Re: [PATCH 06/20] xfs: don't use REQ_PREFLUSH for split log writes

Brian Foster
2019-06-05T10:51:22Z

On Wed, Jun 05, 2019 at 08:45:44AM +1000, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 04, 2019 at 12:12:40PM -0400, Brian Foster wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 03, 2019 at 07:29:31PM +0200, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > > If we have to split a log write because it wraps the end of the log we
> > > can't just use REQ_PREFLUSH to flush before the first log write,
> > > as the writes might get reordered somewhere in the I/O stack. Issue
> > > a manual flush in that case so that the ordering of the two log I/Os
> > > doesn't matter.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
> > > Reviewed-by: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com>
> > > ---
> > > fs/xfs/xfs_log.c | 2 +-
> > > 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c
> > > index 3b82ca8ac9c8..646a190e5730 100644
> > > --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c
> > > +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_log.c
> > > @@ -1941,7 +1941,7 @@ xlog_sync(
> > > * synchronously here; for an internal log we can simply use the block
> > > * layer state machine for preflushes.
> > > */
> > > - if (log->l_mp->m_logdev_targp != log->l_mp->m_ddev_targp)
> > > + if (log->l_mp->m_logdev_targp != log->l_mp->m_ddev_targp || split)
> > > xfs_blkdev_issue_flush(log->l_mp->m_ddev_targp);
> >
> > I'm curious if this is really necessary. The log record isn't
> > recoverable until it's complete on disk (and thus the tail LSN stamped
> > in the record header not relevant). As long as the cache flushes before
> > the record is completely written, what difference does it make if it was
> > made up of two out of order I/Os?
>
> The problem is not whether the log write is recoverable, it's
> whether what it overwrites is already on stable storage. i.e. the
> tail of the log can be overwritten by the split write to the start
> of the log before the cache flush in the first iclog IO makes the
> metadata it is overwriting stable. i.e:
>

Ah, I see. If the log is full, the head pushes behind the tail and
associated head record refers to the current tail. The AIL pushes the
tail forward some and a log record writeback occurs with a new tail,
overwriting the previous tail. If the metadata writeback has not
persisted by the time we start that tail overwrite and we crash before
the record completes in the log, then we still need to recover from the
previous tail record (we just partially overwrote) to the previous head
on the next mount, which would be troublesome. Makes sense, thanks.

>
> metadata write -> volatile disk cache
> move log tail forwards -> tail wraps back to start
> <...>
> log write wrapping tail
> iclog split
> iclog write to end /w PREFLUSH + FUA
> -> queued in request queue
> iclog write to start /w FUA
> -> queued in request queue
> <....>
> request queue gets processed
> dispatches write to start w/ FUA
> -> overwrites tail of log
> <....>
> dispatches write to end w/ PREFLUSH + FUA
> -> flushes metadata @ tail of log
>
> If we have a power loss incident after the first FUA write to the
> start of the log but before the second write issues/completes the
> PREFLUSH, we have a situation on disk where the log tail has been
> overwritten but the metadata that it overwrote had not yet been
> committed to stable storage. That will result in either a corrupt
> log (can't find tail) or a corrupt fielsystem because metadata in
> some structure was not recovered.
>
> > Granted log wrapping is not a frequent operation, but the explicit flush
> > is a synchronous operation in the log force path whereas the flush flag
> > isn't.
>
> We have the options of:
>
> 1) issuing a synchronous flush before both writes and then
> doing them w/ FUA only; or
> 2) issuing both log writes with PREFLUSH+FUA.
>
> In the first case, the fact the cache flush is done synchronously
> really doesn't affect anything - it's done in the CIL push kworker
> context, so blocking here doesn't really add any extra latency to
> anything except synchronous log force waiters. Hence, typically,
> there is nothing waiting on the log being flushed so it what extra
> latency there is mostly won't matter.
>

It was more just a question of whether it was necessary than a major
performance concern. But I was considering the integrity of the current
tail update (i.e., from in-core AIL state) and didn't consider the
integrity of the current tail itself if it lies just beyond the head
(i.e., active log range).

> In the second case, one of the cache flushes is superfluous and for
> busy filesytems with small logs where we frequently hit the wrap
> case this may add up to quite a bit of avoidable IO overhead....
>
> Either way works, it's not clear to me that one is always superior
> to the other, so we just have to chose one....
>

Yep. Another thing that briefly crossed my mind is whether we could in
theory optimize flushes out if the tail hasn't moved since the last
flush. We'd still have to FUA the log records, but we haven't introduced
any such integrity/ordering requirements if the tail hasn't changed,
right?

It's debatable whether that would provide any value, but it might at
least apply to certain scenarios like if the tail happens to be pinned
by a single object across several iclog writes, or if fsyncs or some
other pattern result in smaller/frequent checkpoints relative to
metadata writeback, etc.

Brian

> Cheers,
>
> Dave.
> --
> Dave Chinner
> david@fromorbit.com