Re: [storage-discuss] Re[2]: [zfs-discuss] se3510 and ZFS

2007-02-06 Thread eric kustarz


IIRC Bill posted here some tie ago saying the problem with write cache
on the arrays is being worked on.


Yep, the bug is:
6462690 sd driver should set SYNC_NV bit when issuing SYNCHRONIZE  
CACHE to

SBC-2 devices

We have a case going through PSARC that will make things works  
correctly with regards to flushing the write cache and non-volatile  
caches.


The tricky part is getting vendors to actually support SYNC_NV bit.   
If you your favorite vendor/array doesn't support it, feel free to  
give them a call...


eric

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Re: [storage-discuss] Re[2]: [zfs-discuss] se3510 and ZFS

2007-02-06 Thread Neil Perrin



Robert Milkowski wrote On 02/06/07 11:43,:

Hello eric,

Tuesday, February 6, 2007, 5:55:23 PM, you wrote:



IIRC Bill posted here some tie ago saying the problem with write cache
on the arrays is being worked on.



ek Yep, the bug is:
ek 6462690 sd driver should set SYNC_NV bit when issuing SYNCHRONIZE  
ek CACHE to

ek SBC-2 devices

Thanks. I see a workaround there (I saw it earlier but it doesn't
apply to 3510) and I have a question - setting zil_disable to 1
won't actually completely disable cache flushing, right? (still every
txg group completes cache would be flushed)??


ek We have a case going through PSARC that will make things works  
ek correctly with regards to flushing the write cache and non-volatile  
ek caches.


There's actually a tunable to disable cache flushes:
zfs_nocacheflush and in older code (like S10U3) it's zil_noflush.


Yes, but we didn't want to publicise this internal switch. (I would
not call it a tunable). We (or at least I) are regretting publicising
zil_disable, but using zfs_nocacheflush is worse. If the device is
volatile then we can get pool corruption. An uberblock could get written
before all of its tree.

Note, zfs_nocacheflush and zil_noflush are not the same.
Setting zil_noflush stopped zil flushes of the write cache, whereas
zfs_nocacheflush will additionally stop flushing for txgs.




H...


ek The tricky part is getting vendors to actually support SYNC_NV bit.   
ek If you your favorite vendor/array doesn't support it, feel free to  
ek give them a call...


Is there any work being done to ensure/check that all arrays Sun sells
do support it?



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