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Chapter 25. Setting up Stratis file systems

Stratis runs as a service to manage pools of physical storage devices, simplifying local storage management with ease of use while helping you set up and manage complex storage configurations.

Important

Stratis is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process. For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview.

25.1. What is Stratis

Stratis is a local storage-management solution for Linux. It is focused on simplicity and ease of use, and gives you access to advanced storage features.

Stratis makes the following activities easier:

  • Initial configuration of storage
  • Making changes later
  • Using advanced storage features

Stratis is a local storage management system that supports advanced storage features. The central concept of Stratis is a storage pool. This pool is created from one or more local disks or partitions, and file systems are created from the pool.

The pool enables many useful features, such as:

  • File system snapshots
  • Thin provisioning
  • Tiering
  • Encryption

Additional resources

25.2. Components of a Stratis volume

Learn about the components that comprise a Stratis volume.

Externally, Stratis presents the following volume components in the command-line interface and the API:

blockdev
Block devices, such as a disk or a disk partition.
pool

Composed of one or more block devices.

A pool has a fixed total size, equal to the size of the block devices.

The pool contains most Stratis layers, such as the non-volatile data cache using the dm-cache target.

Stratis creates a /dev/stratis/my-pool/ directory for each pool. This directory contains links to devices that represent Stratis file systems in the pool.

filesystem

Each pool can contain one or more file systems, which store files.

File systems are thinly provisioned and do not have a fixed total size. The actual size of a file system grows with the data stored on it. If the size of the data approaches the virtual size of the file system, Stratis grows the thin volume and the file system automatically.

The file systems are formatted with XFS.

Important

Stratis tracks information about file systems created using Stratis that XFS is not aware of, and changes made using XFS do not automatically create updates in Stratis. Users must not reformat or reconfigure XFS file systems that are managed by Stratis.

Stratis creates links to file systems at the /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs path.

Note

Stratis uses many Device Mapper devices, which show up in dmsetup listings and the /proc/partitions file. Similarly, the lsblk command output reflects the internal workings and layers of Stratis.

25.3. Block devices usable with Stratis

Storage devices that can be used with Stratis.

Supported devices

Stratis pools have been tested to work on these types of block devices:

  • LUKS
  • LVM logical volumes
  • MD RAID
  • DM Multipath
  • iSCSI
  • HDDs and SSDs
  • NVMe devices

Unsupported devices

Because Stratis contains a thin-provisioning layer, Red Hat does not recommend placing a Stratis pool on block devices that are already thinly-provisioned.

25.4. Installing Stratis

Install the required packages for Stratis.

Procedure

  1. Install packages that provide the Stratis service and command-line utilities: 

    # yum install stratisd stratis-cli

  2. Verify that the stratisd service is enabled: 

    # systemctl enable --now stratisd

25.5. Creating an unencrypted Stratis pool

You can create an unencrypted Stratis pool from one or more block devices.

Prerequisites

  • Stratis is installed. For more information, see Installing Stratis.
  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are not in use and are not mounted.
  • Each block device on which you are creating a Stratis pool is at least 1 GB.
  • On the IBM Z architecture, the /dev/dasd* block devices must be partitioned. Use the partition device for creating the Stratis pool.

For information about partitioning DASD devices, see Configuring a Linux instance on IBM Z

Note

You cannot encrypt an unencrypted Stratis pool.

Procedure

  1. Erase any file system, partition table, or RAID signatures that exist on each block device that you want to use in the Stratis pool: 

    # wipefs --all block-device

    where block-device is the path to the block device; for example, /dev/sdb.

  2. Create the new unencrypted Stratis pool on the selected block device: 

    # stratis pool create my-pool block-device

    where block-device is the path to an empty or wiped block device.

    Note

    Specify multiple block devices on a single line: 

    # stratis pool create my-pool block-device-1 block-device-2

  3. Verify that the new Stratis pool was created: 

    # stratis pool list

25.6. Creating an unencrypted Stratis pool by using the web console

You can use the web console to create an unencrypted Stratis pool from one or more block devices.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 8 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are not in use and are not mounted.
  • Each block device on which you are creating a Stratis pool is at least 1 GB.
Note

You cannot encrypt an unencrypted Stratis pool after it is created.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the menu button.

