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Managing storage devices

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Configuring and managing local and remote storage devices

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) provides several local and remote storage options. With the available storage options, you can perform the following tasks:
  • Create disk partitions according to your requirements. Use disk encryption to protect the data on a block device.
  • Create a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) to store data across multiple drives and avoid data loss.
  • Use iSCSI and NVMe over Fabrics to access storage over a network.
  • Set up Stratis to manage pools of physical storage devices.

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Chapter 1. Overview of available storage options

There are several local, remote, and cluster-based storage options available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

Local storage implies that the storage devices are either installed on the system or directly attached to the system.

With remote storage, devices are accessed over LAN, the internet, or using a Fibre channel network. The following high level Red Hat Enterprise Linux storage diagram describes the different storage options.

Figure 1.1. High level Red Hat Enterprise Linux storage diagram

High Level RHEL Storage Diagram

1.1. Local storage overview

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 offers several local storage options.

Basic disk administration

Using parted and fdisk, you can create, modify, delete, and view disk partitions. The following are the partitioning layout standards:

Master Boot Record (MBR)
It is used with BIOS-based computers. You can create primary, extended, and logical partitions.
GUID Partition Table (GPT)
It uses Globally Unique identifier (GUID) and provides unique disk and partition GUID.

To encrypt the partition, you can use Linux Unified Key Setup-on-disk-format (LUKS). To encrypt the partition, select the option during the installation and the prompt displays to enter the passphrase. This passphrase unlocks the encryption key.

Storage consumption options
Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) Management
It is a combination of memory and storage. You can enable and manage various types of storage on NVDIMM devices connected to your system.
Block Storage Management
Data is stored in the form of blocks where each block has a unique identifier.
File Storage
Data is stored at file level on the local system. These data can be accessed locally using XFS (default) or ext4, and over a network by using NFS and SMB.
Logical volumes
Logical Volume Manager (LVM)

It creates logical devices from physical devices. Logical volume (LV) is a combination of the physical volumes (PV) and volume groups (VG). Configuring LVM include:

  • Creating PV from the hard drives.
  • Creating VG from the PV.
  • Creating LV from the VG assigning mount points to the LV.
Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO)

It is used for data reduction by using deduplication, compression, and thin provisioning. Using LV below VDO helps in:

  • Extending of VDO volume
  • Spanning VDO volume over multiple devices
Local file systems
XFS
The default RHEL file system.
Ext4
A legacy file system.
Stratis
Stratis is a hybrid user-and-kernel local storage management system that supports advanced storage features.

1.2. Remote storage overview

The following are the remote storage options available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9:

Storage connectivity options
iSCSI
RHEL 9 uses the targetcli tool to add, remove, view, and monitor iSCSI storage interconnects.
Fibre Channel (FC)

RHEL 9 provides the following native Fibre Channel drivers:

  • lpfc
  • qla2xxx
  • Zfcp
Non-volatile Memory Express (NVMe)

An interface which allows host software utility to communicate with solid state drives. Use the following types of fabric transport to configure NVMe over fabrics:

  • NVMe over fabrics using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).
  • NVMe over fabrics using Fibre Channel (FC)
Device Mapper multipathing (DM Multipath)
Allows you to configure multiple I/O paths between server nodes and storage arrays into a single device. These I/O paths are physical SAN connections that can include separate cables, switches, and controllers.
Network file system
  • NFS
  • SMB

1.3. GFS2 file system overview

The Red Hat Global File System 2 (GFS2) file system is a 64-bit symmetric cluster file system which provides a shared name space and manages coherency between multiple nodes sharing a common block device. A GFS2 file system is intended to provide a feature set which is as close as possible to a local file system, while at the same time enforcing full cluster coherency between nodes. To achieve this, the nodes employ a cluster-wide locking scheme for file system resources. This locking scheme uses communication protocols such as TCP/IP to exchange locking information.

In a few cases, the Linux file system API does not allow the clustered nature of GFS2 to be totally transparent; for example, programs using POSIX locks in GFS2 should avoid using the GETLK function since, in a clustered environment, the process ID may be for a different node in the cluster. In most cases however, the functionality of a GFS2 file system is identical to that of a local file system.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Resilient Storage Add-On provides GFS2, and it depends on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability Add-On to provide the cluster management required by GFS2.

The gfs2.ko kernel module implements the GFS2 file system and is loaded on GFS2 cluster nodes.

To get the best performance from GFS2, it is important to take into account the performance considerations which stem from the underlying design. Just like a local file system, GFS2 relies on the page cache in order to improve performance by local caching of frequently used data. In order to maintain coherency across the nodes in the cluster, cache control is provided by the glock state machine.

Additional resources

Chapter 2. Persistent naming attributes

The way you identify and manage storage devices ensures the stability and predictability of the system. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 uses two primary naming schemes for this purpose: traditional device names and persistent naming attributes.

Traditional device names

Traditional device names are determined by the Linux kernel based on the physical location of the device in the system. For example, the first SATA drive is usually labeled as /dev/sda, the second as /dev/sdb, and so on. While these names are straightforward, they are subject to change when devices are added or removed or when the hardware configuration is modified. This can pose challenges for scripting and configuration files. Furthermore, traditional names lack descriptive information about the purpose or characteristics of the device.

Persistent naming attributes

Persistent naming attributes are based on unique characteristics of the storage devices, making them more stable and predictable across system reboots. Implementing PNAs involves a more detailed initial configuration compared to traditional naming. One of the key benefits of PNAs is their resilience to changes in hardware configurations, making them ideal for maintaining consistent naming conventions. When using PNAs, you can reference storage devices within scripts, configuration files, and management tools without concerns about unexpected name changes. Additionally, PNAs often include valuable metadata, such as device type or manufacturer information, enhancing their descriptiveness for effective device identification and management.

2.1. Persistent attributes for identifying file systems and block devices

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 storage, persistent naming attributes (PNAs) are mechanisms that provide consistent and reliable naming for storage devices across system reboots, hardware changes, or other events. These attributes are used to identify storage devices consistently, even if the storage devices are added, removed, or reconfigured.

PNAs are used to identify both file systems and block devices, but they serve different purposes:

Persistent attributes for identifying file systems
  • Universally unique identifier (UUID)

    UUIDs are primarily used to uniquely identify file systems on storage devices. Each file system has its own UUID, and this identifier remains constant even if the file system is unmounted, remounted, or the device is detached and reattached.

  • Label

    Labels are user-assigned names for file systems. While they can be used to identify and reference file systems, they are not as standardized as UUIDs. Labels are often used as alternatives to UUIDs to specify file systems in configuration files.

    When you assign a label to a file system, it becomes part of the file system metadata. This label persists with the file system even if you mount the file system on different mount points or different systems.

Persistent attributes for identifying block devices
  • Universally unique identifier (UUID)

    UUIDs can be used to identify storage block devices. When a storage device is formatted or when a file system is created on it, a UUID is often assigned to the device itself. This UUID is embedded within the file system metadata or partition table and is used as a reference for persistent device naming. It allows you to uniquely identify the block device, even if you change the file system or reformat it.

  • World Wide Identifier (WWID)

    WWIDs are globally unique identifiers associated with storage block devices. They are commonly used in Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks (SANs) to identify Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) or network interfaces that connect servers to SAN storage devices. WWIDs ensure consistent communication between servers and SAN storage devices and help manage redundant paths to storage devices.

  • Serial number

    The serial number is a unique identifier assigned to each storage block device by the manufacturer. It can be used to differentiate between storage devices and may be used in combination with other attributes like UUIDs or WWIDs for device management.

2.2. udev device naming rules

Userspace device manager (udev) subsystem allows you to define rules for assigning persistent names to devices. These rules are stored in a file with a .rules extension in the /etc/udev/rules.d/ directory. The purpose of these rules is to ensure that storage devices are consistently and predictably identified, even across system reboots and configuration changes.

udev rules are written in a human-readable format using key-value pairs. When a device is detected or initialized, udev evaluates these rules sequentially, based on the order they are defined. The first matching rule is applied to the device, determining its name and how it will be identified within the system.

In the case of storage devices, udev rules create symbolic links in the /dev/disk/ directory. These symbolic links provide user-friendly aliases for storage devices, making it more convenient to refer to and manage these devices.

You can create custom udev rules to specify how devices should be named based on various attributes such as serial numbers, WWN (World Wide Name) identifiers, or other device-specific characteristics. By defining specific naming rules, you have precise control over how devices are identified within the system.

There are two primary locations for udev rules:

  • /lib/udev/rules.d/ directory contains default rules that come with the udev package.
  • /etc/udev/rules.d directory is intended for custom udev rules.

While udev rules are very flexible, it is important to be aware of udev limitations:

  • Accessibility Timing: Some storage devices might not be accessible at the time of a udev query.
  • Event-Based Processing: The kernel can send udev events at any time, potentially triggering rule processing and link removal if a device is inaccessible.
  • Processing Delay: There might be a delay between event generation and processing, especially with numerous devices, causing a lag between kernel detection and link availability.
  • Device Accessibility: External programs invoked by udev rules, like blkid, might briefly open the device, making it temporarily inaccessible for other tasks.
  • Link Updates: Device names managed by udev in /dev/disk/ can change between major releases, requiring link updates.

Additional resources

  • The udev man page

Chapter 3. Managing local storage by using the RHEL system role

To manage LVM and local file systems (FS) by using Ansible, you can use the storage role, which is one of the RHEL system roles available in RHEL 9.

Using the storage role enables you to automate administration of file systems on disks and logical volumes on multiple machines and across all versions of RHEL starting with RHEL 7.7.

For more information about RHEL system roles and how to apply them, see Introduction to RHEL system roles.

3.1. Introduction to the storage RHEL system role

The storage role can manage:

  • File systems on disks which have not been partitioned
  • Complete LVM volume groups including their logical volumes and file systems
  • MD RAID volumes and their file systems

With the storage role, you can perform the following tasks:

  • Create a file system
  • Remove a file system
  • Mount a file system
  • Unmount a file system
  • Create LVM volume groups
  • Remove LVM volume groups
  • Create logical volumes
  • Remove logical volumes
  • Create RAID volumes
  • Remove RAID volumes
  • Create LVM volume groups with RAID
  • Remove LVM volume groups with RAID
  • Create encrypted LVM volume groups
  • Create LVM logical volumes with RAID

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.2. Creating an XFS file system on a block device by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage role to create an XFS file system on a block device using the default parameters.

Note

The storage role can create a file system only on an unpartitioned, whole disk or a logical volume (LV). It cannot create the file system on a partition.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
              - sdb
            fs_type: xfs
    • The volume name (barefs in the example) is currently arbitrary. The storage role identifies the volume by the disk device listed under the disks: attribute.
    • You can omit the fs_type: xfs line because XFS is the default file system in RHEL 9.
    • To create the file system on an LV, provide the LVM setup under the disks: attribute, including the enclosing volume group. For details, see Managing logical volumes by using the storage RHEL system role.

      Do not provide the path to the LV device.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.3. Persistently mounting a file system by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible applies the storage role to immediately and persistently mount an XFS file system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
              - sdb
            fs_type: xfs
            mount_point: /mnt/data
            mount_user: somebody
            mount_group: somegroup
            mount_mode: 0755
    • This playbook adds the file system to the /etc/fstab file, and mounts the file system immediately.
    • If the file system on the /dev/sdb device or the mount point directory do not exist, the playbook creates them.
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.4. Managing logical volumes by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage role to create an LVM logical volume in a volume group.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    - hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_pools:
          - name: myvg
            disks:
              - sda
              - sdb
              - sdc
            volumes:
              - name: mylv
                size: 2G
                fs_type: ext4
                mount_point: /mnt/dat
    • The myvg volume group consists of the following disks: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, and /dev/sdc.
    • If the myvg volume group already exists, the playbook adds the logical volume to the volume group.
    • If the myvg volume group does not exist, the playbook creates it.
    • The playbook creates an Ext4 file system on the mylv logical volume, and persistently mounts the file system at /mnt.
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.5. Enabling online block discard by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage role to mount an XFS file system with online block discard enabled.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
              - sdb
            fs_type: xfs
            mount_point: /mnt/data
            mount_options: discard
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.6. Creating and mounting an Ext4 file system by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage role to create and mount an Ext4 file system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
              - sdb
            fs_type: ext4
            fs_label: label-name
            mount_point: /mnt/data
    • The playbook creates the file system on the /dev/sdb disk.
    • The playbook persistently mounts the file system at the /mnt/data directory.
    • The label of the file system is label-name.
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.7. Creating and mounting an Ext3 file system by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage role to create and mount an Ext3 file system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - hosts: all
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
              - sdb
            fs_type: ext3
            fs_label: label-name
            mount_point: /mnt/data
            mount_user: somebody
            mount_group: somegroup
            mount_mode: 0755
    • The playbook creates the file system on the /dev/sdb disk.
    • The playbook persistently mounts the file system at the /mnt/data directory.
    • The label of the file system is label-name.
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.8. Resizing an existing file system on LVM by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage RHEL system role to resize an LVM logical volume with a file system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Create LVM pool over three disks
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      tasks:
        - name: Resize LVM logical volume with file system
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: rhel-system-roles.storage
          vars:
            storage_pools:
              - name: myvg
                disks:
                  - /dev/sda
                  - /dev/sdb
                  - /dev/sdc
                volumes:
                  - name: mylv1
                    size: 10 GiB
                    fs_type: ext4
                    mount_point: /opt/mount1
                  - name: mylv2
                    size: 50 GiB
                    fs_type: ext4
                    mount_point: /opt/mount2

    This playbook resizes the following existing file systems:

    • The Ext4 file system on the mylv1 volume, which is mounted at /opt/mount1, resizes to 10 GiB.
    • The Ext4 file system on the mylv2 volume, which is mounted at /opt/mount2, resizes to 50 GiB.
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.9. Creating a swap volume by using the storage RHEL system role

This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage role to create a swap volume, if it does not exist, or to modify the swap volume, if it already exist, on a block device by using the default parameters.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Create a disk device with swap
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: swap_fs
            type: disk
            disks:
              - /dev/sdb
            size: 15 GiB
            fs_type: swap

    The volume name (swap_fs in the example) is currently arbitrary. The storage role identifies the volume by the disk device listed under the disks: attribute.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.10. Configuring a RAID volume by using the storage RHEL system role

With the storage system role, you can configure a RAID volume on RHEL by using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible-Core. Create an Ansible playbook with the parameters to configure a RAID volume to suit your requirements.

Warning

Device names might change in certain circumstances, for example, when you add a new disk to a system. Therefore, to prevent data loss, do not use specific disk names in the playbook.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Configure the storage
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      tasks:
        - name: Create a RAID on sdd, sde, sdf, and sdg
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: rhel-system-roles.storage
          vars:
            storage_safe_mode: false
            storage_volumes:
              - name: data
                type: raid
                disks: [sdd, sde, sdf, sdg]
                raid_level: raid0
                raid_chunk_size: 32 KiB
                mount_point: /mnt/data
                state: present
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.11. Configuring an LVM pool with RAID by using the storage RHEL system role

With the storage system role, you can configure an LVM pool with RAID on RHEL by using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. You can set up an Ansible playbook with the available parameters to configure an LVM pool with RAID.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Configure LVM pool with RAID
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_safe_mode: false
        storage_pools:
          - name: my_pool
            type: lvm
            disks: [sdh, sdi]
            raid_level: raid1
            volumes:
              - name: my_volume
                size: "1 GiB"
                mount_point: "/mnt/app/shared"
                fs_type: xfs
                state: present

    To create an LVM pool with RAID, you must specify the RAID type by using the raid_level parameter.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory
  • Managing RAID

3.12. Configuring a stripe size for RAID LVM volumes by using the storage RHEL system role

With the storage system role, you can configure a stripe size for RAID LVM volumes on RHEL by using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. You can set up an Ansible playbook with the available parameters to configure an LVM pool with RAID.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Configure stripe size for RAID LVM volumes
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_safe_mode: false
        storage_pools:
          - name: my_pool
            type: lvm
            disks: [sdh, sdi]
            volumes:
              - name: my_volume
                size: "1 GiB"
                mount_point: "/mnt/app/shared"
                fs_type: xfs
                raid_level: raid1
                raid_stripe_size: "256 KiB"
                state: present
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory
  • Managing RAID

3.13. Compressing and deduplicating a VDO volume on LVM by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage RHEL system role to enable compression and deduplication of Logical Volumes (LVM) by using Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO).

Note

Because of the storage system role use of LVM VDO, only one volume per pool can use the compression and deduplication.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    - name: Create LVM VDO volume under volume group 'myvg'
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_pools:
          - name: myvg
            disks:
              - /dev/sdb
            volumes:
              - name: mylv1
                compression: true
                deduplication: true
                vdo_pool_size: 10 GiB
                size: 30 GiB
                mount_point: /mnt/app/shared

    In this example, the compression and deduplication pools are set to true, which specifies that the VDO is used. The following describes the usage of these parameters:

    • The deduplication is used to deduplicate the duplicated data stored on the storage volume.
    • The compression is used to compress the data stored on the storage volume, which results in more storage capacity.
    • The vdo_pool_size specifies the actual size the volume takes on the device. The virtual size of VDO volume is set by the size parameter.
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

3.14. Creating a LUKS2 encrypted volume by using the storage RHEL system role

You can use the storage role to create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS by running an Ansible playbook.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
             - sdb
            fs_type: xfs
            fs_label: label-name
            mount_point: /mnt/data
            encryption: true
            encryption_password: <password>

    You can also add other encryption parameters, such as encryption_key, encryption_cipher, encryption_key_size, and encryption_luks, to the playbook file.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Verification

  1. View the encryption status:

    # cryptsetup status sdb
    
    /dev/mapper/sdb is active and is in use.
    type: LUKS2
    cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    keysize: 512 bits
    key location: keyring
    device: /dev/sdb
    ...
  2. Verify the created LUKS encrypted volume:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sdb
    
    Version:        2
    Epoch:          6
    Metadata area:  16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area:  33521664 [bytes]
    UUID:           a4c6be82-7347-4a91-a8ad-9479b72c9426
    Label:          (no label)
    Subsystem:      (no subsystem)
    Flags:          allow-discards
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
            offset: 33554432 [bytes]
            length: (whole device)
            cipher: aes-xts-plain64
            sector: 4096 [bytes]
    ...

