2005-05-18 22:34:02

by Mark Fasheh

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

Hello,

This is OCFS2, a shared disk cluster file system which we hope will be
included in the kernel.

We think OCFS2 has many qualities which make it particularly
interesting as a cluster file system:

-We've tried very hard to avoid the abstraction layers which tend to
plague other cluster file systems. Wherever possible, OCFS2 sits directly
atop the VFS. Journaling is done via JBD, including node recovery.

-Though OCFS2 is an extent based file system, much of the disk layout
design has been taken from Ext3. As mentioned before, journal formats
are JBD. Though OCFS2 does not yet support htree, directory data
looks nearly identical to that of Ext3, with the exception that OCFS2
inode numbers are 64 bits wide. Data and meta data are allocated from
dynamically growable "chain allocators" whose chain items look very
similar to block groups.

-OCFS2 has a strong data locking model, which includes a shared mmap
implementation (shared writeable mappings are not yet supported) and
full AIO support.

-OCFS2 has a very low overhead direct I/O path.

Within the file system, the cluster stack below us has been abstracted
out as much as possible:

-Heartbeat events are delivered to us via a simple callback mechanism.

-File system network communication has only minimal knowledge of node
information.

-File system cluster locking, including lock caching, is handled
through a "dlm glue" layer which abstracts away the actual dlm
implementation beneath (though it assumes a VMS-like API with a
minimal set of features).

Included in OCFS2 is a small cluster stack. It should be noted that we
do *not* propose this as a generic cluster stack. While we hope the
cluster stack can be useful to other projects it was certainly
implemented with only the requirements of a cluster file system in
mind. Looking towards the future, we would like to either extend this
stack to be more generic or plug in a more generic stack - assuming it
gives us similar ease of use and performance and has undergone the
appropriate community discussion. For now the cluster stack and dlm
components have been placed in their respective directories within the
"ocfs2" subdirectory.

A major goal in the design of OCFS2 was to make configuration of the
entire stack as painless as possible. There is only one configuration
file required which describes all nodes in an OCFS2 cluster
(/etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf). The cluster.conf file is the same for all
nodes so that it can be easily re-copied when changed.

Anyone wanting to use OCFS2 should download the tool chain from
http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2-tools/source.html The current
OCFS2-tools package includes a full set of standard file system
utilities (mkfs.ocfs2, fsck.ocfs2, mount.ocfs2, tunefs.ocfs2,
debugfs.ocfs). Pulling down the latest subversion tree is usually
best. Setup is quite simple, after software installation, either hand
create a configuration or use the "ocfs2console" program to generate
one for you.

Currently the code should be considered beta quality. The OCFS2 team
is deep in a cycle of bug fixing and performance evaluation. As a
proof of concept, we've been able to bring up a 12 node shared root
cluster. Already, performance on the file system looks promising. A
parallel kernel build (make -j4 bzImage on each node within their own
trees) compares well with ext3:

Ext3 OCFS2
node1 13m4s 13m16s
node2 10m27s 10m38s

In case there is any concern about code size, a quick comparison shows
the file system and cluster stacks combined size to be not
significantly larger than reiserfs and 1/3 the size of xfs.

For people using git, these changes can be pulled from:
http://oss.oracle.com/git/ocfs2.git/

A full patch can be downloaded from:
http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/complete/ocfs2-configfs-all.patch

Broken out versions of the patches can be found at:
http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/

A short description of each patch follows. The same descriptions can be
found at the top of each patch file.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/01_configfs.patch
Configfs, a file system for userspace-driven kernel object configuration.
The OCFS2 stack makes extensive use of this for propagation of cluster
configuration information into kernel.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/02_mlog.patch
Very simple printk wrapper which adds the ability to enable various
sets of debug messages at run-time.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/03_nm.patch
A simple node information service, filled and updated from
userspace. The rest of the stack queries this service for simple node
information.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/04_heartbeat.patch
Disk based heartbeat. Configured and started from userspace, the
kernel component handles I/O submission and event generation via
callback mechanism.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/05_messaging.patch
Node messaging via tcp. Used by the dlm and the file system for point
to point communication between nodes.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/06_dlm.patch
A distributed lock manager built with the cluster file system use case
in mind. The OCFS2 dlm exposes a VMS style API, though things have
been simplified internally. The only lock levels implemented currently
are NLMODE, PRMODE and EXMODE.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/07_dlmfs.patch
dlmfs: A minimal dlm userspace interface implemented via a virtual
file system.
Most of the OCFS2 tools make use of this to take cluster locks when
doing operations on the file system.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/08_ocfs2.patch
The OCFS2 file system module.

