Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[Clemens Eisserer]

Hi,

I have a quite unreliable SSD here which develops some bad blocks from
time to time which result in read-errors.
Once the block is written to again, its remapped internally and
everything is fine again for that block.

Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive and
use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when they
occur?
Would it require special settings, to not fallback to read-only mode
when a read-error occurs?

Thank you in advance, Clemens

Re: Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[Jan Schmidt]

On Tue, May 08, 2012 at 09:13 (+0200), Clemens Eisserer wrote:
> Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive and
> use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when they
> occur?
> Would it require special settings, to not fallback to read-only mode
> when a read-error occurs?

No special settings required, that's exactly what btrfs is doing by
default. Though, it's not completely silent: it will tell you in your
kernel log about the repair it did.

-Jan

Re: Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[Fajar A. Nugraha]

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a quite unreliable SSD here which develops some bad blocks from
> time to time which result in read-errors.
> Once the block is written to again, its remapped internally and
> everything is fine again for that block.
>
> Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive and
> use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when they
> occur?
> Would it require special settings, to not fallback to read-only mode
> when a read-error occurs?

The problem would be how the SSD (and linux) behaves when it
encounters bad blocks (not bad disks, which is easier).

If it does "oh, I can't read this block. I just return an error
immediately", then it's good.

However, in most situation, it would be like "hmmm, I can't read this
block, let me retry that again. What? still error? then lets retry it
again, and again.", which could take several minutes for a single bad
block. And during that time linux (the kernel) would do something like
"hey, the disk is not responding. Why don't we try some stuff? Let's
try resetting the link. If it doesn't work, try downgrading the link
speed".

In short, if you KNOW the SSD is already showing signs of bad blocks,
better just throw it away.

-- 
Fajar

Re: Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[cwillu]

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 1:36 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha <list@fajar.net> wrote:
> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a quite unreliable SSD here which develops some bad blocks from
>> time to time which result in read-errors.
>> Once the block is written to again, its remapped internally and
>> everything is fine again for that block.
>>
>> Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive and
>> use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when they
>> occur?
>> Would it require special settings, to not fallback to read-only mode
>> when a read-error occurs?
>
> The problem would be how the SSD (and linux) behaves when it
> encounters bad blocks (not bad disks, which is easier).
>
> If it does "oh, I can't read this block. I just return an error
> immediately", then it's good.
>
> However, in most situation, it would be like "hmmm, I can't read this
> block, let me retry that again. What? still error? then lets retry it
> again, and again.", which could take several minutes for a single bad
> block. And during that time linux (the kernel) would do something like
> "hey, the disk is not responding. Why don't we try some stuff? Let's
> try resetting the link. If it doesn't work, try downgrading the link
> speed".
>
> In short, if you KNOW the SSD is already showing signs of bad blocks,
> better just throw it away.

The excessive number of retries (basically, the kernel repeating the
work the drive already attempted) is being addressed in the block
layer.

"[PATCH] libata-eh don't waste time retrying media errors (v3)", I
believe this is queued for 3.5

Re: Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[Hubert Kario]

On Tuesday 08 of May 2012 04:45:51 cwillu wrote:
> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 1:36 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha <list@fajar.net> wro=
te:
> > On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy@gmail.=
com>=20
wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>=20
> >> I have a quite unreliable SSD here which develops some bad blocks =
from
> >> time to time which result in read-errors.
> >> Once the block is written to again, its remapped internally and
> >> everything is fine again for that block.
> >>=20
> >> Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive an=
d
> >> use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when t=
hey
> >> occur?
> >> Would it require special settings, to not fallback to read-only mo=
de
> >> when a read-error occurs?
> >=20
> > The problem would be how the SSD (and linux) behaves when it
> > encounters bad blocks (not bad disks, which is easier).
> >=20
> > If it does "oh, I can't read this block. I just return an error
> > immediately", then it's good.
> >=20
> > However, in most situation, it would be like "hmmm, I can't read th=
is
> > block, let me retry that again. What? still error? then lets retry =
it
> > again, and again.", which could take several minutes for a single b=
ad
> > block. And during that time linux (the kernel) would do something l=
ike
> > "hey, the disk is not responding. Why don't we try some stuff? Let'=
s
> > try resetting the link. If it doesn't work, try downgrading the lin=
k
> > speed".
> >=20
> > In short, if you KNOW the SSD is already showing signs of bad block=
s,
> > better just throw it away.
>=20
> The excessive number of retries (basically, the kernel repeating the
> work the drive already attempted) is being addressed in the block
> layer.
>=20
> "[PATCH] libata-eh don't waste time retrying media errors (v3)", I
> believe this is queued for 3.5