Additional resources

3.15. Expressing pool volume sizes as percentage by using the storage RHEL system role

The example Ansible playbook applies the storage system role to enable you to express Logical Manager Volumes (LVM) volume sizes as a percentage of the pool’s total size.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Express volume sizes as a percentage of the pool's total size
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_pools:
          - name: myvg
            disks:
              - /dev/sdb
            volumes:
              - name: data
                size: 60%
                mount_point: /opt/mount/data
              - name: web
                size: 30%
                mount_point: /opt/mount/web
              - name: cache
                size: 10%
                mount_point: /opt/cache/mount

    This example specifies the size of LVM volumes as a percentage of the pool size, for example: 60%. Alternatively, you can also specify the size of LVM volumes as a percentage of the pool size in a human-readable size of the file system, for example, 10g or 50 GiB.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

Chapter 4. Disk partitions

To divide a disk into one or more logical areas, use the disk partitioning utility. It enables separate management of each partition.

4.1. Overview of partitions

The hard disk stores information about the location and size of each disk partition in the partition table. Using information from the partition table, the operating system treats each partition as a logical disk. Some of the advantages of disk partitioning include:

  • Reduce the likelihood of administrative oversights of Physical Volumes
  • Ensure sufficient backup
  • Provide efficient disk management

4.2. Considerations before modifying partitions on a disk

Before creating, removing, or resizing any disk partitions, consider the following aspects.

On a device, the type of the partition table determines the maximum number and size of individual partitions.

Maximum number of partitions:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, you can have:

    • Up to four primary partitions.
    • Up to three primary partitions, one extended partition

      • Multiple logical partitions within the extended partition
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT), you can have:

    • Up to 128 partitions, if using the parted utility.

      • Though the GPT specification allows more partitions by increasing the reserved size of the partition table, the parted utility limits the area required for 128 partitions.

Maximum size of partitions:

  • On a device formatted with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table:

    • While using 512b sector drives, the maximum size is 2 TiB.
    • While using 4k sector drives, the maximum size is 16 TiB.
  • On a device formatted with the GUID Partition Table (GPT):

    • While using 512b sector drives, the maximum size is 8 ZiB.
    • While using 4k sector drives, the maximum size is 64 ZiB.

By using the parted utility, you can specify the partition size using multiple different suffixes:

  • MiB, GiB, or TiB

    • Size expressed in powers of 2.
    • The starting point of the partition is aligned to the exact sector specified by size.
    • The ending point is aligned to the specified size minus 1 sector.
  • MB, GB, or TB:

    • Size expressed in powers of 10.
    • The starting and ending points are aligned within one half of the specified unit. For example, ±500KB when using the MB suffix.
Note

This section does not cover the DASD partition table, which is specific to the IBM Z architecture.

4.3. Comparison of partition table types

To enable partitions on a device, format a block device with different types of partition tables. The following table compares the properties of different types of partition tables that you can create on a block device.

Table 4.1. Partition table types
Partition tableMaximum number of partitionsMaximum partition size

Master Boot Record (MBR)

4 primary, or 3 primary and 1 extended partition with 12 logical partitions

2TiB

GUID Partition Table (GPT)

128

8ZiB

4.4. MBR disk partitions

The partition table is stored at the very start of the disk, before any file system or user data. For a more clear example, the partition table is shown as being separate in the following diagrams.

Figure 4.1. Disk with MBR partition table

unused partitioned drive

As the previous diagram shows, the partition table is divided into four sections of four unused primary partitions. A primary partition is a partition on a hard disk drive that contains only one logical drive (or section). Each logical drive holds the information necessary to define a single partition, meaning that the partition table can define no more than four primary partitions.

Each partition table entry contains important characteristics of the partition:

  • The points on the disk where the partition starts and ends
  • The state of the partition, as only one partition can be flagged as active
  • The type of partition

The starting and ending points define the size and location of the partition on the disk. Some of the operating systems boot loaders use the active flag. That means that the operating system in the partition that is marked "active" is booted.

The type is a number that identifies the anticipated usage of a partition. Some operating systems use the partition type to:

  • Denote a specific file system type
  • Flag the partition as being associated with a particular operating system
  • Indicate that the partition contains a bootable operating system

The following diagram shows an example of a drive with a single partition. In this example, the first partition is labeled as DOS partition type:

Figure 4.2. Disk with a single partition

dos single partition

Additional resources

4.5. Extended MBR partitions

To create additional partitions, if needed, set the type to extended.

An extended partition is similar to a disk drive. It has its own partition table, which points to one or more logical partitions, contained entirely within the extended partition. The following diagram shows a disk drive with two primary partitions, and one extended partition containing two logical partitions, along with some unpartitioned free space.

Figure 4.3. Disk with both two primary and an extended MBR partitions

extended partitions

You can have only up to four primary and extended partitions, but there is no fixed limit to the number of logical partitions. As a limit in Linux to access partitions, a single disk drive allows maximum 15 logical partitions.

4.6. MBR partition types

The table below shows a list of some of the most commonly used MBR partition types and hexadecimal numbers to represent them.

Table 4.2. MBR partition types

MBR partition type

Value

MBR partition type

Value

Empty

00

Novell Netware 386

65

DOS 12-bit FAT

01

PIC/IX

75

XENIX root

O2

Old MINIX

80

XENIX usr

O3

Linux/MINUX

81

DOS 16-bit ⇐32M

04

Linux swap

82

Extended

05

Linux native

83

DOS 16-bit >=32

06

Linux extended

85

OS/2 HPFS

07

Amoeba

93

AIX

08

Amoeba BBT

94

AIX bootable

09

BSD/386

a5

OS/2 Boot Manager

0a

OpenBSD

a6

Win95 FAT32

0b

NEXTSTEP

a7

Win95 FAT32 (LBA)

0c

BSDI fs

b7

Win95 FAT16 (LBA)

0e

BSDI swap

b8

Win95 Extended (LBA)

0f

Syrinx

c7

Venix 80286

40

CP/M

db

Novell

51

DOS access

e1

PRep Boot

41

DOS R/O

e3

GNU HURD

63

DOS secondary

f2

Novell Netware 286

64

BBT

ff

4.7. GUID partition table

The GUID partition table (GPT) is a partitioning scheme based on the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID).

GPT deals with the limitations of the Mater Boot Record (MBR) partition table. The MBR partition table cannot address storage larger than 2 TiB, equal to approximately 2.2 TB. Instead, GPT supports hard disks with larger capacity. The maximum addressable disk size is 8 ZiB, when using 512b sector drives, and 64 ZiB, when using 4096b sector drives. In addition, by default, GPT supports creation of up to 128 primary partitions. Extend the maximum amount of primary partitions by allocating more space to the partition table.

Note

A GPT has partition types based on GUIDs. Certain partitions require a specific GUID. For example, the system partition for Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) boot loaders require GUID C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B.

GPT disks use logical block addressing (LBA) and a partition layout as follows:

  • For backward compatibility with MBR disks, the system reserves the first sector (LBA 0) of GPT for MBR data, and applies the name "protective MBR".
  • Primary GPT

    • The header begins on the second logical block (LBA 1) of the device. The header contains the disk GUID, the location of the primary partition table, the location of the secondary GPT header, and CRC32 checksums of itself, and the primary partition table. It also specifies the number of partition entries on the table.
    • By default, the primary GPT includes 128 partition entries. Each partition has an entry size of 128 bytes, a partition type GUID and a unique partition GUID.
  • Secondary GPT

    • For recovery, it is useful as a backup table in case the primary partition table is corrupted.
    • The last logical sector of the disk contains the secondary GPT header and recovers GPT information, in case the primary header is corrupted.
    • It contains:

      • The disk GUID
      • The location of the secondary partition table and the primary GPT header
      • CRC32 checksums of itself
      • The secondary partition table
      • The number of possible partition entries

Figure 4.4. Disk with a GUID Partition Table

gpt partition
Important

For a successful installation of the boot loader onto a GPT disk a BIOS boot partition must be present. Reuse is possible only if the disk already contains a BIOS boot partition. This includes disks initialized by the Anaconda installation program.

4.8. Partition types

There are multiple ways to manage partition types:

  • The fdisk utility supports the full range of partition types by specifying hexadecimal codes.
  • The systemd-gpt-auto-generator, a unit generator utility, uses the partition type to automatically identify and mount devices.
  • The parted utility maps out the partition type with flags. The parted utility handles only certain partition types, for example LVM, swap or RAID.

    The parted utility supports setting the following flags:

    • boot
    • root
    • swap
    • hidden
    • raid
    • lvm
    • lba
    • legacy_boot
    • irst
    • esp
    • palo

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 with parted 3.5, you can use the additional flags chromeos_kernel and bls_boot.

The parted utility optionally accepts a file system type argument while creating a partition. See Creating a partition with parted

for a list of the required conditions. Use the value to:

  • Set the partition flags on MBR.
  • Set the partition UUID type on GPT. For example, the swap, fat, or hfs file system types set different GUIDs. The default value is the Linux Data GUID.

The argument does not modify the file system on the partition. It only differentiates between the supported flags and GUIDs.

The following file system types are supported:

  • xfs
  • ext2
  • ext3
  • ext4
  • fat16
  • fat32
  • hfs
  • hfs+
  • linux-swap
  • ntfs
  • reiserfs

4.9. Partition naming scheme

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses a file-based naming scheme, with file names in the form of /dev/xxyN.

Device and partition names consist of the following structure:

/dev/
Name of the directory that contains all device files. Hard disks contain partitions, thus the files representing all possible partitions are located in /dev.
xx
The first two letters of the partition name indicate the type of device that contains the partition.
y
This letter indicates the specific device containing the partition. For example, /dev/sda for the first hard disk and /dev/sdb for the second. You can use more letters in systems with more than 26 drives, for example, /dev/sdaa1.
N
The final letter indicates the number to represent the partition. The first four (primary or extended) partitions are numbered 1 through 4. Logical partitions start at 5. For example, /dev/sda3 is the third primary or extended partition on the first hard disk, and /dev/sdb6 is the second logical partition on the second hard disk. Drive partition numbering applies only to MBR partition tables. Note that N does not always mean partition.
Note

Even if Red Hat Enterprise Linux can identify and refer to all types of disk partitions, it might not be able to read the file system and therefore access stored data on every partition type. However, in many cases, it is possible to successfully access data on a partition dedicated to another operating system.

4.10. Mount points and disk partitions

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, each partition forms a part of the storage, necessary to support a single set of files and directories. Mounting a partition makes the storage of that partition available, starting at the specified directory known as a mount point.

For example, if partition /dev/sda5 is mounted on /usr/, it means that all files and directories under /usr/ physically reside on /dev/sda5. The file /usr/share/doc/FAQ/txt/Linux-FAQ resides on /dev/sda5, while the file /etc/gdm/custom.conf does not.

Continuing the example, it is also possible that one or more directories below /usr/ would be mount points for other partitions. For example, /usr/local/man/whatis resides on /dev/sda7, rather than on /dev/sda5, if /usr/local includes a mounted /dev/sda7 partition.

Chapter 5. Getting started with partitions

Use disk partitioning to divide a disk into one or more logical areas which enables work on each partition separately. The hard disk stores information about the location and size of each disk partition in the partition table. Using the table, each partition then appears as a logical disk to the operating system. You can then read and write on those individual disks.

For an overview of the advantages and disadvantages to using partitions on block devices, see What are the advantages and disadvantages to using partitioning on LUNs, either directly or with LVM in between?.

5.1. Creating a partition table on a disk with parted

Use the parted utility to format a block device with a partition table more easily.

Warning

Formatting a block device with a partition table deletes all data stored on the device.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell:

    # parted block-device
  2. Determine if there already is a partition table on the device:

    # (parted) print

    If the device already contains partitions, they will be deleted in the following steps.

  3. Create the new partition table:

    # (parted) mklabel table-type
    • Replace table-type with with the intended partition table type:

      • msdos for MBR
      • gpt for GPT

    Example 5.1. Creating a GUID Partition Table (GPT) table

    To create a GPT table on the disk, use:

    # (parted) mklabel gpt

    The changes start applying after you enter this command.

  4. View the partition table to confirm that it is created:

    # (parted) print
  5. Exit the parted shell:

    # (parted) quit

Additional resources

  • parted(8) man page.

5.2. Viewing the partition table with parted

Display the partition table of a block device to see the partition layout and details about individual partitions. You can view the partition table on a block device using the parted utility.

Procedure

  1. Start the parted utility. For example, the following output lists the device /dev/sda:

    # parted /dev/sda
  2. View the partition table:

    # (parted) print
    
    Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZNLN256 (scsi)
    Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
    Partition Table: msdos
    Disk Flags:
    
    Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system  Flags
     1      1049kB  269MB   268MB   primary   xfs          boot
     2      269MB   34.6GB  34.4GB  primary
     3      34.6GB  45.4GB  10.7GB  primary
     4      45.4GB  256GB   211GB   extended
     5      45.4GB  256GB   211GB   logical
  3. Optional: Switch to the device you want to examine next:

    # (parted) select block-device

For a detailed description of the print command output, see the following:

Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZNLN256 (scsi)
The disk type, manufacturer, model number, and interface.
Disk /dev/sda: 256GB
The file path to the block device and the storage capacity.
Partition Table: msdos
The disk label type.
Number
The partition number. For example, the partition with minor number 1 corresponds to /dev/sda1.
Start and End
The location on the device where the partition starts and ends.
Type
Valid types are metadata, free, primary, extended, or logical.
File system
The file system type. If the File system field of a device shows no value, this means that its file system type is unknown. The parted utility cannot recognize the file system on encrypted devices.
Flags
Lists the flags set for the partition. Available flags are boot, root, swap, hidden, raid, lvm, or lba.

Additional resources

  • parted(8) man page.

5.3. Creating a partition with parted

As a system administrator, you can create new partitions on a disk by using the parted utility.

Note

The required partitions are swap, /boot/, and / (root).

Prerequisites

  • A partition table on the disk.
  • If the partition you want to create is larger than 2TiB, format the disk with the GUID Partition Table (GPT).

Procedure

  1. Start the parted utility:

    # parted block-device
  2. View the current partition table to determine if there is enough free space:

    # (parted) print
    • Resize the partition in case there is not enough free space.
    • From the partition table, determine:

      • The start and end points of the new partition.
      • On MBR, what partition type it should be.
  3. Create the new partition:

    # (parted) mkpart part-type name fs-type start end
    • Replace part-type with with primary, logical, or extended. This applies only to the MBR partition table.
    • Replace name with an arbitrary partition name. This is required for GPT partition tables.
    • Replace fs-type with xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, linux-swap, ntfs, or reiserfs. The fs-type parameter is optional. Note that the parted utility does not create the file system on the partition.
    • Replace start and end with the sizes that determine the starting and ending points of the partition, counting from the beginning of the disk. You can use size suffixes, such as 512MiB, 20GiB, or 1.5TiB. The default size is in megabytes.

    Example 5.2. Creating a small primary partition

    To create a primary partition from 1024MiB until 2048MiB on an MBR table, use:

    # (parted) mkpart primary 1024MiB 2048MiB

    The changes start applying after you enter the command.

  4. View the partition table to confirm that the created partition is in the partition table with the correct partition type, file system type, and size:

    # (parted) print
  5. Exit the parted shell:

    # (parted) quit
  6. Register the new device node:

    # udevadm settle
  7. Verify that the kernel recognizes the new partition:

    # cat /proc/partitions

5.4. Setting a partition type with fdisk

You can set a partition type or flag, using the fdisk utility.

Prerequisites

  • A partition on the disk.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive fdisk shell:

    # fdisk block-device
  2. View the current partition table to determine the minor partition number:

    Command (m for help): print

    You can see the current partition type in the Type column and its corresponding type ID in the Id column.

  3. Enter the partition type command and select a partition using its minor number:

    Command (m for help): type
    Partition number (1,2,3 default 3): 2
  4. Optional: View the list in hexadecimal codes:

    Hex code (type L to list all codes): L
  5. Set the partition type:

    Hex code (type L to list all codes): 8e
  6. Write your changes and exit the fdisk shell:

    Command (m for help): write
    The partition table has been altered.
    Syncing disks.
  7. Verify your changes:

    # fdisk --list block-device

5.5. Resizing a partition with parted

Using the parted utility, extend a partition to use unused disk space, or shrink a partition to use its capacity for different purposes.

Prerequisites

  • Back up the data before shrinking a partition.
  • If the partition you want to create is larger than 2TiB, format the disk with the GUID Partition Table (GPT).
  • If you want to shrink the partition, first shrink the file system so that it is not larger than the resized partition.
Note

XFS does not support shrinking.

Procedure

  1. Start the parted utility:

    # parted block-device
  2. View the current partition table:

    # (parted) print

    From the partition table, determine:

    • The minor number of the partition.
    • The location of the existing partition and its new ending point after resizing.
  3. Resize the partition:

    # (parted) resizepart 1 2GiB
    • Replace 1 with the minor number of the partition that you are resizing.
    • Replace 2 with the size that determines the new ending point of the resized partition, counting from the beginning of the disk. You can use size suffixes, such as 512MiB, 20GiB, or 1.5TiB. The default size is in megabytes.
  4. View the partition table to confirm that the resized partition is in the partition table with the correct size:

    # (parted) print
  5. Exit the parted shell:

    # (parted) quit
  6. Verify that the kernel registers the new partition:

    # cat /proc/partitions
  7. Optional: If you extended the partition, extend the file system on it as well.

5.6. Removing a partition with parted

Using the parted utility, you can remove a disk partition to free up disk space.

