Re: [PATCH] xfs: Introduce permanent async buffer write IO failures

Brian Foster
2015-02-19T14:28:53Z

On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 09:32:20AM +1100, Dave Chinner wrote:
> From: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com>
>
> Currently we consider all async metadata buffer write failures as
> transient failures and retry the IO immediately and then again at a
> a later time. The issue with this is that we can hang forever is the
> error is not recoverable.
>
> An example of this is a device that has been pulled and so is
> returning ENODEV to all IO. Attempting to unmount the filesystem
> with the device in this state will result in a hang waiting for the
> async metadata IO to be flushed and written successfully. In this
> case, we need metadata writeback to error out and trigger a shutdown
> state so the unmount can complete.
>
> Put simply, we need to consider some errors as permanent and
> unrecoverable rather than transient.
>
> Hence add infrastructure that allows us to classify the async write
> errors and hence apply different policies to the different failures.
> In this patch, classify ENODEV as a permanent error but leave
> all the other types of error handling unchanged.
>
> Signed-off-by: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com>
> ---
> fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c | 110 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------
> 1 file changed, 66 insertions(+), 44 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
> index 507d96a..274678f 100644
> --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
> +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_buf_item.c
> @@ -1041,14 +1041,13 @@ xfs_buf_do_callbacks(
> }
>
> /*
> - * This is the iodone() function for buffers which have had callbacks
> - * attached to them by xfs_buf_attach_iodone(). It should remove each
> - * log item from the buffer's list and call the callback of each in turn.
> - * When done, the buffer's fsprivate field is set to NULL and the buffer
> - * is unlocked with a call to iodone().
> + * Process a write IO error on a buffer with active log items.
> + *
> + * Returns true if the buffer has been completed and released, false if callback
> + * processing still needs to be performed and the IO completed.
> */
> -void
> -xfs_buf_iodone_callbacks(
> +static bool
> +xfs_buf_iodone_callback_error(
> struct xfs_buf *bp)
> {
> struct xfs_log_item *lip = bp->b_fspriv;
> @@ -1056,19 +1055,12 @@ xfs_buf_iodone_callbacks(
> static ulong lasttime;
> static xfs_buftarg_t *lasttarg;
>
> - if (likely(!bp->b_error))
> - goto do_callbacks;
> -
> /*
> * If we've already decided to shutdown the filesystem because of
> * I/O errors, there's no point in giving this a retry.
> */
> - if (XFS_FORCED_SHUTDOWN(mp)) {
> - xfs_buf_stale(bp);
> - XFS_BUF_DONE(bp);
> - trace_xfs_buf_item_iodone(bp, _RET_IP_);
> - goto do_callbacks;
> - }
> + if (XFS_FORCED_SHUTDOWN(mp))
> + goto out_stale;
>
> if (bp->b_target != lasttarg ||
> time_after(jiffies, (lasttime + 5*HZ))) {
> @@ -1077,45 +1069,75 @@ xfs_buf_iodone_callbacks(
> }
> lasttarg = bp->b_target;
>
> + /* synchronous writes will have callers process the error */
> + if (!(bp->b_flags & XBF_ASYNC))
> + goto out_stale;
> +

So if we get an error we drop into this function. If it's a sync I/O,
jump to the state processing and let the callers handle it.

> + trace_xfs_buf_item_iodone_async(bp, _RET_IP_);
> + ASSERT(bp->b_iodone != NULL);
> + xfs_buf_ioerror(bp, 0);
> +

Otherwise it's async... we clear the error here.

> /*
> * If the write was asynchronous then no one will be looking for the
> - * error. Clear the error state and write the buffer out again.
> - *
> - * XXX: This helps against transient write errors, but we need to find
> - * a way to shut the filesystem down if the writes keep failing.
> - *
> - * In practice we'll shut the filesystem down soon as non-transient
> - * errors tend to affect the whole device and a failing log write
> - * will make us give up. But we really ought to do better here.
> + * error. If this is the first failure, clear the error state and write
> + * the buffer out again.
> */
> - if (XFS_BUF_ISASYNC(bp)) {
> - ASSERT(bp->b_iodone != NULL);
> -
> - trace_xfs_buf_item_iodone_async(bp, _RET_IP_);
> -
> - xfs_buf_ioerror(bp, 0); /* errno of 0 unsets the flag */
> -
> - if (!(bp->b_flags & (XBF_STALE|XBF_WRITE_FAIL))) {
> - bp->b_flags |= XBF_WRITE | XBF_ASYNC |
> - XBF_DONE | XBF_WRITE_FAIL;
> - xfs_buf_submit(bp);
> - } else {
> - xfs_buf_relse(bp);
> - }
> -
> - return;
> + if (!(bp->b_flags & (XBF_STALE|XBF_WRITE_FAIL))) {
> + bp->b_flags |= XBF_WRITE | XBF_ASYNC |
> + XBF_DONE | XBF_WRITE_FAIL;
> + xfs_buf_submit(bp);
> + return true;

... and retry once via the XBF_WRITE_FAIL flag.

> }
>
> /*
> - * If the write of the buffer was synchronous, we want to make
> - * sure to return the error to the caller of xfs_bwrite().
> + * Repeated failure on an async write.
> + *
> + * Now we need to classify the error and determine the correct action to
> + * take. Different types of errors will require different processing,
> + * but make the default classification "transient" so that we keep
> + * retrying in these cases. If this is the wrog thing to do, then we'll
> + * get reports that the filesystem hung in the presence of that type of
> + * error and we can take appropriate action to remedy the issue for that
> + * type of error.
> */
> + switch (bp->b_error) {

When is this ever true if we clear the error above?

> + case ENODEV:
> + /* permanent error, no recovery possible */
> + xfs_force_shutdown(mp, SHUTDOWN_META_IO_ERROR);
> + goto out_stale;

If we can't retry, do the error-specific processing. Is doing this after
a retry really the intended behavior? E.g., if ENODEV is permanent, the
retry seems pointless.

> + default:
> + /* do nothing, higher layers will retry */
> + break;
> + }
> +
> + xfs_buf_relse(bp);
> + return true;
> +
> +out_stale:
> xfs_buf_stale(bp);
> XFS_BUF_DONE(bp);
> -
> trace_xfs_buf_error_relse(bp, _RET_IP_);
> + return false;
> +}
> +
> +/*
> + * This is the iodone() function for buffers which have had callbacks attached
> + * to them by xfs_buf_attach_iodone(). We need to iterate the items on the
> + * callback list, mark the buffer as having no more callbacks and then push the
> + * buffer through IO completion processing.
> + */
> +void
> +xfs_buf_iodone_callbacks(
> + struct xfs_buf *bp)
> +{
> + /*
> + * If there is an error, process it. Some errors require us
> + * to run callbacks after failure processing is done so we
> + * detect that and take appropriate action.
> + */

80 columns?

Brian

> + if (bp->b_error && xfs_buf_iodone_callback_error(bp))
> + return;
>
> -do_callbacks:
> xfs_buf_do_callbacks(bp);
> bp->b_fspriv = NULL;
> bp->b_iodone = NULL;
> --
> 2.0.0
>
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