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-out/09_build.patch
Link the code into the kernel build system. OCFS2 is marked as
experimental and we only enable builds on x86, x86-64 and ia64 -
endianness consistency is a work in progress.

When built, the stack will result in 5 modules: configfs.ko,
ocfs2_nodemanager.ko, ocfs2_dlm.ko, ocfs2.ko and ocfs2_dlmfs.ko


--
Mark Fasheh
Senior Software Developer, Oracle
[email protected]


2005-05-18 23:37:02

by Hans Reiser

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

Mark Fasheh wrote:

>In case there is any concern about code size, a quick comparison shows
>the file system and cluster stacks combined size to be not
>significantly larger than reiserfs and 1/3 the size of xfs.
>
>
>
I too am quick to cite XFS when anyone complains about the code size of
anything we write.;-)

Congrats on getting a filesystem to start to work, I know how long that
road is, and best of luck to you all,

Hans

2005-05-18 23:40:58

by Adrian Bunk

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 03:33:03PM -0700, Mark Fasheh wrote:
>...
> A full patch can be downloaded from:
> http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/complete/ocfs2-configfs-all.patch
>...

Some comments on this patch:
- there's no reason to make JBD user-visible
- is there any reason why CONFIGFS_FS is user-visible?
- some global code might become static:
run "make namespacecheck" after compiling the kernel and check
the configfs and ocfs2 parts of the output

> Mark Fasheh

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

2005-05-19 01:30:57

by Manish Singh

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [Ocfs2-devel] Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 01:40:22AM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 03:33:03PM -0700, Mark Fasheh wrote:
> >...
> > A full patch can be downloaded from:
> > http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/complete/ocfs2-configfs-all.patch
> >...
>
> Some comments on this patch:
> - there's no reason to make JBD user-visible

Sure, the only reason I made it visible was because of the comment in
there:

# CONFIG_JBD could be its own option (even modular), but until there are
# other users than ext3, we will simply make it be the same as CONFIG_EXT3_FS

I don't really have a preference either way.

> - is there any reason why CONFIGFS_FS is user-visible?

It's a generic mechanism for userspace driven configuration of kernel
functionality. There's nothing specific to OCFS2 about it. Other kernel
subsystems/projects could use it too, for their own configuration
mechanisms. More details are in configfs.txt, which is included in the
above patch. Note the example used in the documentation text is an NBD
driver.

> - some global code might become static:
> run "make namespacecheck" after compiling the kernel and check
> the configfs and ocfs2 parts of the output

Yeah, there's some stuff that that scripts catches. Thanks.

-Manish

2005-05-19 02:31:23

by Kyle Moffett

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On May 18, 2005, at 18:33:03, Mark Fasheh wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This is OCFS2, a shared disk cluster file system which we hope will be
> included in the kernel.
>
> We think OCFS2 has many qualities which make it particularly
> interesting as a cluster file system:

[...snip...]

> -OCFS2 has a strong data locking model, which includes a shared mmap
> implementation (shared writeable mappings are not yet supported) and
> full AIO support.

Does this include support for UNIX sockets and named pipes? One of
the issues I have with filesystems like AFS and NFS is that they
should theoretically make such things possible, but the code is not
implemented yet and does not appear it ever will be. This is very
useful for home directories when using programs like "links" that
rely on being able to create UNIX sockets in .links/socket or
similar.


Cheers,
Kyle Moffett

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L++++(+++) E W++(+) N+++(++) o? K? w--- O? M++ V? PS+() PE+(-) Y+
PGP+++ t+(+++) 5 X R? tv-(--) b++++(++) DI+ D+ G e->++++$ h!*()>++$
r !y?(-)
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------



2005-05-19 04:31:11

by Mark Fasheh

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 10:30:56PM -0400, Kyle Moffett wrote:
> Does this include support for UNIX sockets and named pipes?
Unfortunately no, at least not on a clustered level. Local node, those
should work as normal. If you absolutely need this functionality, I believe
OpenSSI currently supports it.

If you're looking for an easy way to share small amounts data between
applications in an OCFS2 cluster, you might be interested in looking at
dlmfs. Once mounted, it's quite trivial to create dlm domains and lock
resources between nodes via regular file system operations (open, close,
etc). File read and write will return and set the resource LVB for you,
currently 64 bytes. Though this can all be controlled from shell, a small
library (libo2cb) to take advantage of this is provided in the current
toolchain distribution.
--Mark

--
Mark Fasheh
Senior Software Developer, Oracle
[email protected]

2005-05-19 06:26:29

by Daniel Phillips

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Wednesday 18 May 2005 18:33, Mark Fasheh wrote:
> http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/broken-o
>ut/06_dlm.patch A distributed lock manager built with the cluster file
> system use case in mind. The OCFS2 dlm exposes a VMS style API, though
> things have been simplified internally. The only lock levels implemented
> currently are NLMODE, PRMODE and EXMODE.