Warning

Removing a partition deletes all data stored on the partition.

Procedure

  1. Start the interactive parted shell:

    # parted block-device
    • Replace block-device with the path to the device where you want to remove a partition: for example, /dev/sda.
  2. View the current partition table to determine the minor number of the partition to remove:

    (parted) print
  3. Remove the partition:

    (parted) rm minor-number
    • Replace minor-number with the minor number of the partition you want to remove.

    The changes start applying as soon as you enter this command.

  4. Verify that you have removed the partition from the partition table:

    (parted) print
  5. Exit the parted shell:

    (parted) quit
  6. Verify that the kernel registers that the partition is removed:

    # cat /proc/partitions
  7. Remove the partition from the /etc/fstab file, if it is present. Find the line that declares the removed partition, and remove it from the file.
  8. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new /etc/fstab configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
  9. If you have deleted a swap partition or removed pieces of LVM, remove all references to the partition from the kernel command line:

    1. List active kernel options and see if any option references the removed partition:

      # grubby --info=ALL
    2. Remove the kernel options that reference the removed partition:

      # grubby --update-kernel=ALL --remove-args="option"
  10. To register the changes in the early boot system, rebuild the initramfs file system:

    # dracut --force --verbose

Additional resources

  • parted(8) man page

Chapter 6. Strategies for repartitioning a disk

There are different approaches to repartitioning a disk. These include:

  • Unpartitioned free space is available.
  • An unused partition is available.
  • Free space in an actively used partition is available.
Note

The following examples are simplified for clarity and do not reflect the exact partition layout when actually installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

6.1. Using unpartitioned free space

Partitions that are already defined and do not span the entire hard disk, leave unallocated space that is not part of any defined partition. The following diagram shows what this might look like.

Figure 6.1. Disk with unpartitioned free space

unpart space

The first diagram represents a disk with one primary partition and an undefined partition with unallocated space. The second diagram represents a disk with two defined partitions with allocated space.

An unused hard disk also falls into this category. The only difference is that all the space is not part of any defined partition.

On a new disk, you can create the necessary partitions from the unused space. Most preinstalled operating systems are configured to take up all available space on a disk drive.

6.2. Using space from an unused partition

In the following example, the first diagram represents a disk with an unused partition. The second diagram represents reallocating an unused partition for Linux.

Figure 6.2. Disk with an unused partition

unused partition

To use the space allocated to the unused partition, delete the partition and then create the appropriate Linux partition instead. Alternatively, during the installation process, delete the unused partition and manually create new partitions.

6.3. Using free space from an active partition

This process can be difficult to manage because an active partition, that is already in use, contains the required free space. In most cases, hard disks of computers with preinstalled software contain one larger partition holding the operating system and data.

Warning

If you want to use an operating system (OS) on an active partition, you must reinstall the OS. Be aware that some computers, which include pre-installed software, do not include installation media to reinstall the original OS. Check whether this applies to your OS before you destroy an original partition and the OS installation.

To optimise the use of available free space, you can use the methods of destructive or non-destructive repartitioning.

6.3.1. Destructive repartitioning

Destructive repartitioning destroys the partition on your hard drive and creates several smaller partitions instead. Backup any needed data from the original partition as this method deletes the complete contents.

After creating a smaller partition for your existing operating system, you can:

  • Reinstall software.
  • Restore your data.
  • Start your Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation.

The following diagram is a simplified representation of using the destructive repartitioning method.

Figure 6.3. Destructive repartitioning action on disk

dstrct reprt
Warning

This method deletes all data previously stored in the original partition.

6.3.2. Non-destructive repartitioning

Non-destructive repartitioning resizes partitions, without any data loss. This method is reliable, however it takes longer processing time on large drives.

The following is a list of methods, which can help initiate non-destructive repartitioning.

  • Compress existing data

The storage location of some data cannot be changed. This can prevent the resizing of a partition to the required size, and ultimately lead to a destructive repartition process. Compressing data in an already existing partition can help you resize your partitions as needed. It can also help to maximize the free space available.

The following diagram is a simplified representation of this process.

Figure 6.4. Data compression on a disk

compression

To avoid any possible data loss, create a backup before continuing with the compression process.

  • Resize the existing partition

By resizing an already existing partition, you can free up more space. Depending on your resizing software, the results may vary. In the majority of cases, you can create a new unformatted partition of the same type, as the original partition.

The steps you take after resizing can depend on the software you use. In the following example, the best practice is to delete the new DOS (Disk Operating System) partition, and create a Linux partition instead. Verify what is most suitable for your disk before initiating the resizing process.

Figure 6.5. Partition resizing on a disk

part resize
  • Optional: Create new partitions

Some pieces of resizing software support Linux based systems. In such cases, there is no need to delete the newly created partition after resizing. Creating a new partition afterwards depends on the software you use.

The following diagram represents the disk state, before and after creating a new partition.

Figure 6.6. Disk with final partition configuration

nondestruct fin

Chapter 7. Configuring an iSCSI target

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses the targetcli shell as a command-line interface to perform the following operations:

  • Add, remove, view, and monitor iSCSI storage interconnects to utilize iSCSI hardware.
  • Export local storage resources that are backed by either files, volumes, local SCSI devices, or by RAM disks to remote systems.

The targetcli tool has a tree-based layout including built-in tab completion, auto-complete support, and inline documentation.

7.1. Installing targetcli

Install the targetcli tool to add, monitor, and remove iSCSI storage interconnects .

Procedure

  1. Install the targetcli tool:

    # dnf install targetcli
  2. Start the target service:

    # systemctl start target
  3. Configure target to start at boot time:

    # systemctl enable target
  4. Open port 3260 in the firewall and reload the firewall configuration:

    # firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3260/tcp
    Success
    
    # firewall-cmd --reload
    Success

Verification

  • View the targetcli layout:

    # targetcli
    /> ls
    o- /........................................[...]
      o- backstores.............................[...]
      | o- block.................[Storage Objects: 0]
      | o- fileio................[Storage Objects: 0]
      | o- pscsi.................[Storage Objects: 0]
      | o- ramdisk...............[Storage Objects: 0]
      o- iscsi...........................[Targets: 0]
      o- loopback........................[Targets: 0]

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.2. Creating an iSCSI target

Creating an iSCSI target enables the iSCSI initiator of the client to access the storage devices on the server. Both targets and initiators have unique identifying names.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the iSCSI directory:

    /> iscsi/
    Note

    The cd command is used to change directories as well as to list the path to move into.

  2. Use one of the following options to create an iSCSI target:

    1. Creating an iSCSI target using a default target name:

      /iscsi> create
      
      Created target
      iqn.2003-01.org.linux-iscsi.hostname.x8664:sn.78b473f296ff
      Created TPG1
    2. Creating an iSCSI target using a specific name:

      /iscsi> create iqn.2006-04.com.example:444
      
      Created target iqn.2006-04.com.example:444
      Created TPG1
      Here iqn.2006-04.com.example:444 is target_iqn_name

      Replace iqn.2006-04.com.example:444 with the specific target name.

  3. Verify the newly created target:

    /iscsi> ls
    
    o- iscsi.......................................[1 Target]
        o- iqn.2006-04.com.example:444................[1 TPG]
            o- tpg1...........................[enabled, auth]
               o- acls...............................[0 ACL]
                o- luns...............................[0 LUN]
               o- portals.........................[0 Portal]

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.3. iSCSI Backstore

An iSCSI backstore enables support for different methods of storing an exported LUN’s data on the local machine. Creating a storage object defines the resources that the backstore uses.

An administrator can choose any of the following backstore devices that Linux-IO (LIO) supports:

fileio backstore
Create a fileio storage object if you are using regular files on the local file system as disk images. For creating a fileio backstore, see Creating a fileio storage object.
block backstore
Create a block storage object if you are using any local block device and logical device. For creating a block backstore, see Creating a block storage object.
pscsi backstore
Create a pscsi storage object if your storage object supports direct pass-through of SCSI commands. For creating a pscsi backstore, see Creating a pscsi storage object.
ramdisk backstore
Create a ramdisk storage object if you want to create a temporary RAM backed device. For creating a ramdisk backstore, see Creating a Memory Copy RAM disk storage object.

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.4. Creating a fileio storage object

fileio storage objects can support either the write_back or write_thru operations. The write_back operation enables the local file system cache. This improves performance but increases the risk of data loss.

It is recommended to use write_back=false to disable the write_back operation in favor of the write_thru operation.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the fileio/ from the backstores/ directory:

    /> backstores/fileio
  2. Create a fileio storage object:

    /backstores/fileio> create file1 /tmp/disk1.img 200M write_back=false
    
    Created fileio file1 with size 209715200

Verification

  • Verify the created fileio storage object:

    /backstores/fileio> ls

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.5. Creating a block storage object

The block driver allows the use of any block device that appears in the /sys/block/ directory to be used with Linux-IO (LIO). This includes physical devices such as, HDDs, SSDs, CDs, and DVDs, and logical devices such as, software or hardware RAID volumes, or LVM volumes.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the block/ from the backstores/ directory:

    /> backstores/block/
  2. Create a block backstore:

    /backstores/block> create name=block_backend dev=/dev/sdb
    
    Generating a wwn serial.
    Created block storage object block_backend using /dev/vdb.

Verification

  • Verify the created block storage object:

    /backstores/block> ls
    Note

    You can also create a block backstore on a logical volume.

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.6. Creating a pscsi storage object

You can configure, as a backstore, any storage object that supports direct pass-through of SCSI commands without SCSI emulation, and with an underlying SCSI device that appears with lsscsi in the /proc/scsi/scsi such as, a SAS hard drive . SCSI-3 and higher is supported with this subsystem.

Warning

pscsi should only be used by advanced users. Advanced SCSI commands such as for Asymmetric Logical Unit Assignment (ALUAs) or Persistent Reservations (for example, those used by VMware ESX, and vSphere) are usually not implemented in the device firmware and can cause malfunctions or crashes. When in doubt, use block backstore for production setups instead.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the pscsi/ from the backstores/ directory:

    /> backstores/pscsi/
  2. Create a pscsi backstore for a physical SCSI device, a TYPE_ROM device using /dev/sr0 in this example:

    /backstores/pscsi> create name=pscsi_backend dev=/dev/sr0
    
    Generating a wwn serial.
    Created pscsi storage object pscsi_backend using /dev/sr0

Verification

  • Verify the created pscsi storage object:

    /backstores/pscsi> ls

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.7. Creating a Memory Copy RAM disk storage object

Memory Copy RAM disks (ramdisk) provide RAM disks with full SCSI emulation and separate memory mappings using memory copy for initiators. This provides capability for multi-sessions and is particularly useful for fast and volatile mass storage for production purposes.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ramdisk/ from the backstores/ directory:

    /> backstores/ramdisk/
  2. Create a 1GB RAM disk backstore:

    /backstores/ramdisk> create name=rd_backend size=1GB
    
    Generating a wwn serial.
    Created rd_mcp ramdisk rd_backend with size 1GB.

Verification

  • Verify the created ramdisk storage object:

    /backstores/ramdisk> ls

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.8. Creating an iSCSI portal

Creating an iSCSI portal adds an IP address and a port to the target that keeps the target enabled.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the TPG directory:

    /iscsi> iqn.2006-04.example:444/tpg1/
  2. Use one of the following options to create an iSCSI portal:

    1. Creating a default portal uses the default iSCSI port 3260 and allows the target to listen to all IP addresses on that port:

      /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> portals/ create
      
      Using default IP port 3260
      Binding to INADDR_Any (0.0.0.0)
      Created network portal 0.0.0.0:3260
      Note

      When an iSCSI target is created, a default portal is also created. This portal is set to listen to all IP addresses with the default port number that is: 0.0.0.0:3260.

      To remove the default portal, use the following command:

      /iscsi/iqn-name/tpg1/portals delete ip_address=0.0.0.0 ip_port=3260
    2. Creating a portal using a specific IP address:

      /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> portals/ create 192.168.122.137
      
      Using default IP port 3260
      Created network portal 192.168.122.137:3260

Verification

  • Verify the newly created portal:

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> ls
    
    o- tpg.................................. [enambled, auth]
        o- acls ......................................[0 ACL]
        o- luns ......................................[0 LUN]
        o- portals ................................[1 Portal]
           o- 192.168.122.137:3260......................[OK]

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.9. Creating an iSCSI LUN

Logical unit number (LUN) is a physical device that is backed by the iSCSI backstore. Each LUN has a unique number.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create LUNs of already created storage objects:

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> luns/ create /backstores/ramdisk/rd_backend
    Created LUN 0.
    
    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> luns/ create /backstores/block/block_backend
    Created LUN 1.
    
    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> luns/ create /backstores/fileio/file1
    Created LUN 2.
  2. Verify the created LUNs:

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> ls
    
    o- tpg.................................. [enambled, auth]
        o- acls ......................................[0 ACL]
        o- luns .....................................[3 LUNs]
        |  o- lun0.........................[ramdisk/ramdisk1]
        |  o- lun1.................[block/block1 (/dev/vdb1)]
        |  o- lun2...................[fileio/file1 (/foo.img)]
        o- portals ................................[1 Portal]
            o- 192.168.122.137:3260......................[OK]

    Default LUN name starts at 0.

    Important

    By default, LUNs are created with read-write permissions. If a new LUN is added after ACLs are created, LUN automatically maps to all available ACLs and can cause a security risk. To create a LUN with read-only permissions, see Creating a read-only iSCSI LUN.

  3. Configure ACLs. For more information, see Creating an iSCSI ACL.

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.10. Creating a read-only iSCSI LUN

By default, LUNs are created with read-write permissions. This procedure describes how to create a read-only LUN.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Set read-only permissions:

    /> set global auto_add_mapped_luns=false
    
    Parameter auto_add_mapped_luns is now 'false'.

    This prevents the auto mapping of LUNs to existing ACLs allowing the manual mapping of LUNs.

  2. Navigate to the initiator_iqn_name directory:

    /> iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg1/acls/initiator_iqn_name/
  3. Create the LUN:

    /iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg1/acls/initiator_iqn_name> create mapped_lun=next_sequential_LUN_number tpg_lun_or_backstore=backstore write_protect=1

    Example:

    /iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg1/acls/2006-04.com.example:888> create mapped_lun=1 tpg_lun_or_backstore=/backstores/block/block2 write_protect=1
    
    Created LUN 1.
    Created Mapped LUN 1.
  4. Verify the created LUN:

    /iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg1/acls/2006-04.com.example:888> ls
     o- 2006-04.com.example:888 .. [Mapped LUNs: 2]
     | o- mapped_lun0 .............. [lun0 block/disk1 (rw)]
     | o- mapped_lun1 .............. [lun1 block/disk2 (ro)]

    The mapped_lun1 line now has (ro) at the end (unlike mapped_lun0’s (rw)) stating that it is read-only.

  5. Configure ACLs. For more information, see Creating an iSCSI ACL.

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.11. Creating an iSCSI ACL

The targetcli service uses Access Control Lists (ACLs) to define access rules and grant each initiator access to a Logical Unit Number (LUN).

Both targets and initiators have unique identifying names. You must know the unique name of the initiator to configure ACLs. The /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file, provided by the iscsi-initiator-utils package, contains the iSCSI initiator names.

Prerequisites

  • The targetcli service is installed and running.
  • An iSCSI target associated with a Target Portal Groups (TPG).

Procedure

  1. Optional: To disable auto mapping of LUNs to ACLs see Creating a read-only iSCSI LUN.
  2. Navigate to the acls directory:

    /> iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg_name/acls/
  3. Use one of the following options to create an ACL:

    • Use the initiator_iqn_name from the /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file on the initiator:

      iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg_name/acls> create initiator_iqn_name
      
      Created Node ACL for initiator_iqn_name
      Created mapped LUN 2.
      Created mapped LUN 1.
      Created mapped LUN 0.
    • Use a custom_name and update the initiator to match it:

      iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg_name/acls> create custom_name
      
      Created Node ACL for custom_name
      Created mapped LUN 2.
      Created mapped LUN 1.
      Created mapped LUN 0.

      For information about updating the initiator name, see Creating an iSCSI intiator.

Verification

  • Verify the created ACL:

    iscsi/target_iqn_name/tpg_name/acls> ls
    
    o- acls .................................................[1 ACL]
        o- target_iqn_name ....[3 Mapped LUNs, auth]
            o- mapped_lun0 .............[lun0 ramdisk/ramdisk1 (rw)]
            o- mapped_lun1 .................[lun1 block/block1 (rw)]
            o- mapped_lun2 .................[lun2 fileio/file1 (rw)]

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.12. Setting up the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol for the target

By using the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), users can protect the target with a password. The initiator must be aware of this password to be able to connect to the target.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Set attribute authentication:

    /iscsi/iqn.20...mple:444/tpg1> set attribute authentication=1
    
    Parameter authentication is now '1'.
  2. Set userid and password:

    /tpg1> set auth userid=redhat
    Parameter userid is now 'redhat'.
    
    /iscsi/iqn.20...689dcbb3/tpg1> set auth password=redhat_passwd
    Parameter password is now 'redhat_passwd'.

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

7.13. Removing an iSCSI object using targetcli tool

This procedure describes how to remove the iSCSI objects using the targetcli tool.

Procedure

  1. Log off from the target:

    # iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-04.example:444 -u

    For more information about how to log in to the target, see Creating an iSCSI initiator.

  2. Remove the entire target, including all ACLs, LUNs, and portals:

    /> iscsi/ delete iqn.2006-04.com.example:444

    Replace iqn.2006-04.com.example:444 with the target_iqn_name.

