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Product: Volume Manager Manual Pages for Storage Foundation   
Manual: Miscellaneous (7)   

vxio

NAME

vxio - VERITAS Volume Manager virtual disk devices

DESCRIPTION

Volume devices are the virtual disk devices in VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM). The volume devices support a virtual disk access method with disk mirroring and disk striping. A volume is a logical entity composed of one or more plexes. A read can be satisfied from any plex, while a write is directed to all plexes. The virtual disk devices have a wide variety of behaviors, which are programmable through the /dev/vx/config device. For volume devices, both block- and character-special devices are implemented.

Each plex in the volume is a copy of the volume address space. The plex has subdisks associated with it. These subdisks provide backup storage for the volume address space.

It is possible to create a sparse plex, which is a plex without backup storage for some of the volume address space. The areas of a sparse plex that do not have a backing subdisk are called holes. An attempt to read a hole in a sparse plex fails. If there are other plexes that have backup storage for the read, then one of those plexes is read. Otherwise, the read fails. A write to a hole in a sparse plex is considered a success even though the data can't be read back.

In addition, a plex may be designated as a logging plex. This means that a log of blocks that are in transition will be kept, which enables fast recovery after a system failure. This feature is known as \s-1DRL\s0, or dirty region logging. The log for each plex consists of a specially designated subdisk that is not part of the normal plex address space.

IOCTLS

The ioctl commands supported by the volume virtual disk device interface are discussed later in this section. The format for calling each ioctl command is:


#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/volclient.h>
struct tag arg;
int ioctl (int fd, int cmd, struct tag *arg);

The value of cmd is the ioctl command code and arg is usually a pointer to a structure containing the arguments that need to be passed to the kernel.

The return value for all these ioctls, with some exceptions, is zero if the command was successful, and -1 if it was rejected. If the return value is -1, then errno is set to indicate the cause of the error.

The following ioctl commands are supported:

GET_DAEMON

This ioctl returns the pid of the process with the /dev/vx/config device open, or 0 if it is closed. The value of arg is undefined and should be NULL.

GET_VOLINFO

This command accepts a pointer to a volinfo structure as an argument. It fills in the volinfo structure with the corresponding values from the kernel. The members of a volinfo structure are:


long version;    /*kernel version number*/
long max_volprivmem;    /*max size of volprivmem area*/
major_t volbmajor;    /*volume blk dev major number*/
major_t volcmajor;    /*volume char dev major number*/
major_t plexmajor;    /*plex device major number*/
long maxvol;    /*max # of volumes supported*/
long maxplex;    /*max # of associated plexes*/
long plexnum;    /*max plexes per volume*/
long sdnum;    /*max subdisks per plex*/
long max_ioctl;    /*max size of ioctl data*/
long max_specio;    /*max size of ioctl I/O op*/
long max_io;    /*max size of I/O operation*/
long vol_maxkiocount;    /*max # top level I/Os allowed*/
long dflt_iodelay;    /*default I/O delay for utils*/
long max_parallelio;    /*max # voldios allowed*/
long voldrl_min_regionsz;    /*min DRL region size*/
long voldrl_max_drtregs;    /*max # of DRL dirty regions*/
long vol_is_root;    /*if set, root is volume*/
long mvrmaxround;    /*max round-robin region size*/
long prom_version;    /*PROM version of the system*/
long vol_maxstablebufsize;    /*max size of copy buffer*/
size_t voliot_iobuf_limit;    /*max total I/O trace buf spc*/
size_t voliot_iobuf_max;    /*max size of I/O trace buffer*/
size_t voliot_iobuf_default;    /*default I/O trace buf size*/
size_t voliot_errbuf_default;    /*default error trace buf size*/
long voliot_max_open;    /*max # of trace channels*/
size_t vol_checkpt_default;    /*default checkpoint size*/
long volraid_rsrtransmax;    /*max # of transient RSRs*/

PLEX_DETACH

This command is used to force a plex to be detached from a volume. The name of the plex is passed in as an argument. The volume is the volume device against which the ioctl is being performed.

VOL_LOG_WRITE

This command forces a dirty region log to be flushed to disk. This is used by the vxconfigd process to flush an initial log to disk before starting the volume.

VOL_READ, VOL_WRITE

These commands provide a mechanism by which I/O can be issued to volumes larger than 2 gigabytes in length. Current UNIX read and write system calls on 32-bit processors limit sizes to 2 gigabytes because of the signed byte-offset value used to perform the I/O. These ioctl commands provide a method of providing sector offsets to an I/O and raise the limit to one sector less than 1024 gigabytes.

