RAID1 LVM, XEN and flashcache

Question

I am regarding to question: Improving IO with FlashCache

I have setup a RAID1 (/dev/md0) LVM (/dev/vg_xen) and executed following command:

flashcache_create -p thru flashcache0 /dev/sdc /dev/md0

Then I started a XEN PV guest, which uses /dev/vg_xen/vm0 as hard disk. After using it a while

cat /proc/flashcache/sdc\+md0/flashcache_stats

shows me

reads=0 writes=0

So, it does not work. What did I do wrong?

the-wabbit · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-31T13:18:05.147

2

You should make sure that your LVM is using the /dev/mapper/flashcache0 device as its physical volume instead of using /dev/md0 directly (in the latter case flashcache would not be involved in the I/O code path at all).

See http://sf-alpha.bjgang.org/wordpress/2012/11/flashcache-initscripts/ for a handy script on how to set this up, if you have not done so yet. The basic outline would be:

exclude /dev/md0 from being detected through LVM by adding filter = [ "r|/dev/md0|" ] and commenting out or removing filter = [ "a/.*/" ] (if present) from the devices{} section of your /etc/lvm/lvm.conf
use the flashcache_create (or flashcache_load if using write-back caching mode) command to create your flashcache-backed device
run vgscan to discover your volume group and activate it by issuing vgchange -ay vg_xen

For details on flashcache configuration, refer to the admin guide which came with your flashcache download.

edited May 31 '13 at 13:18

answered May 31 '13 at 12:34

the-wabbit

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*flashcache_load : Load an existing writeback cache volume.*, but I am not using a writeback cache volume. – user1091344 May 31 '13 at 12:38
@JuanHynix My fault. It appears you have not reconfigured your LVM to be backed by the flashcache-created device, could you check that? – the-wabbit May 31 '13 at 13:19
Yes. You are right. I did not reconfigured it. I will try your new advice. – user1091344 May 31 '13 at 13:42
I did it again today. Now it works like you said. Thanks. – user1091344 Jun 07 '13 at 14:57

RAID1 LVM, XEN and flashcache

1 Answers1