[Block] Add option to configure block device flush #2447

georgepisaltu · 2021-02-08T11:50:35Z

Reason for This PR

Description of Changes

This commit introduces the notion of cache type to the virtio block device implementation. This allows users to choose from two cache types:

unsafe: this option will advertise the flush virtio capability to the guest block driver, but will acknowledge and ignore incoming flush requests;
writethrough: this option will advertise the flush virtio capability to the guest block driver and will perform a fsync syscall on incoming flush requests;

This functionality is exposed to users through an optional ignore_flush field in the block configuration API request. When absent, this field defaults to true, ignoring incoming flush requests from the guest driver and keeping the behavior of the block device the same as before this change. Setting it to false will make the device call fsync on the backing file when processing flush requests.

This functionality can be added in rust-vmm.

License Acceptance

By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contribution is made under
the terms of the Apache 2.0 license.

PR Checklist

[Author TODO: Meet these criteria.]
[Reviewer TODO: Verify that these criteria are met. Request changes if not]

All commits in this PR are signed (git commit -s).
The reason for this PR is clearly provided (issue no. or explanation).
The description of changes is clear and encompassing.
Any required documentation changes (code and docs) are included in this PR.
Any newly added unsafe code is properly documented.
Any API changes are reflected in firecracker/swagger.yaml.
Any user-facing changes are mentioned in CHANGELOG.md.
All added/changed functionality is tested.

src/devices/src/virtio/block/device.rs

src/devices/src/virtio/block/persist.rs

src/api_server/swagger/firecracker.yaml

alindima · 2021-02-10T08:56:07Z

This PR also partially fixes: #2207.
In order to fully fix it, we should also tackle in this PR this related issue: #2188

The block device caching strategy could also influence the decision of calling fsync on DiskProperties::drop, so that we make sure that all data has been flushed before closing the backing file, WDYT @acatangiu @georgepisaltu ?

acatangiu · 2021-02-10T09:04:14Z

This PR also partially fixes: #2207.
In order to fully fix it, we should also tackle in this PR this related issue: #2188

The block device caching strategy could also influence the decision of calling fsync on DiskProperties::drop, so that we make sure that all data has been flushed before closing the backing file, WDYT @acatangiu @georgepisaltu ?

@2207 is fully fixed by this PR in my view. We have seen no customer usecase for O_SYNC/O_DSYNC so we can update the issue and close it as fixed by this PR.

Indeed, for completeness, we should add the fsync on DiskProperties::drop for disks where configured caching is writeback.

alindima · 2021-02-10T09:20:12Z

This PR also partially fixes: #2207.
In order to fully fix it, we should also tackle in this PR this related issue: #2188
The block device caching strategy could also influence the decision of calling fsync on DiskProperties::drop, so that we make sure that all data has been flushed before closing the backing file, WDYT @acatangiu @georgepisaltu ?

@2207 is fully fixed by this PR in my view. We have seen no customer usecase for O_SYNC/O_DSYNC so we can update the issue and close it as fixed by this PR.

Indeed, for completeness, we should add the fsync on DiskProperties::drop for disks where configured caching is writeback.

Yes, I agree. I meant that we can close #2207 if we also add the drop implementation, not necessarily O_SYNC support

georgepisaltu · 2021-02-10T10:06:42Z

Added a fsync call on DiskProperties::drop.

acatangiu

Code looks good, only nits.

PR is missing documentation. The newly available caching strategies need to be included in block device documentation.

src/vmm/src/version_map.rs

src/devices/src/virtio/block/persist.rs

tests/integration_tests/build/test_coverage.py

tests/integration_tests/performance/test_versioned_serialization_benchmark.py

src/devices/src/virtio/block/persist.rs

src/vmm/src/version_map.rs

src/devices/src/virtio/block/persist.rs

georgepisaltu

Also added the documentation in docs/api_requests/ as the block device doesn't have its own doc. I will create the documentation for the block device and move the cache documentation in a subsequent PR to not block this one as they are not related.

src/devices/src/virtio/block/persist.rs

src/vmm/src/version_map.rs

tests/integration_tests/build/test_coverage.py

tests/integration_tests/performance/test_versioned_serialization_benchmark.py

src/devices/src/virtio/block/device.rs

src/devices/src/virtio/block/persist.rs

alindima · 2021-02-12T07:39:14Z

src/devices/src/virtio/block/device.rs

+                METRICS.block.flush_count.inc();
+            }
+            CacheType::Unsafe => {
+                // This is a noop.


I think we should also do a file.flush() here. This is part of the Write trait implementation and although this is currently a noop, this unsafe option should ensure that the data that could be buffered on the writer is out to the OS.

Otherwise, if the rust File implementation decides to have some extra buffering, this data could not even reach the OS via write()s if we don't flush it.

There is no need to include file.flush() because std::fs::File is not buffered and that is by design. It works the same way an FD would work in C when using open, read and write.

For buffered IO in C, one would use fopen, fread and fwrite. In Rust, this is achieved by using BufReader and BufWriter.

