizing partitions.

Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture. For information on DASD, see:

The maximum number of partitions

The number of partitions on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have either:

    • Up to four primary partitions, or
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition, and multiple logical partitions within the extended.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum number of partitions is 128. While the GPT specification allows for more partitions by growing the area reserved for the partition table, common practice used by the parted utility is to limit it to enough area for 128 partitions.
The maximum size of a partition

The size of a partition on a device is limited by the type of the partition table:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, the maximum size is 2TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), the maximum size is 8ZiB.

If you want to create a partition larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with GPT.

Size alignment

The parted utility enables you to specify partition size using multiple different suffixes:

MiB, GiB, or TiB

Size expressed in powers of 2.

  • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
  • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
MB, GB, or TB

Size expressed in powers of 10.

The starting and ending point is aligned within one half of the specified unit: for example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.

1.5.2. Resizing a partition with parted

This procedure resizes a disk partition using the parted utility.

Prerequisites

  • If you want to shrink a partition, back up the data that are stored on it.

    Warning

    Shrinking a partition might result in data loss on the partition.

  • If you want to resize a partition to be larger than 2TiB, the disk must be formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT). For details on how to format the disk, see Section 1.2, “Creating a partition table on a disk”.
Procedure
  1. If you want to shrink the partition, shrink the file system on it first so that it is not larger than the resized partition. Note that XFS does not support shrinking.

  2. Start the interactive parted shell: 

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to resize a partition: for example, /dev/sda.

  3. View the current partition table: 

    (parted) print

    From the partition table, determine:

    • The minor number of the partition
    • The location of the existing partition and its new ending point after resizing

  4. Resize the partition: 

    (parted) resizepart minor-number new-end
    • Replace minor-number with the minor number of the partition that you are resizing: for example, 3.
    • Replace new-end with the size that determines the new ending point of the resized partition, counting from the beginning of the disk. You can use size suffixes, such as 512MiB, 20GiB, or 1.5TiB. The default size megabytes.

    Example 1.4. Extending a partition

    For example, to extend a partition located at the beginning of the disk to be 2GiB in size, use: 

    (parted) resizepart 1 2GiB

    The changes start taking place as soon as you enter this command, so review it before executing it.

  5. View the partition table to confirm that the resized partition is in the partition table with the correct size: 

    (parted) print

  6. Exit the parted shell: 

    (parted) quit

  7. Verify that the kernel recognizes the new partition: 

    # cat /proc/partitions
  8. If you extended the partition, extend the file system on it as well. See (reference) for details.
Additional resources
  • The parted(8) man page.

Chapter 2. Overview of persistent naming attributes

As a system administrator, you need to refer to storage volumes using persistent naming attributes to build storage setups that are reliable over multiple system boots.

2.1. Disadvantages of non-persistent naming attributes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a number of ways to identify storage devices. It is important to use the correct option to identify each device when used in order to avoid inadvertently accessing the wrong device, particularly when installing to or reformatting drives.

Traditionally, non-persistent names in the form of /dev/sd(major number)(minor number) are used on Linux to refer to storage devices. The major and minor number range and associated sd names are allocated for each device when it is detected. This means that the association between the major and minor number range and associated sd names can change if the order of device detection changes.

Such a change in the ordering might occur in the following situations:

  • The parallelization of the system boot process detects storage devices in a different order with each system boot.
  • A disk fails to power up or respond to the SCSI controller. This results in it not being detected by the normal device probe. The disk is not accessible to the system and subsequent devices will have their major and minor number range, including the associated sd names shifted down. For example, if a disk normally referred to as sdb is not detected, a disk that is normally referred to as sdc would instead appear as sdb.
  • A SCSI controller (host bus adapter, or HBA) fails to initialize, causing all disks connected to that HBA to not be detected. Any disks connected to subsequently probed HBAs are assigned different major and minor number ranges, and different associated sd names.
  • The order of driver initialization changes if different types of HBAs are present in the system. This causes the disks connected to those HBAs to be detected in a different order. This might also occur if HBAs are moved to different PCI slots on the system.
  • Disks connected to the system with Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or FCoE adapters might be inaccessible at the time the storage devices are probed, due to a storage array or intervening switch being powered off, for example. This might occur when a system reboots after a power failure, if the storage array takes longer to come online than the system take to boot. Although some Fibre Channel drivers support a mechanism to specify a persistent SCSI target ID to WWPN mapping, this does not cause the major and minor number ranges, and the associated sd names to be reserved; it only provides consistent SCSI target ID numbers.

These reasons make it undesirable to use the major and minor number range or the associated sd names when referring to devices, such as in the /etc/fstab file. There is the possibility that the wrong device will be mounted and data corruption might result.

Occasionally, however, it is still necessary to refer to the sd names even when another mechanism is used, such as when errors are reported by a device. This is because the Linux kernel uses sd names (and also SCSI host/channel/target/LUN tuples) in kernel messages regarding the device.

2.2. File system and device identifiers

This sections explains the difference between persistent attributes identifying file systems and block devices.

File system identifiers

File system identifiers are tied to a particular file system created on a block device. The identifier is also stored as part of the file system. If you copy the file system to a different device, it still carries the same file system identifier. On the other hand, if you rewrite the device, such as by formatting it with the mkfs utility, the device loses the attribute.

File system identifiers include:

  • Unique identifier (UUID)
  • Label

Device identifiers

Device identifiers are tied to a block device: for example, a disk or a partition. If you rewrite the device, such as by formatting it with the mkfs utility, the device keeps the attribute, because it is not stored in the file system.

Device identifiers include:

  • World Wide Identifier (WWID)
  • Partition UUID
  • Serial number

Recommendations

  • Some file systems, such as logical volumes, span multiple devices. Red Hat recommends accessing these file systems using file system identifiers rather than device identifiers.

2.3. Device names managed by the udev mechanism in /dev/disk/

This section lists different kinds of persistent naming attributes that the udev service provides in the /dev/disk/ directory.

The udev mechanism is used for all types of devices in Linux, not just for storage devices. In the case of storage devices, Red Hat Enterprise Linux contains udev rules that create symbolic links in the /dev/disk/ directory. This enables you to refer to storage devices by:

  • Their content
  • A unique identifier
  • Their serial number.

Although udev naming attributes are persistent, in that they do not change on their own across system reboots, some are also configurable.

2.3.1. File system identifiers

The UUID attribute in /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Entries in this directory provide a symbolic name that refers to the storage device by a unique identifier (UUID) in the content (that is, the data) stored on the device. For example: 

/dev/disk/by-uuid/3e6be9de-8139-11d1-9106-a43f08d823a6

You can use the UUID to refer to the device in the /etc/fstab file using the following syntax: 

UUID=3e6be9de-8139-11d1-9106-a43f08d823a6

You can configure the UUID attribute when creating a file system, and you can also change it later on.

The Label attribute in /dev/disk/by-label/

Entries in this directory provide a symbolic name that refers to the storage device by a label in the content (that is, the data) stored on the device.

For example: 

/dev/disk/by-label/Boot

You can use the label to refer to the device in the /etc/fstab file using the following syntax: 

LABEL=Boot

You can configure the Label attribute when creating a file system, and you can also change it later on.

2.3.2. Device identifiers

The WWID attribute in /dev/disk/by-id/

The World Wide Identifier (WWID) is a persistent, system-independent identifier that the SCSI Standard requires from all SCSI devices. The WWID identifier is guaranteed to be unique for every storage device, and independent of the path that is used to access the device. The identifier is a property of the device but is not stored in the content (that is, the data) on the devices.

This identifier can be obtained by issuing a SCSI Inquiry to retrieve the Device Identification Vital Product Data (page 0x83) or Unit Serial Number (page 0x80).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically maintains the proper mapping from the WWID-based device name to a current /dev/sd name on that system. Applications can use the /dev/disk/by-id/ name to reference the data on the disk, even if the path to the device changes, and even when accessing the device from different systems.

Example 2.1. WWID mappings

WWID symlinkNon-persistent deviceNote

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-3600508b400105e210000900000490000

/dev/sda

A device with a page 0x83 identifier

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SSEAGATE_ST373453LW_3HW1RHM6

/dev/sdb

A device with a page 0x80 identifier

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_MZNLN256HMHQ-000L7_S2WDNX0J336519-part3

/dev/sdc3

A disk partition

In addition to these persistent names provided by the system, you can also use udev rules to implement persistent names of your own, mapped to the WWID of the storage.

The Partition UUID attribute in /dev/disk/by-partuuid

The Partition UUID (PARTUUID) attribute identifies partitions as defined by GPT partition table.

Example 2.2. Partition UUID mappings

PARTUUID symlinkNon-persistent device

/dev/disk/by-partuuid/4cd1448a-01

/dev/sda1

/dev/disk/by-partuuid/4cd1448a-02

/dev/sda2

/dev/disk/by-partuuid/4cd1448a-03

/dev/sda3

The Path attribute in /dev/disk/by-path/

This attribute provides a symbolic name that refers to the storage device by the hardware path used to access the device.

Warning

The Path attribute is unreliable, and Red Hat does not recommend using it.

2.4. The World Wide Identifier with DM Multipath

This section describes the mapping between the World Wide Identifier (WWID) and non-persistent device names in a Device Mapper Multipath configuration.

If there are multiple paths from a system to a device, DM Multipath uses the WWID to detect this. DM Multipath then presents a single "pseudo-device" in the /dev/mapper/wwid directory, such as /dev/mapper/3600508b400105df70000e00000ac0000.

The command multipath -l shows the mapping to the non-persistent identifiers:

  • Host:Channel:Target:LUN
  • /dev/sd name
  • major:minor number

Example 2.3. WWID mappings in a multipath configuration

An example output of the multipath -l command: 

3600508b400105df70000e00000ac0000 dm-2 vendor,product
[size=20G][features=1 queue_if_no_path][hwhandler=0][rw]
\_ round-robin 0 [prio=0][active]
 \_ 5:0:1:1 sdc 8:32  [active][undef]
 \_ 6:0:1:1 sdg 8:96  [active][undef]
\_ round-robin 0 [prio=0][enabled]
 \_ 5:0:0:1 sdb 8:16  [active][undef]
 \_ 6:0:0:1 sdf 8:80  [active][undef]

DM Multipath automatically maintains the proper mapping of each WWID-based device name to its corresponding /dev/sd name on the system. These names are persistent across path changes, and they are consistent when accessing the device from different systems.

When the user_friendly_names feature of DM Multipath is used, the WWID is mapped to a name of the form /dev/mapper/mpathN. By default, this mapping is maintained in the file /etc/multipath/bindings. These mpathN names are persistent as long as that file is maintained.

