diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/caching/fscache.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/caching/fscache.txt | 330 |
1 files changed, 330 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/caching/fscache.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/caching/fscache.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..a759d916273e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/caching/fscache.txt @@ -0,0 +1,330 @@ + ========================== + General Filesystem Caching + ========================== + +======== +OVERVIEW +======== + +This facility is a general purpose cache for network filesystems, though it +could be used for caching other things such as ISO9660 filesystems too. + +FS-Cache mediates between cache backends (such as CacheFS) and network +filesystems: + + +---------+ + | | +--------------+ + | NFS |--+ | | + | | | +-->| CacheFS | + +---------+ | +----------+ | | /dev/hda5 | + | | | | +--------------+ + +---------+ +-->| | | + | | | |--+ + | AFS |----->| FS-Cache | + | | | |--+ + +---------+ +-->| | | + | | | | +--------------+ + +---------+ | +----------+ | | | + | | | +-->| CacheFiles | + | ISOFS |--+ | /var/cache | + | | +--------------+ + +---------+ + +Or to look at it another way, FS-Cache is a module that provides a caching +facility to a network filesystem such that the cache is transparent to the +user: + + +---------+ + | | + | Server | + | | + +---------+ + | NETWORK + ~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + | + | +----------+ + V | | + +---------+ | | + | | | | + | NFS |----->| FS-Cache | + | | | |--+ + +---------+ | | | +--------------+ +--------------+ + | | | | | | | | + V +----------+ +-->| CacheFiles |-->| Ext3 | + +---------+ | /var/cache | | /dev/sda6 | + | | +--------------+ +--------------+ + | VFS | ^ ^ + | | | | + +---------+ +--------------+ | + | KERNEL SPACE | | + ~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~|~~~~ + | USER SPACE | | + V | | + +---------+ +--------------+ + | | | | + | Process | | cachefilesd | + | | | | + +---------+ +--------------+ + + +FS-Cache does not follow the idea of completely loading every netfs file +opened in its entirety into a cache before permitting it to be accessed and +then serving the pages out of that cache rather than the netfs inode because: + + (1) It must be practical to operate without a cache. + + (2) The size of any accessible file must not be limited to the size of the + cache. + + (3) The combined size of all opened files (this includes mapped libraries) + must not be limited to the size of the cache. + + (4) The user should not be forced to download an entire file just to do a + one-off access of a small portion of it (such as might be done with the + "file" program). + +It instead serves the cache out in PAGE_SIZE chunks as and when requested by +the netfs('s) using it. + + +FS-Cache provides the following facilities: + + (1) More than one cache can be used at once. Caches can be selected + explicitly by use of tags. + + (2) Caches can be added / removed at any time. + + (3) The netfs is provided with an interface that allows either party to + withdraw caching facilities from a file (required for (2)). + + (4) The interface to the netfs returns as few errors as possible, preferring + rather to let the netfs remain oblivious. + + (5) Cookies are used to represent indices, files and other objects to the + netfs. The simplest cookie is just a NULL pointer - indicating nothing + cached there. + + (6) The netfs is allowed to propose - dynamically - any index hierarchy it + desires, though it must be aware that the index search function is + recursive, stack space is limited, and indices can only be children of + indices. + + (7) Data I/O is done direct to and from the netfs's pages. The netfs + indicates that page A is at index B of the data-file represented by cookie + C, and that it should be read or written. The cache backend may or may + not start I/O on that page, but if it does, a netfs callback will be + invoked to indicate completion. The I/O may be either synchronous or + asynchronous. + + (8) Cookies can be "retired" upon release. At this point FS-Cache will mark + them as obsolete and the index hierarchy rooted at that point will get + recycled. + + (9) The netfs provides a "match" function for index searches. In addition to + saying whether a match was made or not, this can also specify that an + entry should be updated or deleted. + +(10) As much as possible is done asynchronously. + + +FS-Cache maintains a virtual indexing tree in which all indices, files, objects +and pages are kept. Bits of this tree may actually reside in one or more +caches. + + FSDEF + | + +------------------------------------+ + | | + NFS AFS + | | + +--------------------------+ +-----------+ + | | | | + homedir mirror afs.org redhat.com + | | | + +------------+ +---------------+ +----------+ + | | | | | | + 00001 00002 00007 00125 vol00001 vol00002 + | | | | | + +---+---+ +-----+ +---+ +------+------+ +-----+----+ + | | | | | | | | | | | | | +PG0 PG1 PG2 PG0 XATTR PG0 PG1 DIRENT DIRENT DIRENT R/W R/O Bak + | | + PG0 +-------+ + | | + 00001 00003 + | + +---+---+ + | | | + PG0 PG1 PG2 + +In the example above, you can see two netfs's being backed: NFS and AFS. These +have different index hierarchies: + + (*) The NFS primary index contains per-server indices. Each server index is + indexed by NFS file handles to get data file objects. Each data file + objects can have an array of pages, but may also have further child + objects, such as extended attributes and directory entries. Extended + attribute objects themselves have page-array contents. + + (*) The AFS primary index contains per-cell indices. Each cell index contains + per-logical-volume indices. Each of volume index contains up to three + indices for the read-write, read-only and backup mirrors of those volumes. + Each of these contains vnode data file objects, each of which contains an + array of pages. + +The very top index is the FS-Cache master index in which individual netfs's +have entries. + +Any index object may reside in more than one cache, provided it only has index +children. Any index with non-index object children will be assumed to only +reside in one cache. + + +The netfs API to FS-Cache can be found in: + + Documentation/filesystems/caching/netfs-api.txt + +The cache backend API to FS-Cache can be found in: + + Documentation/filesystems/caching/backend-api.txt + + +======================= +STATISTICAL INFORMATION +======================= + +If FS-Cache is compiled with the following options enabled: + + CONFIG_FSCACHE_PROC=y (implied by the following two) + CONFIG_FSCACHE_STATS=y + CONFIG_FSCACHE_HISTOGRAM=y + +then it will gather certain statistics and display them through a number of +proc files. + + (*) /proc/fs/fscache/stats + + This shows counts of a number of events that can happen in FS-Cache: + + CLASS EVENT MEANING + ======= ======= ======================================================= + Cookies idx=N Number of index cookies allocated + dat=N Number of data storage cookies allocated + spc=N Number of special cookies allocated + Objects alc=N Number of objects allocated + nal=N Number of object allocation failures + avl=N Number of objects that reached the available state + ded=N Number of objects that reached the dead state + ChkAux non=N Number of objects that didn't have a coherency check + ok=N Number of objects that passed a coherency check + upd=N Number of objects that needed a coherency data update + obs=N Number of objects that were declared obsolete + Pages mrk=N Number of pages marked as being cached + unc=N Number of uncache page requests seen + Acquire n=N Number of acquire cookie requests seen + nul=N Number of acq reqs given a NULL parent + noc=N Number of acq reqs rejected due to no cache available + ok=N Number of acq reqs succeeded + nbf=N Number of acq reqs rejected due to error + oom=N Number of acq reqs failed on ENOMEM + Lookups n=N Number of lookup calls made on cache backends + neg=N Number of negative lookups made + pos=N Number of positive lookups made + crt=N Number of objects created by lookup + Updates n=N Number of update cookie requests seen + nul=N Number of upd reqs given a NULL parent + run=N Number of upd reqs granted CPU time + Relinqs n=N Number of relinquish cookie requests seen + nul=N Number of rlq reqs given a NULL parent + wcr=N Number of rlq reqs waited on completion of creation + AttrChg n=N Number of attribute changed requests seen + ok=N Number of attr changed requests queued + nbf=N Number of attr changed rejected -ENOBUFS + oom=N Number of attr changed failed -ENOMEM + run=N Number of attr changed ops given CPU time + Allocs n=N Number of allocation requests seen + ok=N Number of successful alloc reqs + wt=N Number of alloc reqs that waited on lookup completion + nbf=N Number of alloc reqs rejected -ENOBUFS + ops=N Number of alloc reqs submitted + owt=N Number of alloc reqs waited for CPU time + Retrvls n=N Number of retrieval (read) requests seen + ok=N Number of successful retr reqs + wt=N Number of retr reqs that waited on lookup completion + nod=N Number of retr reqs returned -ENODATA + nbf=N Number of retr reqs rejected -ENOBUFS + int=N Number of retr reqs aborted -ERESTARTSYS + oom=N Number of retr reqs failed -ENOMEM + ops=N Number of retr reqs submitted + owt=N Number of retr reqs waited for CPU time + Stores n=N Number of storage (write) requests seen + ok=N Number of successful store reqs + agn=N Number of store reqs on a page already pending storage + nbf=N Number of store reqs rejected -ENOBUFS + oom=N Number of store reqs failed -ENOMEM + ops=N Number of store reqs submitted + run=N Number of store reqs granted CPU time + Ops pend=N Number of times async ops added to pending queues + run=N Number of times async ops given CPU time + enq=N Number of times async ops queued for processing + dfr=N Number of async ops queued for deferred release + rel=N Number of async ops released + gc=N Number of deferred-release async ops garbage collected + + + (*) /proc/fs/fscache/histogram + + cat /proc/fs/fscache/histogram + +HZ +TIME OBJ INST OP RUNS OBJ RUNS RETRV DLY RETRIEVLS + ===== ===== ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= + + This shows the breakdown of the number of times each amount of time + between 0 jiffies and HZ-1 jiffies a variety of tasks took to run. The + columns are as follows: + + COLUMN TIME MEASUREMENT + ======= ======================================================= + OBJ INST Length of time to instantiate an object + OP RUNS Length of time a call to process an operation took + OBJ RUNS Length of time a call to process an object event took + RETRV DLY Time between an requesting a read and lookup completing + RETRIEVLS Time between beginning and end of a retrieval + + Each row shows the number of events that took a particular range of times. + Each step is 1 jiffy in size. The +HZ column indicates the particular + jiffy range covered, and the +TIME field the equivalent number of seconds. + + +========= +DEBUGGING +========= + +The FS-Cache facility can have runtime debugging enabled by adjusting the value +in: + + /sys/module/fscache/parameters/debug + +This is a bitmask of debugging streams to enable: + + BIT VALUE STREAM POINT + ======= ======= =============================== ======================= + 0 1 Cache management Function entry trace + 1 2 Function exit trace + 2 4 General + 3 8 Cookie management Function entry trace + 4 16 Function exit trace + 5 32 General + 6 64 Page handling Function entry trace + 7 128 Function exit trace + 8 256 General + 9 512 Operation management Function entry trace + 10 1024 Function exit trace + 11 2048 General + +The appropriate set of values should be OR'd together and the result written to +the control file. For example: + + echo $((1|8|64)) >/sys/module/fscache/parameters/debug + +will turn on all function entry debugging. + |