Re: [PATCH V6 0/7] ublk_drv: add USER_RECOVERY support

From: Jens Axboe
Date: Fri Sep 23 2022 - 21:12:34 EST


On 9/23/22 9:39 AM, ZiyangZhang wrote:
> ublk_drv is a driver simply passes all blk-mq rqs to userspace
> target(such as ublksrv[1]). For each ublk queue, there is one
> ubq_daemon(pthread). All ubq_daemons share the same process
> which opens /dev/ublkcX. The ubq_daemon code infinitely loops on
> io_uring_enter() to send/receive io_uring cmds which pass
> information of blk-mq rqs.
>
> Since the real IO handler(the process/thread opening /dev/ublkcX) is
> in userspace, it could crash if:
> (1) the user kills -9 it because of IO hang on backend, system
> reboot, etc...
> (2) the process/thread catches a exception(segfault, divisor error,
> oom...) Therefore, the kernel driver has to deal with a dying
> ubq_daemon or the process.
>
> Now, if one ubq_daemon(pthread) or the process crashes, ublk_drv
> must abort the dying ubq, stop the device and delete everything.
> This is not a good choice in practice because users do not expect
> aborted requests, I/O errors and a deleted device. They may want
> a recovery machenism so that no requests are aborted and no I/O
> error occurs. Anyway, users just want everything works as usual.
>
> This patchset implements USER_RECOVERY support. If the process
> or any ubq_daemon(pthread) crashes(exits accidentally), we allow
> user to provide new process and ubq_daemons.
>
> Note: The responsibility of recovery belongs to the user who opens
> /dev/ublkcX. After a crash, the kernel driver only switch the
> device's state to be ready for recovery(START_USER_RECOVERY) or
> termination(STOP_DEV). The state is defined as UBLK_S_DEV_QUIESCED.
> This patchset does not provide how to detect such a crash in userspace.
> The user has may ways to do so. For example, user may:
> (1) send GET_DEV_INFO on specific dev_id and check if its state is
> UBLK_S_DEV_QUIESCED.
> (2) 'ps' on ublksrv_pid.
>
> Recovery feature is quite useful for real products. In detail,
> we support this scenario:
> (1) The /dev/ublkc0 is opened by process 0.
> (2) Fio is running on /dev/ublkb0 exposed by ublk_drv and all
> rqs are handled by process 0.
> (3) Process 0 suddenly crashes(e.g. segfault);
> (4) Fio is still running and submit IOs(but these IOs cannot
> be dispatched now)
> (5) User starts process 1 and attach it to /dev/ublkc0
> (6) All rqs are handled by process 1 now and IOs can be
> completed now.
>
> Note: The backend must tolerate double-write because we re-issue
> a rq sent to the old process 0 before.
>
> We provide a sample script here to simulate the above steps:
>
> ***************************script***************************
> LOOPS=10
>
> __ublk_get_pid() {
> pid=`./ublk list -n 0 | grep "pid" | awk '{print $7}'`
> echo $pid
> }
>
> ublk_recover_kill()
> {
> for CNT in `seq $LOOPS`; do
> dmesg -C
> pid=`__ublk_get_pid`
> echo -e "*** kill $pid now ***"
> kill -9 $pid
> sleep 6
> echo -e "*** recover now ***"
> ./ublk recover -n 0
> sleep 6
> done
> }
>
> ublk_test()
> {
> echo -e "*** add ublk device ***"
> ./ublk add -t null -d 4 -i 1
> sleep 2
> echo -e "*** start fio ***"
> fio --bs=4k \
> --filename=/dev/ublkb0 \
> --runtime=140s \
> --rw=read &
> sleep 4
> ublk_recover_kill
> wait
> echo -e "*** delete ublk device ***"
> ./ublk del -n 0
> }
>
> for CNT in `seq 4`; do
> modprobe -rv ublk_drv
> modprobe ublk_drv
> echo -e "************ round $CNT ************"
> ublk_test
> sleep 5
> done
> ***************************script***************************
>
> You may run it with our modified ublksrv[2] which supports
> recovery feature. No I/O error occurs and you can verify it
> by typing
> $ perf-tools/bin/tpoint block:block_rq_error
>
> The basic idea of USER_RECOVERY is quite straightfoward:
> (1) quiesce ublk queues and requeue/abort rqs.
> (2) release/free everything belongs to the dying process.
> Note: Since ublk_drv does save information about user process,
> this work is important because we don't expect any resource
> lekage. Particularly, ioucmds from the dying ubq_daemons
> need to be completed(freed).
> (3) allow new ubq_daemons issue FETCH_REQ.
> Note: ublk_ch_uring_cmd() checks some states and flags. We
> have to set them to a correct value.
>
> Here is steps to reocver:
> (0) requests dispatched after the corresponding ubq_daemon is dying
> are requeued.
> (1) monitor_work finds one dying ubq_daemon, and it should
> schedule quiesce_work and requeue/abort requests issued to
> userspace before the ubq_daemon is dying.
> (2) quiesce_work must (a)quiesce request queue to ban any incoming
> ublk_queue_rq(), (b)wait unitl all rqs are IDLE, (c)complete old
> ioucmds. Then the ublk device is ready for recovery or stop.
> (3) The user sends START_USER_RECOVERY ctrl-cmd to /dev/ublk-control
> with a dev_id X (such as 3 for /dev/ublkc3).
> (4) Then ublk_drv should perpare for a new process to attach /dev/ublkcX.
> All ublk_io structures are cleared and ubq_daemons are reset.
> (5) Then, user should start a new process and ubq_daemons(pthreads) and
> send FETCH_REQ by io_uring_enter() to make all ubqs be ready. The
> user must correctly setup queues, flags and so on(how to persist
> user's information is not related to this patchset).
> (6) The user sends END_USER_RECOVERY ctrl-cmd to /dev/ublk-control with a
> dev_id X.
> (7) After receiving END_USER_RECOVERY, ublk_drv waits for all ubq_daemons
> getting ready. Then it unquiesces request queue and new rqs are
> allowed.
>
> You should use ublksrv[2] and tests[3] provided by us. We add 3 additional
> tests to verify that recovery feature works. Our code will be PR-ed to
> Ming's repo soon.

I'm going to apply 1-6 for 6.1, applying the doc patch is difficult as
it only went into 6.0 past forking off the 6.1 block branch. Would you
mind resending the 7/7 patch once the merge window opens and I've pushed
the previous bits? I may forget otherwise...

--
Jens Axboe