Important

If you use user_friendly_names, then additional steps are required to obtain consistent names in a cluster.

2.5. Limitations of the udev device naming convention

The following are some limitations of the udev naming convention:

  • It is possible that the device might not be accessible at the time the query is performed because the udev mechanism might rely on the ability to query the storage device when the udev rules are processed for a udev event. This is more likely to occur with Fibre Channel, iSCSI or FCoE storage devices when the device is not located in the server chassis.
  • The kernel might send udev events at any time, causing the rules to be processed and possibly causing the /dev/disk/by-*/ links to be removed if the device is not accessible.
  • There might be a delay between when the udev event is generated and when it is processed, such as when a large number of devices are detected and the user-space udevd service takes some amount of time to process the rules for each one. This might cause a delay between when the kernel detects the device and when the /dev/disk/by-*/ names are available.
  • External programs such as blkid invoked by the rules might open the device for a brief period of time, making the device inaccessible for other uses.

2.6. Listing persistent naming attributes

This procedure describes how to find out the persistent naming attributes of non-persistent storage devices.

Procedure

  • To list the UUID and Label attributes, use the lsblk utility: 

    $ lsblk --fs storage-device

    For example:

    Example 2.4. Viewing the UUID and Label of a file system

    $ lsblk --fs /dev/sda1

NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda1 xfs    Boot  afa5d5e3-9050-48c3-acc1-bb30095f3dc4 /boot

  • To list the PARTUUID attribute, use the lsblk utility with the --output +PARTUUID option: 

    $ lsblk --output +PARTUUID

    For example:

    Example 2.5. Viewing the PARTUUID attribute of a partition

    $ lsblk --output +PARTUUID /dev/sda1

NAME MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT PARTUUID
sda1   8:1    0  512M  0 part /boot      4cd1448a-01

  • To list the WWID attribute, examine the targets of symbolic links in the /dev/disk/by-id/ directory. For example:

    Example 2.6. Viewing the WWID of all storage devices on the system

    $ file /dev/disk/by-id/*

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM00001:                                                    symbolic link to ../../sda
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM00001-part1:                                              symbolic link to ../../sda1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-QEMU_HARDDISK_QM00001-part2:                                              symbolic link to ../../sda2
/dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-rhel_rhel8-root:                                                      symbolic link to ../../dm-0
/dev/disk/by-id/dm-name-rhel_rhel8-swap:                                                      symbolic link to ../../dm-1
/dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-LVM-QIWtEHtXGobe5bewlIUDivKOz5ofkgFhP0RMFsNyySVihqEl2cWWbR7MjXJolD6g: symbolic link to ../../dm-1
/dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-LVM-QIWtEHtXGobe5bewlIUDivKOz5ofkgFhXqH2M45hD2H9nAf2qfWSrlRLhzfMyOKd: symbolic link to ../../dm-0
/dev/disk/by-id/lvm-pv-uuid-atlr2Y-vuMo-ueoH-CpMG-4JuH-AhEF-wu4QQm:                           symbolic link to ../../sda2

2.7. Modifying persistent naming attributes

This procedure describes how to change the UUID or Label persistent naming attribute of a file system.

Note

Changing udev attributes happens in the background and might take a long time. The udevadm settle command waits until the change is fully registered, which ensures that your next command will be able to utilize the new attribute correctly.

In the following commands:

  • Replace new-uuid with the UUID you want to set; for example, 1cdfbc07-1c90-4984-b5ec-f61943f5ea50. You can generate a UUID using the uuidgen command.
  • Replace new-label with a label; for example, backup_data.

Prerequisites

  • If you are modifying the attributes of an XFS file system, unmount it first.

Procedure

  • To change the UUID or Label attributes of an XFS file system, use the xfs_admin utility: 

    # xfs_admin -U new-uuid -L new-label storage-device
# udevadm settle

  • To change the UUID or Label attributes of an ext4, ext3, or ext2 file system, use the tune2fs utility: 

    # tune2fs -U new-uuid -L new-label storage-device
# udevadm settle

  • To change the UUID or Label attributes of a swap volume, use the swaplabel utility: 

    # swaplabel --uuid new-uuid --label new-label swap-device
# udevadm settle

Chapter 3. Using NVDIMM persistent memory storage

As a system administrator, you can enable and manage various types of storage on Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) devices connected to your system.

For installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 on NVDIMM storage, see Installing to an NVDIMM device instead.

3.1. The NVDIMM persistent memory technology

NVDIMM persistent memory, also called storage class memory or pmem, is a combination of memory and storage.

NVDIMM combines the durability of storage with the low access latency and the high bandwidth of dynamic RAM (DRAM):

  • NVDIMM storage is byte-addressable, so it can be accessed by using the CPU load and store instructions. In addition to the read() and write() system calls, which are required for accessing traditional block-based storage, NVDIMM also supports direct load and store programming model.
  • The performance characteristics of NVDIMM are similar to DRAM with very low access latency, typically in the tens to hundreds of nanoseconds.
  • Data stored on NVDIMM are preserved when the power is off, like with storage.
  • The direct access (DAX) technology enables applications to memory map storage directly, without going through the system page cache. This frees up DRAM for other purposes.

NVDIMM is beneficial in use cases such as:

Databases
The reduced storage access latency on NVDIMM can dramatically improve database performance.
Rapid restart

Rapid restart is also called the warm cache effect. For example, a file server has none of the file contents in memory after starting. As clients connect and read or write data, that data is cached in the page cache. Eventually, the cache contains mostly hot data. After a reboot, the system must start the process again on traditional storage.

NVDIMM enables an application to keep the warm cache across reboots if the application is designed properly. In this example, there would be no page cache involved: the application would cache data directly in the persistent memory.

Fast write-cache
File servers often do not acknowledge a client’s write request until the data is on durable media. Using NVDIMM as a fast write cache enables a file server to acknowledge the write request quickly thanks to the low latency.

3.2. NVDIMM interleaving and regions

NVDIMM devices support grouping into interleaved regions.

NVDIMM devices can be grouped into interleave sets in the same way as regular DRAM. An interleave set is similar to a RAID 0 level (stripe) configuration across multiple DIMMs. An Interleave set is also called a region.

Interleaving has the following advantages:

  • NVDIMM devices benefit from increased performance when they are configured into interleave sets.
  • Interleaving can combine multiple smaller NVDIMM devices into a larger logical device.

NVDIMM interleave sets are configured in the system BIOS or UEFI firmware.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux creates one region device for each interleave set.

3.3. NVDIMM namespaces

NVDIMM regions are divided into one or more namespaces. Namespaces enable you to access the device using different methods, based on the type of the namespace.

Some NVDIMM devices do not support multiple namespaces on a region:

  • If your ⁠NVDIMM device supports labels, you can subdivide the region into namespaces.
  • If your NVDIMM device does not support labels, the region can only contain a single namespace. In that case, Red Hat Enterprise Linux creates a default namespace that covers the entire region.

3.4. NVDIMM access modes

You can configure NVDIMM namespaces to use either of the following modes:

sector

Presents the storage as a fast block device. This mode is useful for legacy applications that have not been modified to use NVDIMM storage, or for applications that make use of the full I/O stack, including Device Mapper.

A sector device can be used in the same way as any other block device on the system. You can create partitions or file systems on it, configure it as part of a software RAID set, or use it as the cache device for dm-cache.

Devices in this mode are available at /dev/pmemNs. See the blockdev value listed after creating the namespace.

devdax, or device direct access (DAX)

Enables NVDIMM devices to support direct access programming as described in the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Programming Model specification. In this mode, I/O bypasses the storage stack of the kernel. Therefore, no Device Mapper drivers can be used.

Device DAX provides raw access to NVDIMM storage by using a DAX character device node. Data on a devdax device can be made durable using CPU cache flushing and fencing instructions. Certain databases and virtual machine hypervisors might benefit from this mode. File systems cannot be created on devdax devices.

Devices in this mode are available at /dev/daxN.M. See the chardev value listed after creating the namespace.

fsdax, or file system direct access (DAX)

Enables NVDIMM devices to support direct access programming as described in the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Programming Model specification. In this mode, I/O bypasses the storage stack of the kernel, and many Device Mapper drivers therefore cannot be used.

You can create file systems on file system DAX devices.

Devices in this mode are available at /dev/pmemN. See the blockdev value listed after creating the namespace.

Important

The file system DAX technology is provided only as a Technology Preview, and is not supported by Red Hat.

raw

Presents a memory disk that does not support DAX. In this mode, namespaces have several limitations and should not be used.

Devices in this mode are available at /dev/pmemN. See the blockdev value listed after creating the namespace.

3.5. Creating a sector namespace on an NVDIMM to act as a block device

You can configure an NVDIMM device in sector mode, which is also called legacy mode, to support traditional, block-based storage.

You can either:

  • reconfigure an existing namespace to sector mode, or
  • create a new sector namespace if there is available space.

3.5.1. Prerequisites

  • An NVDIMM device is attached to your system.

3.5.2. Installing ndctl

This procedure installs the ndctl utility, which is used to configure and monitor NVDIMM devices.

Procedure

  • To install the ndctl utility, use the following command: 

    # yum install ndctl

3.5.3. Reconfiguring an existing NVDIMM namespace to sector mode

This procedure reconfigures an NVDIMM namespace to sector mode for use as a fast block device.

Warning

Reconfiguring a namespace deletes all data previously stored on the namespace.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Reconfigure the selected namespace to sector mode: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --force \
        --reconfig=namespace-ID \
        --mode=sector

    Example 3.1. Reconfiguring namespace1.0 in sector mode

    To reconfigure the namespace1.0 namespace to use sector mode: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --force \
        --reconfig=namespace1.0 \
        --mode=sector

{
  "dev":"namespace1.0",
  "mode":"sector",
  "size":"11.99 GiB (12.87 GB)",
  "uuid":"5805480e-90e6-407e-96a4-23e1cde2ed78",
  "raw_uuid":"879d9e9f-fd43-4ed5-b64f-3bcd0781391a",
  "sector_size":4096,
  "blockdev":"pmem1s",
  "numa_node":1
}
  2. The reconfigured namespace is now available under the /dev directory as /dev/pmemNs.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

3.5.4. Creating a new NVDIMM namespace in sector mode

This procedure creates a new sector namespace on an NVDIMM device, enabling you to use it as a traditional block device.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. List the pmem regions on your system that have available space. In the following example, space is available in the region5 and region4 regions: 

    # ndctl list --regions

[
  {
    "dev":"region5",
    "size":270582939648,
    "available_size":270582939648,
    "type":"pmem",
    "iset_id":-7337419320239190016
  },
  {
    "dev":"region4",
    "size":270582939648,
    "available_size":270582939648,
    "type":"pmem",
    "iset_id":-137289417188962304
  }
]

  2. On any of the available regions, allocate one or more namespaces: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --mode=sector \
        --region=regionN \
        --size=namespace-size

    Example 3.2. Creating a namespace on a region

    The following command creates a 36-GiB sector namespace on region4: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --mode=sector \
        --region=region4 \
        --size=36G
  3. The new namespace is now available under the /dev directory as /dev/pmemNs.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

3.6. Creating a device DAX namespace on an NVDIMM

You can configure an NVDIMM device in device DAX mode to support character storage with direct access capabilities.