This means that all data written with a file.write() will reach the cache as long as the file is not opened with O_DIRECT or O_DSYNC (which is not the case in Firecracker), and this is exactly the reason the Rust file.flush() is a noop. You can check this and the non-buffered behavior of file.flush() using strace.

Moreover, I don't think the argument that the File implementation might change supports adding file.flush(). If anything, it prohibits it. Right now, file.flush() is a noop, which means the behviour is the same as not having it. If it does anything in the future and we add it now in the implementation, it would create another bug.

My arguments were also rooted in the fact that for CacheType::WriteBack, we do a file.flush() before calling fsync(). why is that?

Even if this a noop, this just follows the semantic of the flush method of the Write trait

It is just future proofing. I thought about the semantics of File::flush possibly changing in the future and I wanted to be on the safe side. The rationale was that it has no performance cost now, as it is a noop, and could save us some trouble in the future in the unlikely event that flush semantics change.

I would agree to removing it, I have no strong preference here. Let me know what you think.

src/devices/src/virtio/block/device.rs

src/vmm/src/builder.rs

src/vmm/src/vmm_config/drive.rs

src/vmm/src/rpc_interface.rs

src/api_server/src/request/drive.rs

tests/integration_tests/functional/test_drives.py

alindima · 2021-02-12T08:44:09Z

docs/api_requests/block-caching.md

+activating the device, the guest driver will be able to send flush requests
+to the device, but the device will just acknowledge the request without
+actually performing any flushing on the host side. The data which was not
+yet committed to disk will continue to reside in the host page cache.


Maybe note here that the data may is only committed to the physical disk when the host driver decides to

I think an explanation of how caching works on Linux systems is not appropriate here, especially since whatever we write in this section highly depends on how the host OS and FS are set up. The fact that IO is cached is the default behavior in Linux systems and I don't think we need to explain this here.

We should, however, touch on this in the general block device documentation and provide our recommendations regarding host OS and FS setup. In that section we should also mention what host configuration we are running our tests on, and that should be enough.

Note: the block device doesn't have its own documentation and I will add it and move the cache documentation that file in a subsequent PR.

This commit introduces the notion of cache type to the virtio block device implementation. This allows users to choose from two cache types: - `unsafe`: this option will advertise the flush virtio capability to the guest block driver, but will acknowledge and ignore incoming flush requests; - `writethrough`: this option will advertise the flush virtio capability to the guest block driver and will perform a `fsync` syscall on incoming flush requests; Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

sandreim · 2021-02-12T14:14:17Z

src/vmm/src/version_map.rs

@@ -26,6 +28,7 @@ lazy_static! {
        let mut mapping = HashMap::new();
        mapping.insert(String::from("0.23.0"), 1);
        mapping.insert(String::from("0.24.0"), 2);
+        mapping.insert(String::from("0.25.0"), 3);


Please also publish some "temporary" binary artifacts for running snapshot integration tests across versions.

Once I get all approves, I will build and publish the artifacts so they are built from the same source as what is going to get merged.

georgepisaltu added the Feature: IO Virtualization label Feb 8, 2021

georgepisaltu self-assigned this Feb 8, 2021

georgepisaltu mentioned this pull request Feb 8, 2021

Make virtio flush disabled by default #2223

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acatangiu reviewed Feb 8, 2021

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This was linked to issues Feb 10, 2021

Virtio block flush (VIRTIO_BLK_T_FLUSH) not syncing data to host #2172

Closed

Add mechanism to select per block device cache strategy. #2207

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georgepisaltu force-pushed the flsh branch from 0296e3c to 52086cb Compare February 10, 2021 11:02

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georgepisaltu added 3 commits February 12, 2021 13:58

vmm_config: add option to enable block flush

cb1eb6e

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

persist: add block flush snapshot compatibility

4710a4a

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

georgepisaltu added 3 commits February 12, 2021 13:58

rpc_interface: expose block flush to API

f31435e

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

api_server: expose block flush in the API server

1e5c40c

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

swagger: add block flush config in API

8dcfda5

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

georgepisaltu force-pushed the flsh branch from 1ba4c68 to 25f9454 Compare February 12, 2021 12:29

georgepisaltu added 3 commits February 12, 2021 15:08

tests: add integration tests for block flush

140cf31

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

docs: add block caching documentation

a09b9f6

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

changelog: update CHANGELOG.md with block flush

32ca43d

Signed-off-by: George Pisaltu <gpl@amazon.com>

georgepisaltu force-pushed the flsh branch from 25f9454 to 32ca43d Compare February 12, 2021 13:08

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acatangiu approved these changes Feb 12, 2021

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alindima approved these changes Feb 12, 2021

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georgepisaltu merged commit b36bf71 into firecracker-microvm:master Feb 12, 2021

georgepisaltu deleted the flsh branch March 15, 2021 13:09

gbionescu mentioned this pull request May 13, 2021

When I set block cache_type to Writeback, there is error tell me it is not supportted ? #2559

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[Block] Add option to configure block device flush #2447

[Block] Add option to configure block device flush #2447

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[Block] Add option to configure block device flush #2447

[Block] Add option to configure block device flush #2447

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Reason for This PR

Description of Changes

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PR Checklist

alindima commented Feb 10, 2021

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