raid5-ppl: Partial Parity Log write logging implementation

Implement the calculation of partial parity for a stripe and PPL write
logging functionality. The description of PPL is added to the
documentation. More details can be found in the comments in raid5-ppl.c.

Attach a page for holding the partial parity data to stripe_head.
Allocate it only if mddev has the MD_HAS_PPL flag set.

Partial parity is the xor of not modified data chunks of a stripe and is
calculated as follows:

- reconstruct-write case:
  xor data from all not updated disks in a stripe

- read-modify-write case:
  xor old data and parity from all updated disks in a stripe

Implement it using the async_tx API and integrate into raid_run_ops().
It must be called when we still have access to old data, so do it when
STRIPE_OP_BIODRAIN is set, but before ops_run_prexor5(). The result is
stored into sh->ppl_page.

Partial parity is not meaningful for full stripe write and is not stored
in the log or used for recovery, so don't attempt to calculate it when
stripe has STRIPE_FULL_WRITE.

Put the PPL metadata structures to md_p.h because userspace tools
(mdadm) will also need to read/write PPL.

Warn about using PPL with enabled disk volatile write-back cache for
now. It can be removed once disk cache flushing before writing PPL is
implemented.

Signed-off-by: Artur Paszkiewicz <artur.paszkiewicz@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Shaohua Li <shli@fb.com>

1 files changed, 44 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/md/raid5-ppl.txt b/Documentation/md/raid5-ppl.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..127072b
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+Partial Parity Log
+
+Partial Parity Log (PPL) is a feature available for RAID5 arrays. The issue
+addressed by PPL is that after a dirty shutdown, parity of a particular stripe
+may become inconsistent with data on other member disks. If the array is also
+in degraded state, there is no way to recalculate parity, because one of the
+disks is missing. This can lead to silent data corruption when rebuilding the
+array or using it is as degraded - data calculated from parity for array blocks
+that have not been touched by a write request during the unclean shutdown can
+be incorrect. Such condition is known as the RAID5 Write Hole. Because of
+this, md by default does not allow starting a dirty degraded array.
+
+Partial parity for a write operation is the XOR of stripe data chunks not
+modified by this write. It is just enough data needed for recovering from the
+write hole. XORing partial parity with the modified chunks produces parity for
+the stripe, consistent with its state before the write operation, regardless of
+which chunk writes have completed. If one of the not modified data disks of
+this stripe is missing, this updated parity can be used to recover its
+contents. PPL recovery is also performed when starting an array after an
+unclean shutdown and all disks are available, eliminating the need to resync
+the array. Because of this, using write-intent bitmap and PPL together is not
+supported.
+
+When handling a write request PPL writes partial parity before new data and
+parity are dispatched to disks. PPL is a distributed log - it is stored on
+array member drives in the metadata area, on the parity drive of a particular
+stripe.  It does not require a dedicated journaling drive. Write performance is
+reduced by up to 30%-40% but it scales with the number of drives in the array
+and the journaling drive does not become a bottleneck or a single point of
+failure.
+
+Unlike raid5-cache, the other solution in md for closing the write hole, PPL is
+not a true journal. It does not protect from losing in-flight data, only from
+silent data corruption. If a dirty disk of a stripe is lost, no PPL recovery is
+performed for this stripe (parity is not updated). So it is possible to have
+arbitrary data in the written part of a stripe if that disk is lost. In such
+case the behavior is the same as in plain raid5.
+
+PPL is available for md version-1 metadata and external (specifically IMSM)
+metadata arrays. It can be enabled using mdadm option --consistency-policy=ppl.
+
+Currently, volatile write-back cache should be disabled on all member drives
+when using PPL. Otherwise it cannot guarantee consistency in case of power
+failure.