You can either:

  • reconfigure an existing namespace to device DAX mode, or
  • create a new device DAX namespace if there is available space.

3.6.1. Prerequisites

  • An NVDIMM device is attached to your system.

3.6.2. NVDIMM in device direct access mode

Device direct access (device DAX, devdax) provides a means for applications to directly access storage, without the involvement of a file system. The benefit of device DAX is that it provides a guaranteed fault granularity, which can be configured using the --align option of the ndctl utility

For the Intel 64 and AMD64 architecture, the following fault granularities are supported:

  • 4 KiB
  • 2 MiB
  • 1 GiB

Device DAX nodes support only the following system calls:

  • open()
  • close()
  • mmap()

The read() and write() variants are not supported because the device DAX use case is tied to persistent memory programming.

3.6.3. Installing ndctl

This procedure installs the ndctl utility, which is used to configure and monitor NVDIMM devices.

Procedure

  • To install the ndctl utility, use the following command: 

    # yum install ndctl

3.6.4. Reconfiguring an existing NVDIMM namespace to device DAX mode

This procedure reconfigures a namespace on an NVDIMM device to device DAX mode, and enables you to store data on the namespace.

Warning

Reconfiguring a namespace deletes all data previously stored on the namespace.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. List all namespaces on your system: 

    # ndctl list --namespaces --idle

[
  {
    "dev":"namespace1.0",
    "mode":"raw",
    "size":34359738368,
    "state":"disabled",
    "numa_node":1
  },
  {
    "dev":"namespace0.0",
    "mode":"raw",
    "size":34359738368,
    "state":"disabled",
    "numa_node":0
  }
]

  2. Reconfigure any namespace: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --force \
        --mode=devdax \
        --reconfig=namespace-ID

    Example 3.3. Reconfiguring a namespace as device DAX

    The following command reconfigures namespace0.0 for data storage that supports DAX. It is aligned to a 2-MiB fault granularity to ensure that the operating system faults in 2-MiB pages at a time: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --force \
        --mode=devdax \
        --align=2M \
        --reconfig=namespace0.0
  3. The namespace is now available at the /dev/daxN.M path.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

3.6.5. Creating a new NVDIMM namespace in device DAX mode

This procedure creates a new device DAX namespace on an NVDIMM device, enabling you to store data on the namespace.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. List the pmem regions on your system that have available space. In the following example, space is available in the region5 and region4 regions: 

    # ndctl list --regions

[
  {
    "dev":"region5",
    "size":270582939648,
    "available_size":270582939648,
    "type":"pmem",
    "iset_id":-7337419320239190016
  },
  {
    "dev":"region4",
    "size":270582939648,
    "available_size":270582939648,
    "type":"pmem",
    "iset_id":-137289417188962304
  }
]

  2. On any of the available regions, allocate one or more namespaces: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --mode=devdax \
        --region=regionN \
        --size=namespace-size

    Example 3.4. Creating a namespace on a region

    The following command creates a 36-GiB device DAX namespace on region4. It is aligned to a 2-MiB fault granularity to ensure that the operating system faults in 2-MiB pages at a time: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --mode=devdax \
        --region=region4 \
        --align=2M \
        --size=36G

{
  "dev":"namespace1.2",
  "mode":"devdax",
  "map":"dev",
  "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
  "uuid":"5ae01b9c-1ebf-4fb6-bc0c-6085f73d31ee",
  "raw_uuid":"4c8be2b0-0842-4bcb-8a26-4bbd3b44add2",
  "daxregion":{
    "id":1,
    "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
    "align":2097152,
    "devices":[
      {
        "chardev":"dax1.2",
        "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)"
      }
    ]
  },
  "numa_node":1
}
  3. The namespace is now available at the /dev/daxN.M path.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

3.7. Creating a file system DAX namespace on an NVDIMM

You can configure an NVDIMM device in file system DAX mode to support a file system with direct access capabilities.

You can either:

  • reconfigure an existing namespace to file system DAX mode, or
  • create a new file system DAX namespace if there is available space.
Important

The file system DAX technology is provided only as a Technology Preview, and is not supported by Red Hat.

3.7.1. Prerequisites

  • An NVDIMM device is attached to your system.

3.7.2. NVDIMM in file system direct access mode

When an NVDIMM device is configured in file system direct access (file system DAX, fsdax) mode, a file system can be created on top of it.

Any application that performs an mmap() operation on a file on this file system gets direct access to its storage. This enables the direct access programming model on NVDIMM. The file system must be mounted with the -o dax option in order for direct mapping to happen.

Per-page metadata allocation

This mode requires allocating per-page metadata in the system DRAM or on the NVDIMM device itself. The overhead of this data structure is 64 bytes per each 4-KiB page:

  • On small devices, the amount of overhead is small enough to fit in DRAM with no problems. For example, a 16-GiB namespace only requires 256 MiB for page structures. Because NVDIMM devices are usually small and expensive, storing the page tracking data structures in DRAM is preferable.
  • On NVDIMM devices that are be terabytes in size or larger, the amount of memory required to store the page tracking data structures might exceed the amount of DRAM in the system. One TiB of NVDIMM requires 16 GiB just for page structures. As a result, storing the data structures on the NVDIMM itself is preferable in such cases.

You can configure where per-page metadata are stored using the --map option when configuring a namespace:

  • To allocate in the system RAM, use --map=mem.
  • To allocate on the NVDIMM, use --map=dev.
Partitions and file systems on fsdax

When creating partitions on an fsdax device, partitions must be aligned on page boundaries. On the Intel 64 and AMD64 architecture, at least 4 KiB alignment is required for the start and end of the partition. 2 MiB is the preferred alignment.

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, both the XFS and ext4 file system can be created on NVDIMM as a Technology Preview.

3.7.3. Installing ndctl

This procedure installs the ndctl utility, which is used to configure and monitor NVDIMM devices.

Procedure

  • To install the ndctl utility, use the following command: 

    # yum install ndctl

3.7.4. Reconfiguring an existing NVDIMM namespace to file system DAX mode

This procedure reconfigures a namespace on an NVDIMM device to file system DAX mode, and enables you to store files on the namespace.

Warning

Reconfiguring a namespace deletes all data previously stored on the namespace.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. List all namespaces on your system: 

    # ndctl list --namespaces --idle

[
  {
    "dev":"namespace1.0",
    "mode":"raw",
    "size":34359738368,
    "state":"disabled",
    "numa_node":1
  },
  {
    "dev":"namespace0.0",
    "mode":"raw",
    "size":34359738368,
    "state":"disabled",
    "numa_node":0
  }
]

  2. Reconfigure any namespace: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --force \
        --mode=fsdax \
        --reconfig=namespace-ID

    Example 3.5. Reconfiguring a namespace as file system DAX

    To use namespace0.0 for a file system that supports DAX, use the following command: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --force \
        --mode=fsdax \
        --reconfig=namespace0.0

{
  "dev":"namespace0.0",
  "mode":"fsdax",
  "size":"32.00 GiB (34.36 GB)",
  "uuid":"ab91cc8f-4c3e-482e-a86f-78d177ac655d",
  "blockdev":"pmem0",
  "numa_node":0
}
  3. The namespace is now available at the /dev/pmemN path.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

3.7.5. Creating a new NVDIMM namespace in file system DAX mode

This procedure creates a new file system DAX namespace on an NVDIMM device, enabling you to store files on the namespace.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. List the pmem regions on your system that have available space. In the following example, space is available in the region5 and region4 regions: 

    # ndctl list --regions

[
  {
    "dev":"region5",
    "size":270582939648,
    "available_size":270582939648,
    "type":"pmem",
    "iset_id":-7337419320239190016
  },
  {
    "dev":"region4",
    "size":270582939648,
    "available_size":270582939648,
    "type":"pmem",
    "iset_id":-137289417188962304
  }
]

  2. On any of the available regions, allocate one or more namespaces: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --mode=fsdax \
        --region=regionN \
        --size=namespace-size

    Example 3.6. Creating a namespace on a region

    The following command creates a 36-GiB file system DAX namespace on region4: 

    # ndctl create-namespace \
        --mode=fsdax \
        --region=region4 \
        --size=36G

{
  "dev":"namespace4.0",
  "mode":"fsdax",
  "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
  "uuid":"9c5330b5-dc90-4f7a-bccd-5b558fa881fe",
  "blockdev":"pmem4",
  "numa_node":0
}
  3. The namespace is now available at the /dev/pmemN path.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

3.7.6. Creating a file system on a file system DAX device

This procedure creates a file system on a file system DAX device and mounts the file system.

Procedure

  1. Optionally, create a partition on the file system DAX device. See Section 1.3, “Creating a partition”.

    By default, the parted tool aligns partitions on 1 MiB boundaries. For the first partition, specify 2 MiB as the start of the partition. If the size of the partition is a multiple of 2 MiB, all other partitions are also aligned.

  2. Create an XFS or ext4 file system on the partition or the NVDIMM device.

    For XFS, disable shared copy-on-write data extents when creating the file system: 

    # mkfs.xfs -m reflink=0 fsdax-partition-or-device

  3. Mount the file system with the -o fsdax mount option: 

    # mount -o fsdax fsdax-partition-or-device mount-point
  4. Applications can now use persistent memory and create files in the mount-point directory, open the files, and use the mmap operation to map the files for direct access.
Additional resources
  • The mkfs.xfs(8) man page

3.8. Troubleshooting NVDIMM persistent memory

You can detect and fix different kinds of errors on NVDIMM devices.

3.8.1. Prerequisites

  • An NVDIMM device is connected to your system and configured.

3.8.2. Installing ndctl

This procedure installs the ndctl utility, which is used to configure and monitor NVDIMM devices.

