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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt | 60 |
1 files changed, 55 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt index a5009c8300f..e3a77b21513 100644 --- a/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt +++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.txt @@ -8,13 +8,19 @@ the block device which are also writable without interfering with the original content; *) To create device "forks", i.e. multiple different versions of the same data stream. +*) To merge a snapshot of a block device back into the snapshot's origin +device. +In the first two cases, dm copies only the chunks of data that get +changed and uses a separate copy-on-write (COW) block device for +storage. -In both cases, dm copies only the chunks of data that get changed and -uses a separate copy-on-write (COW) block device for storage. +For snapshot merge the contents of the COW storage are merged back into +the origin device. -There are two dm targets available: snapshot and snapshot-origin. +There are three dm targets available: +snapshot, snapshot-origin, and snapshot-merge. *) snapshot-origin <origin> @@ -40,8 +46,25 @@ The difference is that for transient snapshots less metadata must be saved on disk - they can be kept in memory by the kernel. -How this is used by LVM2 -======================== +* snapshot-merge <origin> <COW device> <persistent> <chunksize> + +takes the same table arguments as the snapshot target except it only +works with persistent snapshots. This target assumes the role of the +"snapshot-origin" target and must not be loaded if the "snapshot-origin" +is still present for <origin>. + +Creates a merging snapshot that takes control of the changed chunks +stored in the <COW device> of an existing snapshot, through a handover +procedure, and merges these chunks back into the <origin>. Once merging +has started (in the background) the <origin> may be opened and the merge +will continue while I/O is flowing to it. Changes to the <origin> are +deferred until the merging snapshot's corresponding chunk(s) have been +merged. Once merging has started the snapshot device, associated with +the "snapshot" target, will return -EIO when accessed. + + +How snapshot is used by LVM2 +============================ When you create the first LVM2 snapshot of a volume, four dm devices are used: 1) a device containing the original mapping table of the source volume; @@ -72,3 +95,30 @@ brw------- 1 root root 254, 12 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-snap-cow brw------- 1 root root 254, 13 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-snap brw------- 1 root root 254, 10 29 ago 18:14 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base + +How snapshot-merge is used by LVM2 +================================== +A merging snapshot assumes the role of the "snapshot-origin" while +merging. As such the "snapshot-origin" is replaced with +"snapshot-merge". The "-real" device is not changed and the "-cow" +device is renamed to <origin name>-cow to aid LVM2's cleanup of the +merging snapshot after it completes. The "snapshot" that hands over its +COW device to the "snapshot-merge" is deactivated (unless using lvchange +--refresh); but if it is left active it will simply return I/O errors. + +A snapshot will merge into its origin with the following command: + +lvconvert --merge volumeGroup/snap + +we'll now have this situation: + +# dmsetup table|grep volumeGroup + +volumeGroup-base-real: 0 2097152 linear 8:19 384 +volumeGroup-base-cow: 0 204800 linear 8:19 2097536 +volumeGroup-base: 0 2097152 snapshot-merge 254:11 254:12 P 16 + +# ls -lL /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-* +brw------- 1 root root 254, 11 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-real +brw------- 1 root root 254, 12 29 ago 18:16 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-cow +brw------- 1 root root 254, 10 29 ago 18:16 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base |