    • To remove an iSCSI backstore:

      /> backstores/backstore-type/ delete block_backend
      • Replace backstore-type with either fileio, block, pscsi, or ramdisk.
      • Replace block_backend with the backstore-name you want to delete.
    • To remove parts of an iSCSI target, such as an ACL:

      /> /iscsi/iqn-name/tpg/acls/ delete iqn.2006-04.com.example:444

Verification

  • View the changes:

    /> iscsi/ ls

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) man page

Chapter 8. Configuring an iSCSI initiator

An iSCSI initiator forms a session to connect to the iSCSI target. By default, an iSCSI service is lazily started and the service starts after running the iscsiadm command. If root is not on an iSCSI device or there are no nodes marked with node.startup = automatic then the iSCSI service will not start until an iscsiadm command is executed that requires iscsid or the iscsi kernel modules to be started.

Execute the systemctl start iscsid.service command as root to force the iscsid daemon to run and iSCSI kernel modules to load.

8.1. Creating an iSCSI initiator

Create an iSCSI initiator to connect to the iSCSI target to access the storage devices on the server.

Prerequisites

  • You have an iSCSI target’s hostname and IP address:

    • If you are connecting to a storage target that the external software created, find the target’s hostname and IP address from the storage administrator.
    • If you are creating an iSCSI target, see Creating an iSCSI target.

Procedure

  1. Install iscsi-initiator-utils on client machine:

    # dnf install iscsi-initiator-utils
  2. Check the initiator name:

    # cat /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
    
    InitiatorName=iqn.2006-04.com.example:888
  3. If the ACL was given a custom name in Creating an iSCI ACL, update the initiator name to match the ACL:

    1. Open the /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi file and modify the initiator name:

      # vi /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi
      
      InitiatorName=custom-name
    2. Restart the iscsid service:

      # systemctl restart iscsid
  4. Discover the target and log in to the target with the displayed target IQN:

    # iscsiadm -m discovery -t st -p 10.64.24.179
        10.64.24.179:3260,1 iqn.2006-04.example:444
    
    # iscsiadm -m node -T iqn.2006-04.example:444 -l
        Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-04.example:444, portal: 10.64.24.179,3260] (multiple)
        Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2006-04.example:444, portal: 10.64.24.179,3260] successful.

    Replace 10.64.24.179 with the target-ip-address.

    You can use this procedure for any number of initiators connected to the same target if their respective initiator names are added to the ACL as described in the Creating an iSCSI ACL.

  5. Find the iSCSI disk name and create a file system on this iSCSI disk:

    # grep "Attached SCSI" /var/log/messages
    
    # mkfs.ext4 /dev/disk_name

    Replace disk_name with the iSCSI disk name displayed in the /var/log/messages file.

  6. Mount the file system:

    # mkdir /mount/point
    
    # mount /dev/disk_name /mount/point

    Replace /mount/point with the mount point of the partition.

  7. Edit the /etc/fstab file to mount the file system automatically when the system boots:

    # vi /etc/fstab
    
    /dev/disk_name /mount/point ext4 _netdev 0 0

    Replace disk_name with the iSCSI disk name and /mount/point with the mount point of the partition.

Additional resources

  • targetcli(8) and iscsiadm(8) man pages

8.2. Setting up the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol for the initiator

By using the Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), users can protect the target with a password. The initiator must be aware of this password to be able to connect to the target.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Enable CHAP authentication in the iscsid.conf file:

    # vi /etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf
    
    node.session.auth.authmethod = CHAP

    By default, the node.session.auth.authmethod is set to None

  2. Add target username and password in the iscsid.conf file:

    node.session.auth.username = redhat
    node.session.auth.password = redhat_passwd
  3. Start the iscsid daemon:

    # systemctl start iscsid.service

Additional resources

  • iscsiadm(8) man page

8.3. Monitoring an iSCSI session using the iscsiadm utility

This procedure describes how to monitor the iscsi session using the iscsiadm utility.

By default, an iSCSI service is lazily started and the service starts after running the iscsiadm command. If root is not on an iSCSI device or there are no nodes marked with node.startup = automatic then the iSCSI service will not start until an iscsiadm command is executed that requires iscsid or the iscsi kernel modules to be started.

Execute the systemctl start iscsid.service command as root to force the iscsid daemon to run and iSCSI kernel modules to load.

Procedure

  1. Install the iscsi-initiator-utils on client machine:

    # dnf install iscsi-initiator-utils
  2. Find information about the running sessions:

    # iscsiadm -m session -P 3

    This command displays the session or device state, session ID (sid), some negotiated parameters, and the SCSI devices accessible through the session.

    • For shorter output, for example, to display only the sid-to-node mapping, run:

      # iscsiadm -m session -P 0
              or
      # iscsiadm -m session
      
      tcp [2] 10.15.84.19:3260,2 iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.33615311
      tcp [3] 10.15.85.19:3260,3 iqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.33615311

      These commands print the list of running sessions in the following format: driver [sid] target_ip:port,target_portal_group_tag proper_target_name.

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/doc/iscsi-initiator-utils-version/README file
  • iscsiadm(8) man page

8.4. DM Multipath overrides of the device timeout

The recovery_tmo sysfs option controls the timeout for a particular iSCSI device. The following options globally override the recovery_tmo values:

  • The replacement_timeout configuration option globally overrides the recovery_tmo value for all iSCSI devices.
  • For all iSCSI devices that are managed by DM Multipath, the fast_io_fail_tmo option in DM Multipath globally overrides the recovery_tmo value.

    The fast_io_fail_tmo option in DM Multipath also overrides the fast_io_fail_tmo option in Fibre Channel devices.

The DM Multipath fast_io_fail_tmo option takes precedence over replacement_timeout. Red Hat does not recommend using replacement_timeout to override recovery_tmo in devices managed by DM Multipath because DM Multipath always resets recovery_tmo, when the multipathd service reloads.

Chapter 9. Using Fibre Channel devices

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 provides the following native Fibre Channel drivers:

  • lpfc
  • qla2xxx
  • zfcp

9.1. Resizing Fibre Channel Logical Units

As a system administrator, you can resize Fibre Channel logical units.

Procedure

  1. Determine which devices are paths for a multipath logical unit:

    multipath -ll
  2. Re-scan Fibre Channel logical units on a system that uses multipathing:

    $ echo 1 > /sys/block/sdX/device/rescan

Additional resources

  • multipath(8) man page

9.3. Fibre Channel configuration files

The following is the list of configuration files in the /sys/class/ directory that provide the user-space API to Fibre Channel.

The items use the following variables:

H
Host number
B
Bus number
T
Target
L
Logical unit (LUNs)
R
Remote port number
Important

Consult your hardware vendor before changing any of the values described in this section, if your system is using multipath software.

Transport configuration in /sys/class/fc_transport/targetH:B:T/

port_id
24-bit port ID/address
node_name
64-bit node name
port_name
64-bit port name

Remote port configuration in /sys/class/fc_remote_ports/rport-H:B-R/

  • port_id
  • node_name
  • port_name
  • dev_loss_tmo

    Controls when the scsi device gets removed from the system. After dev_loss_tmo triggers, the scsi device is removed. In the multipath.conf file , you can set dev_loss_tmo to infinity.

    In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, if you do not set the fast_io_fail_tmo option, dev_loss_tmo is capped to 600 seconds. By default, fast_io_fail_tmo is set to 5 seconds in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 if the multipathd service is running; otherwise, it is set to off.

  • fast_io_fail_tmo

    Specifies the number of seconds to wait before it marks a link as "bad". Once a link is marked bad, existing running I/O or any new I/O on its corresponding path fails.

    If I/O is in a blocked queue, it will not be failed until dev_loss_tmo expires and the queue is unblocked.

    If fast_io_fail_tmo is set to any value except off, dev_loss_tmo is uncapped. If fast_io_fail_tmo is set to off, no I/O fails until the device is removed from the system. If fast_io_fail_tmo is set to a number, I/O fails immediately when the fast_io_fail_tmo timeout triggers.

Host configuration in /sys/class/fc_host/hostH/

  • port_id
  • node_name
  • port_name
  • issue_lip

    Instructs the driver to rediscover remote ports.

9.4. DM Multipath overrides of the device timeout

The recovery_tmo sysfs option controls the timeout for a particular iSCSI device. The following options globally override the recovery_tmo values:

  • The replacement_timeout configuration option globally overrides the recovery_tmo value for all iSCSI devices.
  • For all iSCSI devices that are managed by DM Multipath, the fast_io_fail_tmo option in DM Multipath globally overrides the recovery_tmo value.

    The fast_io_fail_tmo option in DM Multipath also overrides the fast_io_fail_tmo option in Fibre Channel devices.

The DM Multipath fast_io_fail_tmo option takes precedence over replacement_timeout. Red Hat does not recommend using replacement_timeout to override recovery_tmo in devices managed by DM Multipath because DM Multipath always resets recovery_tmo, when the multipathd service reloads.

Chapter 10. Managing system upgrades with snapshots

Perform rollback capable upgrades of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems to return to an earlier version of the operating system. You can use the Boom Boot Manager and the Leapp operating system modernization framework.

Before performing the operating system upgrades, consider the following aspects:

  • System upgrades with snapshots do not work on multiple file systems in your system tree, for example, a separate /var or /usr partition.
  • System upgrades with snapshots do not work for the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) systems. Instead of using the Boom utility, consider creating snapshots of your virtual machines (VMs).

10.1. Overview of the Boom process

Create boot entries using the Boom Boot Manager so you can select and access these entries from the GRUB boot loader menu. Creating boot entries simplifies the process of preparation for a rollback capable upgrade.

The following boot entries are part of the upgrade and rollback processes:

  • Upgrade boot entry

    Boots the Leapp upgrade environment. Use the leapp utility to create and manage this boot entry. The leapp upgrade process automatically removes this entry.

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 boot entry

    Boots the upgrade system environment. Use the leapp utility to create this boot entry after a successful upgrade process.

  • Snapshot boot entry

    Boots the snapshot of the original system. Use it to review and test the previous operating system state, following a successful or unsuccessful upgrade attempt. Before upgrading the operating system, use the boom command to create this boot entry.

  • Rollback boot entry

    Boots the original system environment and rolls back any upgrade to the previous system state. Use the boom command to create this boot entry when initiating a rollback of the upgrade procedure.

Additional resources

  • boom(1) man page

10.2. Upgrading to another version using Boom Boot Manager

Perform an upgrade of your Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system by using the Boom Boot Manager.

Prerequisites

  • You are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 or 8.10.
  • You have installed the current version of the boom-boot package (version boom-boot-1.3-2.el8 or later).
  • You have sufficient space available for the snapshot. Make a size estimate based on the size of the original installation. List all the mounted logical volumes.
  • You have installed the leapp package.
  • You have enabled software repositories.
Note

Additional file systems might include /usr or /var.

Procedure

  1. Create a snapshot of your root logical volume:

    • If your root file system uses thin provisioning, create a thin snapshot:

      # lvcreate -s rhel/root -kn -n root_snapshot_before_changes
       Logical volume "root_snapshot_before_changes" created.

      Here:

      • -s creates the snapshot.
      • rhel/root copies the file system to the logical volume.
      • -kn automatically activates LV at boot time.
      • -n root_snapshot_before_changes shows the name of the snapshot.

        While creating a thin snapshot, do not define the snapshot size. The snapshot is allocated from the thin pool.

    • If your root file system uses thick provisioning, create a thick snapshot:

      # lvcreate -s rhel/root -n root_snapshot_before_changes -L 25g
        Rounding up size to full physical extent 25 GiB
        Logical volume "root_snapshot_before_changes" created.

      In this command:

      • -s creates the snapshot.
      • rhel/root copies the file system to the logical volume.
      • -n root_snapshot_before_changes shows the name of the snapshot.
      • -L 25g is the snapshot size. Make a size estimate based on the size of the original installation.

        While creating a thick snapshot, define the snapshot size that can hold all the changes during the upgrade.

        Important

        The created snapshot does not include any additional system changes.

  2. Create the profile:

    Creating a profile requires an architecture-specific workaround to avoid an interaction between kexec-tools or kdumpctl and boom. During the upgrade, the updated kexec-tools package attempts to modify all boot entries with updated crashkernel settings. This deletes the boot images used by the entry. You can avoid this by appending the RHEL 9 crashkernel settings to the RHEL 8 profile options.

    • On an Intel 64 or AMD64 (x86_64), or IBM Z (s390x) architecture:

      # boom profile create --from-host --os-options "root=%{root_device} ro %{root_opts} rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:192M,4G-64G:256M,64G-:512M"
      Created profile with os_id 43747d3:
        OS ID: "43747d3888b663d2bc88efd35d0813159a84d291",
        Name: "Red Hat Enterprise Linux", Short name: "rhel",
        Version: "8.9 (Ootpa)", Version ID: "8.9",
        Kernel pattern: "/vmlinuz-%{version}", Initramfs pattern: "/initramfs-%{version}.img",
        Root options (LVM2): "rd.lvm.lv=%{lvm_root_lv}",
        Root options (BTRFS): "rootflags=%{btrfs_subvolume}",
        Options: "root=%{root_device} ro %{root_opts} rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:192M,4G-64G:256M,64G-:512M",
        Title: "%{os_name} %{os_version_id} (%{version})",
        Optional keys: "", UTS release pattern: "el8"
    • On an 64-bit ARM (AArch64) architecture:

      # boom profile create --from-host --os-options "root=%{root_device} ro %{root_opts} rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:256M,4G-64G:320M,64G-:576M"
    • On an IBM POWER little-endian (ppc64le) architecture:

      # boom profile create --from-host --os-options "root=%{root_device} ro %{root_opts} rhgb quiet crashkernel=2G-4G:384M,4G-16G:512M,16G-64G:1G,64G-128G:2G,128G-:4G" --optional-keys "grub_users grub_arg grub_class id"

      The --optional-keys argument is required on ppc64le to ensure that the grub2-mkconfig command generates the correct boot entry in step 10.2.3. For more information, see RHEL-36180.

  3. Create a snapshot boot entry of the original system using backup copies of the original boot images:

    # boom create --backup --title "Root LV snapshot before changes" --rootlv rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes
    WARNING - Boom grub2 integration is disabled in '/boot/../etc/default/boom'
    Created entry with boot_id c919f89:
      title Root LV snapshot before changes
      machine-id b1dcec73886b45218892b1a7bbfa0dee
      version 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64
      linux /vmlinuz-4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64.boom0
      initrd /initramfs-4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64.img.boom0
      options root=/dev/rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes ro rd.lvm.lv=rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:192M,4G-64G:256M,64G-:512M

    Here:

    • --title "Root LV snapshot before changes" is the name of the boot entry, that shows in the boot entry list during system startup.
    • --rootlv is the root logical volume that corresponds to the new boot entry.

      After you complete the previous step, you have a boot entry that enables access to the original system, before the upgrade.

      Ignore "WARNING - Boom grub2 integration is disabled in '/boot/../etc/default/boom'". For details, see RHEL-35983.

    • On systems with ppc64le architecture, update boot entries:

      # grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
      Generating grub configuration file ...
      Generating boot entries from BLS files...
      done
  4. Upgrade to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 using the Leapp utility:

    # leapp upgrade
    ==> Processing phase `configuration_phase`
    ====> * ipu_workflow_config
            IPU workflow config actor
    ==> Processing phase `FactsCollection`
    ...
    ============================================================
                          REPORT OVERVIEW
    ============================================================
    
    Upgrade has been inhibited due to the following problems:
        1. Firewalld Configuration AllowZoneDrifting Is Unsupported
        2. Possible problems with remote login using root account
    
    HIGH and MEDIUM severity reports:
        1. Remote root logins globally allowed using password
        2. GRUB2 core will be automatically updated during the upgrade
    
    Reports summary:
        Errors:                      0
        Inhibitors:                  2
        HIGH severity reports:       2
        MEDIUM severity reports:     0
        LOW severity reports:        1
        INFO severity reports:       3
    
    Before continuing consult the full report:
        A report has been generated at /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.json
        A report has been generated at /var/log/leapp/leapp-report.txt
    
    ============================================================
                       END OF REPORT OVERVIEW
    ============================================================

    Review and resolve any blockers indicated by the leapp upgrade command report. For detailed instructions on the report, see Reviewing the pre-upgrade report.

  5. Reboot into the upgrade boot entry:

    # leapp upgrade --reboot
    ==> Processing phase `configuration_phase`
    ====> * ipu_workflow_config
            IPU workflow config actor
    ==> Processing phase `FactsCollection`
    ...

    Select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Upgrade Initramfs entry from the GRUB boot screen.

    Note

    The Snapshots submenu from the GRUB boot screen is not available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

Verification

  • After completing the upgrade, the system automatically reboots. The GRUB screen shows the upgraded (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9) and the previous version of the available operating system. The upgraded system version is the default selection.

10.3. Switching between Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions

Access simultaneously current and previous Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions on your machine. Using the Boom Boot Manager to access different operating system versions reduces the risk associated with upgrading an operating system, and also helps reduce hardware downtime. With this ability to switch between environments, you can:

  • Quickly compare both environments in a side-by-side fashion.
  • Switch between environments while evaluating the result of the upgrade.
  • Recover older content of the file system.
  • Continue accessing the old system, while the upgraded host is running.
  • Halt and revert the update process at any time, even while the update itself is running.

Procedure

  1. Reboot the system:

    # reboot
  2. Select the required boot entry from the GRUB boot loader screen.

Verification

  • Verify that the selected boot volume is displayed:

    # cat /proc/cmdline
    BOOT_IMAGE=(hd0,msdos1)/vmlinuz-4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64.boom0 root=/dev/rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes ro rd.lvm.lv=rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:192M,4G-64G:256M,64G-:512M

Additional resources

  • boom(1) man page

10.4. Deleting the logical volume snapshot after a successful upgrade

If you have successfully upgraded your system by using the Boom Boot Manager, you can remove the snapshot boot entry and the logical volume (LV) snapshot to use the upgraded system.

