Edison,
You have provided some great information below which helps greatly to
understand the role of the "NFS cache" mechanism. To summarize, this mechanism
is only currently required for Xen snapshot operations driven by Xen's
coalescing operations. Is my understanding correct? Just out of curiosity, is
their a Xen expert on the list who can provide a high-level description of the
coalescing operation -- in particular, the way it interacts with storage? I
have Googled a bit, and found very little information about it. Has the
object_store branch been tested with VMWare and KVM? If so, what operations on
these hypervisors have been tested?
In reading through the description below, my operation concerns remain
regarding potential race conditions and resource exhaustion. Also, in reading
through the description, I think we should find a new name for this mechanism.
As Chip has previous mentioned, a cache implies the following characteristics:
1. Optional: Systems can operate without caches just more slowly. However,
with this mechanism, snapshots on Xen will not function.
2. Volatility: Caches are backed by durable, non-volitale storage.
Therefore, if the cache's data is lost, it can be rebuilt from the backing
store and no data will be permanently lost from the system. However, this
mechanism contains snapshots in-transit to an object store. If the data
contained in this "cache" were lost before its transfer to the object store
completed, the snapshot data would be lost.
In order to set expectations with users and better frame our design
conversation, I think it would be appropriate this mechanism as a staging,
scratch, or temporary area. I also recommend removing the notion of NFS its
name as NFS is initial implementation of this mechanism. In the future, I can
see a desire for local filesystem, RBD, and iSCSI implementations of it.
In terms of solving the potential race conditions and resource exhaustion
issues, I don't think an LRU approach will be sufficient because the least
recently used resource may be still be in use by the system. I think we should
look to a reservation model with reference counting where files are deleted
when once no processes are accessing them. The following is a
(handwave-handwave) overview of the process I think would meet these
requirements:
1. Request a reservation for the maximum size of the file(s) that will
be processed in the staging area.
- If the file is already in the staging area, increase its
reference count
- If the reservation can not be fulfilled, we can either drop
the process in a retry queue or reject it.
2. Perform work and transfer file(s) to/from the object store
3. Release the file(s) -- decrementing the reference count. When the
reference count is <= 0, delete the file(s) from the staging area
We would also likely want to consider a TTL to purge files after a configurable
period of inactivity as a backstop against crashed processes failing to
properly decrementing the reference count. In this model, we will either defer
or reject work if resources are not available, and we properly bound resources.
Finally, in terms of decoupling the decision to use of this mechanism by
hypervisor plugins from the storage subsystem, I think we should expose methods
on the secondary storage services that allow clients to explicitly request or
create resources using files (i.e. java.io.File) instead of streams (e.g.
createXXX(File) or readXXXAsFile). These interfaces would provide the storage
subsystem with the hint that the client requires file access to the request
resource. For object store plugins, this hint would be used to wrap the
resource in an object that would transfer in and/out of the staging area.
Thoughts?
-John
On Jun 3, 2013, at 7:17 PM, Edison Su <edison...@citrix.com> wrote:
> Let's start a new thread about NFS cache storage issues on object_store.
> First, I'll go through how NFS storage works on master branch, then how it
> works on object_store branch, then let's talk about the "issues".
>
> 0. Why we need NFS secondary storage? Nfs secondary storage is used as
> a place to store templates/snapshots etc, it's zone wide, and it's widely
> supported by most of hypervisors(except HyperV). NFS storage exists in
> CloudStack since 1.x. With the rising of object storage, like S3/Swift,
> CloudStack adds the support of Swift in 3.x, and S3 in 4.0. You may wonder,
> if S3/Swift is used as the place to store templates/snapshots, then why we
> still need NFS secondary storage?
>
> There are two reasons for that:
>
> a. CloudStack storage code is tightly coupled with NFS secondary
> storage, so when adding Swift/S3 support, it's likely to take shortcut, leave
> NFS secondary storage as it is.
>
> b. Certain hypervisors, and certain storage related operations, can not
> directly operate on object storage.
> Examples:
>
> b.1 When backing up snapshot(the snapshot taken from xenserver hypervisor)
> from primary storage to S3 in xenserver
>
> If there are snapshot chains on the volume, and if we want to coalesce the
> snapshot chains into a new disk, then copy it to S3, we either, coalesce the
> snapshot chains on primary storage, or on an extra storage repository (SR)
> that supported by Xenserver.
>
> If we coalesce it on primary storage, then may blow up the primary storage,
> as the coalesced new disk may need a lot of space(thinking about, the new
> disk will contain all the content in from leaf snapshot, all the way up to
> base template), but the primary storage is not planned to this
> operation(cloudstack mgt server is unaware of this operation, the mgt server
> may think the primary storage still has enough space to create volumes).
>
> While xenserver doesn't have API to coalesce snapshots directly to S3, so we
> have to use other storages that supported by Xenserver, that's why the NFS
> storage is used during snapshot backup. So what we did is that first call
> xenserver api to coalesce the snapshot to NFS storage, then copy the newly
> created file into S3. This is what we did on both master branch and
> object_store branch.
