Hi I tested dm-writeboost and I found these problems: Performance problems: I tested dm-writeboost with disk as backing device and ramdisk as cache device. When I run mkfs.ext4 on the dm-writeboost device, it writes data to the cache on the first time. However, on next mkfs.ext4 invocations, dm-writeboost writes data to the disk, not to the cache. mkfs.ext4 on raw disk: 1.5s mkfs.ext4 on dm-cache using raw disk and ramdisk: 1st time - 0.15s next time - 0.12s mkfs.ext4 on dm-writeboost using raw disk and ramdisk: 1st time - 0.11s next time - 1.71s, 1.31s, 0.91s, 0.86s, 0.82s - there seems to be some error in logic in dm-writeboost that makes it not cache writes if these writes are already placed in the cache. In real-world scenarios where the same piece of disk is overwritten over and over again (for example journal), this could cause performance problems. dm-cache doesn't have this problem, if you overwrite the same piece of data again and again, it goes to the cache device. Reliability problems (these problems are reproducible, they happen every time). Tests were done on 3.10.13 on Opteron and 3.11.3 on PA-RISC. On 3.10.13 on Opteron on preemptible kernel, I get "BUG: workqueue leaked lock or atomic" when unloading the device with dmsetup remove. Also, on this machine, I see a bug, if I load dm-writeboost and terminate X server - Xorg hangs flusing workqueue. On 3.11.3 on PA-RISC without preemption, the device unloads (although it takes many seconds and vmstat shows that the machine is idle during this time), but I get deadlock when I load the device the second time. The deadlock happens either on load on when writing to the newly loaded device. ---- deadlock when the device is loaded the second time: [ 8336.212499] SysRq : Show Blocked State [ 8336.212499] task PC stack pid father [ 8336.212499] dmsetup D 00000000401040c0 0 1594 1572 0x00000010 [ 8336.212499] Backtrace: [ 8336.212499] [<0000000040111608>] __schedule+0x280/0x678 [ 8336.212499] [<0000000040111e88>] schedule+0x38/0x90 [ 8336.212499] [<000000004010ed1c>] schedule_timeout+0x1b4/0x208 [ 8336.212499] [<0000000040111c1c>] wait_for_common+0x124/0x1e8 [ 8336.212499] [<0000000040111d04>] wait_for_completion+0x24/0x38 [ 8336.212499] [<00000000107d9778>] wait_for_migration+0x38/0xb0 [dm_writeboost] [ 8336.212499] [<00000000107d7cf8>] resume_cache+0x1100/0x16f8 [dm_writeboost] Another deadlock when loaded the second time and running mkfs.ex3 on the writeboost device (it got cut off in the scrollback buffer): [ 782.579921] [<0000000040112280>] schedule_preempt_disabled+0x20/0x38 [ 782.579921] [<0000000040110764>] __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x15c/0x290 [ 782.579921] [<0000000040110928>] mutex_lock+0x90/0x98 [ 782.579921] [<00000000107f8b74>] flush_current_buffer+0x2c/0xb0 [dm_writeboost] [ 782.579921] [<00000000107fecbc>] sync_proc+0x7c/0xc8 [dm_writeboost] [ 782.579921] [<00000000401591d0>] process_one_work+0x160/0x460 [ 782.579921] [<0000000040159bb8>] worker_thread+0x300/0x478 [ 782.579921] [<0000000040161a68>] kthread+0x118/0x128 [ 782.579921] [<0000000040104020>] end_fault_vector+0x20/0x28 [ 782.579921] timer_interrupt(CPU 0): delayed! cycles A099A8C1 rem 22345C next/now CDFE401953/CDFE1DE4F7 [ 785.403254] [ 785.403254] mkfs.ext3 D 00000000401040c0 0 2309 2237 0x00000010 [ 785.403254] Backtrace: [ 785.403254] [<0000000040111608>] __schedule+0x280/0x678 [ 785.403254] [<0000000040111e88>] schedule+0x38/0x90 [ 785.403254] [<000000004010ed1c>] schedule_timeout+0x1b4/0x208 [ 785.403254] [<0000000040111c1c>] wait_for_common+0x124/0x1e8 [ 785.403254] [<0000000040111d04>] wait_for_completion+0x24/0x38 [ 785.403254] [<00000000107fe778>] wait_for_migration+0x38/0xb0 [dm_writeboost] [ 785.403254] [<00000000107f7fe8>] queue_current_buffer+0x78/0x3c8 [dm_writeboost] [ 