Procedure

  • To install the ndctl utility, use the following command: 

    # yum install ndctl

3.8.3. Monitoring NVDIMM health using S.M.A.R.T.

Some NVDIMM devices support Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) interfaces for retrieving health information.

Important

Monitor NVDIMM health regularly to prevent data loss. If S.M.A.R.T. reports problems with the health status of an NVDIMM device, replace it as described in Section 3.8.4, “Detecting and replacing a broken NVDIMM device”.

Prerequisites

  • On some systems, the acpi_ipmi driver must be loaded to retrieve health information using the following command: 

    # modprobe acpi_ipmi
Procedure

  • To access the health information, use the following command: 

    # ndctl list --dimms --health

...
    {
      "dev":"nmem0",
      "id":"802c-01-1513-b3009166",
      "handle":1,
      "phys_id":22,
      "health":
      {
        "health_state":"ok",
        "temperature_celsius":25.000000,
        "spares_percentage":99,
        "alarm_temperature":false,
        "alarm_spares":false,
        "temperature_threshold":50.000000,
        "spares_threshold":20,
        "life_used_percentage":1,
        "shutdown_state":"clean"
      }
     }
...
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-list(1) man page

3.8.4. Detecting and replacing a broken NVDIMM device

If you find error messages related to NVDIMM reported in your system log or by S.M.A.R.T., it might mean an NVDIMM device is failing. In that case, it is necessary to:

  1. Detect which NVDIMM device is failing
  2. Back up data stored on it
  3. Physically replace the device
Procedure

  1. To detect the broken device, use the following command: 

    # ndctl list --dimms --regions --health --media-errors --human

    The badblocks field shows which NVDIMM is broken. Note its name in the dev field.

    Example 3.7. Health status of NVDIMM devices

    In the following example, the NVDIMM named nmem0 is broken: 

    # ndctl list --dimms --regions --health --media-errors --human

...
  "regions":[
    {
      "dev":"region0",
      "size":"250.00 GiB (268.44 GB)",
      "available_size":0,
      "type":"pmem",
      "numa_node":0,
      "iset_id":"0xXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "mappings":[
        {
          "dimm":"nmem1",
          "offset":"0x10000000",
          "length":"0x1f40000000",
          "position":1
        },
        {
          "dimm":"nmem0",
          "offset":"0x10000000",
          "length":"0x1f40000000",
          "position":0
        }
      ],
      "badblock_count":1,
      "badblocks":[
        {
          "offset":65536,
          "length":1,
          "dimms":[
            "nmem0"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
    }
  ]
}

  2. Use the following command to find the phys_id attribute of the broken NVDIMM: 

    # ndctl list --dimms --human

    From the previous example, you know that nmem0 is the broken NVDIMM. Therefore, find the phys_id attribute of nmem0.

    Example 3.8. The phys_id attributes of NVDIMMs

    In the following example, the phys_id is 0x10: 

    # ndctl list --dimms --human

[
  {
    "dev":"nmem1",
    "id":"XXXX-XX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX",
    "handle":"0x120",
    "phys_id":"0x1c"
  },
  {
    "dev":"nmem0",
    "id":"XXXX-XX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX",
    "handle":"0x20",
    "phys_id":"0x10",
    "flag_failed_flush":true,
    "flag_smart_event":true
  }
]

  3. Use the following command to find the memory slot of the broken NVDIMM: 

    # dmidecode

    In the output, find the entry where the Handle identifier matches the phys_id attribute of the broken NVDIMM. The Locator field lists the memory slot used by the broken NVDIMM.

    Example 3.9. NVDIMM Memory Slot Listing

    In the following example, the nmem0 device matches the 0x0010 identifier and uses the DIMM-XXX-YYYY memory slot: 

    # dmidecode

...
Handle 0x0010, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x0004
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 125 GB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 1
        Locator: DIMM-XXX-YYYY
        Bank Locator: Bank0
        Type: Other
        Type Detail: Non-Volatile Registered (Buffered)
...

  4. Back up all data in the namespaces on the NVDIMM. If you do not back up the data before replacing the NVDIMM, the data will be lost when you remove the NVDIMM from your system.

    Warning

    In some cases, such as when the NVDIMM is completely broken, the backup might fail.

    To prevent this, regularly monitor your NVDIMM devices using S.M.A.R.T. as described in Section 3.8.3, “Monitoring NVDIMM health using S.M.A.R.T.” and replace failing NVDIMMs before they break.

    Use the following command to list the namespaces on the NVDIMM: 

    # ndctl list --namespaces --dimm=DIMM-ID-number

    Example 3.10. NVDIMM namespaces listing

    In the following example, the nmem0 device contains the namespace0.0 and namespace0.2 namespaces, which you need to back up: 

    # ndctl list --namespaces --dimm=0

[
  {
    "dev":"namespace0.2",
    "mode":"sector",
    "size":67042312192,
    "uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "raw_uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "sector_size":4096,
    "blockdev":"pmem0.2s",
    "numa_node":0
  },
  {
    "dev":"namespace0.0",
    "mode":"sector",
    "size":67042312192,
    "uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "raw_uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "sector_size":4096,
    "blockdev":"pmem0s",
    "numa_node":0
  }
]
  5. Replace the broken NVDIMM physically.
Additional resources
  • The ndctl-list(1) man page
  • The dmidecode(8) man page

Chapter 4. Discarding unused blocks

You can perform or schedule discard operations on block devices that support them.

4.1. Block discard operations

Block discard operations discard blocks that are no longer in use by a mounted file system. They are useful on:

  • Solid-state drives (SSDs)
  • Thinly-provisioned storage

Requirements

The block device underlying the file system must support physical discard operations.

Physical discard operations are supported if the value in the /sys/block/device/queue/discard_max_bytes file is not zero.

4.2. Types of block discard operations

You can run discard operations using different methods:

Batch discard
Are run explicitly by the user. They discard all unused blocks in the selected file systems.
Online discard
Are specified at mount time. They run in real time without user intervention. Online discard operations discard only the blocks that are transitioning from used to free.
Periodic discard
Are batch operations that are run regularly by a systemd service.

All types are supported by the XFS and ext4 file systems and by VDO.

Recommendations

Red Hat recommends that you use batch or periodic discard.

Use online discard only if:

  • the system’s workload is such that batch discard is not feasible, or
  • online discard operations are necessary to maintain performance.

4.3. Performing batch block discard

This procedure performs a batch block discard operation to discard unused blocks on a mounted file system.

Prerequisites

  • The file system is mounted.
  • The block device underlying the file system supports physical discard operations.

Procedure

  • Use the fstrim utility:

    • To perform discard only on a selected file system, use: 

      # fstrim mount-point

    • To perform discard on all mounted file systems, use: 

      # fstrim --all

If you execute the fstrim command on:

  • a device that does not support discard operations, or
  • a logical device (LVM or MD) composed of multiple devices, where any one of the device does not support discard operations,

the following message displays: 

# fstrim /mnt/non_discard

fstrim: /mnt/non_discard: the discard operation is not supported

Additional resources

  • The fstrim(8) man page

4.4. Enabling online block discard

This procedure enables online block discard operations that automatically discard unused blocks on all supported file systems.

Procedure

  • Enable online discard at mount time:

    • When mounting a file system manually, add the -o discard mount option: 

      # mount -o discard device mount-point
    • When mounting a file system persistently, add the discard option to the mount entry in the /etc/fstab file.

Additional resources

  • The mount(8) man page
  • The fstab(5) man page

4.5. Enabling periodic block discard

This procedure enables a systemd timer that regularly discards unused blocks on all supported file systems.

Procedure

  • Enable and start the systemd timer: 

    # systemctl enable --now fstrim.timer

Chapter 5. Getting started with iSCSI

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 uses the targetcli shell as a command-line interface to perform the following operations:

  • Add, remove, view, and monitor iSCSI storage interconnects to utilize iSCSI hardware.
  • Export local storage resources that are backed by either files, volumes, local SCSI devices, or by RAM disks to remote systems.

The targetcli tool has a tree-based layout including built-in tab completion, auto-complete support, and inline documentation.

5.1. Adding an iSCSI target

As a system administrator, you can add an iSCSI targets using the targetcli tool.

5.1.1. Installing targetcli

Install the targetcli tool to add, monitor, and remove iSCSI storage interconnects .

Procedure

  1. Install targetcli: 

    # yum install targetcli

  2. Start the target service: 

    # systemctl start target

  3. Configure target to start at boot time: 

    # systemctl enable target

  4. Open port 3260 in the firewall and reload the firewall configuration: 

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3260/tcp
Success

# firewall-cmd --reload
Success

  5. View the targetcli layout: 

    # targetcli
/> ls
o- /........................................[...]
  o- backstores.............................[...]
  | o- block.................[Storage Objects: 0]
  | o- fileio................[Storage Objects: 0]
  | o- pscsi.................[Storage Objects: 0]
  | o- ramdisk...............[Storage Objects: 0]
  o- iscsi...........................[Targets: 0]
  o- loopback........................[Targets: 0]
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.2. Creating an iSCSI target

Creating an iSCSI target enables the iSCSI initiator of the client to access the storage devices on the server. Both targets and initiators have unique identifying names.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the iSCSI directory: 

    /> iscsi/
    Note

    The cd command is used to change directories as well as to list the path to move into.

  2. Use one of the following options to create an iSCSI target:

    1. Creating an iSCSI target using a default target name: 

      /iscsi> create

Created target
iqn.2003-01.org.linux-iscsi.hostname.x8664:sn.78b473f296ff
Created TPG1

    2. Creating an iSCSI target using a specific name: 

      /iscsi> create iqn.2006-04.com.example:444

Created target iqn.2006-04.com.example:444
Created TPG1
Here iqn.2006-04.com.example:444 is target_iqn_name

      Replace iqn.2006-04.com.example:444 with the specific target name.

  3. Verify the newly created target: 

    /iscsi> ls

o- iscsi.......................................[1 Target]
    o- iqn.2006-04.com.example:444................[1 TPG]
        o- tpg1...........................[enabled, auth]
           o- acls...............................[0 ACL]
            o- luns...............................[0 LUN]
           o- portals.........................[0 Portal]
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.3. iSCSI Backstore

An iSCSI backstore enables support for different methods of storing an exported LUN’s data on the local machine. Creating a storage object defines the resources that the backstore uses. An administrator can choose any of the following backstore devices that Linux-IO (LIO) supports:

Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.4. Creating a fileio storage object

fileio storage objects can support either the write_back or write_thru operations. The write_back operation enables the local file system cache. This improves performance but increases the risk of data loss. It is recommended to use write_back=false to disable the write_back operation in favor of the write_thru operation.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the backstores directory: 

    /> backstores/

  2. Create a fileio storage object: 

    /> backstores/fileio create file1 /tmp/disk1.img 200M write_back=false

Created fileio file1 with size 209715200

  3. Verify the created fileio storage object: 

    /backstores> ls
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.5. Creating a block storage object

The block driver allows the use of any block device that appears in the /sys/block/ directory to be used with Linux-IO (LIO). This includes physical devices (for example, HDDs, SSDs, CDs, DVDs) and logical devices (for example, software or hardware RAID volumes, or LVM volumes).

