[dm-devel] [PATCH]multipath-tools: prevent unnecessary reinstate of stand-by paths with implicit tpgs mode and no active array paths.

Shiva Krishna Shiva.Krishna at nimblestorage.com
Sat Feb 20 20:23:29 UTC 2016


multipathd treats "stand-by" path as active(ghost) and reinstate path.This
causes I/O hang issues and lots of "change" udev events in cases where only
stand-by paths are present in multipath map and target supports only implicit
tpgs mode(active/passive arrays) 

This can happen during system boot where only stand-by paths are discovered
first and continuous retry of I/O's by dm-multipath and change(failed) events
are hogging multipathd and slowing down the entire boot process with large
number of volumes mapped (~100s).

Selecting path checkers other than tur is not a solution as well, as they will
continuously throw messages saying paths are failed for stand-by state.

This patch will prevent re-instate of stand-by paths in this situation and
thus prevent unnecessary i/o with failed events during boot or when active
array goes down temporarily.

Detailed steps to hit the I/O hang issue even with no_path_retry:
devices {
    device {
        vendor               "Nimble"
        product              "Server"
        path_grouping_policy group_by_prio
        detect_prio          yes
        hardware_handler     "1 alua"
        path_checker         tur
        failback             immediate
        fast_io_fail_tmo     10
        no_path_retry        30
        path_selector        "round-robin 0"
    }
}

1. Delete all active paths.

mpathal (2e0176ad6309077166c9ce90033bfa248_1) dm-2 Nimble,Server
size=20G features='1 queue_if_no_path' hwhandler='1 alua' wp=rw
`-+- policy='round-robin 0' prio=1 status=active
  |- 8:0:5:1 sdg 8:96  active ghost running
  `- 8:0:6:1 sdh 8:112 active ghost running

2. Issue I/O on mpath with zero active paths.

dd if=/dev/mapper/mpathal of=/dev/null bs=512 count=1 iflag=direct &

Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: mpathal: sdg - tur checker reports path is in standby state
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: 8:96: reinstated
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: mpathal: queue_if_no_path enabled
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: mpathal: Recovered to normal mode
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: mpathal: remaining active paths: 1
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 kernel: sd 8:0:5:1: alua: port group 02 state S non-preferred supports tolusna
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 kernel: device-mapper: multipath: Failing path 8:96.
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: 8:96: mark as failed
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: mpathal: Entering recovery mode: max_retries=20
Nov 23 15:10:36 hitdev-rhel67 multipathd: mpathal: remaining active paths: 0

3. Monitor udev events every 5 seconds.

# udevadm monitor
monitor will print the received events for:
UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing
KERNEL - the kernel uevent

KERNEL[1448320131.061837] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320131.064802] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320131.082838] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320131.102134] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320135.551737] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320135.552701] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320135.571634] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320135.591017] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320136.553368] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320136.554298] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320136.572733] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320136.592089] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320140.555389] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
KERNEL[1448320140.556369] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320140.574944] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)
UDEV  [1448320140.594076] change   /devices/virtual/block/dm-2 (block)

Signed-off-by: ShivaKrishna Merla <shiva.krishna at nimblestorage.com>
---
 libmultipath/propsel.c |    2 +-
 libmultipath/structs.h |    1 +
 multipathd/main.c      |   21 ++++++++++++++++-----
 3 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/libmultipath/propsel.c b/libmultipath/propsel.c
index f64d5e4..b9e389f 100644
--- a/libmultipath/propsel.c
+++ b/libmultipath/propsel.c
@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ detect_prio(struct path * pp)
 	int ret;
 	struct prio *p = &pp->prio;
 
-	if (get_target_port_group_support(pp->fd) <= 0)
+	if ((pp->tpgs = get_target_port_group_support(pp->fd)) <= 0)
 		return;
 	ret = get_target_port_group(pp->fd);
 	if (ret < 0)
diff --git a/libmultipath/structs.h b/libmultipath/structs.h
index 5f68a8e..ef5fb7e 100644
--- a/libmultipath/structs.h
+++ b/libmultipath/structs.h
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ struct path {
 	int detect_prio;
 	int watch_checks;
 	int wait_checks;
+	int tpgs;
 	char * uid_attribute;
 	char * getuid;
 	struct prio prio;
diff --git a/multipathd/main.c b/multipathd/main.c
index bf3423f..7faa4bd 100644
--- a/multipathd/main.c
+++ b/multipathd/main.c
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ static int use_watchdog;
 #include <pgpolicies.h>
 #include <uevent.h>
 #include <log.h>
+#include "prioritizers/alua_rtpg.h"
 
 #include "main.h"
 #include "pidfile.h"
@@ -1299,11 +1300,21 @@ check_path (struct vectors * vecs, struct path * pp)
 				pp->watch_checks--;
 			add_active = 0;
 		}
-		if (reinstate_path(pp, add_active)) {
-			condlog(3, "%s: reload map", pp->dev);
-			ev_add_path(pp, vecs);
-			pp->tick = 1;
-			return 0;
+
+		/*
+		 * don't reinstate failed path, if its in stand-by
+		 * and if target supports only implicit tpgs mode.
+		 * this will prevent unnecessary i/o by dm on stand-by
+		 * paths if there are no other active paths in map.
+		 */
+		if (newstate != PATH_GHOST || pp->mpp->nr_active > 0 ||
+		    pp->tpgs != TPGS_IMPLICIT) {
+			if (reinstate_path(pp, add_active)) {
+				condlog(3, "%s: reload map", pp->dev);
+				ev_add_path(pp, vecs);
+				pp->tick = 1;
+				return 0;
+			}
 		}
 		new_path_up = 1;
--




More information about the dm-devel mailing list