Important

You cannot perform any further operations with the LV snapshot after you delete it.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Boot into Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 from the GRUB boot loader screen.
  2. After the system loads, view the available boot entries. The following output shows the snapshot boot entry in the list of boom boot entries:

    # boom list
    BootID  Version                      Name                     RootDevice
    1e1a9b4 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9.x86_64  Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/mapper/rhel-root
    4ea37b9 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/mapper/rhel-root
    c919f89 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes
  3. Delete the snapshot entry by using the BootID value:

    # boom delete --boot-id c919f89
    Deleted 1 entry

    This deletes the boot entry from the GRUB menu.

  4. Remove the LV snapshot:

    # lvremove rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes
    Do you really want to remove active logical volume rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes? [y/n]: y
          Logical volume "root_snapshot_before_changes" successfully removed
  5. Complete the remaining post-upgrade tasks. For details, see Upgrading from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9.

Additional resources

  • boom(1) man page

10.5. Creating a rollback boot entry after an unsuccessful upgrade

To revert the operating system upgrade back to the previous state of the system after an unsuccessful upgrade, use a rollback boot entry. This can also be helpful if you find a problem with the upgraded environment, for example, incompatibility with in-house software.

To prepare the rollback boot entry, use the snapshot environment.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Merge the snapshot with the original volume:

    # lvconvert --merge rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes
      Logical volume rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes contains a filesystem in use.
      Delaying merge since snapshot is open.
      Merging of thin snapshot rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes will occur on next activation of rhel/root.
    Warning

    After you merge the snapshot, you must continue with all the remaining steps in this procedure to prevent data loss.

  2. Create a rollback boot entry for the merged snapshot:

    # boom create --backup --title "RHEL Rollback" --rootlv rhel/root
    WARNING - Boom grub2 integration is disabled in '/boot/../etc/default/boom'
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1e1a9b4) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1ccc554) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=4ea37b9) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=e22dd61) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    Created entry with boot_id 6c44638:
      title RHEL Rollback
      machine-id b1dcec73886b45218892b1a7bbfa0dee
      version 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64
      linux /vmlinuz-4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64.boom0
      initrd /initramfs-4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64.img.boom0
      options root=/dev/rhel/root ro rd.lvm.lv=rhel/root rhgb quiet crashkernel=1G-4G:192M,4G-64G:256M,64G-:512M

    Ignore all WARNING messages, see RHEL-35983.

  3. Reboot your machine to restore the operating system state:

    # reboot
    • After the system reboots, select the RHEL Rollback boot entry from the GRUB screen.
    • When the root logical volume is active, the system automatically starts the snapshot merge operation.

      Important

      When the merge operation starts, the snapshot volume is no longer available. After successfully booting the RHEL Rollback boot entry, the Root LV snapshot boot entry no longer works. Merging the snapshot logical volume destroys the Root LV snapshot and restores the prior state of the original volume.

  4. After you complete the merge operation, remove the unused entries and restore the original boot entry:

    1. Remove the unused Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 boot entries from the /boot file system and rebuild the grub.cfg file for the changes to take effect:

      # rm -f /boot/loader/entries/*.el9*
      # rm -f /boot/*.el9*
      # grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
      Generating grub configuration file ...
      done
  5. After a successful rollback to the system, delete the boom snapshot and rollback boot entries:

    # boom list -o+title
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1e1a9b4) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1ccc554) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=4ea37b9) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    BootID  Version                      Name                     RootDevice                             Title
    1e1a9b4 4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9.x86_64  Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/mapper/rhel-root                  Red Hat Enterprise Linux (4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9.x86_64) 8.9 (Ootpa)
    4ea37b9 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/mapper/rhel-root                  Red Hat Enterprise Linux (4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64) 8.9 (Ootpa)
    c919f89 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/rhel/root_snapshot_before_changes Root LV snapshot before changes
    6c44638 4.18.0-513.24.1.el8_9.x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux /dev/rhel/root                         RHEL Rollback
    # boom delete c919f89
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1e1a9b4) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1ccc554) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=4ea37b9) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    Deleted 1 entry
    # boom delete 6c44638
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1e1a9b4) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=1ccc554) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    WARNING - Options for BootEntry(boot_id=4ea37b9) do not match OsProfile: marking read-only
    Deleted 1 entry

    Ignore the warnings. For details, see RHEL-35983.

Additional resources

  • boom(1) man page

Chapter 11. Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/RDMA

In an Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) over RDMA (NVMe™/RDMA) setup, you configure an NVMe controller and an NVMe initiator.

As a system administrator, complete the following tasks to deploy the NVMe/RDMA setup:

11.1. Overview of NVMe over fabric devices

Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) is an interface that allows host software utility to communicate with solid state drives.

Use the following types of fabric transport to configure NVMe over fabric devices:

NVMe over Remote Direct Memory Access (NVMe/RDMA)
For information about how to configure NVMe™/RDMA, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/RDMA.
NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC)
For information about how to configure NVMe™/FC, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/FC.
NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP)
For information about how to configure NVMe/FC, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/TCP.

When using NVMe over fabrics, the solid-state drive does not have to be local to your system; it can be configured remotely through a NVMe over fabrics devices.

11.2. Setting up an NVMe/RDMA controller using configfs

Use this procedure to configure an Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) over RDMA (NVMe™/RDMA) controller using configfs.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have a block device to assign to the nvmet subsystem.

Procedure

  1. Create the nvmet-rdma subsystem:

    # modprobe nvmet-rdma
    
    # mkdir /sys/kernel/config/nvmet/subsystems/testnqn
    
    # cd /sys/kernel/config/nvmet/subsystems/testnqn

    Replace testnqn with the subsystem name.

  2. Allow any host to connect to this controller:

    # echo 1 > attr_allow_any_host
  3. Configure a namespace:

    # mkdir namespaces/10
    
    # cd namespaces/10

    Replace 10 with the namespace number

  4. Set a path to the NVMe device:

    # echo -n /dev/nvme0n1 > device_path
  5. Enable the namespace:

    # echo 1 > enable
  6. Create a directory with an NVMe port:

    # mkdir /sys/kernel/config/nvmet/ports/1
    
    # cd /sys/kernel/config/nvmet/ports/1
  7. Display the IP address of mlx5_ib0:

    # ip addr show mlx5_ib0
    
    8: mlx5_ib0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 4092 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 256
        link/infiniband 00:00:06:2f:fe:80:00:00:00:00:00:00:e4:1d:2d:03:00:e7:0f:f6 brd 00:ff:ff:ff:ff:12:40:1b:ff:ff:00:00:00:00:00:00:ff:ff:ff:ff
        inet 172.31.0.202/24 brd 172.31.0.255 scope global noprefixroute mlx5_ib0
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
        inet6 fe80::e61d:2d03:e7:ff6/64 scope link noprefixroute
           valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
  8. Set the transport address for the controller:

    # echo -n 172.31.0.202 > addr_traddr
  9. Set RDMA as the transport type:

    # echo rdma > addr_trtype
    
    # echo 4420 > addr_trsvcid
  10. Set the address family for the port:

    # echo ipv4 > addr_adrfam
  11. Create a soft link:

    # ln -s /sys/kernel/config/nvmet/subsystems/testnqn   /sys/kernel/config/nvmet/ports/1/subsystems/testnqn

Verification

  • Verify that the NVMe controller is listening on the given port and ready for connection requests:

    # dmesg | grep "enabling port"
    [ 1091.413648] nvmet_rdma: enabling port 1 (172.31.0.202:4420)

Additional resources

  • nvme(1) man page

11.3. Setting up the NVMe/RDMA controller using nvmetcli

Use the nvmetcli utility to edit, view, and start an Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) controller. The nvmetcli utility provides a command line and an interactive shell option. Use this procedure to configure the NVMe™/RDMA controller by nvmetcli.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that you have a block device to assign to the nvmet subsystem.
  • Execute the following nvmetcli operations as a root user.

Procedure

  1. Install the nvmetcli package:

    # dnf install nvmetcli
  2. Download the rdma.json file:

    # wget http://git.infradead.org/users/hch/nvmetcli.git/blob_plain/0a6b088db2dc2e5de11e6f23f1e890e4b54fee64:/rdma.json
  3. Edit the rdma.json file and change the traddr value to 172.31.0.202.
  4. Setup the controller by loading the NVMe controller configuration file:

    # nvmetcli restore rdma.json
Note

If the NVMe controller configuration file name is not specified, the nvmetcli uses the /etc/nvmet/config.json file.

Verification

  • Verify that the NVMe controller is listening on the given port and ready for connection requests:

    # dmesg | tail -1
    [ 4797.132647] nvmet_rdma: enabling port 2 (172.31.0.202:4420)
  • Optional: Clear the current NVMe controller:

    # nvmetcli clear

Additional resources

  • nvmetcli and nvme(1) man pages

11.4. Configuring an NVMe/RDMA host

Use this procedure to configure an Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) over RDMA (NVMe™/RDMA) host using the NVMe management command line interface (nvme-cli) tool.

Procedure

  1. Install the nvme-cli tool:

    # dnf install nvme-cli
  2. Load the nvme-rdma module if it is not loaded:

    # modprobe nvme-rdma
  3. Discover available subsystems on the NVMe controller:

    # nvme discover -t rdma -a 172.31.0.202 -s 4420
    
    Discovery Log Number of Records 1, Generation counter 2
    =====Discovery Log Entry 0======
    trtype:  rdma
    adrfam:  ipv4
    subtype: nvme subsystem
    treq:    not specified, sq flow control disable supported
    portid:  1
    trsvcid: 4420
    subnqn:  testnqn
    traddr:  172.31.0.202
    rdma_prtype: not specified
    rdma_qptype: connected
    rdma_cms:    rdma-cm
    rdma_pkey: 0x0000
  4. Connect to the discovered subsystems:

    # nvme connect -t rdma -n testnqn -a 172.31.0.202 -s 4420
    
    # lsblk
    NAME                         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    sda                            8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk
    ├─sda1                         8:1    0     1G  0 part /boot
    └─sda2                         8:2    0 464.8G  0 part
      ├─rhel_rdma--virt--03-root 253:0    0    50G  0 lvm  /
      ├─rhel_rdma--virt--03-swap 253:1    0     4G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
      └─rhel_rdma--virt--03-home 253:2    0 410.8G  0 lvm  /home
    nvme0n1
    
    # cat /sys/class/nvme/nvme0/transport
    rdma

    Replace testnqn with the NVMe subsystem name.

    Replace 172.31.0.202 with the controller IP address.

    Replace 4420 with the port number.

Verification

  • List the NVMe devices that are currently connected:

    # nvme list
  • Optional: Disconnect from the controller:

    # nvme disconnect -n testnqn
    NQN:testnqn disconnected 1 controller(s)
    
    # lsblk
    NAME                         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    sda                            8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk
    ├─sda1                         8:1    0     1G  0 part /boot
    └─sda2                         8:2    0 464.8G  0 part
      ├─rhel_rdma--virt--03-root 253:0    0    50G  0 lvm  /
      ├─rhel_rdma--virt--03-swap 253:1    0     4G  0 lvm  [SWAP]
      └─rhel_rdma--virt--03-home 253:2    0 410.8G  0 lvm  /home

Additional resources

11.5. Next steps

Chapter 12. Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/FC

The Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) over Fibre Channel (NVMe™/FC) transport is fully supported in host mode when used with certain Broadcom Emulex and Marvell Qlogic Fibre Channel adapters. As a system administrator, complete the tasks in the following sections to deploy the NVMe/FC setup:

12.1. Overview of NVMe over fabric devices

Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) is an interface that allows host software utility to communicate with solid state drives.

Use the following types of fabric transport to configure NVMe over fabric devices:

NVMe over Remote Direct Memory Access (NVMe/RDMA)
For information about how to configure NVMe™/RDMA, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/RDMA.
NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC)
For information about how to configure NVMe™/FC, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/FC.
NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP)
For information about how to configure NVMe/FC, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/TCP.

When using NVMe over fabrics, the solid-state drive does not have to be local to your system; it can be configured remotely through a NVMe over fabrics devices.

12.2. Configuring the NVMe host for Broadcom adapters

Use this procedure to configure the Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) host for Broadcom adapters client using the NVMe management command line interface (nvme-cli) utility.

Procedure

  1. Install the nvme-cli utility:

    # dnf install nvme-cli

    This creates the hostnqn file in the /etc/nvme/ directory. The hostnqn file identifies the NVMe host.

  2. Find the World Wide Node Name (WWNN) and World Wide Port Name (WWPN) identifiers of the local and remote ports:

    # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/nvme_info
    
    NVME Host Enabled
    XRI Dist lpfc0 Total 6144 IO 5894 ELS 250
    NVME LPORT lpfc0 WWPN x10000090fae0b5f5 WWNN x20000090fae0b5f5 DID x010f00 ONLINE
    NVME RPORT       WWPN x204700a098cbcac6 WWNN x204600a098cbcac6 DID x01050e TARGET DISCSRVC ONLINE
    
    NVME Statistics
    LS: Xmt 000000000e Cmpl 000000000e Abort 00000000
    LS XMIT: Err 00000000  CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000
    Total FCP Cmpl 00000000000008ea Issue 00000000000008ec OutIO 0000000000000002
        abort 00000000 noxri 00000000 nondlp 00000000 qdepth 00000000 wqerr 00000000 err 00000000
    FCP CMPL: xb 00000000 Err 00000000

    Using these host-traddr and traddr values, find the subsystem NVMe Qualified Name (NQN):

    # nvme discover --transport fc \ --traddr nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 \ --host-traddr nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5
    
    Discovery Log Number of Records 2, Generation counter 49530
    =====Discovery Log Entry 0======
    trtype:  fc
    adrfam:  fibre-channel
    subtype: nvme subsystem
    treq:    not specified
    portid:  0
    trsvcid: none
    subnqn:  nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.e18bfca87d5e11e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.st14_nvme_ss_1_1
    traddr:  nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6

    Replace nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 with the traddr.

    Replace nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5 with the host-traddr.

  3. Connect to the NVMe controller using the nvme-cli:

    # nvme connect --transport fc \ --traddr nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 \ --host-traddr nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5 \ -n nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.e18bfca87d5e11e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.st14_nvme_ss_1_1 \ -k 5
    Note

    If you see the keep-alive timer (5 seconds) expired! error when a connection time exceeds the default keep-alive timeout value, increase it using the -k option. For example, you can use, -k 7.

    Here,

    Replace nn-0x204600a098cbcac6:pn-0x204700a098cbcac6 with the traddr.

    Replace nn-0x20000090fae0b5f5:pn-0x10000090fae0b5f5 with the host-traddr.

    Replace nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.e18bfca87d5e11e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.st14_nvme_ss_1_1 with the subnqn.

    Replace 5 with the keep-alive timeout value in seconds.

Verification

  • List the NVMe devices that are currently connected:

    # nvme list
    Node             SN                   Model                                    Namespace Usage                      Format           FW Rev
    ---------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
    /dev/nvme0n1     80BgLFM7xMJbAAAAAAAC NetApp ONTAP Controller                  1         107.37  GB / 107.37  GB      4 KiB +  0 B   FFFFFFFF
    
    
    # lsblk |grep nvme
    nvme0n1                     259:0    0   100G  0 disk

Additional resources

12.3. Configuring the NVMe host for QLogic adapters

Use this procedure to configure Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) host for Qlogic adapters client using the NVMe management command line interface (nvme-cli) utility.

Procedure

  1. Install the nvme-cli utility:

    # dnf install nvme-cli

    This creates the hostnqn file in the /etc/nvme/ directory. The hostnqn file identifies the NVMe host.

  2. Reload the qla2xxx module:

    # modprobe -r qla2xxx
    # modprobe qla2xxx
  3. Find the World Wide Node Name (WWNN) and World Wide Port Name (WWPN) identifiers of the local and remote ports:

    # dmesg |grep traddr
    
    [    6.139862] qla2xxx [0000:04:00.0]-ffff:0: register_localport: host-traddr=nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 on portID:10700
    [    6.241762] qla2xxx [0000:04:00.0]-2102:0: qla_nvme_register_remote: traddr=nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 PortID:01050d

    Using these host-traddr and traddr values, find the subsystem NVMe Qualified Name (NQN):

    # nvme discover --transport fc \ --traddr nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 \ --host-traddr nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62
    
    Discovery Log Number of Records 2, Generation counter 49530
    =====Discovery Log Entry 0======
    trtype:  fc
    adrfam:  fibre-channel
    subtype: nvme subsystem
    treq:    not specified
    portid:  0
    trsvcid: none
    subnqn:  nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.c9ecc9187b1111e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.vs_nvme_multipath_1_subsystem_468
    traddr:  nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6

    Replace nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 with the traddr.

    Replace nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 with the host-traddr.

  4. Connect to the NVMe controller using the nvme-cli tool:

    # nvme connect --transport fc \ --traddr nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 \ --host-traddr nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 \ -n nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.c9ecc9187b1111e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.vs_nvme_multipath_1_subsystem_468\ -k 5
    Note

    If you see the keep-alive timer (5 seconds) expired! error when a connection time exceeds the default keep-alive timeout value, increase it using the -k option. For example, you can use, -k 7.

    Here,

    Replace nn-0x203b00a098cbcac6:pn-0x203d00a098cbcac6 with the traddr.

    Replace nn-0x20000024ff19bb62:pn-0x21000024ff19bb62 with the host-traddr.

    Replace nqn.1992-08.com.netapp:sn.c9ecc9187b1111e98c0800a098cbcac6:subsystem.vs_nvme_multipath_1_subsystem_468 with the subnqn.

    Replace 5 with the keep-live timeout value in seconds.