The required I/O is identified to the command by the use of a vol_rdwr structure containing the following:


ulong_t vrw_flags;    /*flags*/
voff_t vrw_off;    /*offset in volume (sectors)*/
size_t vrw_size;    /*number of sectors to Xfer*/
caddr_t vrw_addr;    /*user address for Xfer*/
The vrw_flags field is currently unused; other fields are explained in the comments.

VOLUME-SPECIAL IOCTLS

The ATOMIC_COPY, VERIFY_READ, and VERIFY_WRITE ioctls perform special I/O operations against the volume. They use the vol_io structure to initiate I/O requests and receive the status information back. The members of the vol_io structure are:


voff_t vi_offset;    /*0x00 offset on plex*/
size_t vi_len;    /*0x04 amount of data to read/write*/
caddr_t vi_buf;    /*0x08 ptr to buffer*/
size_t vi_nsrcplex;    /*0x0c number of source plexes*/
size_t vi_ndestplex;    /*0x10 number of destination plexes*/
struct plx_ent *vi_plexptr;    /*0x14 ptr to array of plex entries*/
ulong_t vi_flag;    /*0x18 flags associated with op*/

The members of the plx_ent structure are:


char pe_name[NAME_SZ];    /*name of plex*/
int pe_errno;    /*error number against plex*/

The vi_offset value specifies the sector offset of the I/O within the volume. It must be within the address range of the volume. Also, the entire range of the I/O from vi_offset to vi_offset \+ vi_len must be within the address range of the volume.

The vi_len field specifies the length of the I/O in sectors. It must be a between 0 and 120 sectors (VOL_MAXSPECIALIO).

The vi_buf field is a pointer to a buffer of vi_len sectors. The VERIFY_WRITE ioctl writes the data stored in this buffer.

The vi_nsrcplex field is the number of source plexes available for the operation and the vi_ndestplex field is the number of destination plexes available for the operation. The vi_nsrcplex and vi_ndestplex values must be between 0 and 8 (PLEX_NUM).

The vi_plexptr is a pointer to an array of plx_ent structures. The first vi_nsrcplex entries in the array are source plexes. The pe_name contains the name of the plex. If the name of the first source entry is the null string, then the kernel selects all plexes available for reading as part of the volume and fills in the pe_name fields.

After the source plexes, the next vi_ndestplex entries are the destination plexes. If the name of the first destination entry is the null string, then the kernel selects all plexes available for writing as part of the volume and fills in the pe_name fields.

After the I/O operations are performed, the plx_ent structures are copied back to the user. If the kernel selected the plexes, the names of the selected plexes are in the pe_name fields. The status of the operations on each plex are stored in the pe_errno field of the plx_ent structure for that plex.

The pe_errno field is 0 if the operation succeeded against the plex. If pe_errno isn't 0, then the error code indicates what happened to the plex. The possible values for pe_errno are:

EACCES

The specified plex is in the disabled state, so no I/O can be performed against it.

EFAULT

A source plex is sparse and doesn't have blocks that map the entire I/O request.

EIO

A read I/O error was returned against a source plex.

ENOENT

The specified plex isn't associated with the volume the ioctl was issued against.

ENXIO

An error was detected in the operation, so no I/O operation was attempted to the plex. If one plx_ent structure in a list contains a bad name, then no I/O is done. All plx_ent structures with a valid name have their pe_errno set to ENXIO to indicate no I/O was attempted.

EROFS

A write I/O error was returned against a destination plex.

ESRCH

The VERIFY_READ and VERIFY_WRITE operations compare the data from different plexes against each other to verify the consistency. If the comparison detects an error, the plex that was read first is considered correct. An ESRCH error is returned against the plex that was read second to indicate it contains bad data.

For the ATOMIC_COPY, VERIFY_READ, and VERIFY_WRITE ioctls, if the entire operation is a success, then a 0 is returned. If there is a fatal error, a -1 is returned and the external variable errno indicates the reason for failure. If a 1 is returned, there was some sort of failure and the net results must be determined by examining the pe_errno fields of all the plexes.

The ioctls that do volume-special I/O are:

ATOMIC_COPY

This ioctl takes a pointer to a vol_io structure as an argument. It reads vi_len sectors of data, at offset vi_offset, from one of the plexes specified by the first vi_nsrcplex plex entries into a buffer. Then it writes the contents of the buffer onto all the plexes specified by the next vi_ndestplex plex entries at the same offset. This entire operation is atomic with respect to the I/O stream of the volume. The vi_buf field is unused and should be NULL.

If the first source plex entry has a null string for the name, the kernel selects from any plex of the volume that is enabled for read access. The names of any selected plexes are copied into the appropriate plex entries.

