[Gluster-devel] proposals to afr

[Kevan Benson]

Alexey Filin wrote:
> Hi,
>
> may I propose some ideas to be implemented inside afs to increase its
> reliability?
>
> * First idea: an extra extented attribute named e.g. afr_op_counter provides
> info about operations performed currently over file, so operations changing
> a file's (meta)data are done in a way:
>
> 1) afr_master.increase_afr_op_counter <for file in namespace>
> 2) real operation over file (meta)data
> 3) afr_master.start_op -> afr_slave.increase_afr_op_counter <for file on a
> slave>
> 4) loop over all slaves by 2)-3)
>
> during close():
>
> 1) afr_master.zero_op -> afr_slave.zero_afr_op_counter <for file on a slave>
> 2) loop over all slaves by 1)
> 3) afr_master.zero_afr_op_counter <for file in namespace>
>
> with the scheme all operations finished incorrectly are disclosed in a
> simple and fast way (with non-zero counter), that scheme is not replacing to
> afr version xattr, it is a complement allowing to find inconsistent replicas
> when close() doesn't update the xattr on slaves due to afr master crash
>   

Hmm, sort of like a trusted_afr_version minor number, that gets set 
while in an operation.  Essentially equivalent to taking a file with an 
afr version of 3 and making it 3.5 for the duration of the operation, 
and 4 on close.  Any files on slaves that show they are in an op but no 
operationis actually in place need to be self-healed.  Sounds good to 
me, but then again, I'm not a GlusterFS dev. ;)

> * Second idea: afr journal on master (for data or metadata only like in
> modern local FS's), to keep all updates in it during operations with afr
> slaves and recover after afr crash
>   

I'm not sure a journal's necessary with self heal.  It would speed up 
recovery of failed processes in some cases, but slow it down in others.  
There should be another copy of the data be the nature of AFR, so self 
heal can recover the problem on a node by the copy operation it does 
currently.  It might be somewhat slower for small operations, but it's 
quite simple and functional.

As it is now, if a node dies during a write, the files 
trusted_afr_version isn't incremented on that node, and the next read of 
the file when the node is active will overwrite the inconsistent file 
with the good copy from another node.  The client experiences a delay 
while glusterfs waits for the failed node to timeout before it continues 
it's writes, and then continues on.  Besides the delay, node failures 
(and the subsequent automatic repair of the FS) are transparent to the 
client with regard to AFR.

-- 

-Kevan Benson
-A-1 Networks