Gentle ping..
>-----Original Message----- >From: Sumit Saxena [mailto:sumit.sax...@broadcom.com] >Sent: Monday, June 05, 2017 12:59 PM >To: 'Jens Axboe' >Cc: 'linux-bl...@vger.kernel.org'; 'linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org' >Subject: Application stops due to ext4 filesytsem IO error > >Jens, > >We am observing application stops while running ext4 filesystem IOs along >with target reset in parallel. >Our suspect is this behavior can be attributed to linux block layer. See below >for details- > >Problem statement - " Application stops due to IO error from file system >buffered IO. (Note - It is always a FS meta data read failure)" >Issue is reproducible - "Yes. It is consistently reproducible." >Brief about setup - >Latest 4.11 kernel. Issue hits irrespective of whether SCSI MQ is enabled or >disabled. use_blk_mq=Y and use_blk_mq=N has similar issue. >Direct attached 4 SAS/SATA drives connected to MegaRAID Invader >controller. > >Reproduction steps - >-Create ext4 FS on 4 JBODs(non RAID volumes) behind MegaRAID SAS >controller. >-Start Data integrity test on all four ext4 mounted partition. (Tool should be >configured to send Buffered FS IO). >-Send Target Reset (have some delay between next reset to allow some IO >on device) on each JBOD to simulate error condition. (sg_reset -d /dev/sdX). > >End result - >Combination of target resets and FS IOs in parallel causes application halt >with ext4 Filesystem IO error. >We are able to restart application without cleaning and unmounting >filesystem. >Below are the error logs at the time of application stop- > >-------------------------- >sd 0:0:53:0: target reset called for >scmd(ffff88003cf25148) >sd 0:0:53:0: attempting target reset! >scmd(ffff88003cf25148) tm_dev_handle 0xb >sd 0:0:53:0: [sde] tag#519 BRCM Debug: request->cmd_flags: 0x80700 bio- >>bi_flags: 0x2 bio->bi_opf: 0x3000 rq_flags 0x20e3 >.. >sd 0:0:53:0: [sde] tag#519 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 15 00 11 10 00 00 f8 00 >EXT4-fs error (device sde): __ext4_get_inode_loc:4465: inode #11018287: >block 44040738: comm chaos: unable to read itable block >----------------------- > >We debug further to understand what is happening above LLD. See below- > >During target reset, there may be IO coming from target with CHECK >CONDITION with below sense information-. >Sense Key : Aborted Command [current] >Add. Sense: No additional sense information > >Such Aborted command should be retried by SML/Block layer. This happens >from SML expect for FS Meta data read. >From driver level debug, we found IOs with REQ_FAILFAST_DEV bit set in >scmd->request->cmd_flags are not retried by SML and that is also as >expected. > >Below is the code in scsi_error.c(function- scsi_noretry_cmd) which causes >IOs with REQ_FAILFAST_DEV enabled not getting retried bit completed back >to upper layer- >-------- >/* > * assume caller has checked sense and determined > * the check condition was retryable. > */ > if (scmd->request->cmd_flags & REQ_FAILFAST_DEV || > scmd->request->cmd_type == REQ_TYPE_BLOCK_PC) > return 1; > else > return 0; >-------- > >IO which causes application to stop has REQ_FAILFAST_DEV enabled inside >"scmd->request->cmd_flags". We noticed that this bit will be set for >filesystem Read ahead meta data IOs. In order to confirm the same, we >mounted with option inode_readahead_blks=0 to disable ext4's inode table >readahead algorithm and did not observe the issue. Issue does not hit with >DIRECT IOs but only with cached/buffered IOs. > >2. From driver level debug prints, we also noticed - There are many IO >failures with REQ_FAILFAST_DEV handled gracefully by filesystem. >Application level failure happens only If IO has RQF_MIXED_MERGE set. >If IO merging is disabled through sysfs parameter for SCSI device in question- >nomerges set to 2, we are not seeing the issue. > >3. We added few prints in driver to dump "scmd->request->cmd_flags" and >"scmd->request->rq_flags" for IOs completed with CHECK CONDITION and >culprit IOs has all these bits- REQ_FAILFAST_DEV and REQ_RAHEAD bit set in >"scmd->request->cmd_flags" and RQF_MIXED_MERGE bit set in "scmd- >>request->rq_flags". Also it's not necessarily true that all IOs with these >three bits set will cause issue but whenever issue hits, these three bits are >set for IO causing failure. > > >In summary, >FS mechanism of using READ AHEAD for meta data works fine (in case of IO >failure) if there is no mix/merge at block layer. >FS mechanism of using READ AHEAD for meta data has some corner case >which is not handled properly (in case of IO failure) if there was mix/merge >at block layer. >megaraid_sas driver's behavior seems correct here. Aborted IO goes to SML >with CHECK CONDITION settings and SML decided to fail fast IO as it was >requested. > >Query - Is this block layer (page cache) issue? What should be the ideal fix ? > >Thanks, >Sumit
