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diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-log.rst b/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-log.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..ba4fce39bc27 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-log.rst @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +===================== +Device-Mapper Logging +===================== +The device-mapper logging code is used by some of the device-mapper +RAID targets to track regions of the disk that are not consistent. +A region (or portion of the address space) of the disk may be +inconsistent because a RAID stripe is currently being operated on or +a machine died while the region was being altered. In the case of +mirrors, a region would be considered dirty/inconsistent while you +are writing to it because the writes need to be replicated for all +the legs of the mirror and may not reach the legs at the same time. +Once all writes are complete, the region is considered clean again. + +There is a generic logging interface that the device-mapper RAID +implementations use to perform logging operations (see +dm_dirty_log_type in include/linux/dm-dirty-log.h). Various different +logging implementations are available and provide different +capabilities. The list includes: + +============== ============================================================== +Type Files +============== ============================================================== +disk drivers/md/dm-log.c +core drivers/md/dm-log.c +userspace drivers/md/dm-log-userspace* include/linux/dm-log-userspace.h +============== ============================================================== + +The "disk" log type +------------------- +This log implementation commits the log state to disk. This way, the +logging state survives reboots/crashes. + +The "core" log type +------------------- +This log implementation keeps the log state in memory. The log state +will not survive a reboot or crash, but there may be a small boost in +performance. This method can also be used if no storage device is +available for storing log state. + +The "userspace" log type +------------------------ +This log type simply provides a way to export the log API to userspace, +so log implementations can be done there. This is done by forwarding most +logging requests to userspace, where a daemon receives and processes the +request. + +The structure used for communication between kernel and userspace are +located in include/linux/dm-log-userspace.h. Due to the frequency, +diversity, and 2-way communication nature of the exchanges between +kernel and userspace, 'connector' is used as the interface for +communication. + +There are currently two userspace log implementations that leverage this +framework - "clustered-disk" and "clustered-core". These implementations +provide a cluster-coherent log for shared-storage. Device-mapper mirroring +can be used in a shared-storage environment when the cluster log implementations +are employed. |