> b.2 When create volume from snapshot if the
> snapshot is stored on S3.
> If the snapshot is a delta
> snapshot, we need to coalesce them into a new volume. We can't coalesce
> snapshots directly on S3, AFAIK, so we have to download the snapshot and its
> parents into somewhere, then coalesce them with xenserver's tools. Again,
> there are two options, one is to download all the snapshots into primary
> storage, or download them into NFS storage:
> If we download all the
> snapshots into primary storage directly from S3, then first we need find a
> way import snapshot from S3 into Primary storage(if primary storage is a
> block device, then need extra care) and then coalesce them. If we go this
> way, need to find a primary storage with enough space, and even worse, if the
> primary storage is not zone-wide, then later on, we may need to copy the
> volume from one primary storage to another, which is time consuming.
> If we download all the
> snapshots into NFS storage from S3, then coalesce them, and then copy the
> volume to primary storage. As the NFS storage is zone wide, so, you can copy
> the volume into whatever primary storage, without extra copy. This is what we
> did in master branch and object_store branch.
> b.3, some hypervisors, or some storages do not
> support directly import template into primary storage from a URL. For
> example, if Ceph is used as primary storage, when import a template into RBD,
> need transform a Qcow2 image into RAW disk, then into RBD format 2. In order
> to transform an image from Qcow2 image into RAW disk, you need extra file
> system, either a local file system(this is what other stack does, which is
> not scalable to me), or a NFS storage(this is what can be done on both master
> and object_store). Or one can modify hypervisor or storage to support
> directly import template from S3 into RBD. Here is the
> link(http://www.mail-archive.com/ceph-devel@vger.kernel.org/msg14411.html),
> that Wido posted.
> Anyway, there are so many combination of hypervisors and
> storages: for some hypervisors with zone wide file system based storage(e.g.
> KVM + gluster/NFS as primary storage), you don't need extra nfs storage. Also
> if you are using VMware or HyperV, which can import template from a URL,
> regardless which storage your are using, then you don't need extra NFS
> storage. While if you are using xenserver, in order to create volume from
> delta snapshot, you will need a NFS storage, or if you are using KVM + Ceph,
> you also may need a NFS storage.
> Due to above reasons, NFS cache storage is need in certain
> cases if S3 is used as secondary storage. The combination of hypervisors and
> storages are quite complicated, to use cache storage or not, should be case
> by case. But as long as cloudstack provides a framework, gives people the
> choice to enable/disable cache storage on their own, then I think the
> framework is good enough.
>
>
> 1. Then let's talk about how NFS storage works on master branch, with
> or without S3.
> If S3 is not used, here is the how NFS storage is used:
>
> 1.1 Register a template/ISO: cloudstack downloads the template/ISO into NFS
> storage.
>
> 1.2 Backup snapshot: cloudstack sends a command to xenserver hypervisor,
> issue vdi.copy command copy the snapshot to NFS, for kvm, directly use "cp"
> or "qemu-img convert" to copy the snapshot into NFS storage.
>
> 1.3 Create volume from snapshot: If the snapshot is a delta snapshot,
> coalesce them on NFS storage, then vdi.copy it from NFS to primary storage.
> If it's KVM, use "cp" or "qemu-img convert" to copy the snapshot from NFS
> storage to primary storage.
>
>
> If S3 is used:
>
> 1.4 Register a template/ISO: download the template/ISO into NFS storage
> first, then there is background thread, which can upload the template/ISO
> from NFS storage into S3 regularly. The template is in Ready state, only
> means the template is stored on NFS storage, but admin doesn't know the
> template is stored on the S3 or not. Even worse, if there are multiple zones,
> cloudstack will copy the template from one zone wide NFS storage into another
> NFS storage in another zone, while there is already has a region wide S3
> available. As the template is not directly uploaded to S3 when registering a
> template, it will take several copy in order to spread the template into a
> region wide.
>
> 1.5 Backup snapshot: cloudstack sends a command to xenserver hypervisor,
> copy the snapshot to NFS storage, then immediately, upload the snapshot from
> NFS storage into S3. The snapshot is in Backedup state, not only means the
> snapshot is in NFS storage, but also means it's stored on S3.
>
> 1.6 Create volume from snapshot: download the snapshot and it's parent
> snapshots from S3 into NFS storage, then coalesce and vdi.copy the volume
> from NFS to primary storage.
>
>
>
> 2. Then let's talk about how it works on object_store:
> If S3 is not used, there is ZERO change from master branch. How the NFS
> secondary storage works before, is the same on object_store.