Verification

  • List the NVMe devices that are currently connected:

    # nvme list
    Node             SN                   Model                                    Namespace Usage                      Format           FW Rev
    ---------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
    /dev/nvme0n1     80BgLFM7xMJbAAAAAAAC NetApp ONTAP Controller                  1         107.37  GB / 107.37  GB      4 KiB +  0 B   FFFFFFFF
    
    # lsblk |grep nvme
    nvme0n1                     259:0    0   100G  0 disk

Additional resources

12.4. Next steps

Chapter 13. Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/TCP

In an Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) over TCP (NVMe/TCP) setup, the host mode is fully supported and the controller setup is not supported.

As a system administrator, complete the tasks in the following sections to deploy the NVMe/TCP setup:

Note

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, the native NVMe multipathing is enabled by default. Enabling DM multipathing is not supported with NVMe/TCP.

13.1. Overview of NVMe over fabric devices

Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) is an interface that allows host software utility to communicate with solid state drives.

Use the following types of fabric transport to configure NVMe over fabric devices:

NVMe over Remote Direct Memory Access (NVMe/RDMA)
For information about how to configure NVMe™/RDMA, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/RDMA.
NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC)
For information about how to configure NVMe™/FC, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/FC.
NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP)
For information about how to configure NVMe/FC, see Configuring NVMe over fabrics using NVMe/TCP.

When using NVMe over fabrics, the solid-state drive does not have to be local to your system; it can be configured remotely through a NVMe over fabrics devices.

13.2. Configuring an NVMe/TCP host

Use the Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) management command line interface (nvme-cli) tool to configure an NVMe/TCP host.

Procedure

  1. Install the nvme-cli tool:

    # dnf install nvme-cli

    This tool creates the hostnqn file in the /etc/nvme/ directory, which identifies the NVMe host.

  2. Find the nvme hostid and hostnqn:

    # cat /etc/nvme/hostnqn
    nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:8ae2b12c-3d28-4458-83e3-658e571ed4b8
    
    # cat /etc/nvme/hostid
    09e2ce17-ccc9-412d-8dcf-2b0a1d581ee3

    Use the hostid and hostnqn values to configure the NVMe/TCP controller.

  3. Check the status of the controller:

    # nmcli device show ens6
    GENERAL.DEVICE:                         ens6
    GENERAL.TYPE:                           ethernet
    GENERAL.HWADDR:                         52:57:02:12:02:02
    GENERAL.MTU:                            1500
    GENERAL.STATE:                          30 (disconnected)
    GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     --
    GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       --
    WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER:               on
  4. Configure the host network for a newly installed Ethernet controller with a static IP address:

    # nmcli connection add con-name ens6 ifname ens6 type ethernet ip4 192.168.101.154/24 gw4 192.168.101.1

    Here, replace 192.168.101.154 with the host IP address.

    # nmcli connection mod ens6 ipv4.method manual
    # nmcli connection up ens6

    Since a new network is created to connect the NVMe/TCP host to the NVMe/TCP controller, execute this step on the controller too.

Verification

  • Verify if the newly created host network works correctly:

    # nmcli device show ens6
    GENERAL.DEVICE:                         ens6
    GENERAL.TYPE:                           ethernet
    GENERAL.HWADDR:                         52:57:02:12:02:02
    GENERAL.MTU:                            1500
    GENERAL.STATE:                          100 (connected)
    GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     ens6
    GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/5
    WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER:               on
    IP4.ADDRESS[1]:                         192.168.101.154/24
    IP4.GATEWAY:                            192.168.101.1
    IP4.ROUTE[1]:                           dst = 192.168.101.0/24, nh = 0.0.0.0, mt = 101
    IP4.ROUTE[2]:                           dst = 192.168.1.1/32, nh = 0.0.0.0, mt = 101
    IP4.ROUTE[3]:                           dst = 0.0.0.0/0, nh = 192.168.1.1, mt = 101
    IP6.ADDRESS[1]:                         fe80::27ce:dde1:620:996c/64
    IP6.GATEWAY:                            --
    IP6.ROUTE[1]:                           dst = fe80::/64, nh = ::, mt = 101

Additional resources

  • The nvme(1) man page

13.3. Connecting the NVMe/TCP host to the NVMe/TCP controller

Connect the NVMe™ over TCP (NVMe/TCP) host to the NVMe/TCP controller system to verify that the NVMe/TCP host can now access the namespace.

Note

The NVMe/TCP controller (nvmet_tcp) module is not supported.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured an NVMe/TCP host. For more information, see Configuring an NVMe/TCP host.
  • You have configured an NVMe/TCP controller using external storage software and the network is configured on the controller. In this procedure, 192.168.101.55 is the IP address of NVMe/TCP controller.

Procedure

  1. Load the nvme_tcp module if not already:

    # modprobe nvme_tcp
  2. Discover the available subsystems on the NVMe controller:

    # nvme discover --transport=tcp --traddr=192.168.101.55 --host-traddr=192.168.101.154 --trsvcid=8009
    
    Discovery Log Number of Records 2, Generation counter 7
    =====Discovery Log Entry 0======
    trtype:  tcp
    adrfam:  ipv4
    subtype: current discovery subsystem
    treq:	not specified, sq flow control disable supported
    portid:  2
    trsvcid: 8009
    subnqn:  nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress.discovery
    traddr:  192.168.101.55
    eflags:  not specified
    sectype: none
    =====Discovery Log Entry 1======
    trtype:  tcp
    adrfam:  ipv4
    subtype: nvme subsystem
    treq:	not specified, sq flow control disable supported
    portid:  2
    trsvcid: 8009
    subnqn:  nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:0c468c4d-a385-47e0-8299-6e95051277db
    traddr:  192.168.101.55
    eflags:  not specified
    sectype: none

    Here, 192.168.101.55 is the NVMe/TCP controller IP address and 192.168.101.154 is the NVMe/TCP host IP address.

  3. Configure the /etc/nvme/discovery.conf file to add the parameters used in the nvme discover command :

    # echo "--transport=tcp --traddr=192.168.101.55 --host-traddr=192.168.101.154 --trsvcid=8009" >> /etc/nvme/discovery.conf
  4. Connect the NVMe/TCP host to the controller system:

    # nvme connect-all

Verification

  • Verify that the NVMe/TCP host can access the namespace:

    # nvme list-subsys
    
    nvme-subsys3 - NQN=nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:0c468c4d-a385-47e0-8299-6e95051277db
    \
     +- nvme3 tcp traddr=192.168.101.55,trsvcid=8009,host_traddr=192.168.101.154 live optimized
    
    # nvme list
    Node              	Generic           	SN               	Model                                	Namespace Usage                  	Format       	FW Rev
    --------------------- --------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
    /dev/nvme3n1      	/dev/ng3n1        	d93a63d394d043ab4b74 Linux                                    1          21.47  GB /  21.47  GB    512   B +  0 B   5.18.5-2

Additional resources

  • The nvme(1) man page

Chapter 14. Enabling multipathing on NVMe devices

You can multipath Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) devices that are connected to your system over a fabric transport, such as Fibre Channel (FC). You can select between multiple multipathing solutions.

14.1. Native NVMe multipathing and DM Multipath

Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) devices support a native multipathing functionality. When configuring multipathing on NVMe, you can select between the standard DM Multipath framework and the native NVMe multipathing.

Both DM Multipath and native NVMe multipathing support the Asymmetric Namespace Access (ANA) multipathing scheme of NVMe devices. ANA identifies optimized paths between the controller and the host, and improves performance.

When native NVMe multipathing is enabled, it applies globally to all NVMe devices. It can provide higher performance, but does not contain all of the functionality that DM Multipath provides. For example, native NVMe multipathing supports only the numa and round-robin path selection methods.

By default, NVMe multipathing is enabled in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and is the recommended multipathing solution.

14.2. Enabling DM Multipath on NVMe devices

The default kernel setting for the nvme_core.multipath option is set to Y, which means that the native Non-volatile Memory Express™ (NVMe™) multipathing is enabled. You can enable DM Multipath on connected NVMe devices by disabling native NVMe multipathing.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Check if the native NVMe multipathing is enabled:

    # cat /sys/module/nvme_core/parameters/multipath

    The command displays one of the following:

    N
    Native NVMe multipathing is disabled.
    Y
    Native NVMe multipathing is enabled.
  2. If the native NVMe multipathing is enabled, disable it by using one of the following methods:

    • Using a kernel option:

      1. Add the nvme_core.multipath=N option to the command line:

        # grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="nvme_core.multipath=N"
      2. On the 64-bit IBM Z architecture, update the boot menu:

        # zipl
      3. Reboot the system.
    • Using a kernel module configuration file:

      1. Create the /etc/modprobe.d/nvme_core.conf configuration file with the following content:

        options nvme_core multipath=N
      2. Back up the initramfs file:

        # cp /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).bak.$(date +%m%d-%H%M%S).img
      3. Rebuild the initramfs:

        # cp /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).bak.$(date +%m-%d-%H%M%S).img
        # dracut --force --verbose
      4. Reboot the system.
  3. Enable DM Multipath:

    # systemctl enable --now multipathd.service
  4. Distribute I/O on all available paths. Add the following content in the /etc/multipath.conf file:

    devices {
            device {
                    vendor "NVME"
                    product ".*"
                    path_grouping_policy group_by_prio
            }
    }
    Note

    The /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys0/iopolicy configuration file has no effect on the I/O distribution when DM Multipath manages the NVMe devices.

  5. Reload the multipathd service to apply the configuration changes:

    # multipath -r

Verification

  • Verify if the native NVMe multipathing is disabled:

    # cat /sys/module/nvme_core/parameters/multipath
    N
  • Verify if DM multipath recognizes the nvme devices:

    # multipath -l
    
    eui.00007a8962ab241100a0980000d851c8 dm-6 NVME,NetApp E-Series
    size=20G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw
    `-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=0 status=active
      |- 0:10:2:2 nvme0n2 259:3 active undef running
    `-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=0 status=enabled
      |- 4:11:2:2 nvme4n2 259:28 active undef running
    `-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=0 status=enabled
      |- 5:32778:2:2 nvme5n2 259:38 active undef running
    `-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=0 status=enabled
      |- 6:32779:2:2 nvme6n2 259:44 active undef running

14.3. Enabling native NVMe multipathing

If native NVMe multipathing is disabled, you can enable it using the following solution.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Check if native NVMe multipathing is enabled in the kernel:

    # cat /sys/module/nvme_core/parameters/multipath

    The command displays one of the following:

    N
    Native NVMe multipathing is disabled.
    Y
    Native NVMe multipathing is enabled.
  2. If native NVMe multipathing is disabled, enable it by using one of the following methods:

    • Using a kernel option:

      1. Remove the nvme_core.multipath=N option from the kernel command line:

        # grubby --update-kernel=ALL --remove-args="nvme_core.multipath=N"
      2. On the 64-bit IBM Z architecture, update the boot menu:

        # zipl
      3. Reboot the system.
    • Using a kernel module configuration file:

      1. Remove the /etc/modprobe.d/nvme_core.conf configuration file:

        # rm /etc/modprobe.d/nvme_core.conf
      2. Back up the initramfs file:

        # cp /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).bak.$(date +%m-%d-%H%M%S).img
      3. Rebuild the initramfs:

        # dracut --force --verbose
      4. Reboot the system.
  3. Optional: On the running system, change the I/O policy on NVMe devices to distribute the I/O on all available paths:

    # echo "round-robin" > /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys0/iopolicy
  4. Optional: Set the I/O policy persistently using udev rules. Create the /etc/udev/rules.d/71-nvme-io-policy.rules file with the following content:

    ACTION=="add|change", SUBSYSTEM=="nvme-subsystem", ATTR{iopolicy}="round-robin"

Verification

  1. Verify if your system recognizes the NVMe devices. The following example assumes you have a connected NVMe over fabrics storage subsystem with two NVMe namespaces:

    # nvme list
    
    Node             SN                   Model                                    Namespace Usage                      Format           FW Rev
    ---------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- --------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
    /dev/nvme0n1     a34c4f3a0d6f5cec     Linux                                    1         250.06  GB / 250.06  GB    512   B +  0 B   4.18.0-2
    /dev/nvme0n2     a34c4f3a0d6f5cec     Linux                                    2         250.06  GB / 250.06  GB    512   B +  0 B   4.18.0-2
  2. List all connected NVMe subsystems:

    # nvme list-subsys
    
    nvme-subsys0 - NQN=testnqn
    \
     +- nvme0 fc traddr=nn-0x20000090fadd597a:pn-0x10000090fadd597a host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fac7e1dd:pn-0x10000090fac7e1dd live
     +- nvme1 fc traddr=nn-0x20000090fadd5979:pn-0x10000090fadd5979 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fac7e1dd:pn-0x10000090fac7e1dd live
     +- nvme2 fc traddr=nn-0x20000090fadd5979:pn-0x10000090fadd5979 host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fac7e1de:pn-0x10000090fac7e1de live
     +- nvme3 fc traddr=nn-0x20000090fadd597a:pn-0x10000090fadd597a host_traddr=nn-0x20000090fac7e1de:pn-0x10000090fac7e1de live

    Check the active transport type. For example, nvme0 fc indicates that the device is connected over the Fibre Channel transport, and nvme tcp indicates that the device is connected over TCP.

  3. If you edited the kernel options, verify if native NVMe multipathing is enabled on the kernel command line:

    # cat /proc/cmdline
    
    BOOT_IMAGE=[...] nvme_core.multipath=Y
  4. If you changed the I/O policy, verify if round-robin is the active I/O policy on NVMe devices:

    # cat /sys/class/nvme-subsystem/nvme-subsys0/iopolicy
    
    round-robin

Chapter 15. Setting up a remote diskless system

In a network environment, you can setup multiple clients with the identical configuration by deploying a remote diskless system. By using current Red Hat Enterprise Linux server version, you can save the cost of hard drives for these clients as well as configure the gateway on a separate server.

The following diagram describes the connection of a diskless client with the server through Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) services.

Figure 15.1. Remote diskless system settings diagram

Remote diskless system settings diagram

15.1. Preparing environments for the remote diskless system

Prepare your environment to be able to continue with remote diskless system implementation. The remote diskless system booting requires a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) service (provided by tftp-server) and a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service (provided by dhcp). The system uses the tftp service to retrieve the kernel image and the initial RAM disk, initrd, over the network, through the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) loader.

Important

To ensure correct functionality of the remote diskless system in your environment, configure services in the following order:

  1. tftp service for diskless clients
  2. the DHCP server
  3. the Network File System (NFS)
  4. the exported file system.

Prerequisites

  • You have set up your network connection.

Procedure

  1. Install the dracut-network package:

    # dnf install dracut-network
  2. Add the following line to the /etc/dracut.conf.d/network.conf file:

    add_dracutmodules+=" nfs "

15.2. Configuring a TFTP service for diskless clients

For the remote diskless system to function correctly in your environment, you need to first configure a Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) service for diskless clients.

Note

This configuration does not boot over the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). For UEFI based installation, see Configuring a TFTP server for UEFI-based clients.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the following packages:

    • tftp-server
    • syslinux

Procedure

  1. Enable the tftp service:

    # systemctl enable --now tftp
  2. Create a pxelinux directory inside the tftp root directory:

    # mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/
  3. Copy the /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 file to the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/ directory:

    # cp /usr/share/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/
    • You can find the tftp root directory (chroot) in the /var/lib/tftpboot directory.
  4. Copy /usr/share/syslinux/ldlinux.c32 to /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/:

    # cp /usr/share/syslinux/ldlinux.c32 /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/
  5. Create a pxelinux.cfg directory inside the tftp root directory:

    # mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/pxelinux.cfg/

    This configuration does not boot over the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). To perform the installation for UEFI, follow the procedure in Configuring a TFTP server for UEFI-based clients.

Verification

  • Check status of service tftp:

    # systemctl status tftp
    ...
    Active: active (running)
    ...

15.3. Configuring a DHCP server for diskless clients

The remote diskless system requires several pre–installed services to enable correct functionality. First, you need to install the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) service, and then configure the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Add the configuration to the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file to setup a DHCP server and enable Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) for booting:

    option space pxelinux;
    option pxelinux.magic code 208 = string;
    option pxelinux.configfile code 209 = text;
    option pxelinux.pathprefix code 210 = text;
    option pxelinux.reboottime code 211 = unsigned integer 32;
    option architecture-type code 93 = unsigned integer 16;
    
    subnet 192.168.205.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
      option routers 192.168.205.1;
      range 192.168.205.10 192.168.205.25;
    
      class "pxeclients" {
        match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
        next-server 192.168.205.1;
    
        if option architecture-type = 00:07 {
          filename "BOOTX64.efi";
          } else {
          filename "pxelinux/pxelinux.0";
        }
      }
    }
    • Your DHCP configuration might be different depending on your environment, like setting lease time or fixed address. For details, see Providing DHCP services.

      Note

      While using libvirt virtual machine as a diskless client, the libvirt daemon provides the DHCP service, and the standalone DHCP server is not used. In this situation, network booting must be enabled with the bootp file=<filename> option in the libvirt network configuration, virsh net-edit.

  2. Enable dhcpd.service:

    # systemctl enable --now dhcpd.service

Verification

  • Check the status of service dhcpd.service:

    # systemctl status dhcpd.service
    ...
    Active: active (running)
    ...

15.4. Configuring an exported file system for diskless clients

As a part of configuring a remote diskless system in your environment, you must configure an exported file system for diskless clients.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Configure the Network File System (NFS) server to export the root directory by adding it to the /etc/exports directory. For the complete set of instructions see

  2. Install a complete version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to the root directory to accommodate completely diskless clients. To do that you can either install a new base system or clone an existing installation.

    • Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux to the exported location by replacing exported-root-directory with the path to the exported file system:

      # dnf install @Base kernel dracut-network nfs-utils --installroot=exported-root-directory --releasever=/

      By setting the releasever option to /, releasever is detected from the host (/) system.

