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Linux/Documentation/filesystems/orangefs.rst

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  1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
  2 
  3 ========
  4 ORANGEFS
  5 ========
  6 
  7 OrangeFS is an LGPL userspace scale-out parallel storage system. It is ideal
  8 for large storage problems faced by HPC, BigData, Streaming Video,
  9 Genomics, Bioinformatics.
 10 
 11 Orangefs, originally called PVFS, was first developed in 1993 by
 12 Walt Ligon and Eric Blumer as a parallel file system for Parallel
 13 Virtual Machine (PVM) as part of a NASA grant to study the I/O patterns
 14 of parallel programs.
 15 
 16 Orangefs features include:
 17 
 18   * Distributes file data among multiple file servers
 19   * Supports simultaneous access by multiple clients
 20   * Stores file data and metadata on servers using local file system
 21     and access methods
 22   * Userspace implementation is easy to install and maintain
 23   * Direct MPI support
 24   * Stateless
 25 
 26 
 27 Mailing List Archives
 28 =====================
 29 
 30 http://lists.orangefs.org/pipermail/devel_lists.orangefs.org/
 31 
 32 
 33 Mailing List Submissions
 34 ========================
 35 
 36 devel@lists.orangefs.org
 37 
 38 
 39 Documentation
 40 =============
 41 
 42 http://www.orangefs.org/documentation/
 43 
 44 Running ORANGEFS On a Single Server
 45 ===================================
 46 
 47 OrangeFS is usually run in large installations with multiple servers and
 48 clients, but a complete filesystem can be run on a single machine for
 49 development and testing.
 50 
 51 On Fedora, install orangefs and orangefs-server::
 52 
 53     dnf -y install orangefs orangefs-server
 54 
 55 There is an example server configuration file in
 56 /etc/orangefs/orangefs.conf.  Change localhost to your hostname if
 57 necessary.
 58 
 59 To generate a filesystem to run xfstests against, see below.
 60 
 61 There is an example client configuration file in /etc/pvfs2tab.  It is a
 62 single line.  Uncomment it and change the hostname if necessary.  This
 63 controls clients which use libpvfs2.  This does not control the
 64 pvfs2-client-core.
 65 
 66 Create the filesystem::
 67 
 68     pvfs2-server -f /etc/orangefs/orangefs.conf
 69 
 70 Start the server::
 71 
 72     systemctl start orangefs-server
 73 
 74 Test the server::
 75 
 76     pvfs2-ping -m /pvfsmnt
 77 
 78 Start the client.  The module must be compiled in or loaded before this
 79 point::
 80 
 81     systemctl start orangefs-client
 82 
 83 Mount the filesystem::
 84 
 85     mount -t pvfs2 tcp://localhost:3334/orangefs /pvfsmnt
 86 
 87 Userspace Filesystem Source
 88 ===========================
 89 
 90 http://www.orangefs.org/download
 91 
 92 Orangefs versions prior to 2.9.3 would not be compatible with the
 93 upstream version of the kernel client.
 94 
 95 
 96 Building ORANGEFS on a Single Server
 97 ====================================
 98 
 99 Where OrangeFS cannot be installed from distribution packages, it may be
100 built from source.
101 
102 You can omit --prefix if you don't care that things are sprinkled around
103 in /usr/local.  As of version 2.9.6, OrangeFS uses Berkeley DB by
104 default, we will probably be changing the default to LMDB soon.
105 
106 ::
107 
108     ./configure --prefix=/opt/ofs --with-db-backend=lmdb --disable-usrint
109 
110     make
111 
112     make install
113 
114 Create an orangefs config file by running pvfs2-genconfig and
115 specifying a target config file. Pvfs2-genconfig will prompt you
116 through. Generally it works fine to take the defaults, but you
117 should use your server's hostname, rather than "localhost" when
118 it comes to that question::
119 
120     /opt/ofs/bin/pvfs2-genconfig /etc/pvfs2.conf
121 
122 Create an /etc/pvfs2tab file (localhost is fine)::
123 
124     echo tcp://localhost:3334/orangefs /pvfsmnt pvfs2 defaults,noauto 0 0 > \
125         /etc/pvfs2tab
126 
127 Create the mount point you specified in the tab file if needed::
128 
129     mkdir /pvfsmnt
130 
131 Bootstrap the server::
132 
133     /opt/ofs/sbin/pvfs2-server -f /etc/pvfs2.conf
134 
135 Start the server::
136 
137     /opt/ofs/sbin/pvfs2-server /etc/pvfs2.conf
138 
139 Now the server should be running. Pvfs2-ls is a simple
140 test to verify that the server is running::
141 
142     /opt/ofs/bin/pvfs2-ls /pvfsmnt
143 
144 If stuff seems to be working, load the kernel module and
145 turn on the client core::
146 
147     /opt/ofs/sbin/pvfs2-client -p /opt/ofs/sbin/pvfs2-client-core
148 
149 Mount your filesystem::
150 
151     mount -t pvfs2 tcp://`hostname`:3334/orangefs /pvfsmnt
152 
153 
154 Running xfstests
155 ================
156 
157 It is useful to use a scratch filesystem with xfstests.  This can be
158 done with only one server.