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the backstores directory: 

    /> backstores/

  2. Create a block backstore: 

    /> backstores/block create name=block_backend dev=/dev/sdb

Generating a wwn serial.
Created block storage object block_backend using /dev/vdb.

  3. Verify the created block storage object: 

    /backstores> ls
    Note

    You can also create a block backstore on a logical volume.

Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.6. Creating a pscsi storage object

You can configure, as a backstore, any storage object that supports direct pass-through of SCSI commands without SCSI emulation, and with an underlying SCSI device that appears with lsscsi in the /proc/scsi/scsi (such as a SAS hard drive) . SCSI-3 and higher is supported with this subsystem.

Warning

pscsi should only be used by advanced users. Advanced SCSI commands such as for Asymmetric Logical Unit Assignment (ALUAs) or Persistent Reservations (for example, those used by VMware ESX, and vSphere) are usually not implemented in the device firmware and can cause malfunctions or crashes. When in doubt, use block backstore for production setups instead.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the backstores directory: 

    /> backstores/

  2. Create a pscsi backstore for a physical SCSI device, a TYPE_ROM device using /dev/sr0 in this example: 

    /> backstores/pscsi/ create name=pscsi_backend dev=/dev/sr0

Generating a wwn serial.
Created pscsi storage object pscsi_backend using /dev/sr0

  3. Verify the created pscsi storage object: 

    /backstores> ls
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.7. Creating a Memory Copy RAM disk storage object

Memory Copy RAM disks (ramdisk) provide RAM disks with full SCSI emulation and separate memory mappings using memory copy for initiators. This provides capability for multi-sessions and is particularly useful for fast and volatile mass storage for production purposes.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the backstores directory: 

    /> backstores/

  2. Create a 1GB RAM disk backstore: 

    /> backstores/ramdisk/ create name=rd_backend size=1GB

Generating a wwn serial.
Created rd_mcp ramdisk rd_backend with size 1GB.

  3. Verify the created ramdisk storage object: 

    /backstores> ls
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.8. Creating an iSCSI portal

Creating an iSCSI portal adds an IP address and a port to the target that keeps the target enabled.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the TPG directory: 

    /iscsi> iqn.2006-04.example:444/tpg1/

  2. Use one of the following options to create an iSCSI portal:

    1. Creating a default portal uses the default iSCSI port 3260 and allows the target to listen to all IP addresses on that port: 

      /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> portals/ create

Using default IP port 3260
Binding to INADDR_Any (0.0.0.0)
Created network portal 0.0.0.0:3260
      Note

      When an iSCSI target is created, a default portal is also created. This portal is set to listen to all IP addresses with the default port number that is: 0.0.0.0:3260.

      To remove the default portal:

      /iscsi/iqn-name/tpg1/portals delete ip_address=0.0.0.0 ip_port=3260

    2. Creating a portal using a specific IP address: 

      /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> portals/ create 192.168.122.137

Using default IP port 3260
Created network portal 192.168.122.137:3260

  3. Verify the newly created portal: 

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> ls

o- tpg.................................. [enambled, auth]
    o- acls ......................................[0 ACL]
    o- luns ......................................[0 LUN]
    o- portals ................................[1 Portal]
       o- 192.168.122.137:3260......................[OK]
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.9. Creating an iSCSI LUN

Logical unit number (LUN) is a physical device that is backed by the iSCSI backstore. Each LUN has a unique number.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Create LUNs of already created storage objects: 

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> luns/ create /backstores/ramdisk/rd_backend
Created LUN 0.

/iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> luns/ create /backstores/block/block_backend
Created LUN 1.

/iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> luns/ create /backstores/fileio/file1
Created LUN 2.

  2. Verify the created LUNs: 

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> ls

o- tpg.................................. [enambled, auth]
    o- acls ......................................[0 ACL]
    o- luns .....................................[3 LUNs]
    |  o- lun0.........................[ramdisk/ramdisk1]
    |  o- lun1.................[block/block1 (/dev/vdb1)]
    |  o- lun2...................[fileio/file1 (/foo.img)]
    o- portals ................................[1 Portal]
        o- 192.168.122.137:3260......................[OK]

    Default LUN name starts at 0.

    Important

    By default, LUNs are created with read-write permissions. If a new LUN is added after ACLs are created, LUN automatically maps to all available ACLs and can cause a security risk. To create a LUN with read-only permissions, see Section 5.1.10, “Creating a read-only iSCSI LUN”.

Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.10. Creating a read-only iSCSI LUN

By default, LUNs are created with read-write permissions. This procedure describes how to create a read-only LUN.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Set read-only permissions: 

    /> set global auto_add_mapped_luns=false

Parameter auto_add_mapped_luns is now 'false'.

    This prevents the auto mapping of LUNs to existing ACLs allowing the manual mapping of LUNs.

  2. Create the LUN: 

    /> iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg1/acls/initiator_iqn_name/ create mapped_lun=next_sequential_LUN_number tpg_lun_or_backstore=backstore write_protect=1

    Example: 

    /> iscsi/iqn.2006-04.example:444/tpg1/acls/2006-04.com.example.foo:888/ create mapped_lun=1 tpg_lun_or_backstore=/backstores/block/block2 write_protect=1

Created LUN 1.
Created Mapped LUN 1.

  3. Verify the created LUN: 

    /> ls

o- / ...................................................... [...]
  o- backstores ........................................... [...]
  <snip>
  o- iscsi ......................................... [Targets: 1]
  | o- iqn.2006-04.example:444 .................. [TPGs: 1]
  |   o- tpg1 ............................ [no-gen-acls, no-auth]
  |     o- acls ....................................... [ACLs: 2]
  |     | o- 2006-04.com.example.foo:888 .. [Mapped LUNs: 2]
  |     | | o- mapped_lun0 .............. [lun0 block/disk1 (rw)]
  |     | | o- mapped_lun1 .............. [lun1 block/disk2 (ro)]
  |     o- luns ....................................... [LUNs: 2]
  |     | o- lun0 ...................... [block/disk1 (/dev/vdb)]
  |     | o- lun1 ...................... [block/disk2 (/dev/vdc)]
  <snip>

    The mapped_lun1 line now has (ro) at the end (unlike mapped_lun0’s (rw)) stating that it is read-only.

Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.11. Creating an iSCSI ACL

In targetcli, Access Control Lists (ACLs) are used to define access rules and each initiator has exclusive access to a LUN. Both targets and initiators have unique identifying names. You must know the unique name of the initiator to configure ACLs. The iSCSI initiators can be found in the /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Navigate to the acls directory 

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> acls/

  2. Use one of the following options to create an ACL :

    1. Using the initiator name from /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file on the initiator.

    2. Using a name that is easier to remember, see section Section 5.1.12, “Creating an iSCSI initiator” to ensure ACL matches the initiator. 

      /iscsi/iqn.20...444/tpg1/acls> create iqn.2006-04.com.example.foo:888

Created Node ACL for iqn.2006-04.com.example.foo:888
Created mapped LUN 2.
Created mapped LUN 1.
Created mapped LUN 0.
      Note

      The global setting auto_add_mapped_luns used in the preceding example, automatically maps LUNs to any created ACL.

      You can set user-created ACLs within the TPG node on the target server: 

      /iscsi/iqn.20...scsi:444/tpg1> set attribute generate_node_acls=1

  3. Verify the created ACL: 

    /iscsi/iqn.20...444/tpg1/acls> ls

o- acls .................................................[1 ACL]
    o- iqn.2006-04.com.example.foo:888 ....[3 Mapped LUNs, auth]
        o- mapped_lun0 .............[lun0 ramdisk/ramdisk1 (rw)]
        o- mapped_lun1 .................[lun1 block/block1 (rw)]
        o- mapped_lun2 .................[lun2 fileio/file1 (rw)]
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.12. Creating an iSCSI initiator

An iSCSI initiator forms a session to connect to the iSCSI target. For more information on iSCSI target, see Section 5.1.2, “Creating an iSCSI target”. By default, an iSCSI service is lazily started and the service starts after running the iscsiadm command. If root is not on an iSCSI device or there are no nodes marked with node.startup = automatic then the iSCSI service will not start until an iscsiadm command is executed that requires iscsid or the iscsi kernel modules to be started.

To force the iscsid daemon to run and iSCSI kernel modules to load: 

# systemctl start iscsid.service
Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Install iscsi-initiator-utils on client machine: 

    # yum install iscsi-initiator-utils

  2. Check the initiator name: 

    # cat /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi

InitiatorName=2006-04.com.example.foo:888

  3. If the ACL was given a custom name in Section 5.1.11, “Creating an iSCSI ACL”, modify the /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file accordingly. 

    # vi /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi

  4. Discover the target and log in to the target with the displayed target IQN: 

    # iscsiadm -m discovery -t st -p 10.64.24.179
    10.64.24.179:3260,1 iqn.2006-04.example:444

# iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-04.example:444 -l
    Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-04.example:444, portal: 10.64.24.179,3260] (multiple)
    Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-04.example:444, portal: 10.64.24.179,3260] successful.

    Replace 10.64.24.179 with the target-ip-address.

    You can use this procedure for any number of initiators connected to the same target if their respective initiator names are added to the ACL as described in the Section 5.1.11, “Creating an iSCSI ACL”.

  5. Find the iSCSI disk name and create a file system on this iSCSI disk: 

    # grep "Attached SCSI" /var/log/messages

# mkfs.ext4 /dev/disk_name

    Replace disk_name with the iSCSI disk name displayed in the /var/log/messages file.

  6. Mount the file system: 

    # mkdir /mount/point

# mount /dev/disk_name /mount/point

    Replace /mount/point with the mount point of the partition.

  7. Edit the /etc/fstab file to mount the file system automatically when the system boots: 

    # vi /etc/fstab

/dev/disk_name /mount/point ext4 _netdev 0 0

    Replace disk_name with the iSCSI disk name and /mount/point with the mount point of the partition.

Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.
  • The iscsiadm man page.

5.1.13. Setting up the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol for the target

The Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) allows the user to protect the target with a password. The initiator must be aware of this password to be able to connect to the target.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Set attribute authentication: 

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> set attribute authentication=1

Parameter authentication is now '1'.

  2. Set userid and password: 

    /tpg1> set auth userid=redhat
Parameter userid is now 'redhat'.

/iscsi/iqn.20...689dcbb3/tpg1> set auth password=redhat_passwd
Parameter password is now 'redhat_passwd'.
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

5.1.14. Setting up the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol for the initiator

The Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) allows the user to protect the target with a password. The initiator must be aware of this password to be able to connect to the target.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Enable CHAP authentication in the iscsid.conf file: 

    # vi /etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf

node.session.auth.authmethod = CHAP

    By default, the node.session.auth.authmethod is set to None

  2. Add target username and password in the iscsid.conf file: 

    node.session.auth.username = redhat
node.session.auth.password = redhat_passwd

  3. Start the iscsid daemon: 

    # systemctl start iscsid.service
Additional resources
  • The iscsiadm man page

5.2. Monitoring an iSCSI session

As a system administrator, you can monitor the iSCSI session using the iscsiadm utility.

5.2.1. Monitoring an iSCSI session using the iscsiadm utility

This procedure describes how to monitor the iscsi session using the iscsiadm utility.

By default, an iSCSI service is lazily started and the service starts after running the iscsiadm command. If root is not on an iSCSI device or there are no nodes marked with node.startup = automatic then the iSCSI service will not start until an iscsiadm command is executed that requires iscsid or the iscsi kernel modules to be started.

To force the iscsid daemon to run and iSCSI kernel modules to load: 

# systemctl start iscsid.service
Prerequisites

  • Installed iscsi-initiator-utils on client machine: 

    yum install iscsi-initiator-utils
Procedure

  1. Find information about the running sessions: 

    # iscsiadm -m session -P 3

    This command displays the session or device state, session ID (sid), some negotiated parameters, and the SCSI devices accessible through the session.

    • For shorter output, for example, to display only the sid-to-node mapping, run: 

      # iscsiadm -m session -P 0
        or
# iscsiadm -m session

tcp [2] 10.15.84.19:3260,2 iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.33615311
tcp [3] 10.15.85.19:3260,3 iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.33615311

      These commands print the list of running sessions in the following format: driver [sid] target_ip:port,target_portal_group_tag proper_target_name.

Additional resources
  • /usr/share/doc/iscsi-initiator-utils-version/README file.
  • The iscsiadm man page.

5.3. Removing an iSCSI target

As a system administrator, you can remove the iSCSI target.

5.3.1. Removing an iSCSI object using targetcli tool

This procedure describes how to remove the iSCSI objects using the targetcli tool.

Procedure

  1. Log off from the target: 

    # iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-04.example:444 -u

    For more information on how to log in to the target, see Section 5.1.12, “Creating an iSCSI initiator”.

  2. Remove the entire target, including all ACLs, LUNs, and portals: 

    /> iscsi/ delete iqn.2006-04.com.example:444

    Replace iqn.2006-04.com.example:444 with the target_iqn_name.

    • To remove an iSCSI backstore: 

      /> backstores/backstore-type/ delete block_backend
      • Replace backstore-type with either fileio, block, pscsi, or ramdisk.
      • Replace block_backend with the backstore-name you want to delete.

    • To remove parts of an iSCSI target, such as an ACL: 

      /> /iscsi/iqn-name/tpg/acls/ delete iqn.2006-04.com.example:444

  3. View the changes: 

    /> iscsi/ ls
Additional resources
  • The targetcli man page.

Chapter 6. Using Fibre Channel devices

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 ships with the following native Fibre Channel drivers:

  • lpfc
  • qla2xxx
  • zfcp

6.1. Fibre Channel API

Following is the list of /sys/class/ directories that contain files used to provide the userspace API. In each item, host numbers are designated by H, bus numbers are B, targets are T, logical unit numbers (LUNs) are L, and remote port numbers are R.

Important

If your system is using multipath software, Red Hat} recommends that you consult your hardware vendor before changing any of the values described in this section.

  • Transport: /sys/class/fc_transport/targetH:B:T/

    • port_id: 24-bit port ID/address
    • node_name: 64-bit node name
    • port_name: 64-bit port name

  • Remote Port: /sys/class/fc_remote_ports/rport-H:B-R/

    • port_id
    • node_name
    • port_name

    • dev_loss_tmo: controls when the scsi device gets removed from the system. After dev_loss_tmo triggers, the scsi device is removed. In the multipath.conf file , you can set dev_loss_tmo to infinity.

      In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, if you do not set the fast_io_fail_tmo option, dev_loss_tmo is capped to 600 seconds. By default, fast_io_fail_tmo is set to 5 seconds in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 if the multipathd service is running; otherwise, it is set to off.

    • fast_io_fail_tmo: specifies the number of seconds to wait before it marks a link as "bad". Once a link is marked bad, existing running I/O or any new I/O on its corresponding path fails.

      If I/O is in a blocked queue, it will not be failed until dev_loss_tmo expires and the queue is unblocked.

      If fast_io_fail_tmo is set to any value except off, dev_loss_tmo is uncapped. If fast_io_fail_tmo is set to off, no I/O fails until the device is removed from the system. If fast_io_fail_tmo is set to a number, I/O fails immediately when the fast_io_fail_tmo timeout triggers.

  • Host: /sys/class/fc_host/hostH/

    • port_id
    • node_name
    • port_name
    • issue_lip: instructs the driver to rediscover remote ports.

6.2. Resizing Fibre Channel Logical Units

As a system administrator, you can resize Fibre Channel logical units.

Procedure

  1. To determine which devices are paths for a multipath logical unit: 

    multipath -ll

  2. To re-scan Fibre Channel logical units on a system that uses multipathing: 

    $ echo 1 > /sys/block/sdX/device/rescan

Additional resources

  • The multipath man page.

Chapter 7. Configuring a Fibre Channel over an Ethernet Interface

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 ships with the following native FCoE drivers:

  • bnx2fc
  • fnic
  • qedf
  • lpfc

7.1. Configuring an Ethernet Interface to Use FCoE

As a system administrator, you can configure FCoE for bnx2fc driver.

Prerequisites

  • Setting up and deploying a FCoE interface requires the fcoe-utils package: 

    # yum install fcoe-utils

Procedure

  1. To configure a new virtual LAN (VLAN), create a copy of an existing network script: 

    # cp /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethx /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethX

    Replace /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethx with a network script and /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethX with an Ethernet device that supports FCoE.

    Modify the contents of the cfg-ethX file as required.

  2. If you want the device to automatically load during boot time, set the following parameter in the ifcfg-ethX file. 

    # vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX

ONBOOT=yes

    For example, if the FCoE device is eth2, edit the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth2 file accordingly.

  3. To load the FCoE device: 

    # ip link set dev ethX up

  4. To start the FCoE: 

    # systemctl start fcoe

    The FCoE device displays if all other settings on the fabric are correct.

  5. To view configured FCoE devices: 

    # fcoeadm -i

  6. After correctly configuring the Ethernet interface to use FCoE, Red Hat recommends that you set FCoE service to run at startup. 

    # systemctl enable fcoe
Note

To stop the daemon: 

# systemctl stop fcoe

Stopping the daemon does not reset the configuration of FCoE interfaces. To reset the configuration: 

# systemctl -s SIGHUP kill fcoe

Additional resources

7.2. Configuring an FCoE Interface to Automatically Mount at Boot

You can mount newly discovered disks via udev rules, autofs, and other similar methods. If a service requires the FCoE disk be mounted at boot-time, the FCoE disk should be mounted as soon as the fcoe service runs and before the initiation of any service that requires the FCoE disk. The FCoE mounting codes may differ depending on the system configuration, for example, a simple formatted FCoE disk, LVM, or a multipathed device node.

Procedure

  1. To configure an FCoE disk to automatically mount at boot, add appropriate FCoE mounting code to the startup script for the fcoe service. The fcoe startup script is in the /lib/systemd/system/fcoe.service file.

    The following is a sample FCoE mounting code for mounting file systems specified via wild cards in the /etc/fstab file: 

    mount_fcoe_disks_from_fstab()
{
  local timeout=20
	local done=1
	local fcoe_disks=($(egrep 'by-path\/fc-.*_netdev' /etc/fstab | cut -d ' ' -f1))

	test -z $fcoe_disks && return 0

	echo -n "Waiting for fcoe disks . "
  while [ $timeout -gt 0 ]; do
	 for disk in ${fcoe_disks[*]}; do
    if ! test -b $disk; then
		  done=0
			break
    fi
	done

	test $done -eq 1 && break;
	sleep 1
	echo -n ". "
	done=1
	let timeout--
	done

	if test $timeout -eq 0; then
	 echo "timeout!"
	else
	 echo "done!"
	fi

	# mount any newly discovered disk
	mount -a 2>/dev/null
	}

  2. To start the FCoE: 

    # systemctl start fcoe

    The mount_fcoe_disks_from_fstab function should be invoked after the fcoe service script starts the fcoemond daemon. This will mount FCoE disks specified by the following paths in the /etc/fstab file: 

    /dev/disk/by-path/fc-0xXX:0xXX /mnt/fcoe-disk1 ext4  defaults,_netdev    0 0
    /dev/disk/by-path/fc-0xYY:0xYY /mnt/fcoe-disk2 ext3  defaults,_netdev    0 0

    Entries with fc- and _netdev sub-strings enable the mount_fcoe_disks_from_fstab function to identify FCoE disk mount entries.

Note

The fcoe service does not implement a timeout for FCoE disk discovery. The FCoE mounting code should implement its own timeout period.

Additional resources

  • The fcoe man page
  • The fstab man page.
  • The /usr/share/doc/fcoe-utils-version/README file.

Chapter 8. Configuring maximum time for storage error recovery with eh_deadline

You can configure the maximum allowed time to recover failed SCSI devices. This configuration guarantees an I/O response time even when storage hardware becomes unresponsive due to a failure.

8.1. The eh_deadline parameter

The SCSI error handling (EH) mechanism attempts to perform error recovery on failed SCSI devices. The SCSI host object eh_deadline parameter enables you to configure the maximum amount of time for the recovery. After the configured time expires, SCSI EH stops and resets the entire host bus adapter (HBA).