    • Use the rsync utility to synchronize with a running system:

      # rsync -a -e ssh --exclude='/proc/' --exclude='/sys/' example.com:/ exported-root-directory
      • Replace example.com with the hostname of the running system with which to synchronize via the rsync utility.
      • Replace exported-root-directory with the path to the exported file system.

        Note, that for this option you must have a separate existing running system, which you will clone to the server by the command above.

You need to fully configure the file system, that is ready for export, before you can use it with diskless clients. Follow the procedure below to complete the configuration.

Configuring a File System

  1. Copy the diskless client supported kernel (vmlinuz-_kernel-version_pass:attributes) to the tftp boot directory:

    # cp /exported-root-directory/boot/vmlinuz-kernel-version /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/
  2. Create the initramfs-kernel-version.img file locally and move it to the exported root directory with NFS support:

    # dracut --add nfs initramfs-kernel-version.img kernel-version

    For example:

    # dracut --add nfs /exports/root/boot/initramfs-5.14.0-202.el9.x86_64.img 5.14.0-202.el9.x86_64

    Example for creating initrd, using current running kernel version, and overwriting existing image:

    # dracut -f --add nfs "boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img" "$(uname -r)"
  3. Change the file permissions for initrd to 0644:

    # chmod 0644 /exported-root-directory/boot/initramfs-kernel-version.img
    Warning

    If you do not change the initrd file permissions, the pxelinux.0 boot loader fails with a "file not found" error.

  4. Copy the resulting initramfs-kernel-version.img file into the tftp boot directory:

    # cp /exported-root-directory/boot/initramfs-kernel-version.img /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/
  5. Add the following configuration in the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/pxelinux.cfg/default file to edit the default boot configuration for using the initrd and the kernel:

    default rhel9
    
    label rhel9
      kernel vmlinuz-kernel-version
      append initrd=initramfs-kernel-version.img root=nfs:_server-ip_:/exported-root-directory rw
    • This configuration instructs the diskless client root to mount the exported file system (/exported-root-directory) in a read/write format.
  6. Optional: Mount the file system in a read-only format by editing the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/pxelinux.cfg/default file with the following configuration:

    default rhel9
    
    label rhel9
      kernel vmlinuz-kernel-version
      append initrd=initramfs-kernel-version.img root=nfs:server-ip:/exported-root-directory ro
  7. Restart the NFS server:

    # systemctl restart nfs-server.service

You can now export the NFS share to diskless clients. These clients can boot over the network via Preboot Execution Environment (PXE).

15.5. Re-configuring a remote diskless system

If you want to install package updates, service restart, or debug the issues, you can reconfigure the system. The steps below show how to change the password for a user, how to install software on a system, describe how to split a system into a /usr that is in read-only mode and a /var that is in read-write mode.

Prerequisites

  • You have enabled the no_root_squash option in the exported file system.

Procedure

  1. To change the user password, follow the steps below:

    • Change the command line to /exported/root/directory:

      # chroot /exported/root/directory /bin/bash
    • Change the password for the user you want:

      # passwd <username>

      Replace the <username> with a real user to whom you want to change the password.

    • Exit the command line.
  2. Install software on a remote diskless system:

    # dnf install <package> --installroot=/exported/root/directory --releasever=/ --config /etc/dnf/dnf.conf --setopt=reposdir=/etc/yum.repos.d/
    • Replace <package> with the actual package you want to install.
  3. Configure two separate exports to split a remote diskless system into a /usr and a /var. See

15.6. Troubleshooting common issues with loading a remote diskless system

Based on the earlier configuration, some issues can occur while loading the remote diskless system. Following are some examples of the most common issues and ways to troubleshoot them on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux server.

Example 15.1. The client does not get an IP address

  • Check if the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service is enabled on the server.

    • Check if the dhcp.service is running:

      # systemctl status dhcpd.service
    • If the dhcp.service is inactive, you must enable and start it:

      # systemctl enable dhcpd.service
      # systemctl start dhcpd.service
    • Reboot the diskless client.
    • Check the DHCP configuration file /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf. For details, see Configuring a DHCP server for diskless clients.
  • Check if the Firewall ports are opened.

    • Check if the dhcp.service is listed in active services:

      # firewall-cmd --get-active-zones
      # firewall-cmd --info-zone=public
    • If the dhcp.service is not listed in active services, add it to the list:

      # firewall-cmd --add-service=dhcp --permanent
    • Check if the nfs.service is listed in active services:

      # firewall-cmd --get-active-zones
      # firewall-cmd --info-zone=public
    • If the nfs.service is not listed in active services, add it to the list:

      # firewall-cmd --add-service=nfs --permanent

Example 15.2. The file is not available during the booting a remote diskless system

  1. Check if the file is in the /var/lib/tftpboot/ directory.
  2. If the file is in the directory, check the permission:

    # chmod 644 pxelinux.0
  3. Check if the Firewall ports are opened.

Example 15.3. System boot failed after loading kernel/initrd

  1. Check if the NFS service is enabled on a server.

    1. Check if nfs.service is running:

      # systemctl status nfs.service
    2. If the nfs.service is inactive, you must start and enable it:

      # systemctl start nfs.service
      # systemctl enable nfs.service
  2. Check if the parameters are correct in the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ directory. For details, see Configuring an exported file system for diskless clients.
  3. Check if the Firewall ports are opened.

Chapter 16. Getting started with swap

Use the swap space to provide temporary storage for inactive processes and data, and prevent out-of-memory errors when physical memory is full. The swap space acts as an extension to the physical memory and allows the system to continue running smoothly even when physical memory is exhausted. Note that using swap space can slow down system performance, so optimizing the use of physical memory, before relying on swap space, can be more favorable.

16.1. Overview of swap space

Swap space in Linux is used when the amount of physical memory (RAM) is full. If the system needs more memory resources and the RAM is full, inactive pages in memory are moved to the swap space. While swap space can help machines with a small amount of RAM, it should not be considered a replacement for more RAM.

Swap space is located on hard drives, which have a slower access time than physical memory. Swap space can be a dedicated swap partition (recommended), a swap file, or a combination of swap partitions and swap files.

In years past, the recommended amount of swap space increased linearly with the amount of RAM in the system. However, modern systems often include hundreds of gigabytes of RAM. As a consequence, recommended swap space is considered a function of system memory workload, not system memory.

Adding swap space

The following are the different ways to add a swap space:

Removing swap space

The following are the different ways to remove a swap space:

16.3. Creating an LVM2 logical volume for swap

You can create an LVM2 logical volume for swap. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 is the swap volume you want to add.

Prerequisites

  • You have enough disk space.

Procedure

  1. Create the LVM2 logical volume of size 2 GB:

    # lvcreate VolGroup00 -n LogVol02 -L 2G
  2. Format the new swap space:

    # mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02
  3. Add the following entry to the /etc/fstab file:

    /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 none swap defaults 0 0
  4. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
  5. Activate swap on the logical volume:

    # swapon -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02

Verification

  • To test if the swap logical volume was successfully created and activated, inspect active swap space by using the following command:

    # cat /proc/swaps
                   total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
    Mem:            30Gi       1.2Gi        28Gi        12Mi       994Mi        28Gi
    Swap:           22Gi          0B        22Gi
    # free -h
                   total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
    Mem:            30Gi       1.2Gi        28Gi        12Mi       995Mi        28Gi
    Swap:           17Gi          0B        17Gi

16.4. Creating a swap file

You can create a swap file to create a temporary storage space on a solid-state drive or hard disk when the system runs low on memory.

Prerequisites

  • You have enough disk space.

Procedure

  1. Determine the size of the new swap file in megabytes and multiply by 1024 to determine the number of blocks. For example, the block size of a 64 MB swap file is 65536.
  2. Create an empty file:

    # dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536

    Replace 65536 with the value equal to the required block size.

  3. Set up the swap file with the command:

    # mkswap /swapfile
  4. Change the security of the swap file so it is not world readable.

    # chmod 0600 /swapfile
  5. Edit the /etc/fstab file with the following entries to enable the swap file at boot time:

    /swapfile none swap defaults 0 0

    The next time the system boots, it activates the new swap file.

  6. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new /etc/fstab configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
  7. Activate the swap file immediately:

    # swapon /swapfile

Verification

  • To test if the new swap file was successfully created and activated, inspect active swap space by using the following command:

    $ cat /proc/swaps
    $ free -h

16.5. Extending swap on an LVM2 logical volume

You can extend swap space on an existing LVM2 logical volume. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 is the volume you want to extend by 2 GB.

Prerequisites

  • You have sufficient disk space.

Procedure

  1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume:

    # swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
  2. Resize the LVM2 logical volume by 2 GB:

    # lvresize /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 -L +2G
  3. Format the new swap space:

    # mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
  4. Enable the extended logical volume:

    # swapon -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

Verification

  • To test if the swap logical volume was successfully extended and activated, inspect active swap space:

    # cat /proc/swaps
    Filename                Type        Size        Used        Priority
    /dev/dm-1          partition    16322556           0              -2
    /dev/dm-4          partition     7340028           0              -3
    # free -h
                   total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
    Mem:            30Gi       1.2Gi        28Gi        12Mi       994Mi        28Gi
    Swap:           22Gi          0B        22Gi

16.6. Reducing swap on an LVM2 logical volume

You can reduce swap on an LVM2 logical volume. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 is the volume you want to reduce.

Procedure

  1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume:

    # swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
  2. Clean the swap signature:

    # wipefs -a /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
  3. Reduce the LVM2 logical volume by 512 MB:

    # lvreduce /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 -L -512M
  4. Format the new swap space:

    # mkswap /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01
  5. Activate swap on the logical volume:

    # swapon -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01

Verification

  • To test if the swap logical volume was successfully reduced, inspect active swap space by using the following command:

    $ cat /proc/swaps
    $ free -h

16.7. Removing an LVM2 logical volume for swap

You can remove an LVM2 logical volume for swap. Assuming /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 is the swap volume you want to remove.

Procedure

  1. Disable swapping for the associated logical volume:

    # swapoff -v /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02
  2. Remove the LVM2 logical volume:

    # lvremove /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02
  3. Remove the following associated entry from the /etc/fstab file:

    /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02 none swap defaults 0 0
  4. Regenerate mount units to register the new configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload

Verification

  • Test if the logical volume was successfully removed, inspect active swap space by using the following command:

    $ cat /proc/swaps
    $ free -h

16.8. Removing a swap file

You can remove a swap file.

Procedure

  1. Disable the /swapfile swap file:

    # swapoff -v /swapfile
  2. Remove its entry from the /etc/fstab file accordingly.
  3. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
  4. Remove the actual file:

    # rm /swapfile

Chapter 17. Configuring Fibre Channel over Ethernet

Based on the IEEE T11 FC-BB-5 standard, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is a protocol to transmit Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet networks. Typically, data centers have a dedicated LAN and Storage Area Network (SAN) that are separated from each other with their own specific configuration. FCoE combines these networks into a single and converged network structure. Benefits of FCoE are, for example, lower hardware and energy costs.

17.1. Using hardware FCoE HBAs in RHEL

In RHEL you can use hardware Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Host Bus Adapter (HBA), which is supported by the following drivers:

  • qedf
  • bnx2fc
  • fnic

If you use such a HBA, you configure the FCoE settings in the setup of the HBA. For more information, see the documentation of the adapter.

After you configure the HBA, the exported Logical Unit Numbers (LUN) from the Storage Area Network (SAN) are automatically available to RHEL as /dev/sd* devices. You can use these devices similar to local storage devices.

17.2. Setting up a software FCoE device

Use the software FCoE device to access Logical Unit Numbers (LUN) over FCoE, which uses using an Ethernet adapter that partially supports FCoE offload.

Important

RHEL does not support software FCoE devices that require the fcoe.ko kernel module.

After you complete this procedure, the exported LUNs from the Storage Area Network (SAN) are automatically available to RHEL as /dev/sd* devices. You can use these devices in a similar way to local storage devices.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured the network switch to support VLAN.
  • The SAN uses a VLAN to separate the storage traffic from normal Ethernet traffic.
  • You have configured the HBA of the server in its BIOS.
  • The HBA is connected to the network and the link is up. For more information, see the documentation of your HBA.

Procedure

  1. Install the fcoe-utils package:

    # dnf install fcoe-utils
  2. Copy the /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethx template file to /etc/fcoe/cfg-interface_name. For example, if you want to configure the enp1s0 interface to use FCoE, enter the following command:

    # cp /etc/fcoe/cfg-ethx /etc/fcoe/cfg-enp1s0
  3. Enable and start the fcoe service:

    # systemctl enable --now fcoe
  4. Discover the FCoE VLAN on interface enp1s0, create a network device for the discovered VLAN, and start the initiator:

    # fipvlan -s -c enp1s0
    Created VLAN device enp1s0.200
    Starting FCoE on interface enp1s0.200
    Fibre Channel Forwarders Discovered
    interface       | VLAN | FCF MAC
    ------------------------------------------
    enp1s0          | 200  | 00:53:00:a7:e7:1b
  5. Optional: Display details about the discovered targets, the LUNs, and the devices associated with the LUNs:

    # fcoeadm -t
    Interface:        enp1s0.200
    Roles:            FCP Target
    Node Name:        0x500a0980824acd15
    Port Name:        0x500a0982824acd15
    Target ID:        0
    MaxFrameSize:     2048 bytes
    OS Device Name:   rport-11:0-1
    FC-ID (Port ID):  0xba00a0
    State:            Online
    
    LUN ID  Device Name   Capacity   Block Size  Description
    ------  -----------  ----------  ----------  ---------------------
         0  sdb           28.38 GiB      512     NETAPP LUN (rev 820a)
         ...

    This example shows that LUN 0 from the SAN has been attached to the host as the /dev/sdb device.

Verification

  • Display information about all active FCoE interfaces:

    # fcoeadm -i
    Description:      BCM57840 NetXtreme II 10 Gigabit Ethernet
    Revision:         11
    Manufacturer:     Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
    Serial Number:    000AG703A9B7
    
    Driver:           bnx2x Unknown
    Number of Ports:  1
    
        Symbolic Name:     bnx2fc (QLogic BCM57840) v2.12.13 over enp1s0.200
        OS Device Name:    host11
        Node Name:         0x2000000af70ae935
        Port Name:         0x2001000af70ae935
        Fabric Name:       0x20c8002a6aa7e701
        Speed:             10 Gbit
        Supported Speed:   1 Gbit, 10 Gbit
        MaxFrameSize:      2048 bytes
        FC-ID (Port ID):   0xba02c0
        State:             Online

Additional resources

Chapter 18. Managing tape devices

A tape device is a magnetic tape where data is stored and accessed sequentially. Data is written to this tape device with the help of a tape drive. There is no need to create a file system in order to store data on a tape device. Tape drives can be connected to a host computer with various interfaces like, SCSI, FC, USB, SATA, and other interfaces.

18.1. Types of tape devices

The following is a list of the different types of tape devices:

  • /dev/st0 is a rewinding tape device.
  • /dev/nst0 is a non-rewinding tape device. Use non-rewinding devices for daily backups.

There are several advantages to using tape devices. They are cost efficient and stable. Tape devices are also resilient against data corruption and are suitable for data retention.

18.2. Installing tape drive management tool

Use the mt command to wind the data back and forth. The mt utility controls magnetic tape drive operations and the st utility is used for SCSI tape driver. This procedure describes how to install the mt-st package for tape drive operations.

Procedure

  • Install the mt-st package:

    # dnf install mt-st

Additional resources

  • mt(1) and st(4) man pages

18.3. Writing to rewinding tape devices

A rewind tape device rewinds the tape after every operation. To back up data, you can use the tar command. By default, in tape devices the block size is 10KB (bs=10k). You can set the TAPE environment variable using the export TAPE=/dev/st0 attribute. Use the -f device option instead, to specify the tape device file. This option is useful when you use more than one tape device.

Prerequisites

  1. You have installed the mt-st package. For more information, see Installing tape drive management tool.
  2. Load the tape drive:

    # mt -f /dev/st0 load

Procedure

  1. Check the tape head:

    # mt -f /dev/st0 status
    
    SCSI 2 tape drive:
    File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
    Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
    Soft error count since last status=0
    General status bits on (50000):
     DR_OPEN IM_REP_EN

    Here:

    • the current file number is -1.
    • the block number defines the tape head. By default, it is set to -1.
    • the block size 0 indicates that the tape device does not have a fixed block size.
    • the Soft error count indicates the number of encountered errors after executing the mt status command.
    • the General status bits explains the stats of the tape device.
    • DR_OPEN indicates that the door is open and the tape device is empty. IM_REP_EN is the immediate report mode.
  2. If the tape device is not empty, overwrite it:

    # tar -czf /dev/st0 _/source/directory

    This command overwrites the data on a tape device with the content of /source/directory.

  3. Back up the /source/directory to the tape device:

    # tar -czf /dev/st0 _/source/directory
    tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
    /source/directory
    /source/directory/man_db.conf
    /source/directory/DIR_COLORS
    /source/directory/rsyslog.conf
    [...]
  4. View the status of the tape device:

    # mt -f /dev/st0  status

Verification

  • View the list of all files on the tape device:

    # tar -tzf /dev/st0
    /source/directory/
    /source/directory/man_db.conf
    /source/directory/DIR_COLORS
    /source/directory/rsyslog.conf
    [...]

Additional resources

18.4. Writing to non-rewinding tape devices

A non-rewinding tape device leaves the tape in its current status, after completing the execution of a certain command. For example, after a backup, you could append more data to a non-rewinding tape device. You can also use it to avoid any unexpected rewinds.