I just hope they don't remove retries completely, I've seen the second =
or=20
third try return correct data on multiple disks from different vendors.=
=20
(Which allowed me to use dd to write the data back to force relocation)

But yes, Linux is a bit too overzelous with regards to retries...

Regards,
--=20
Hubert Kario
QBS - Quality Business Software
02-656 Warszawa, ul. Ksawer=F3w 30/85
tel. +48 (22) 646-61-51, 646-74-24
www.qbs.com.pl
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Re: Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[Atila]

On 08-05-2012 18:47, Hubert Kario wrote:
> On Tuesday 08 of May 2012 04:45:51 cwillu wrote:
>> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 1:36 AM, Fajar A. Nugraha<list@fajar.net>  wrote:
>>> On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 2:13 PM, Clemens Eisserer<linuxhippy@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I have a quite unreliable SSD here which develops some bad blocks from
>>>> time to time which result in read-errors.
>>>> Once the block is written to again, its remapped internally and
>>>> everything is fine again for that block.
>>>>
>>>> Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive and
>>>> use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when they
>>>> occur?
>>>> Would it require special settings, to not fallback to read-only mode
>>>> when a read-error occurs?
>>> The problem would be how the SSD (and linux) behaves when it
>>> encounters bad blocks (not bad disks, which is easier).
>>>
>>> If it does "oh, I can't read this block. I just return an error
>>> immediately", then it's good.
>>>
>>> However, in most situation, it would be like "hmmm, I can't read this
>>> block, let me retry that again. What? still error? then lets retry it
>>> again, and again.", which could take several minutes for a single bad
>>> block. And during that time linux (the kernel) would do something like
>>> "hey, the disk is not responding. Why don't we try some stuff? Let's
>>> try resetting the link. If it doesn't work, try downgrading the link
>>> speed".
>>>
>>> In short, if you KNOW the SSD is already showing signs of bad blocks,
>>> better just throw it away.
>> The excessive number of retries (basically, the kernel repeating the
>> work the drive already attempted) is being addressed in the block
>> layer.
>>
>> "[PATCH] libata-eh don't waste time retrying media errors (v3)", I
>> believe this is queued for 3.5
> I just hope they don't remove retries completely, I've seen the second or
> third try return correct data on multiple disks from different vendors.
> (Which allowed me to use dd to write the data back to force relocation)
>
> But yes, Linux is a bit too overzelous with regards to retries...
>
> Regards,
I hope they do. If you wish, you can force the retry, just trying your 
command again. This decision should happen in a higher level.

Re: Can btrfs silently repair read-error in raid1

[Chris Samuel]

On 08/05/12 17:13, Clemens Eisserer wrote:

> Would it be possible to create 2 btrfs partitions on that drive and
> use it in RAID1 - with btrfs silently repairing read-errors when they
> occur?

You can, I tried that in 2009:

http://www.csamuel.org/2009/01/04/btrfs-raid1-benchmark-on-dell-e4200-with-128gb-ssd

But as Chris Mason pointed out on list at that time, it doesn't
necessarily mean you're any safer due to the way that FTL's work:

http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.file-systems.btrfs/2575

cheers,
Chris
-- 
 Chris Samuel  :  http://www.csamuel.org/  :  Melbourne, VIC