If the first destination plex entry has a null string for the name, the kernel will write to all plexes of the volume that are enabled for write access. The names of selected plexes are copied into the appropriate plex entries.

When the list of source plexes has been compiled, the kernel tries to read each plex in order. A plex can't be read if it doesn't have backup storage covering the entire operation. Once a plex has been successfully read, all the destination plexes are written. The writes can succeed even if the destination plex is sparse and doesn't have backup storage to cover the entire write.

If the ioctl returns a value of -1, then some error has occurred which prevented the ATOMIC_COPY from working. If the return value is 0, then everything worked fine. If the return value is 1, then the pe_errno field must be examined to determine the errors on each individual plex. The status of the overall operation depends on these individual errors.

VERIFY_READ

This command accepts a pointer to a vol_io structure as an argument. It reads vi_len sectors, from offset vi_offset, on the first vi_nsrcplex plexes specified by the vi_plexptr array of plex entries. It compares the data from each plex. If any plex is different from the previous plexes read, the pe_errno value for that plex is set to ESRCH. This entire operation is atomic with respect to the I/O stream of the volume.

The vi_ndestplex field must be 0. If the vi_buf field is not NULL, then the data read from the plexes not marked with ESRCH is copied into the buffer specified by vi_buf.

As each plex is read, any data that has already been read is compared against the previous reads. If all the data for the plex passes, then any data that was read for the first time is copied into the comparison buffer. This allows VERIFY_READ operations to work if the volume contains sparse plexes. The data not represented by backup storage is not compared against anything.

VERIFY_WRITE

This command accepts a pointer to a vol_io structure as an argument. It writes vi_len sectors to offset vi_offset on the first vi_ndestplex plexes specified by the vi_plexptr array of plex entries. The data to be written is stored in the buffer pointed to by vi_buf. Then, the data is read back from each plex that was successfully written and is compared against the data written. If the data from any plex doesn't match the data written, the pe_errno value for the plex is set to ESRCH. This entire operation is atomic with respect to the I/O stream of the volume.

The vi_nsrcplex field must be 0.

As each plex is read, any data that doesn't have backup storage on that plex is filled in from the write buffer. This allows VERIFY_WRITE operations to work if the volume contains sparse plexes. The data not represented by backup storage will always succeed.

VOL_LOG_WRITE

This command takes no argument, and causes the log for a volume to be written to disk immediately. This command is useful for making sure that the on-disk images of the log have been written.

This command returns -1 with errno set to EINVAL if the specified volume does not have logging enabled.

PLEX_DETACH

This command allows an enabled plex to be detached. The argument is the name of the plex to detach.

DIAGNOSTICS

The following errors are returned by volume virtual disk device interfaces:

EAGAIN

A needed kernel resource couldn't be obtained.

EBADF

An attempt was made to write a volume that wasn't opened for writing or read a volume that wasn't open for reading.

EFAULT

A pointer passed to the kernel was invalid, causing a bad memory reference.

EINVAL

Invalid data was passed to the kernel. Some field in a vol_io structure failed a sanity check.

EIO

A physical I/O error occurred during an operation. If this error is returned, the driver tried an I/O and it failed.

EMFILE

The kernel was asked to supply a list of destination plexes for an ATOMIC_COPY or VERIFY_WRITE ioctl. If more than vi_ndestplex enabled plexes available in write mode are found, an EMFILE error is returned.

ENFILE

The kernel was asked to supply a list of source plexes for an ATOMIC_COPY or VERIFY_READ ioctl. If more than vi_nsrcplex enabled plexes available in read mode are found, an ENFILE error is returned.

ENOENT

An object named in GET_VOL_STATS ioctl was not associated with the volume.

ENOENT

The kernel was asked to supply a list of destination plexes for an ATOMIC_COPY or VERIFY_WRITE ioctl. If no enabled plexes available in write mode are found, an ENOENT error is returned.

ENXIO

A validation error occurred during an I/O operation. If this error is returned, the driver attempted no I/O.

ESRCH

The kernel was asked to supply a list of source plexes for an ATOMIC_COPY or VERIFY_READ ioctl. If no enabled plexes available in read mode are found, an ESRCH error is returned.

FILES

/dev/vx/dsk/*...

Volume block device files.

/dev/vx/rdsk/*...

Volume character (raw) device files.

SEE ALSO

ioctl(2), vxconfig (7), vxiod (7), vxtrace (7)
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Product: Volume Manager Manual Pages for Storage Foundation  
Manual: Miscellaneous (7)  
VERITAS Software Corporation
www.veritas.com