159 
160 Make a second copy of the FileSystem section in the server configuration
161 file, which is /etc/orangefs/orangefs.conf.  Change the Name to scratch.
162 Change the ID to something other than the ID of the first FileSystem
163 section (2 is usually a good choice).
164 
165 Then there are two FileSystem sections: orangefs and scratch.
166 
167 This change should be made before creating the filesystem.
168 
169 ::
170 
171     pvfs2-server -f /etc/orangefs/orangefs.conf
172 
173 To run xfstests, create /etc/xfsqa.config::
174 
175     TEST_DIR=/orangefs
176     TEST_DEV=tcp://localhost:3334/orangefs
177     SCRATCH_MNT=/scratch
178     SCRATCH_DEV=tcp://localhost:3334/scratch
179 
180 Then xfstests can be run::
181 
182     ./check -pvfs2
183 
184 
185 Options
186 =======
187 
188 The following mount options are accepted:
189 
190   acl
191     Allow the use of Access Control Lists on files and directories.
192 
193   intr
194     Some operations between the kernel client and the user space
195     filesystem can be interruptible, such as changes in debug levels
196     and the setting of tunable parameters.
197 
198   local_lock
199     Enable posix locking from the perspective of "this" kernel. The
200     default file_operations lock action is to return ENOSYS. Posix
201     locking kicks in if the filesystem is mounted with -o local_lock.
202     Distributed locking is being worked on for the future.
203 
204 
205 Debugging
206 =========
207 
208 If you want the debug (GOSSIP) statements in a particular
209 source file (inode.c for example) go to syslog::
210 
211   echo inode > /sys/kernel/debug/orangefs/kernel-debug
212 
213 No debugging (the default)::
214 
215   echo none > /sys/kernel/debug/orangefs/kernel-debug
216 
217 Debugging from several source files::
218 
219   echo inode,dir > /sys/kernel/debug/orangefs/kernel-debug
220 
221 All debugging::
222 
223   echo all > /sys/kernel/debug/orangefs/kernel-debug
224 
225 Get a list of all debugging keywords::
226 
227   cat /sys/kernel/debug/orangefs/debug-help
228 
229 
230 Protocol between Kernel Module and Userspace
231 ============================================
232 
233 Orangefs is a user space filesystem and an associated kernel module.
234 We'll just refer to the user space part of Orangefs as "userspace"
235 from here on out. Orangefs descends from PVFS, and userspace code
236 still uses PVFS for function and variable names. Userspace typedefs
237 many of the important structures. Function and variable names in
238 the kernel module have been transitioned to "orangefs", and The Linux
239 Coding Style avoids typedefs, so kernel module structures that
240 correspond to userspace structures are not typedefed.
241 
242 The kernel module implements a pseudo device that userspace
243 can read from and write to. Userspace can also manipulate the
244 kernel module through the pseudo device with ioctl.
245 
246 The Bufmap
247 ----------
248 
249 At startup userspace allocates two page-size-aligned (posix_memalign)
250 mlocked memory buffers, one is used for IO and one is used for readdir
251 operations. The IO buffer is 41943040 bytes and the readdir buffer is
252 4194304 bytes. Each buffer contains logical chunks, or partitions, and
253 a pointer to each buffer is added to its own PVFS_dev_map_desc structure
254 which also describes its total size, as well as the size and number of
255 the partitions.
