path: root/sbin/geom/class/virstor/gvirstor.8

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.Dd January 24, 2011
.Dt GVIRSTOR 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm gvirstor
.Nd "control utility for virtual data storage devices"
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Cm label
.Op Fl hv
.Op Fl s Ar virsize
.Op Fl m Ar chunksize
.Ar name
.Ar prov ...
.Nm
.Cm stop
.Op Fl fv
.Ar name ...
.Nm
.Cm add
.Op Fl vh
.Ar name prov ...
.Nm
.Cm remove
.Op Fl v
.Ar name prov ...
.Nm
.Cm clear
.Op Fl v
.Ar prov ...
.Nm
.Cm dump
.Ar prov ...
.Nm
.Cm list
.Nm
.Cm status
.Nm
.Cm load
.Nm
.Cm unload
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility is used for setting up a virtual storage device of arbitrary
large size
.Pq for example, several TB ,
consisting of an arbitrary number of physical storage devices with the
total size which is equal to or smaller than the virtual size.
Data for the virtual devices will be allocated from physical devices on
demand.
The idea behind
.Nm
is similar to the concept of Virtual Memory in operating systems,
effectively allowing users to overcommit on storage
.Pq free file system space .
The concept is also known as "thin provisioning" in virtualization
environments, only here it is implemented on the level of physical storage
devices.
.Pp
The first argument to
.Nm
indicates an action to be performed:
.Bl -tag -width ".Cm remove"
.It Cm label
Set up a virtual device from the given components with the specified
.Ar name .
Metadata is stored in the last sector of every component.
Argument
.Fl s Ar virsize
is the size of new virtual device, with default being set to 2 TiB
.Pq 2097152 MiB .
Argument
.Fl m Ar chunksize
is the chunk size, with default being set to 4 MiB
.Pq 4096 KiB .
The default arguments are thus
.Qq Fl s Ar 2097152 Fl m Ar 4096 .
.It Cm stop
Turn off an existing virtual device with the given
.Ar name .
This command does not touch on-disk metadata.
As with other GEOM classes, stopped geoms cannot be started manually.
.It Cm add
Adds new components to existing virtual device with the given
.Ar name .
The specified virstor device must exist and be active
.Pq i.e. module loaded, device present in Pa /dev .
This action can be safely performed while the virstor device is in use
.Pq Qo hot Qc operation .
.It Cm remove
Removes components from existing virtual device with the given
.Ar name .
Only unallocated providers can be removed.
.It Cm clear
Clear metadata on the given providers.
.It Cm dump
Dump metadata stored on the given providers.
.It Cm list
See
.Xr geom 8 .
.It Cm status
See
.Xr geom 8 .
.It Cm load
See
.Xr geom 8 .
.It Cm unload
See
.Xr geom 8 .
.El
.Pp
Additional options:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl f"
.It Fl f
Force the removal of the specified virtual device.
.It Fl h
Hardcode providers' names in metadata.
.It Fl v
Be more verbose.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example shows how to create a virtual device of default size
.Pq 2 TiB ,
of default chunk
.Pq extent
size
.Pq 4 MiB ,
with two physical devices for backing storage.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.No gvirstor label -v Ar mydata Ar /dev/ad4 Ar /dev/ad6
.No newfs Ar /dev/virstor/mydata
.Ed
.Pp
From now on, the virtual device will be available via the
.Pa /dev/virstor/mydata
device entry.
To add a new physical device / component to an active virstor device:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.No gvirstor add Ar mydata Ar ad8
.Ed
.Pp
This will add physical storage of
.Ar ad8
to
.Pa /dev/virstor/mydata
device.
.Pp
To see the device status information
.Pq including how much physical storage is still available for the virtual device ,
use:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
gvirstor list
.Ed
.Pp
All standard
.Xr geom 8
subcommands
.Pq e.g. Cm status , Cm help
are also supported.
.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
.Nm
has several
.Xr sysctl 8
tunable variables.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Va int kern.geom.virstor.debug
.Ed
.Pp
This sysctl controls verbosity of the kernel module, in the range
1 to 15.
Messages that are marked with higher verbosity levels than this are
suppressed.
Default value is 5 and it is not recommended to set this tunable to less
than 2, because level 1 messages are error events, and level 2 messages
are system warnings.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Va int kern.geom.virstor.chunk_watermark
.Ed
.Pp
Value in this sysctl sets warning watermark level for physical chunk
usage on a single component.
The warning is issued when a virstor component has less than this many
free chunks
.Pq default 100 .
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Va int kern.geom.virstor.component_watermark
.Ed
.Pp
Value in this sysctl sets warning watermark level for component usage.
The warning is issued when there are less than this many unallocated
components
.Pq default is 1 .
.Pp
All these sysctls are also available as
.Xr loader 8
tunables.
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Ex -std
.Pp
.Nm
kernel module issues log messages with prefixes in standardized format,
which is useful for log message filtering and dispatching.
Each message line begins with
.Bd -literal -offset indent
.Li GEOM_VIRSTOR[%d]:
.Ed
.Pp
The number
.Pq %d
is message verbosity / importance level, in the range 1 to 15.
If a message filtering, dispatching or operator alert system is used, it
is recommended that messages with levels 1 and 2 be taken seriously
.Pq for example, to catch out-of-space conditions as set by watermark
sysctls.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr geom 4 ,
.Xr fstab 5 ,
.Xr geom 8 ,
.Xr glabel 8 ,
.Xr newfs 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Fx 7.0 .
.Sh BUGS
Commands
.Cm add
and
.Cm remove
contain unavoidable critical sections which may make the virstor
device unusable if a power failure
.Pq or other disruptive event
happens during their execution.
It is recommended to run them when the system is quiescent.
.Sh ASSUMPTIONS AND INTERACTION WITH FILE SYSTEMS
There are several assumptions that
.Nm
has in its operation: that the size of the virtual storage device will not
change once it is set, and that the sizes of individual physical storage
components will always remain constant during their existence.
For alternative ways to implement virtual or resizable file systems see
.Xr zfs 1M ,
.Xr gconcat 8
and
.Xr growfs 8 .
.Pp
Note that
.Nm
has nontrivial interaction with file systems which initialize a large
number of on-disk structures during newfs.
If such file systems attempt to spread their structures across the drive
media
.Pq like UFS/UFS2 does ,
their efforts will be effectively foiled by sequential allocation of
chunks in
.Nm
and all their structures will be physically allocated at the start
of the first virstor component.
This could have a significant impact on file system performance
.Pq which can in some rare cases be even positive .
.Sh AUTHOR
.An Ivan Voras Aq ivoras@FreeBSD.org
.Pp
Sponsored by Google Summer of Code 2006.