+ if (recovery &&
+ (!dlm_is_recovery_lock(name, strlen(name)) || convert) ) {
+ goto error;
+ }

Zero terminated strings for lock names is bad taste. It generates a bunch of
useless strlen executions and you force an ascii namespace for no apparent
reason. Add a 9th parameter, namelen, to the lock call maybe?

Regards,

Daniel

2005-05-19 06:54:32

by Mark Fasheh

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 02:30:23AM -0400, Daniel Phillips wrote:
> Zero terminated strings for lock names is bad taste. It generates a bunch of
> useless strlen executions and you force an ascii namespace for no apparent
> reason. Add a 9th parameter, namelen, to the lock call maybe?
Or perhaps pass in a qstr? Anyway I have to agree. That shouldn't be
difficult to fix up.
--Mark

--
Mark Fasheh
Senior Software Developer, Oracle
[email protected]

2005-05-19 09:47:38

by Adrian Bunk

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [Ocfs2-devel] Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 06:26:58PM -0700, Manish Singh wrote:
> On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 01:40:22AM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > On Wed, May 18, 2005 at 03:33:03PM -0700, Mark Fasheh wrote:
> > >...
> > > A full patch can be downloaded from:
> > > http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/patches/2.6.12-rc4/complete/ocfs2-configfs-all.patch
> > >...
> >
> > Some comments on this patch:
> > - there's no reason to make JBD user-visible
>
> Sure, the only reason I made it visible was because of the comment in
> there:
>
> # CONFIG_JBD could be its own option (even modular), but until there are
> # other users than ext3, we will simply make it be the same as CONFIG_EXT3_FS
>
> I don't really have a preference either way.

I'd say the comment is wrong.

> > - is there any reason why CONFIGFS_FS is user-visible?
>
> It's a generic mechanism for userspace driven configuration of kernel
> functionality. There's nothing specific to OCFS2 about it. Other kernel
> subsystems/projects could use it too, for their own configuration
> mechanisms. More details are in configfs.txt, which is included in the
> above patch. Note the example used in the documentation text is an NBD
> driver.
>...

If other subsystems use it, they should select it.

> -Manish

cu
Adrian

--

"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

2005-05-19 10:27:08

by Jeff Garzik

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

Daniel Phillips wrote:
> Zero terminated strings for lock names is bad taste. It generates a bunch of
> useless strlen executions and you force an ascii namespace for no apparent
> reason. Add a 9th parameter, namelen, to the lock call maybe?

What's wrong with ascii strings?

We call those 'UTF8' these days.

Jeff


2005-05-19 15:20:31

by Lee Revell

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

On Thu, 2005-05-19 at 06:26 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Daniel Phillips wrote:
> > Zero terminated strings for lock names is bad taste. It generates a bunch of
> > useless strlen executions and you force an ascii namespace for no apparent
> > reason. Add a 9th parameter, namelen, to the lock call maybe?
>
> What's wrong with ascii strings?
>
> We call those 'UTF8' these days.

I think you just answered your own question.

Lee

2005-05-19 15:26:03

by Jeff Garzik

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

Lee Revell wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-05-19 at 06:26 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>
>>Daniel Phillips wrote:
>>
>>>Zero terminated strings for lock names is bad taste. It generates a bunch of
>>>useless strlen executions and you force an ascii namespace for no apparent
>>>reason. Add a 9th parameter, namelen, to the lock call maybe?
>>
>>What's wrong with ascii strings?
>>
>>We call those 'UTF8' these days.
>
>
> I think you just answered your own question.

Incorrect. Read the quoted context.

Jeff



2005-05-19 16:19:20

by Daniel Phillips

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [RFC] [PATCH] OCFS2

Hi Mark,

On Thursday 19 May 2005 02:54, Mark Fasheh wrote:
> On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 02:30:23AM -0400, Daniel Phillips wrote:
> > Zero terminated strings for lock names is bad taste. It generates a
> > bunch of useless strlen executions and you force an ascii namespace for
> > no apparent reason. Add a 9th parameter, namelen, to the lock call
> > maybe?
>
> Or perhaps pass in a qstr? Anyway I have to agree. That shouldn't be
> difficult to fix up.

Qstr would be nice, either that or an explicit string length. Either way, the
compiler will catch any missed fixups.

Regards,

Daniel