Re: [PATCH 0/4] RFC: attempt to remove md deadlocks with metadata without

[NeilBrown <neilb@suse.com>]

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On Sat, Sep 30 2017, Xiao Ni wrote:

> On 09/12/2017 09:49 AM, NeilBrown wrote:
>> Hi,
>>   I looked again at the previous patch I posted which tried to mak
>>   md_update_sb() safe without taking reconfig_mutex, and realized that
>>   it had serious problems, particularly around devices being added or
>>   removed while the update was happening.
> Could you explain this in detail? What's the serious problems?

My patch allowed md_update_sb() to run without holding ->reconfig_mutex.
md_update_sb() uses rdev_for_each() in several places, so either that
list needs to be kept stable, or md_update_sb() needs to ensure it is
very careful while walking the list.

I couldn't just use a spinlock to protect the lists because one of the
rdev_for_Each calls md_super_write() on some of the devices, which is
not allowed while holding a spinlock.

I decided it was too hard to make md_update_sb() walk the list in a
fully say manner.

NeilBrown


>
> Regards
> Xiao
>>
>>   So I decided to try a different approach, which is embodied in these
>>   patches.  The md thread is now explicitly allowed to call
>>   md_update_sb() while some other thread holds the lock and
>>   waits for mddev_suspend() to complete.
>>
>>   Please test these and confirm that they still address the problem you
>>   found.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> NeilBrown
>>
>> ---
>>
>> NeilBrown (4):
>>        md: always hold reconfig_mutex when calling mddev_suspend()
>>        md: don't call bitmap_create() while array is quiesced.
>>        md: use mddev_suspend/resume instead of ->quiesce()
>>        md: allow metadata update while suspending.
>>
>>
>>   drivers/md/dm-raid.c     |    5 ++++-
>>   drivers/md/md.c          |   45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
>>   drivers/md/md.h          |    6 ++++++
>>   drivers/md/raid5-cache.c |    2 ++
>>   4 files changed, 44 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)
>>
>> --
>> Signature
>>

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