Re: [RFC-PATCH] xfs: do not update sunit/swidth in the superblock to match those provided during mount

Brian Foster
2019-11-26T11:54:22Z

On Tue, Nov 26, 2019 at 10:49:22AM +0200, Alex Lyakas wrote:
> Hi Brian,
>
> On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 3:07 PM Brian Foster <bfoster@redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Sun, Nov 24, 2019 at 11:13:09AM +0200, Alex Lyakas wrote:
> > > Hi Brian,
> > >
> > > Thank you for your response.
> > >
> > > On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 5:43 PM Brian Foster <bfoster@redhat.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 08:08:19PM +0200, Alex Lyakas wrote:
> > > > > We are hitting the following issue: if XFS is mounted with sunit/swidth different from those
> > > > > specified during mkfs, then xfs_repair reports false corruption and eventually segfaults.
> > > > >
> > > > > Example:
> > > > >
> > > > > # mkfs
> > > > > mkfs.xfs -f -K -p /etc/zadara/xfs.protofile -d sunit=64,swidth=64 -l sunit=32 /dev/vda
> > > > >
> > > > > #mount with a different sunit/swidth:
> > > > > mount -onoatime,sync,nouuid,sunit=32,swidth=32 /dev/vda /mnt/xfs
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > FYI, I couldn't reproduce this at first because sparse inodes is enabled
> > > > by default and that introduces more strict inode alignment requirements.
> > > > I'm assuming that sparse inodes is disabled in your example, but it
> > > > would be more helpful if you included the exact configuration and mkfs
> > > > output in such reports.
> > > Providing more details about configuration:
> > >
> > > kernel: 4.14.99
> > > xfsprogs: 4.9.0+nmu1ubuntu2
> > > content of /etc/zadara/xfs.protofile is captured in [1]
> > > mkfs output is captured in [2]
> > >
> > > >
> > > > > #umount
> > > > > umount /mnt/xfs
> > > > >
> > > > ...
> > > > >
> > > > > Looking at the kernel code of XFS, there seems to be no need to update the superblock sunit/swidth if the mount-provided sunit/swidth are different.
> > > > > The superblock values are not used during runtime.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I'm not really sure what the right answer is here. On one hand, this
> > > > patch seems fundamentally reasonable to me. I find it kind of odd for
> > > > mount options to override and persist configuration set in the
> > > > superblock like this. OTOH, this changes a historical behavior which may
> > > > (or may not) cause disruption for users. I also think it's somewhat
> > > > unfortunate to change kernel mount option behavior to accommodate
> > > > repair,
> > > This is very critical for us to have a working repair in production. I
> > > presume the same is true for most users.
> > >
> >
> > Of course.
> >
> > > > but I think the mount option behavior being odd argument stands
> > > > on its own regardless.
> > > >
> > > > What is your actual use case for changing the stripe unit/width at mount
> > > > time like this?
> > > Our use case is like this: during mkfs the overall system does not
> > > know yet the exact sunit/swidth to be used. Also, the underlying
> > > storage can change its sunit/swidth alignment as part of some storage
> > > migration scenarios. During mount we already know the proper
> > > sunit/swidth. But the problem is that in order to specify sunit/swidth
> > > during mount, XFS superblock must be marked as "supporting data
> > > alignment", i.e., XFS_SB_VERSION_DALIGNBIT has to be set. Otherwise,
> > > XFS refuses to mount and says:
> > >
> > > xfs_warn(mp,
> > > "cannot change alignment: superblock does not support data alignment");
> > > return -EINVAL;
> > >
> > > In order for the superblock to be marked like this, *some*
> > > sunit/swidth need to be specified during mkfs.
> > >
> >
> > What do you mean by "the overall system doesn't know the stripe unit
> > values" at mkfs time? Shouldn't these values originate from the
> > underlying storage? Is there some additional configuration at play in
> > this particular use case?
> I checked the code, and it turns out that the only reason for
> specifying sunit/swidth during mkfs is to mark the superblock as
> "supporting data alignment". The real sunit/swidth is always
> determined during mount, based on the underlying storage. The
> significant property of the storage is the deduplication granularity;
> we saw that we get best deduplication results when XFS sunit/swidth
> are aligned to deduplication granularity. During storage migrations,
> an XFS share can be migrated to a storage with different deduplication
> parameters; hence we need to be able to update the runtime
> sunit/swidth.
>

Ok, but that doesn't really answer my question of why can't you set it
at mkfs time? Presumably you have the same access to the storage at mkfs
time as at mount time? I can't really speak to how your dedup stuff
accounts for dynamic changes in relation to existing data that was
placed based an old stripe unit, etc., so I'll just assume that works
for your purposes in the migration case.