256 
257 A pointer to the IO buffer's PVFS_dev_map_desc structure is sent to a
258 mapping routine in the kernel module with an ioctl. The structure is
259 copied from user space to kernel space with copy_from_user and is used
260 to initialize the kernel module's "bufmap" (struct orangefs_bufmap), which
261 then contains:
262 
263   * refcnt
264     - a reference counter
265   * desc_size - PVFS2_BUFMAP_DEFAULT_DESC_SIZE (4194304) - the IO buffer's
266     partition size, which represents the filesystem's block size and
267     is used for s_blocksize in super blocks.
268   * desc_count - PVFS2_BUFMAP_DEFAULT_DESC_COUNT (10) - the number of
269     partitions in the IO buffer.
270   * desc_shift - log2(desc_size), used for s_blocksize_bits in super blocks.
271   * total_size - the total size of the IO buffer.
272   * page_count - the number of 4096 byte pages in the IO buffer.
273   * page_array - a pointer to ``page_count * (sizeof(struct page*))`` bytes
274     of kcalloced memory. This memory is used as an array of pointers
275     to each of the pages in the IO buffer through a call to get_user_pages.
276   * desc_array - a pointer to ``desc_count * (sizeof(struct orangefs_bufmap_desc))``
277     bytes of kcalloced memory. This memory is further initialized:
278 
279       user_desc is the kernel's copy of the IO buffer's ORANGEFS_dev_map_desc
280       structure. user_desc->ptr points to the IO buffer.
281 
282       ::
283 
284         pages_per_desc = bufmap->desc_size / PAGE_SIZE
285         offset = 0
286 
287         bufmap->desc_array[0].page_array = &bufmap->page_array[offset]
288         bufmap->desc_array[0].array_count = pages_per_desc = 1024
289         bufmap->desc_array[0].uaddr = (user_desc->ptr) + (0 * 1024 * 4096)
290         offset += 1024
291                            .
292                            .
293                            .
294         bufmap->desc_array[9].page_array = &bufmap->page_array[offset]
295         bufmap->desc_array[9].array_count = pages_per_desc = 1024
296         bufmap->desc_array[9].uaddr = (user_desc->ptr) +
297                                                (9 * 1024 * 4096)
298         offset += 1024
299 
300   * buffer_index_array - a desc_count sized array of ints, used to
301     indicate which of the IO buffer's partitions are available to use.
302   * buffer_index_lock - a spinlock to protect buffer_index_array during update.
303   * readdir_index_array - a five (ORANGEFS_READDIR_DEFAULT_DESC_COUNT) element
304     int array used to indicate which of the readdir buffer's partitions are
305     available to use.
306   * readdir_index_lock - a spinlock to protect readdir_index_array during
307     update.
308 
309 Operations
310 ----------
311 
312 The kernel module builds an "op" (struct orangefs_kernel_op_s) when it
313 needs to communicate with userspace. Part of the op contains the "upcall"
314 which expresses the request to userspace. Part of the op eventually
315 contains the "downcall" which expresses the results of the request.
316 
317 The slab allocator is used to keep a cache of op structures handy.
318 
319 At init time the kernel module defines and initializes a request list
320 and an in_progress hash table to keep track of all the ops that are
321 in flight at any given time.
322 
323 Ops are stateful:
324 
325  * unknown
326             - op was just initialized
327  * waiting
328             - op is on request_list (upward bound)
329  * inprogr
330             - op is in progress (waiting for downcall)
331  * serviced
332             - op has matching downcall; ok
333  * purged
334             - op has to start a timer since client-core
335               exited uncleanly before servicing op
336  * given up
337             - submitter has given up waiting for it
338 
339 When some arbitrary userspace program needs to perform a
340 filesystem operation on Orangefs (readdir, I/O, create, whatever)
341 an op structure is initialized and tagged with a distinguishing ID
342 number. The upcall part of the op is filled out, and the op is
343 passed to the "service_operation" function.
344 
345 Service_operation changes the op's state to "waiting", puts
346 it on the request list, and signals the Orangefs file_operations.poll
347 function through a wait queue. Userspace is polling the pseudo-device
348 and thus becomes aware of the upcall request that needs to be read.
349 
350 When the Orangefs file_operations.read function is triggered, the
351 request list is searched for an op that seems ready-to-process.
352 The op is removed from the request list. The tag from the op and
353 the filled-out upcall struct are copy_to_user'ed back to userspace.
354 
355 If any of these (and some additional protocol) copy_to_users fail,
356 the op's state is set to "waiting" and the op is added back to
357 the request list. Otherwise, the op's state is changed to "in progress",
358 and the op is hashed on its tag and put onto the end of a list in the
359 in_progress hash table at the index the tag hashed to.