Using eh_deadline can reduce the time:

  • to shut off a failed path,
  • to switch a path, or
  • to disable a RAID slice.
Warning

When eh_deadline expires, SCSI EH resets the HBA, which affects all target paths on that HBA, not only the failing one. If some of the redundant paths are not available for other reasons, I/O errors might occur. Enable eh_deadline only if you have a fully redundant multipath configuration on all targets.

Scenarios when eh_deadline is useful

In most scenarios, you do not need to enable eh_deadline. Using eh_deadline can be useful in certain specific scenarios, for example if a link loss occurs between a Fibre Channel (FC) switch and a target port, and the HBA does not receive Registered State Change Notifications (RSCNs). In such a case, I/O requests and error recovery commands all time out rather than encounter an error. Setting eh_deadline in this environment puts an upper limit on the recovery time. That enables the failed I/O to be retried on another available path by DM Multipath.

Under the following conditions, the eh_deadline functionality provides no additional benefit, because the I/O and error recovery commands fail immediately, which allows DM Multipath to retry:

  • If RSCNs are enabled
  • If the HBA does not register the link becoming unavailable

Possible values

The value of the eh_deadline is specified in seconds.

The default setting is off, which disables the time limit and allows all of the error recovery to take place.

8.2. Setting the eh_deadline parameter

This procedure configures the value of the eh_deadline parameter to limit the maximum SCSI recovery time.

Procedure

  • You can configure eh_deadline using either of the following methods:

    sysfs
    Write the number of seconds into the /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/eh_deadline files.
    Kernel parameter
    Set a default value for all SCSI HBAs using the scsi_mod.eh_deadline kernel parameter.

Additional resources

Chapter 9. Getting started with swap

This section describes swap space and how to use it.

9.1. Swap space

Swap space in Linux is used when the amount of physical memory (RAM) is full. If the system needs more memory resources and the RAM is full, inactive pages in memory are moved to the swap space. While swap space can help machines with a small amount of RAM, it should not be considered a replacement for more RAM. Swap space is located on hard drives, which have a slower access time than physical memory. Swap space can be a dedicated swap partition (recommended), a swap file, or a combination of swap partitions and swap files.

In years past, the recommended amount of swap space increased linearly with the amount of RAM in the system. However, modern systems often include hundreds of gigabytes of RAM. As a consequence, recommended swap space is considered a function of system memory workload, not system memory.

Section 9.2, “Recommended system swap space” illustrates the recommended size of a swap partition depending on the amount of RAM in your system and whether you want sufficient memory for your system to hibernate. The recommended swap partition size is established automatically during installation. To allow for hibernation, however, you need to edit the swap space in the custom partitioning stage.

Recommendations in Section 9.2, “Recommended system swap space” are especially important on systems with low memory (1 GB and less). Failure to allocate sufficient swap space on these systems can cause issues such as instability or even render the installed system unbootable.

9.3. Adding swap space

This section describes how to add more swap space after installation. For example, you may upgrade the amount of RAM in your system from 1 GB to 2 GB, but there is only 2 GB of swap space. It might be advantageous to increase the amount of swap space to 4 GB if you perform memory-intense operations or run applications that require a large amount of memory.

There are three options: create a new swap partition, create a new swap file, or extend swap on an existing LVM2 logical volume. It is recommended that you extend an existing logical volume.

9.3.1. Extending swap on an LVM2 logical volume

This procedure describes how to extend swap space on an existing LVM2 logical volume. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 is the volume you want to extend by 2 GB.

Prerequisites
  • Enough disk space.
Procedure

  1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume: 

    # swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

  2. Resize the LVM2 logical volume by 2 GB: 

    # lvresize /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 -L +2G

  3. Format the new swap space: 

    # mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

  4. Enable the extended logical volume: 

    # swapon -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

  5. To test if the swap logical volume was successfully extended and activated, inspect active swap space: 

    $ cat /proc/swaps
$ free -h

9.3.2. Creating an LVM2 logical volume for swap

This procedure describes how to create an LVM2 logical volume for swap. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 is the swap volume you want to add.

Prerequisites
  • Enough disk space.
Procedure

  1. Create the LVM2 logical volume of size 2 GB: 

    # lvcreate VolGroup00 -n LogVol02 -L 2G

  2. Format the new swap space: 

    # mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02

  3. Add the following entry to the /etc/fstab file: 

    /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 swap swap defaults 0 0

  4. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  5. Activate swap on the logical volume: 

    # swapon -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02

  6. To test if the swap logical volume was successfully created and activated, inspect active swap space: 

    $ cat /proc/swaps
$ free -h

9.3.3. Creating a swap file

This procedure describes how to create a swap file.

Prerequisites
  • Enough disk space.
Procedure
  1. Determine the size of the new swap file in megabytes and multiply by 1024 to determine the number of blocks. For example, the block size of a 64 MB swap file is 65536.

  2. Create an empty file: 

    # dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536

    Replace count with the value equal to the desired block size.

  3. Set up the swap file with the command: 

    # mkswap /swapfile

  4. Change the security of the swap file so it is not world readable. 

    # chmod 0600 /swapfile

  5. To enable the swap file at boot time, edit /etc/fstab as root to include the following entry: 

    /swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

    The next time the system boots, it activates the new swap file.

  6. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new /etc/fstab configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  7. To activate the swap file immediately: 

    # swapon /swapfile

  8. To test if the new swap file was successfully created and activated, inspect active swap space: 

    $ cat /proc/swaps
$ free -h

9.4. Removing swap space

This section describes how to reduce swap space after installation. For example, you have downgraded the amount of RAM in your system from 1 GB to 512 MB, but there is 2 GB of swap space still assigned. It might be advantageous to reduce the amount of swap space to 1 GB, since the larger 2 GB could be wasting disk space.

Depending on what you need, you may choose one of three options: reduce swap space on an existing LVM2 logical volume, remove an entire LVM2 logical volume used for swap, or remove a swap file.

9.4.1. Reducing swap on an LVM2 logical volume

This procedure describes how to reduce swap on an LVM2 logical volume. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 is the volume you want to reduce.

Procedure

  1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume: 

    # swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

  2. Reduce the LVM2 logical volume by 512 MB: 

    # lvreduce /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 -L -512M

  3. Format the new swap space: 

    # mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

  4. Activate swap on the logical volume: 

    # swapon -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

  5. To test if the swap logical volume was successfully reduced, inspect active swap space: 

    $ cat /proc/swaps
$ free -h

9.4.2. Removing an LVM2 logical volume for swap

This procedure describes how to remove an LVM2 logical volume for swap. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 is the swap volume you want to remove.

Procedure

  1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume: 

    # swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02

  2. Remove the LVM2 logical volume: 

    # lvremove /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02

  3. Remove the following associated entry from the /etc/fstab file: 

    /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 swap swap defaults 0 0

  4. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  5. To test if the logical volume was successfully removed, inspect active swap space: 

    $ cat /proc/swaps
$ free -h

9.4.3. Removing a swap file

This procedure describes how to remove a swap file.

Procedure

  1. At a shell prompt, execute the following command to disable the swap file (where /swapfile is the swap file): 

    # swapoff -v /swapfile
  2. Remove its entry from the /etc/fstab file accordingly.

  3. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  4. Remove the actual file: 

    # rm /swapfile

Chapter 10. Managing layered local storage with Stratis

You can easily set up and manage complex storage configurations integrated by the Stratis high-level system.

Important

Stratis is available as a Technology Preview. For information on Red Hat scope of support for Technology Preview features, see the Technology Preview Features Support Scope document.

Customers deploying Stratis are encouraged to provide feedback to Red Hat.

10.1. Setting up Stratis file systems

As a system administrator, you can enable and set up the Stratis volume-managing file system on your system to easily manage layered storage.

10.1.1. The purpose and features of Stratis

Stratis is a local storage-management solution for Linux. It is focused on simplicity and ease of use, and gives you access to advanced storage features.

Stratis makes the following activities easier:

  • Initial configuration of storage
  • Making changes later
  • Using advanced storage features

Stratis is a hybrid user-and-kernel local storage management system that supports advanced storage features. The central concept of Stratis is a storage pool. This pool is created from one or more local disks or partitions, and volumes are created from the pool.

The pool enables many useful features, such as:

  • File system snapshots
  • Thin provisioning
  • Tiering

10.1.2. Components of a Stratis volume

Externally, Stratis presents the following volume components in the command-line interface and the API:

blockdev
Block devices, such as a disk or a disk partition.
pool

Composed of one or more block devices.

A pool has a fixed total size, equal to the size of the block devices.

The pool contains most Stratis layers, such as the non-volatile data cache using the dm-cache target.

Stratis creates a /stratis/my-pool/ directory for each pool. This directory contains links to devices that represent Stratis file systems in the pool.

filesystem

Each pool can contain one or more file systems, which store files.

File systems are thinly provisioned and do not have a fixed total size. The actual size of a file system grows with the data stored on it. If the size of the data approaches the virtual size of the file system, Stratis grows the thin volume and the file system automatically.

The file systems are formatted with XFS.

Important

Stratis tracks information about file systems created using Stratis that XFS is not aware of, and changes made using XFS do not automatically create updates in Stratis. Users must not reformat or reconfigure XFS file systems that are managed by Stratis.

Stratis creates links to file systems at the /stratis/my-pool/my-fs path.

Note

Stratis uses many Device Mapper devices, which show up in dmsetup listings and the /proc/partitions file. Similarly, the lsblk command output reflects the internal workings and layers of Stratis.

10.1.3. Block devices usable with Stratis

This section lists storage devices that you can use for Stratis.

Supported devices

Stratis pools have been tested to work on these types of block devices:

  • LUKS
  • LVM logical volumes
  • MDRAID
  • DM Multipath
  • iSCSI
  • HDDs and SSDs
  • NVMe devices
Warning

In the current version, Stratis does not handle failures in hard drives or other hardware. If you create a Stratis pool over multiple hardware devices, you increase the risk of data loss because multiple devices must be operational to access the data.

Unsupported devices

Because Stratis contains a thin-provisioning layer, Red Hat does not recommend placing a Stratis pool on block devices that are already thinly-provisioned.

Additional resources
  • For iSCSI and other block devices requiring network, see the systemd.mount(5) man page for information on the _netdev mount option.

10.1.4. Installing Stratis

This procedure installs all packages necessary to use Stratis.

Procedure

  1. Install packages that provide the Stratis service and command-line utilities: 

    # yum install stratisd stratis-cli

  2. Make sure that the stratisd service is enabled: 

    # systemctl enable --now stratisd

10.1.5. Creating a Stratis pool

This procedure creates a Stratis pool from one or more block devices.