  4. From the drop-down menu, select Create Stratis pool.

    Image displaying the available options in the Storage table drop-down menu. Selecting Create Stratis pool.

  5. In the Create Stratis pool dialog box, enter a name for the Stratis pool.

    Image displaying the Create Stratis pool dialog box.

  6. Select the Block devices from which you want to create the Stratis pool.
  7. Optional: If you want to specify the maximum size for each file system that is created in pool, select Manage filesystem sizes.
  8. Click Create.

Verification

  • Go to the Storage section and verify that you can see the new Stratis pool in the Devices table.

25.7. Creating an encrypted Stratis pool

To secure your data, you can create an encrypted Stratis pool from one or more block devices.

When you create an encrypted Stratis pool, the kernel keyring is used as the primary encryption mechanism. After subsequent system reboots this kernel keyring is used to unlock the encrypted Stratis pool.

When creating an encrypted Stratis pool from one or more block devices, note the following:

  • Each block device is encrypted using the cryptsetup library and implements the LUKS2 format.
  • Each Stratis pool can either have a unique key or share the same key with other pools. These keys are stored in the kernel keyring.
  • The block devices that comprise a Stratis pool must be either all encrypted or all unencrypted. It is not possible to have both encrypted and unencrypted block devices in the same Stratis pool.
  • Block devices added to the data tier of an encrypted Stratis pool are automatically encrypted.

Prerequisites

  • Stratis v2.1.0 or later is installed. For more information, see Installing Stratis.
  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are not in use and are not mounted.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are at least 1GB in size each.
  • On the IBM Z architecture, the /dev/dasd* block devices must be partitioned. Use the partition in the Stratis pool.

For information about partitioning DASD devices, see link:Configuring a Linux instance on IBM Z.

Procedure

  1. Erase any file system, partition table, or RAID signatures that exist on each block device that you want to use in the Stratis pool: 

    # wipefs --all block-device

    where block-device is the path to the block device; for example, /dev/sdb.

  2. If you have not created a key set already, run the following command and follow the prompts to create a key set to use for the encryption. 

    # stratis key set --capture-key key-description

    where key-description is a reference to the key that gets created in the kernel keyring.

  3. Create the encrypted Stratis pool and specify the key description to use for the encryption. You can also specify the key path using the --keyfile-path option instead of using the key-description option. 

    # stratis pool create --key-desc key-description my-pool block-device

    where

    key-description
    References the key that exists in the kernel keyring, which you created in the previous step.
    my-pool
    Specifies the name of the new Stratis pool.
    block-device

    Specifies the path to an empty or wiped block device.

    Note

    Specify multiple block devices on a single line: 

    # stratis pool create --key-desc key-description my-pool block-device-1 block-device-2

  4. Verify that the new Stratis pool was created: 

    # stratis pool list

25.8. Creating an encrypted Stratis pool by using the web console

To secure your data, you can use the web console to create an encrypted Stratis pool from one or more block devices.

When creating an encrypted Stratis pool from one or more block devices, note the following:

  • Each block device is encrypted using the cryptsetup library and implements the LUKS2 format.
  • Each Stratis pool can either have a unique key or share the same key with other pools. These keys are stored in the kernel keyring.
  • The block devices that comprise a Stratis pool must be either all encrypted or all unencrypted. It is not possible to have both encrypted and unencrypted block devices in the same Stratis pool.
  • Block devices added to the data tier of an encrypted Stratis pool are automatically encrypted.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 8 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • Stratis v2.1.0 or later is installed.
  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices on which you are creating a Stratis pool are not in use and are not mounted.
  • Each block device on which you are creating a Stratis pool is at least 1 GB.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the menu button.
  4. From the drop-down menu, select Create Stratis pool. Image displaying the available options in the Storage table drop-down menu. Selecting Create Stratis pool.

  5. In the Create Stratis pool dialog box, enter a name for the Stratis pool.

    Image displaying the Create Stratis pool dialog box.

  6. Select the Block devices from which you want to create the Stratis pool.

  7. Select the type of encryption, you can use a passphrase, a Tang keyserver, or both:

  8. Optional: If you want to specify the maximum size for each file system that is created in pool, select Manage filesystem sizes.
  9. Click Create.