Note that Dave chimed in with some historical context on IRC:

...
14:31 <dchinner_> keep in mind that the sunit/swidth mount options were only added to work around a CXFS client mount bug that caused the superblock values on disk to get zeroed
14:31 <sandeen> hah, that rings a bell
14:32 <sandeen> still, it's been there for /years/ now
14:32 <dchinner_> it was never intended as a mechanism to actually change the layout
14:32 <djwong> aha, there's the context i was missing :)
14:32 <dchinner_> it turned out to be kinda useful for the crazy md raid restripers
14:32 <dchinner_> but, really, the use it's being put to here is just .... not supportable
14:34 <sandeen> usecase aside, it seems that if the kernel code allows you to rewrite it, xfs_repair shouldn't choke on the results
14:34 <dchinner_> yes, you can do it, but you get to keep all the broken bits when your crazy storage changes alignments and layouts dynamically.
14:34 <dchinner_> the kernel doesn't validate it properly
14:34 <sandeen> ok so something else to fix
14:35 <dchinner_> so if we are going to say "you can change it" then the kernel must validate that it is compatible with the existing on-disk layout
14:35 <dchinner_> i.e. root inode location, ag header location, inode cluster size and alignment, etc
...

My takeaway from that is the behavior of updating the superblock from
the mount options could probably be nuked off (as your patch does), but
I'd suggest to get feedback from Eric and Darrick to see whether they
agree or would prefer to maintain existing behavior with proper
validation...

Brian

> Thanks,
> Alex.
>
>
> >
> > The migration use case certainly sounds valid, though my understanding
> > is that if an existing stripe configuration is in place, it's usually
> > best for the new storage configuration to take that into consideration
> > (and use some multiple of stripe unit or something, for example).
> >
> > > >
> > > > > With the suggested patch, xfs repair is working properly also when mount-provided sunit/swidth are different.
> > > > >
> > > > > However, I am not sure whether this is the proper approach. Otherwise, should we not allow specifying different sunit/swidth during mount?
> > > > >
> > > > ...
> > > > >
> > > > > Signed-off-by: Alex Lyakas <alex@zadara.com>
> > > > > ---
> > > > > fs/xfs/xfs_mount.c | 18 ++++++------------
> > > > > 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
> > > > >
> > > > > diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_mount.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_mount.c
> > > > > index ba5b6f3..e8263b4 100644
> > > > > --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_mount.c
> > > > > +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_mount.c
> > > > > @@ -399,19 +399,13 @@
> > > > > }
> > > > >
> > > > > /*
> > > > > - * Update superblock with new values
> > > > > - * and log changes
> > > > > + * If sunit/swidth specified during mount do not match
> > > > > + * those in the superblock, use the mount-specified values,
> > > > > + * but do not update the superblock.
> > > > > + * Otherwise, xfs_repair reports false corruption.
> > > > > + * Here, only verify that superblock supports data alignment.
> > > > > */
> > > > > - if (xfs_sb_version_hasdalign(sbp)) {
> > > > > - if (sbp->sb_unit != mp->m_dalign) {
> > > > > - sbp->sb_unit = mp->m_dalign;
> > > > > - mp->m_update_sb = true;
> > > > > - }
> > > > > - if (sbp->sb_width != mp->m_swidth) {
> > > > > - sbp->sb_width = mp->m_swidth;
> > > > > - mp->m_update_sb = true;
> > > > > - }
> > > > > - } else {
> > > > > + if (!xfs_sb_version_hasdalign(sbp)) {
> > > >
> > > > Would this change xfs_info behavior on a filesystem mounted with
> > > > different runtime fields from the superblock? I haven't tested it, but
> > > > it looks like we pull the fields from the superblock.
> > > xfs_info uses XFS_IOC_FSGEOMETRY to get the values, and this pulls the
> > > values from the run-time copy of the superblock:
> > >
> > > int
> > > xfs_fs_geometry(
> > > xfs_mount_t *mp,
> > > xfs_fsop_geom_t *geo,
> > > int new_version)
> > > ...
> > > if (new_version >= 2) {
> > > geo->sunit = mp->m_sb.sb_unit;
> > > geo->swidth = mp->m_sb.sb_width;
> > > }
> > >
> > > So if during mount we have updated the superblock, we will pull the
> > > updated values. If we do not update (as the proposed patch), we will
> > > report the values stored in the superblock. Perhaps we need to update
> > > the geomtery ioctl to report runtime values?
> > >
> >
> > Ok, thanks. I'd argue that we should return the runtime results if we
> > took the proposed approach, but we should probably settle on a solution
> > first..
> >
> > Brian
> >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Alex.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Brian
> > > >
> > > > > xfs_warn(mp,
> > > > > "cannot change alignment: superblock does not support data alignment");
> > > > > return -EINVAL;
> > > > > --
> > > > > 1.9.1
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > [1]
> > > root@vc-20-01-48-dev:~# cat /etc/zadara/xfs.protofile
> > > dummy : bootfilename, not used, backward compatibility
> > > 0 0 : numbers of blocks and inodes, not
> > > used, backward compatibility
> > > d--777 0 0 : set 777 perms for the root dir
> > > $
> > > $
> > >
> > > [2]
> > > root@vc-20-01-48-dev:~# mkfs.xfs -f -K -p /etc/zadara/xfs.protofile -d
> > > sunit=64,swidth=64 -l sunit=32 /dev/vda
> > > meta-data=/dev/vda isize=512 agcount=16, agsize=163832 blks
> > > = sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1
> > > = crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=0,
> > > rmapbt=0, reflink=0
> > > data = bsize=4096 blocks=2621312, imaxpct=25
> > > = sunit=8 swidth=8 blks
> > > naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0 ftype=1
> > > log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=2560, version=2
> > > = sectsz=512 sunit=4 blks, lazy-count=1
> > > realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
> > >
> >
>