Prerequisites
  • Stratis is installed. See Section 10.1.4, “Installing Stratis”.
  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are not in use and not mounted.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are at least 1 GiB in size each.

  • On the IBM Z architecture, the /dev/dasd* block devices must to be partitioned. Use the partition in the Stratis pool.

    For information on partitioning DASD devices, see Configuring a Linux instance on IBM Z.

Procedure

  1. If the selected block device contains file system, partition table, or RAID signatures, erase them: 

    # wipefs --all block-device

    Replace block-device with the path to a block device, such as /dev/sdb.

  2. To create a Stratis pool on the block device, use: 

    # stratis pool create my-pool block-device
    • Replace my-pool with an arbitrary name for the pool.
    • Replace block-device with the path to the empty or wiped block device, such as /dev/sdb.

    To create a pool from more than one block device, list them all on the command line: 

    # stratis pool create my-pool device-1 device-2 device-n

  3. To verify, list all pools on your system: 

    # stratis pool list
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page
Next steps

10.1.6. Creating a Stratis file system

This procedure creates a Stratis file system on an existing Stratis pool.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. To create a Stratis file system on a pool, use: 

    # stratis fs create my-pool my-fs
    • Replace my-pool with the name of your existing Stratis pool.
    • Replace my-fs with an arbitrary name for the file system.

  2. To verify, list file systems within the pool: 

    # stratis fs list my-pool
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page
Next steps

10.1.7. Mounting a Stratis file system

This procedure mounts an existing Stratis file system to access the content.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • To mount the file system, use the entries that Stratis maintains in the /stratis/ directory: 

    # mount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs mount-point

The file system is now mounted on the mount-point directory and ready to use.

Additional resources
  • The mount(8) man page

10.1.8. Persistently mounting a Stratis file system

This procedure persistently mounts a Stratis file system so that it is available automatically after booting the system.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Determine the UUID attribute of the file system: 

    $ lsblk --output=UUID /stratis/my-pool/my-fs

    For example:

    Example 10.1. Viewing the UUID of Stratis file system

    $ lsblk --output=UUID /stratis/my-pool/fs1

UUID
a1f0b64a-4ebb-4d4e-9543-b1d79f600283

  2. If the mount point directory does not exist, create it: 

    # mkdir --parents mount-point

  3. As root, edit the /etc/fstab file and add a line for the file system, identified by the UUID. Use xfs as the file system type and add the x-systemd.requires=stratisd.service option.

    For example:

    Example 10.2. The /fs1 mount point in /etc/fstab

    UUID=a1f0b64a-4ebb-4d4e-9543-b1d79f600283 /fs1 xfs defaults,x-systemd.requires=stratisd.service 0 0

  4. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration: 

    # systemctl daemon-reload

  5. Try mounting the file system to verify that the configuration works: 

    # mount mount-point
Additional resources

10.2. Extending a Stratis volume with additional block devices

You can attach additional block devices to a Stratis pool to provide more storage capacity for Stratis file systems.

10.2.1. Components of a Stratis volume

Externally, Stratis presents the following volume components in the command-line interface and the API:

blockdev
Block devices, such as a disk or a disk partition.
pool

Composed of one or more block devices.

A pool has a fixed total size, equal to the size of the block devices.

The pool contains most Stratis layers, such as the non-volatile data cache using the dm-cache target.

Stratis creates a /stratis/my-pool/ directory for each pool. This directory contains links to devices that represent Stratis file systems in the pool.

filesystem

Each pool can contain one or more file systems, which store files.

File systems are thinly provisioned and do not have a fixed total size. The actual size of a file system grows with the data stored on it. If the size of the data approaches the virtual size of the file system, Stratis grows the thin volume and the file system automatically.

The file systems are formatted with XFS.

Important

Stratis tracks information about file systems created using Stratis that XFS is not aware of, and changes made using XFS do not automatically create updates in Stratis. Users must not reformat or reconfigure XFS file systems that are managed by Stratis.

Stratis creates links to file systems at the /stratis/my-pool/my-fs path.

Note

Stratis uses many Device Mapper devices, which show up in dmsetup listings and the /proc/partitions file. Similarly, the lsblk command output reflects the internal workings and layers of Stratis.

10.2.2. Adding block devices to a Stratis pool

This procedure adds one or more block devices to a Stratis pool to be usable by Stratis file systems.

Prerequisites
  • Stratis is installed. See Section 10.1.4, “Installing Stratis”.
  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices that you are adding to the Stratis pool are not in use and not mounted.
  • The block devices that you are adding to the Stratis pool are at least 1 GiB in size each.
Procedure

  • To add one or more block devices to the pool, use: 

    # stratis pool add-data my-pool device-1 device-2 device-n
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.3. Monitoring Stratis file systems

As a Stratis user, you can view information about Stratis volumes on your system to monitor their state and free space.

10.3.1. Stratis sizes reported by different utilities

This section explains the difference between Stratis sizes reported by standard utilities such as df and the stratis utility.

Standard Linux utilities such as df report the size of the XFS file system layer on Stratis, which is 1 TiB. This is not useful information, because the actual storage usage of Stratis is less due to thin provisioning, and also because Stratis automatically grows the file system when the XFS layer is close to full.

Important

Regularly monitor the amount of data written to your Stratis file systems, which is reported as the Total Physical Used value. Make sure it does not exceed the Total Physical Size value.

Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.3.2. Displaying information about Stratis volumes

This procedure lists statistics about your Stratis volumes, such as the total, used, and free size or file systems and block devices belonging to a pool.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • To display information about all block devices used for Stratis on your system: 

    # stratis blockdev

Pool Name  Device Node    Physical Size   State  Tier
my-pool    /dev/sdb            9.10 TiB  In-use  Data

  • To display information about all Stratis pools on your system: 

    # stratis pool

Name    Total Physical Size  Total Physical Used
my-pool            9.10 TiB              598 MiB

  • To display information about all Stratis file systems on your system: 

    # stratis filesystem

Pool Name  Name  Used     Created            Device
my-pool    my-fs 546 MiB  Nov 08 2018 08:03  /stratis/my-pool/my-fs
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.4. Using snapshots on Stratis file systems

You can use snapshots on Stratis file systems to capture file system state at arbitrary times and restore it in the future.

10.4.1. Characteristics of Stratis snapshots

This section describes the properties and limitations of file system snapshots on Stratis.

In Stratis, a snapshot is a regular Stratis file system created as a copy of another Stratis file system. The snapshot initially contains the same file content as the original file system, but can change as the snapshot is modified. Whatever changes you make to the snapshot will not be reflected in the original file system.

The current snapshot implementation in Stratis is characterized by the following:

  • A snapshot of a file system is another file system.
  • A snapshot and its origin are not linked in lifetime. A snapshotted file system can live longer than the file system it was created from.
  • A file system does not have to be mounted to create a snapshot from it.
  • Each snapshot uses around half a gigabyte of actual backing storage, which is needed for the XFS log.

10.4.2. Creating a Stratis snapshot

This procedure creates a Stratis file system as a snapshot of an existing Stratis file system.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • To create a Stratis snapshot, use: 

    # stratis fs snapshot my-pool my-fs my-fs-snapshot
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.4.3. Accessing the content of a Stratis snapshot

This procedure mounts a snapshot of a Stratis file system to make it accessible for read and write operations.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • To access the snapshot, mount it as a regular file system from the /stratis/my-pool/ directory: 

    # mount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs-snapshot mount-point
Additional resources

10.4.4. Reverting a Stratis file system to a previous snapshot

This procedure reverts the content of a Stratis file system to the state captured in a Stratis snapshot.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Optionally, back up the current state of the file system to be able to access it later: 

    # stratis filesystem snapshot my-pool my-fs my-fs-backup

  2. Unmount and remove the original file system: 

    # umount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs
# stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs

  3. Create a copy of the snapshot under the name of the original file system: 

    # stratis filesystem snapshot my-pool my-fs-snapshot my-fs

  4. Mount the snapshot, which is now accessible with the same name as the original file system: 

    # mount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs mount-point

The content of the file system named my-fs is now identical to the snapshot my-fs-snapshot.

Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.4.5. Removing a Stratis snapshot

This procedure removes a Stratis snapshot from a pool. Data on the snapshot are lost.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Unmount the snapshot: 

    # umount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs-snapshot

  2. Destroy the snapshot: 

    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs-snapshot
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.5. Removing Stratis file systems

You can remove an existing Stratis file system or a Stratis pool, destroying data on them.

10.5.1. Components of a Stratis volume

Externally, Stratis presents the following volume components in the command-line interface and the API:

blockdev
Block devices, such as a disk or a disk partition.
pool

Composed of one or more block devices.

A pool has a fixed total size, equal to the size of the block devices.

The pool contains most Stratis layers, such as the non-volatile data cache using the dm-cache target.

Stratis creates a /stratis/my-pool/ directory for each pool. This directory contains links to devices that represent Stratis file systems in the pool.

filesystem

Each pool can contain one or more file systems, which store files.

File systems are thinly provisioned and do not have a fixed total size. The actual size of a file system grows with the data stored on it. If the size of the data approaches the virtual size of the file system, Stratis grows the thin volume and the file system automatically.

The file systems are formatted with XFS.

Important

Stratis tracks information about file systems created using Stratis that XFS is not aware of, and changes made using XFS do not automatically create updates in Stratis. Users must not reformat or reconfigure XFS file systems that are managed by Stratis.

Stratis creates links to file systems at the /stratis/my-pool/my-fs path.

Note

Stratis uses many Device Mapper devices, which show up in dmsetup listings and the /proc/partitions file. Similarly, the lsblk command output reflects the internal workings and layers of Stratis.

10.5.2. Removing a Stratis file system

This procedure removes an existing Stratis file system. Data stored on it are lost.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. Unmount the file system: 

    # umount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs

  2. Destroy the file system: 

    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs

  3. Verify that the file system no longer exists: 

    # stratis filesystem list my-pool
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

10.5.3. Removing a Stratis pool

This procedure removes an existing Stratis pool. Data stored on it are lost.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. List file systems on the pool: 

    # stratis filesystem list my-pool

  2. Unmount all file systems on the pool: 

    # umount /stratis/my-pool/my-fs-1 \
         /stratis/my-pool/my-fs-2 \
         /stratis/my-pool/my-fs-n

  3. Destroy the file systems: 

    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs-1 my-fs-2

  4. Destroy the pool: 

    # stratis pool destroy my-pool

  5. Verify that the pool no longer exists: 

    # stratis pool list
Additional resources
  • The stratis(8) man page

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