Verification

  • Go to the Storage section and verify that you can see the new Stratis pool in the Devices table.

25.9. Renaming a Stratis pool by using the web console

You can use the web console to rename an existing Stratis pool.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 8 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • Stratis is installed.

    The web console detects and installs Stratis by default. However, for manually installing Stratis, see Installing Stratis.

  • The stratisd service is running.
  • A Stratis pool is created.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.
  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the Stratis pool you want to rename.

  4. On the Stratis pool page, click edit next to the Name field.

    Image displaying the Stratis pool page.

  5. In the Rename Stratis pool dialog box, enter a new name.
  6. Click Rename.

25.10. Setting overprovisioning mode in Stratis filesystem

A storage stack can reach a state of overprovision. If the file system size becomes bigger than the pool backing it, the pool becomes full. To prevent this, disable overprovisioning, which ensures that the size of all filesystems on the pool does not exceed the available physical storage provided by the pool. If you use Stratis for critical applications or the root filesystem, this mode prevents certain failure cases.

If you enable overprovisioning, an API signal notifies you when your storage has been fully allocated. The notification serves as a warning to the user to inform them that when all the remaining pool space fills up, Stratis has no space left to extend to.

Prerequisites

Procedure

To set up the pool correctly, you have two possibilities:

  1. Create a pool from one or more block devices: 

    # stratis pool create pool-name /dev/sdb

  2. Set overprovisioning mode in the existing pool: 

    # stratis pool overprovision pool-name <yes|no>
    • If set to "yes", you enable overprovisioning to the pool. This means that the sum of the logical sizes of the Stratis filesystems, supported by the pool, can exceed the amount of available data space.

Verification

  1. Run the following to view the full list of Stratis pools: 

    # stratis pool list

Name          Total Physical                    Properties     UUID                                   Alerts
pool-name     1.42 TiB / 23.96 MiB / 1.42 TiB   ~Ca,~Cr,~Op    cb7cb4d8-9322-4ac4-a6fd-eb7ae9e1e540
  2. Check if there is an indication of the pool overprovisioning mode flag in the stratis pool list output. The " ~ " is a math symbol for "NOT", so ~Op means no-overprovisioning.

  3. Optional: Run the following to check overprovisioning on a specific pool: 

    # stratis pool overprovision pool-name yes

# stratis pool list

Name          Total Physical                    Properties     UUID                                   Alerts
pool-name     1.42 TiB / 23.96 MiB / 1.42 TiB   ~Ca,~Cr,~Op    cb7cb4d8-9322-4ac4-a6fd-eb7ae9e1e540

Additional resources

25.11. Binding a Stratis pool to NBDE

Binding an encrypted Stratis pool to Network Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE) requires a Tang server. When a system containing the Stratis pool reboots, it connects with the Tang server to automatically unlock the encrypted pool without you having to provide the kernel keyring description.

Note

Binding a Stratis pool to a supplementary Clevis encryption mechanism does not remove the primary kernel keyring encryption.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • Bind an encrypted Stratis pool to NBDE: 

    # stratis pool bind nbde --trust-url my-pool tang-server

    where

    my-pool
    Specifies the name of the encrypted Stratis pool.
    tang-server
    Specifies the IP address or URL of the Tang server.

Additional resources

25.12. Binding a Stratis pool to TPM

When you bind an encrypted Stratis pool to the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, the system containing the pool reboots, and the pool is automatically unlocked without you having to provide the kernel keyring description.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • Bind an encrypted Stratis pool to TPM: 

    # stratis pool bind tpm my-pool key-description

    where

    my-pool
    Specifies the name of the encrypted Stratis pool.
    key-description
    References the key that exists in the kernel keyring, which was generated when you created the encrypted Stratis pool.

25.13. Unlocking an encrypted Stratis pool with kernel keyring

After a system reboot, your encrypted Stratis pool or the block devices that comprise it might not be visible. You can unlock the pool using the kernel keyring that was used to encrypt the pool.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Re-create the key set using the same key description that was used previously: 

    # stratis key set --capture-key key-description

    where key-description references the key that exists in the kernel keyring, which was generated when you created the encrypted Stratis pool.