785.403254] [<00000000107f96b8>] writeboost_map+0x660/0x970 [dm_writeboost] [ 785.403254] [<000000001079477c>] __map_bio+0x9c/0x148 [dm_mod] [ 785.403254] [<0000000010794cf0>] __clone_and_map_data_bio+0x188/0x288 [dm_mod] [ 785.403254] [<0000000010795594>] __split_and_process_bio+0x474/0x6c8 [dm_mod] [ 785.403254] [<0000000010796180>] dm_request+0x118/0x278 [dm_mod] [ 785.403254] [<00000000402d8360>] generic_make_request+0x128/0x1a0 [ 785.403254] [<00000000402d8448>] submit_bio+0x70/0x140 [ 785.403254] [<0000000040231c68>] _submit_bh+0x200/0x3b8 [ 785.403254] [<0000000040231e34>] submit_bh+0x14/0x20 A leaked prermpt count on unload (with preemptible kernel): BUG: workqueue leaked lock or atomic: kworker/u26:1/0x00000001/1031 last function: flush_proc [dm_writeboost] CPU: 10 PID: 1031 Comm: kworker/u26:1 Tainted: P O 3.10.13 #9 Hardware name: empty empty/S3992-E, BIOS 'V1.06 ' 06/09/2009 Workqueue: flushwq flush_proc [dm_writeboost] ffffffff8134e746 ffffffff81052c1d 000000003e5428c0 ffff88023f578c00 ffff88023f578c18 ffff880446870a70 ffff88043ee8b5e0 ffff88043ee8b5e0 ffff880446870a40 ffffffff8105368b ffff88043ee8b5e0 ffff88043ee8b5e0 Call Trace: [<ffffffff8134e746>] ? dump_stack+0xc/0x15 [<ffffffff81052c1d>] ? process_one_work+0x33d/0x470 [<ffffffff8105368b>] ? worker_thread+0x10b/0x390 [<ffffffff81053580>] ? manage_workers.isra.26+0x290/0x290 [<ffffffff81058d4f>] ? kthread+0xaf/0xc0 [<ffffffff81058ca0>] ? kthread_create_on_node+0x120/0x120 [<ffffffff8135356c>] ? ret_from_fork+0x7c/0xb0 [<ffffffff81058ca0>] ? kthread_create_on_node+0x120/0x120 BUG: scheduling while atomic: kworker/u26:1/1031/0x00000002 Modules linked in: brd dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_loop dm_writeboost(O)r unix CPU: 10 PID: 1031 Comm: kworker/u26:1 Tainted: P O 3.10.13 #9 Hardware name: empty empty/S3992-E, BIOS 'V1.06 ' 06/09/2009 ffffffff8134e746 ffffffff8134c9ef ffffffff8135186b 0000000000012700 ffff88043ef05fd8 ffff88043ef05fd8 0000000000012700 ffff88023f578c00 ffff88023f578c18 ffff880446870a70 ffff88043ee8b5e0 ffff88043ee8b5e0 Call Trace: [<ffffffff8134e746>] ? dump_stack+0xc/0x15 [<ffffffff8134c9ef>] ? __schedule_bug+0x3f/0x4c [<ffffffff8135186b>] ? __schedule+0x70b/0x720 [<ffffffff81053730>] ? worker_thread+0x1b0/0x390 [<ffffffff81053580>] ? manage_workers.isra.26+0x290/0x290 [<ffffffff81058d4f>] ? kthread+0xaf/0xc0 [<ffffffff81058ca0>] ? kthread_create_on_node+0x120/0x120 [<ffffffff8135356c>] ? ret_from_fork+0x7c/0xb0 [<ffffffff81058ca0>] ? kthread_create_on_node+0x120/0x120 When I load dm-writeboost and terminate X-window, the Xorg process hangs in this state (it is reproducible - happens each time) - it seems that dm-writeboost corrupts something connected with workqueues in the kernel: SysRq : Show Blocked State task PC stack pid father Xorg D 0000000000000001 0 4023 1 0x00400004 ffff88043e3124c0 0000000000000086 0000000000012700 ffff8804468bbfd8 ffff8804468bbfd8 0000000000012700 7fffffffffffffff ffff8804468bbcb8 ffff8804468bbd58 ffff88043e3124c0 0000000000000001 ffff8804468bbd40 Call Trace: [<ffffffff8134f519>] ? schedule_timeout+0x1d9/0x2b0 [<ffffffffa0b1d233>] ? _nv015437rm+0x3f/0x78 [nvidia] [<ffffffff81350735>] ? wait_for_completion+0x95/0x100 [<ffffffff81066970>] ? wake_up_state+0x10/0x10 [<ffffffff810501d5>] ? flush_workqueue+0x115/0x5a0 [<ffffffffa0ffc474>] ? os_flush_work_queue+0x44/0x50 [nvidia] [<ffffffffa0fd54cf>] ? rm_disable_adapter+0x81/0x107 [nvidia] [<ffffffffa0ff4927>] ? nv_kern_close+0x137/0x420 [nvidia] [<ffffffff81119249>] ? __fput+0xd9/0x230 [<ffffffff81055df7>] ? task_work_run+0x87/0xc0 [<ffffffff810023e1>] ? do_notify_resume+0x61/0x90 [<ffffffff811197e1>] ? fput+0x71/0xe0 [<ffffffff81353820>] ? int_signal+0x12/0x17 Mikulas -- dm-devel mailing list dm-devel@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/dm-devel