Re: [PATCH 06/12] xen-blkfront: add callbacks for PM suspend and hibernation]

[Anchal Agarwal]

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 10:38:46AM +0200, Roger Pau Monné wrote:
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> On Fri, Jun 19, 2020 at 11:43:12PM +0000, Anchal Agarwal wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 10:35:28AM +0200, Roger Pau Monné wrote:
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> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 09:49:25PM +0000, Anchal Agarwal wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Jun 04, 2020 at 09:05:48AM +0200, Roger Pau Monné wrote:
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> > > > > On Wed, Jun 03, 2020 at 11:33:52PM +0000, Agarwal, Anchal wrote:
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> > > > > >     > +             xenbus_dev_error(dev, err, "Freezing timed out;"
> > > > > >     > +                              "the device may become inconsistent state");
> > > > > >
> > > > > >     Leaving the device in this state is quite bad, as it's in a closed
> > > > > >     state and with the queues frozen. You should make an attempt to
> > > > > >     restore things to a working state.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > You mean if backend closed after timeout? Is there a way to know that? I understand it's not good to
> > > > > > leave it in this state however, I am still trying to find if there is a good way to know if backend is still connected after timeout.
> > > > > > Hence the message " the device may become inconsistent state".  I didn't see a timeout not even once on my end so that's why
> > > > > > I may be looking for an alternate perspective here. may be need to thaw everything back intentionally is one thing I could think of.
> > > > >
> > > > > You can manually force this state, and then check that it will behave
> > > > > correctly. I would expect that on a failure to disconnect from the
> > > > > backend you should switch the frontend to the 'Init' state in order to
> > > > > try to reconnect to the backend when possible.
> > > > >
> > > > From what I understand forcing manually is, failing the freeze without
> > > > disconnect and try to revive the connection by unfreezing the
> > > > queues->reconnecting to backend [which never got diconnected]. May be even
> > > > tearing down things manually because I am not sure what state will frontend
> > > > see if backend fails to to disconnect at any point in time. I assumed connected.
> > > > Then again if its "CONNECTED" I may not need to tear down everything and start
> > > > from Initialising state because that may not work.
> > > >
> > > > So I am not so sure about backend's state so much, lets say if  xen_blkif_disconnect fail,
> > > > I don't see it getting handled in the backend then what will be backend's state?
> > > > Will it still switch xenbus state to 'Closed'? If not what will frontend see,
> > > > if it tries to read backend's state through xenbus_read_driver_state ?
> > > >
> > > > So the flow be like:
> > > > Front end marks XenbusStateClosing
> > > > Backend marks its state as XenbusStateClosing
> > > >     Frontend marks XenbusStateClosed
> > > >     Backend disconnects calls xen_blkif_disconnect
> > > >        Backend fails to disconnect, the above function returns EBUSY
> > > >        What will be state of backend here?
> > >
> > > Backend should stay in state 'Closing' then, until it can finish
> > > tearing down.
> > >
> > It disconnects the ring after switching to connected state too.
> > > >        Frontend did not tear down the rings if backend does not switches the
> > > >        state to 'Closed' in case of failure.
> > > >
> > > > If backend stays in CONNECTED state, then even if we mark it Initialised in frontend, backend
> > >
> > > Backend will stay in state 'Closing' I think.
> > >
> > > > won't be calling connect(). {From reading code in frontend_changed}
> > > > IMU, Initialising will fail since backend dev->state != XenbusStateClosed plus
> > > > we did not tear down anything so calling talk_to_blkback may not be needed
> > > >
> > > > Does that sound correct?
> > >
> > > I think switching to the initial state in order to try to attempt a
> > > reconnection would be our best bet here.
> > >
> > It does not seems to work correctly, I get hung tasks all over and all the
> > requests to filesystem gets stuck. Backend does shows the state as connected
> > after xenbus_dev_suspend fails but I think there may be something missing.
> > I don't seem to get IO interrupts thereafter i.e hitting the function blkif_interrupts.
> > I think just marking it initialised may not be the only thing.
> > Here is a short description of what I am trying to do:
> > So, on timeout:
> >     Switch XenBusState to "Initialized"
> >     unquiesce/unfreeze the queues and return
> >     mark info->connected = BLKIF_STATE_CONNECTED
> 
> If xenbus state is Initialized isn't it wrong to set info->connected
> == CONNECTED?
>
Yes, you are right earlier I was marking it explicitly but that was not right,
the connect path for blkfront will do that.
> You should tear down all the internal state (like a proper close)?
> 
Isn't that similar to disconnecting in the first place that failed during
freeze? Do you mean re-try to close but this time re-connect after close
basically do everything you would at "restore"?

Also, I experimented with that and it works intermittently. I want to take a
step back on this issue and ask few questions here:
1. Is fixing this recovery a blocker for me sending in a V2 version?

2. In our 2-3 years of supporting this feature at large scale we haven't seen this issue
where backend fails to disconnect. What we are trying to do here is create a
hypothetical situation where we leave backend in Closing state and try and see how it
recovers. The reason why I think it "may not" occur and the timeout of 5HZ is
sufficient is because we haven't come across even a single use-case where it
caused hibernation to fail.
The reason why I think "it may" occur is if we are running a really memory
intensive workload and ring is busy and is unable to complete all the requests
in the given timeout. This is very unlikely though.

3) Also, I do not think this may be straight forward to fix and expect
hibernation to work flawlessly in subsequent invocations. I am open to 
all suggestions.

Thanks,
Anchal
> >     return EBUSY
> >
> > I even allowed blkfront_connect to switch state to "CONNECTED" rather me doing
> > it explicitly as mentioned above without re-allocating/re-registering the device
> > just to make sure bklfront_info object has all the right values.
> > Do you see anythign missing here?
> 
> I'm afraid you will have to do a little bit of debugging here to
> figure out what's going on. You can add printk's to several places to
> see which path is taken, and why blkfront ends in such state.
>
> Thanks, Roger.