  2. Verify that the Stratis pool is visible: 

    # stratis pool list

25.14. Unbinding a Stratis pool from supplementary encryption

When you unbind an encrypted Stratis pool from a supported supplementary encryption mechanism, the primary kernel keyring encryption remains in place. This is not true for pools that are created with Clevis encryption from the start.

Prerequisites

  • Stratis v2.3.0 or later is installed on your system. For more information, see Installing Stratis.
  • You have created an encrypted Stratis pool. For more information, see Creating an encrypted Stratis pool.
  • The encrypted Stratis pool is bound to a supported supplementary encryption mechanism.

Procedure

  • Unbind an encrypted Stratis pool from a supplementary encryption mechanism: 

    # stratis pool unbind clevis my-pool

    where

    my-pool specifies the name of the Stratis pool you want to unbind.

Additional resources

25.15. Starting and stopping Stratis pool

You can start and stop Stratis pools. This gives you the option to dissasemble or bring down all the objects that were used to construct the pool, such as filesystems, cache devices, thin pool, and encrypted devices. Note that if the pool actively uses any device or filesystem, it might issue a warning and not be able to stop.

The stopped state is recorded in the pool’s metadata. These pools do not start on the following boot, until the pool receives a start command.

Prerequisites

or Creating an encrypted Stratis pool.

Procedure

  • Use the following command to start the Stratis pool. The --unlock-method option specifies the method of unlocking the pool if it is encrypted: 

    # stratis pool start pool-uuid --unlock-method <keyring|clevis>

  • Alternatively, use the following command to stop the Stratis pool. This tears down the storage stack but leaves all metadata intact: 

    # stratis pool stop pool-name

Verification

  • Use the following command to list all pools on the system: 

    # stratis pool list

  • Use the following command to list all not previously started pools. If the UUID is specified, the command prints detailed information about the pool corresponding to the UUID: 

    # stratis pool list --stopped --uuid UUID

25.16. Creating a Stratis file system

Create a Stratis file system on an existing Stratis pool.

Prerequisites

or Creating an encrypted Stratis pool.

Procedure

  1. To create a Stratis file system on a pool, use: 

    # stratis filesystem create --size number-and-unit my-pool my-fs

    where

    number-and-unit
    Specifies the size of a file system. The specification format must follow the standard size specification format for input, that is B, KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB or PiB.
    my-pool
    Specifies the name of the Stratis pool.
    my-fs

    Specifies an arbitrary name for the file system.

    For example:

    Example 25.1. Creating a Stratis file system

    # stratis filesystem create --size 10GiB pool1 filesystem1

Verification

  • List file systems within the pool to check if the Stratis filesystem is created: 

    # stratis fs list my-pool

Additional resources

25.17. Creating a file system on a Stratis pool by using the web console

You can use the web console to create a file system on an existing Stratis pool.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. Click the Stratis pool on which you want to create a file system.

  4. On the Stratis pool page, scroll to the Stratis filesystems section and click Create new filesystem.

    Image displaying the Stratis pool page.

  5. In the Create filesystem dialog box, enter a Name for the file system.

    Image displaying the create Stratis file system dialog box.

  6. Enter the Mount point for the file system.
  7. Select the Mount option.
  8. In the At boot drop-down menu, select when you want to mount your file system.

  9. Create the file system:

    • If you want to create and mount the file system, click Create and mount.
    • If you want to only create the file system, click Create only.

Verification

  • The new file system is visible on the Stratis pool page under the Stratis filesystems tab.

25.18. Mounting a Stratis file system

Mount an existing Stratis file system to access the content.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • To mount the file system, use the entries that Stratis maintains in the /dev/stratis/ directory: 

    # mount /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs mount-point

The file system is now mounted on the mount-point directory and ready to use.

Additional resources

25.19. Setting up non-root Stratis filesystems in /etc/fstab using a systemd service

You can manage setting up non-root filesystems in /etc/fstab using a systemd service.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • As root, edit the /etc/fstab file and add a line to set up non-root filesystems: 

    /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs mount-point xfs defaults,x-systemd.requires=stratis-fstab-setup@pool-uuid.service,x-systemd.after=stratis-fstab-setup@pool-uuid.service dump-value fsck_value

Additional resources

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