360 
361 When userspace has assembled the response to the upcall, it
362 writes the response, which includes the distinguishing tag, back to
363 the pseudo device in a series of io_vecs. This triggers the Orangefs
364 file_operations.write_iter function to find the op with the associated
365 tag and remove it from the in_progress hash table. As long as the op's
366 state is not "canceled" or "given up", its state is set to "serviced".
367 The file_operations.write_iter function returns to the waiting vfs,
368 and back to service_operation through wait_for_matching_downcall.
369 
370 Service operation returns to its caller with the op's downcall
371 part (the response to the upcall) filled out.
372 
373 The "client-core" is the bridge between the kernel module and
374 userspace. The client-core is a daemon. The client-core has an
375 associated watchdog daemon. If the client-core is ever signaled
376 to die, the watchdog daemon restarts the client-core. Even though
377 the client-core is restarted "right away", there is a period of
378 time during such an event that the client-core is dead. A dead client-core
379 can't be triggered by the Orangefs file_operations.poll function.
380 Ops that pass through service_operation during a "dead spell" can timeout
381 on the wait queue and one attempt is made to recycle them. Obviously,
382 if the client-core stays dead too long, the arbitrary userspace processes
383 trying to use Orangefs will be negatively affected. Waiting ops
384 that can't be serviced will be removed from the request list and
385 have their states set to "given up". In-progress ops that can't
386 be serviced will be removed from the in_progress hash table and
387 have their states set to "given up".
388 
389 Readdir and I/O ops are atypical with respect to their payloads.
390 
391   - readdir ops use the smaller of the two pre-allocated pre-partitioned
392     memory buffers. The readdir buffer is only available to userspace.
393     The kernel module obtains an index to a free partition before launching
394     a readdir op. Userspace deposits the results into the indexed partition
395     and then writes them to back to the pvfs device.
396 
397   - io (read and write) ops use the larger of the two pre-allocated
398     pre-partitioned memory buffers. The IO buffer is accessible from
399     both userspace and the kernel module. The kernel module obtains an
400     index to a free partition before launching an io op. The kernel module
401     deposits write data into the indexed partition, to be consumed
402     directly by userspace. Userspace deposits the results of read
403     requests into the indexed partition, to be consumed directly
404     by the kernel module.
405 
406 Responses to kernel requests are all packaged in pvfs2_downcall_t
407 structs. Besides a few other members, pvfs2_downcall_t contains a
408 union of structs, each of which is associated with a particular
409 response type.
410 
411 The several members outside of the union are:
412 
413  ``int32_t type``
414     - type of operation.
415  ``int32_t status``
416     - return code for the operation.
417  ``int64_t trailer_size``
418     - 0 unless readdir operation.
419  ``char *trailer_buf``
420     - initialized to NULL, used during readdir operations.
421 
422 The appropriate member inside the union is filled out for any
423 particular response.
424 
425   PVFS2_VFS_OP_FILE_IO
426     fill a pvfs2_io_response_t
427 
428   PVFS2_VFS_OP_LOOKUP
429     fill a PVFS_object_kref
430 
431   PVFS2_VFS_OP_CREATE
432     fill a PVFS_object_kref
433 
434   PVFS2_VFS_OP_SYMLINK
435     fill a PVFS_object_kref
436 
437   PVFS2_VFS_OP_GETATTR
438     fill in a PVFS_sys_attr_s (tons of stuff the kernel doesn't need)
439     fill in a string with the link target when the object is a symlink.
440 
441   PVFS2_VFS_OP_MKDIR
442     fill a PVFS_object_kref
443 
444   PVFS2_VFS_OP_STATFS
445     fill a pvfs2_statfs_response_t with useless info <g>. It is hard for
446     us to know, in a timely fashion, these statistics about our
447     distributed network filesystem.
448 
449   PVFS2_VFS_OP_FS_MOUNT
450     fill a pvfs2_fs_mount_response_t which is just like a PVFS_object_kref
451     except its members are in a different order and "__pad1" is replaced
452     with "id".