> If S3 is used, and NFS cache storage used also(which is by default):
> 2.1 Register a template/ISO: the template/ISO are directly uploaded to S3,
> there is no extra copy to NFS storage. When the template is in "Ready" state,
> means the template is stored on S3. It implies that: the
> template is immediately available in the region as soon as it's in Ready
> State. And admin can clearly knows the status of template on S3, what's
> percentage of the uploading, is it failed or succeed? Also if register
> template failed for some reason, admin can issue the register template
> command again. I would say the change of how to register template into S3 is
> far better than what we did on master branch.
> 2.2 Backup snapshot: it's same as master branch, sends a command to
> xenserver host, copy the snapshot into NFS, then upload to S3.
> 2.3 Create volume from snapshot: it's the same as master branch, download
> snapshot and it's parent snaphots from S3 into NFS, then copy it from NFS to
> primary storage.
> From above few typical usage cases, you may understand how S3 and NFS cache
> storage is used, and what's difference between object_store branch and master
> branch: basically, we only change the way how to register a template, nothing
> else.
> If S3 is used, and no NFS cache storage is used(it's possible, depends on
> which datamotion strategy is used):
> 2.4 Register a template/ISO: it's the same as 2.1
> 2.5 Backup snapshot: export the snapshot from primary storage into S3
> directly
> 2.6 Create volume from snapshot: download snapshots from S3 into primary
> storage directly, then coalesce and create volume from it.
>
> Hope above explanation will tell the truth how the system works on
> object_store, and clarify the misconception/misunderstanding about
> object_store branch. Even the change is huge, we still maintain the back
> compatibility. If you don't want to use S3, only want to existing NFS
> storage, it's definitely OK, it works the same as before. If you want to use
> S3, we provide a better S3 implementation when registering template/ISO. If
> you want to use S3 without NFS storage, that's also definitely OK, the
> framework is quite flexible to accommodate different solutions.
>
> Ok, let's talk about the NFS storage cache issues.
> The issue about NFS cache storage is discussed in several threads, back and
> forth. All in all, the NFs cache storage is only one usage case out of three
> usage cases supported by object_store branch. It's not something that if it
> has issue, then everything doesn't work.
> In above 2.2 and 2.3, it shows how the NFS cache storage is involved during
> snapshot related operations. The complains about there is no aging policy, no
> capacity planner for NFS cache storage, is happened when download a snapshot
> from S3 into NFS, or copy a snapshot from primary storage into NFS, or
> download template from S3 into NFS. Yes, it's an issue, the NFS cache storage
> can be used out, if there is no capacity planner, and no aging out policy.
> But can it be fixed? Is it a design issue?
> Let's talk the code: Here is the code related to NFS cache storage, not much,
> only one class depends on NFS cache storage:
> https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf?p=cloudstack.git;a=blob;f=engine/storage/datamotion/src/org/apache/cloudstack/storage/motion/AncientDataMotionStrategy.java;h=a01d2d30139f70ad8c907b6d6bc9759d47dcc2d6;hb=refs/heads/object_store
> Take copyVolumeFromSnapshot as example, which will be called when create
> Volume from snapshot, if first calls cacheSnapshotChain, which will call
> cacheMgr.createCacheObject to download the snapshot into NFs cache storage.
> StorageCacheManagerImpl-> createCacheObject is the only place to create
> objects on NFs cache storage, the code is at
> https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf?p=cloudstack.git;a=blob;f=engine/storage/cache/src/org/apache/cloudstack/storage/cache/manager/StorageCacheManagerImpl.java;h=cb5ea106fed3e5d2135dca7d98aede13effcf7d9;hb=refs/heads/object_store
> In createCacheObject, it will first find out a cache storage, in case there
> are multiple cache storages available in a scope:
> DataStore cacheStore = this.getCacheStorage(scope);
> getCacheStorage will call StorageCacheAllocator to find out a proper NFS
> cache storage. So StorageCacheAllocator is the place to choose NFS cache
> storage based on certain criteria, the current implementation only randomly
> choose one of them, we can add a new allocator algorithm, based on capacity
> etc, etc.
> Regarding capacity reservation, there is already a table, called
> op_host_capacity which has entry for NFS secondary storage, we can reuse this
> entry to store capacity information about NFS cache storages(such as, total
> size, available/used capacity etc). So when every call createCacheObject, we
> can call StorageCacheAllocator to find out a proper NFS storage based on
> first fit criteria, then increase used capacity in op_host_capacity table. If
> the create cache object failed, return the capacity to op_host_capacity.
>
> Regarding the aging out policy, we can start a background thread on mgt
> server, which will scan all the objects created on NFS cache storage(the
> tables called: snapshot_store_ref, template_store_ref, volume_store_ref),
> each entry of these tables has a column called: updated, every time, when the
> object's state is changed, the "updated" column will be got updated also.
> When the object's state is changed? Every time, when the object is used in
> some contexts(such as copy the snapshot on NFS cache storage into somewhere),
> the object's state will be changed accordingly, such as "Copying", means the
> object is being copied to some place, which is exactly the information we
> need to implement LRU algorithm.
>
> How do you guys think about the fix? If you have better solution, please let
> me know.
>
>
