fallocate for thin volumes?

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Hi all,
there is any method to preallocate any space to a specific thin volume, other that writing to it? If not, it is in the todo list?

I know a similar question was raised in the past, but it was in the different context of reserverd space - ie to be "sure" about a volume not filling up. I understand this can not be done in the current device mapper context.

This time I wonder about fallocate as a performance optimization, heading to reduced thin-volume fragmentation. For example, a thin volume-backed virtual machine image can be entirely allocated with mostly contiguous data chunks. Any snapshot will obviously allocates random data chunks, but with careful scheduling its effect on data fragmentation should be limited/contained.

Today, to accomplish that, I need to write out *all* data chunks from the virtual machine itself. This is a time-consuming and error prone process. A simpler "volume-preallocation" and/or an "fallocate-passing" facility would facilitate this process.

And yes - I know POSIX-fallocate is all about *assuring* than application will not face an ENOSP condition, rather than a fast-zeroing surrogate. However, in the framework of thin volume this is basically impossible to guarantee. On the other hand, its performance enhancing implications are significan enough they should not be overlooked.

Thanks.

--
Danti Gionatan
Supporto Tecnico
Assyoma S.r.l. - www.assyoma.it
email: g.danti@assyoma.it - info@assyoma.it
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