453 
454   PVFS2_VFS_OP_GETXATTR
455     fill a pvfs2_getxattr_response_t
456 
457   PVFS2_VFS_OP_LISTXATTR
458     fill a pvfs2_listxattr_response_t
459 
460   PVFS2_VFS_OP_PARAM
461     fill a pvfs2_param_response_t
462 
463   PVFS2_VFS_OP_PERF_COUNT
464     fill a pvfs2_perf_count_response_t
465 
466   PVFS2_VFS_OP_FSKEY
467     file a pvfs2_fs_key_response_t
468 
469   PVFS2_VFS_OP_READDIR
470     jamb everything needed to represent a pvfs2_readdir_response_t into
471     the readdir buffer descriptor specified in the upcall.
472 
473 Userspace uses writev() on /dev/pvfs2-req to pass responses to the requests
474 made by the kernel side.
475 
476 A buffer_list containing:
477 
478   - a pointer to the prepared response to the request from the
479     kernel (struct pvfs2_downcall_t).
480   - and also, in the case of a readdir request, a pointer to a
481     buffer containing descriptors for the objects in the target
482     directory.
483 
484 ... is sent to the function (PINT_dev_write_list) which performs
485 the writev.
486 
487 PINT_dev_write_list has a local iovec array: struct iovec io_array[10];
488 
489 The first four elements of io_array are initialized like this for all
490 responses::
491 
492   io_array[0].iov_base = address of local variable "proto_ver" (int32_t)
493   io_array[0].iov_len = sizeof(int32_t)
494 
495   io_array[1].iov_base = address of global variable "pdev_magic" (int32_t)
496   io_array[1].iov_len = sizeof(int32_t)
497 
498   io_array[2].iov_base = address of parameter "tag" (PVFS_id_gen_t)
499   io_array[2].iov_len = sizeof(int64_t)
500 
501   io_array[3].iov_base = address of out_downcall member (pvfs2_downcall_t)
502                          of global variable vfs_request (vfs_request_t)
503   io_array[3].iov_len = sizeof(pvfs2_downcall_t)
504 
505 Readdir responses initialize the fifth element io_array like this::
506 
507   io_array[4].iov_base = contents of member trailer_buf (char *)
508                          from out_downcall member of global variable
509                          vfs_request
510   io_array[4].iov_len = contents of member trailer_size (PVFS_size)
511                         from out_downcall member of global variable
512                         vfs_request
513 
514 Orangefs exploits the dcache in order to avoid sending redundant
515 requests to userspace. We keep object inode attributes up-to-date with
516 orangefs_inode_getattr. Orangefs_inode_getattr uses two arguments to
517 help it decide whether or not to update an inode: "new" and "bypass".
518 Orangefs keeps private data in an object's inode that includes a short
519 timeout value, getattr_time, which allows any iteration of
520 orangefs_inode_getattr to know how long it has been since the inode was
521 updated. When the object is not new (new == 0) and the bypass flag is not
522 set (bypass == 0) orangefs_inode_getattr returns without updating the inode
523 if getattr_time has not timed out. Getattr_time is updated each time the
524 inode is updated.
525 
526 Creation of a new object (file, dir, sym-link) includes the evaluation of
527 its pathname, resulting in a negative directory entry for the object.
528 A new inode is allocated and associated with the dentry, turning it from
529 a negative dentry into a "productive full member of society". Orangefs
530 obtains the new inode from Linux with new_inode() and associates
531 the inode with the dentry by sending the pair back to Linux with
532 d_instantiate().
533 
534 The evaluation of a pathname for an object resolves to its corresponding
535 dentry. If there is no corresponding dentry, one is created for it in
536 the dcache. Whenever a dentry is modified or verified Orangefs stores a
537 short timeout value in the dentry's d_time, and the dentry will be trusted
538 for that amount of time. Orangefs is a network filesystem, and objects
539 can potentially change out-of-band with any particular Orangefs kernel module
540 instance, so trusting a dentry is risky. The alternative to trusting
541 dentries is to always obtain the needed information from userspace - at
542 least a trip to the client-core, maybe to the servers. Obtaining information
543 from a dentry is cheap, obtaining it from userspace is relatively expensive,
544 hence the motivation to use the dentry when possible.
545 
546 The timeout values d_time and getattr_time are jiffy based, and the
547 code is designed to avoid the jiffy-wrap problem::
548 
549     "In general, if the clock may have wrapped around more than once, there
550     is no way to tell how much time has elapsed. However, if the times t1
551     and t2 are known to be fairly close, we can reliably compute the
552     difference in a way that takes into account the possibility that the
553     clock may have wrapped between times."
554 
555 from course notes by instructor Andy Wang
556 

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