Prerequisites

  1. You have installed the mt-st package. For more information, see Installing tape drive management tool.
  2. Load the tape drive:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 load

Procedure

  1. Check the tape head of the non-rewinding tape device /dev/nst0:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 status
  2. Specify the pointer at the head or at the end of the tape:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
  3. Append the data on the tape device:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 eod
    # tar -czf /dev/nst0 /source/directory/
  4. Back up the /source/directory/ to the tape device:

    # tar -czf /dev/nst0 /source/directory/
    tar: Removing leading `/' from member names
    /source/directory/
    /source/directory/man_db.conf
    /source/directory/DIR_COLORS
    /source/directory/rsyslog.conf
    [...]
  5. View the status of the tape device:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0  status

Verification

  • View the list of all files on the tape device:

    # tar -tzf /dev/nst0
    /source/directory/
    /source/directory/man_db.conf
    /source/directory/DIR_COLORS
    /source/directory/rsyslog.conf
    [...]

Additional resources

18.5. Switching tape head in tape devices

Use the following procedure to switch the tape head in the tape device.

Prerequisites

  1. You have installed the mt-st package. For more information, see Installing tape drive management tool.
  2. Data is written to the tape device. Fore more information, see Writing to rewinding tape devices or Writing to non-rewinding tape devices.

Procedure

  • To view the current position of the tape pointer:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 tell
  • To switch the tape head, while appending the data to the tape devices:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 eod
  • To go to the previous record:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 bsfm 1
  • To go to the forward record:

    # mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf 1

Additional resources

  • mt(1) man page

18.6. Restoring data from tape devices

To restore data from a tape device, use the tar command.

Prerequisites

  1. You have installed the mt-st package. For more information, see Installing tape drive management tool.
  2. Data is written to the tape device. For more information, see Writing to rewinding tape devices or Writing to non-rewinding tape devices.

Procedure

  • For rewinding tape devices /dev/st0:

    • Restore the /source/directory/:

      # tar -xzf /dev/st0 /source/directory/
  • For non-rewinding tape devices /dev/nst0:

    • Rewind the tape device:

      # mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
    • Restore the etc directory:

      # tar -xzf /dev/nst0 /source/directory/

Additional resources

  • mt(1) and tar(1) man pages

18.7. Erasing data from tape devices

To erase data from a tape device, use the erase option.

Prerequisites

  1. You have installed the mt-st package. For more information, see Installing tape drive management tool.
  2. Data is written to the tape device. For more information, see Writing to rewinding tape devices or Writing to non-rewinding tape devices.

Procedure

  1. Erase data from the tape device:

    # mt -f /dev/st0 erase
  2. Unload the tape device:

    mt -f /dev/st0 offline

Additional resources

  • mt(1) man page

18.8. Tape commands

The following are the common mt commands:

Table 18.1. mt commands
CommandDescription

mt -f /dev/st0 status

Displays the status of the tape device.

mt -f /dev/st0 erase

Erases the entire tape.

mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind

Rewinds the tape device.

mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf n

Switches the tape head to the forward record. Here, n is an optional file count. If a file count is specified, tape head skips n records.

mt -f /dev/nst0 bsfm n

Switches the tape head to the previous record.

mt -f /dev/nst0 eod

Switches the tape head to the end of the data.

Chapter 19. Managing RAID

You can use a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) to store data across multiple drives. It can help to avoid data loss if a drive has failed.

19.1. Overview of RAID

In a RAID, multiple devices, such as HDD, SSD, or NVMe are combined into an array to accomplish performance or redundancy goals not achievable with one large and expensive drive. This array of devices appears to the computer as a single logical storage unit or drive.

RAID supports various configurations, including levels 0, 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and linear. RAID uses techniques such as disk striping (RAID Level 0), disk mirroring (RAID Level 1), and disk striping with parity (RAID Levels 4, 5 and 6) to achieve redundancy, lower latency, increased bandwidth, and maximized ability to recover from hard disk crashes.

RAID distributes data across each device in the array by breaking it down into consistently-sized chunks, commonly 256 KB or 512 KB, although other values are acceptable. It writes these chunks to a hard drive in the RAID array according to the RAID level employed. While reading the data, the process is reversed, giving the illusion that the multiple devices in the array are actually one large drive.

RAID technology is beneficial for those who manage large amounts of data. The following are the primary reasons to deploy RAID:

  • It enhances speed
  • It increases storage capacity using a single virtual disk
  • It minimizes data loss from disk failure
  • The RAID layout and level online conversion

19.2. RAID types

The following are the possible types of RAID:

Firmware RAID
Firmware RAID, also known as ATARAID, is a type of software RAID where the RAID sets can be configured using a firmware-based menu. The firmware used by this type of RAID also hooks into the BIOS, allowing you to boot from its RAID sets. Different vendors use different on-disk metadata formats to mark the RAID set members. The Intel Matrix RAID is an example of a firmware RAID system.
Hardware RAID

A hardware-based array manages the RAID subsystem independently from the host. It might present multiple devices per RAID array to the host.

Hardware RAID devices might be internal or external to the system. Internal devices commonly consists of a specialized controller card that handles the RAID tasks transparently to the operating system. External devices commonly connect to the system via SCSI, Fibre Channel, iSCSI, InfiniBand, or other high speed network interconnect and present volumes such as logical units to the system.

RAID controller cards function like a SCSI controller to the operating system and handle all the actual drive communications. You can plug the drives into the RAID controller similar to a normal SCSI controller and then add them to the RAID controller’s configuration. The operating system will not be able to tell the difference.

Software RAID

A software RAID implements the various RAID levels in the kernel block device code. It offers the cheapest possible solution because expensive disk controller cards or hot-swap chassis are not required. With hot-swap chassis, you can remove a hard drive without powering off your system. Software RAID also works with any block storage, which are supported by the Linux kernel, such as SATA, SCSI, and NVMe. With today’s faster CPUs, Software RAID also generally outperforms hardware RAID, unless you use high-end storage devices.

Since the Linux kernel contains a multiple device (MD) driver, the RAID solution becomes completely hardware independent. The performance of a software-based array depends on the server CPU performance and load.

The following are the key features of the Linux software RAID stack:

  • Multithreaded design
  • Portability of arrays between Linux machines without reconstruction
  • Backgrounded array reconstruction using idle system resources
  • Hot-swap drive support
  • Automatic CPU detection to take advantage of certain CPU features such as streaming Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) support.
  • Automatic correction of bad sectors on disks in an array.
  • Regular consistency checks of RAID data to ensure the health of the array.
  • Proactive monitoring of arrays with email alerts sent to a designated email address on important events.
  • Write-intent bitmaps, which drastically increase the speed of resync events by allowing the kernel to know precisely which portions of a disk need to be resynced instead of having to resync the entire array after a system crash.

    Note

    The resync is a process to synchronize the data over the devices in the existing RAID to achieve redundancy.

  • Resync checkpointing so that if you reboot your computer during a resync, at startup the resync resumes where it left off and not starts all over again.
  • The ability to change parameters of the array after installation, which is called reshaping. For example, you can grow a 4-disk RAID5 array to a 5-disk RAID5 array when you have a new device to add. This grow operation is done live and does not require you to reinstall on the new array.
  • Reshaping supports changing the number of devices, the RAID algorithm or size of the RAID array type, such as RAID4, RAID5, RAID6, or RAID10.
  • Takeover supports RAID level conversion, such as RAID0 to RAID6.
  • Cluster MD, which is a storage solution for a cluster, provides the redundancy of RAID1 mirroring to the cluster. Currently, only RAID1 is supported.

19.3. RAID levels and linear support

The following are the supported configurations by RAID, including levels 0, 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, and linear:

Level 0

RAID level 0, often called striping, is a performance-oriented striped data mapping technique. This means the data being written to the array is broken down into stripes and written across the member disks of the array, allowing high I/O performance at low inherent cost but provides no redundancy.

RAID level 0 implementations only stripe the data across the member devices up to the size of the smallest device in the array. This means that if you have multiple devices with slightly different sizes, each device gets treated as though it was the same size as the smallest drive. Therefore, the common storage capacity of a level 0 array is the total capacity of all disks. If the member disks have a different size, then the RAID0 uses all the space of those disks using the available zones.

Level 1

RAID level 1, or mirroring, provides redundancy by writing identical data to each member disk of the array, leaving a mirrored copy on each disk. Mirroring remains popular due to its simplicity and high level of data availability. Level 1 operates with two or more disks, and provides very good data reliability and improves performance for read-intensive applications but at relatively high costs.

RAID level 1 is costly because you write the same information to all of the disks in the array, which provides data reliability, but in a much less space-efficient manner than parity based RAID levels such as level 5. However, this space inefficiency comes with a performance benefit, which is parity-based RAID levels that consume considerably more CPU power in order to generate the parity while RAID level 1 simply writes the same data more than once to the multiple RAID members with very little CPU overhead. As such, RAID level 1 can outperform the parity-based RAID levels on machines where software RAID is employed and CPU resources on the machine are consistently taxed with operations other than RAID activities.

The storage capacity of the level 1 array is equal to the capacity of the smallest mirrored hard disk in a hardware RAID or the smallest mirrored partition in a software RAID. Level 1 redundancy is the highest possible among all RAID types, with the array being able to operate with only a single disk present.

Level 4

Level 4 uses parity concentrated on a single disk drive to protect data. Parity information is calculated based on the content of the rest of the member disks in the array. This information can then be used to reconstruct data when one disk in the array fails. The reconstructed data can then be used to satisfy I/O requests to the failed disk before it is replaced and to repopulate the failed disk after it has been replaced.

Since the dedicated parity disk represents an inherent bottleneck on all write transactions to the RAID array, level 4 is seldom used without accompanying technologies such as write-back caching. Or it is used in specific circumstances where the system administrator is intentionally designing the software RAID device with this bottleneck in mind such as an array that has little to no write transactions once the array is populated with data. RAID level 4 is so rarely used that it is not available as an option in Anaconda. However, it could be created manually by the user if needed.

The storage capacity of hardware RAID level 4 is equal to the capacity of the smallest member partition multiplied by the number of partitions minus one. The performance of a RAID level 4 array is always asymmetrical, which means reads outperform writes. This is because write operations consume extra CPU resources and main memory bandwidth when generating parity, and then also consume extra bus bandwidth when writing the actual data to disks because you are not only writing the data, but also the parity. Read operations need only read the data and not the parity unless the array is in a degraded state. As a result, read operations generate less traffic to the drives and across the buses of the computer for the same amount of data transfer under normal operating conditions.

Level 5

This is the most common type of RAID. By distributing parity across all the member disk drives of an array, RAID level 5 eliminates the write bottleneck inherent in level 4. The only performance bottleneck is the parity calculation process itself. Modern CPUs can calculate parity very fast. However, if you have a large number of disks in a RAID 5 array such that the combined aggregate data transfer speed across all devices is high enough, parity calculation can be a bottleneck.

Level 5 has asymmetrical performance, and reads substantially outperforming writes. The storage capacity of RAID level 5 is calculated the same way as with level 4.

Level 6

This is a common level of RAID when data redundancy and preservation, and not performance, are the paramount concerns, but where the space inefficiency of level 1 is not acceptable. Level 6 uses a complex parity scheme to be able to recover from the loss of any two drives in the array. This complex parity scheme creates a significantly higher CPU burden on software RAID devices and also imposes an increased burden during write transactions. As such, level 6 is considerably more asymmetrical in performance than levels 4 and 5.

The total capacity of a RAID level 6 array is calculated similarly to RAID level 5 and 4, except that you must subtract two devices instead of one from the device count for the extra parity storage space.

Level 10

This RAID level attempts to combine the performance advantages of level 0 with the redundancy of level 1. It also reduces some of the space wasted in level 1 arrays with more than two devices. With level 10, it is possible, for example, to create a 3-drive array configured to store only two copies of each piece of data, which then allows the overall array size to be 1.5 times the size of the smallest devices instead of only equal to the smallest device, similar to a 3-device, level 1 array. This avoids CPU process usage to calculate parity similar to RAID level 6, but it is less space efficient.

The creation of RAID level 10 is not supported during installation. It is possible to create one manually after installation.

Linear RAID

Linear RAID is a grouping of drives to create a larger virtual drive.

In linear RAID, the chunks are allocated sequentially from one member drive, going to the next drive only when the first is completely filled. This grouping provides no performance benefit, as it is unlikely that any I/O operations split between member drives. Linear RAID also offers no redundancy and decreases reliability. If any one member drive fails, the entire array cannot be used and data can be lost. The capacity is the total of all member disks.

19.4. Linux RAID subsystems

The following subsystems compose RAID in Linux:

Linux Hardware RAID Controller Drivers
Hardware RAID controllers have no specific RAID subsystem in Linux. Since they use special RAID chipsets, hardware RAID controllers come with their own drivers. With these drivers, the system detects the RAID sets as regular disks.
mdraid

The mdraid subsystem was designed as a software RAID solution for Linux. It is also the preferred solution for software RAID in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This subsystem uses its own metadata format, which is referred to as native MD metadata.

It also supports other metadata formats, known as external metadata. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 uses mdraid with external metadata to access Intel Rapid Storage (ISW) or Intel Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM) sets and Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Disk Drive Format (DDF). The mdraid subsystem sets are configured and controlled through the mdadm utility.

19.5. Creating a software RAID during the installation

Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks (RAID) devices are constructed from multiple storage devices that are arranged to provide increased performance and, in some configurations, greater fault tolerance. A RAID device is created in one step and disks are added or removed as necessary. You can configure one RAID partition for each physical disk in your system, so that the number of disks available to the installation program determines the levels of RAID device available. For example, if your system has two disks, you cannot create a RAID 10 device, as it requires a minimum of three separate disks. To optimize your system’s storage performance and reliability, RHEL supports software RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 4, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10 types with LVM and LVM Thin Provisioning to set up storage on the installed system.

Note

On 64-bit IBM Z, the storage subsystem uses RAID transparently. You do not have to configure software RAID manually.

Prerequisites

  • You have selected two or more disks for installation before RAID configuration options are visible. Depending on the RAID type you want to create, at least two disks are required.
  • You have created a mount point. By configuring a mount point, you can configure the RAID device.
  • You have selected the Custom radio button on the Installation Destination window.

Procedure

  1. From the left pane of the Manual Partitioning window, select the required partition.
  2. Under the Device(s) section, click Modify. The Configure Mount Point dialog box opens.
  3. Select the disks that you want to include in the RAID device and click Select.
  4. Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select RAID.
  5. Click the File System drop-down menu and select your preferred file system type.
  6. Click the RAID Level drop-down menu and select your preferred level of RAID.
  7. Click Update Settings to save your changes.
  8. Click Done to apply the settings to return to the Installation Summary window.

19.6. Creating a software RAID on an installed system

You can create a software Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) on an existing system using the mdadm utility.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a RAID of two block devices, for example /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdc1:

    # mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda1 /dev/sdc1
    mdadm: Defaulting to version 1.2 metadata
    mdadm: array /dev/md0 started.

    The level_value option defines the RAID level.

  2. Optional: Check the status of the RAID:

    # mdadm --detail /dev/md0
    /dev/md0:
               Version : 1.2
         Creation Time : Thu Oct 13 15:17:39 2022
            Raid Level : raid0
            Array Size : 18649600 (17.79 GiB 19.10 GB)
          Raid Devices : 2
         Total Devices : 2
           Persistence : Superblock is persistent
    
           Update Time : Thu Oct 13 15:17:39 2022
                 State : clean
        Active Devices : 2
       Working Devices : 2
        Failed Devices : 0
         Spare Devices : 0
    [...]
  3. Optional: Observe the detailed information about each device in the RAID:

    # mdadm --examine /dev/sda1 /dev/sdc1
    /dev/sda1:
              Magic : a92b4efc
            Version : 1.2
        Feature Map : 0x1000
         Array UUID : 77ddfb0a:41529b0e:f2c5cde1:1d72ce2c
               Name : 0
      Creation Time : Thu Oct 13 15:17:39 2022
         Raid Level : raid0
       Raid Devices : 2
    [...]
  4. Create a file system on the RAID drive:

    # mkfs -t xfs /dev/md0

    Replace xfs with the file system that you chose to format the drive with.

  5. Create a mount point for RAID drive and mount it:

    # mkdir /mnt/raid1
    # mount /dev/md0 /mnt/raid1

    Replace /mnt/raid1 with the mount point.

    If you want that RHEL mounts the md0 RAID device automatically when the system boots, add an entry for your device to the /etc/fstab file:

    /dev/md0   /mnt/raid1 xfs  defaults   0 0

19.7. Creating RAID in the web console

Configure RAID in the RHEL 9 web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • Physical disks connected to the system. Each RAID level requires different amount of disks.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 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 MDRAID device.

    Image displaying the available options in the Storage table drop-down menu. Selecting the MDRAID device option.

  5. In the Create RAID Device dialog box, enter a name for the new RAID.
  6. In the RAID Level drop-down list, select a level of RAID you want to use.
  7. From the Chunk Size drop-down list, select the size from the list of available options.

    The Chunk Size value specifies how large each block is for data writing. For example, if the chunk size is 512 KiB, the system writes the first 512 KiB to the first disk, the second 512 KiB is written to the second disk, and the third chunk is written to the third disk. If you have three disks in your RAID, the fourth 512 KiB is written to the first disk again.

  8. Select the disks you want to use for RAID.
  9. Click Create.

Verification

  • Go to the Storage section and check that you can see the new RAID in the RAID devices box.

    You have the following options to format and mount the new RAID in the web console:

    • Formatting RAID
    • Creating partitions on the partition table
    • Creating a volume group on top of the RAID

19.8. Formatting RAID in the web console

You can format and mount software RAID devices in the RHEL 9 web console.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • Physical disks are connected and visible by RHEL 9.
  • RAID is created.
  • Consider the file system to be used for the RAID.
  • Consider creating a partitioning table.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the menu button, , next to the RAID device you want to format.
  4. From the drop-down menu, select Format.
  5. In the Format dialog box, enter a name.
  6. In the Mount Point field, add the mount path.
  7. From the Type drop-down list, select the type of file system.
  8. Select the Overwrite existing data with zeros checkbox if you want the RHEL web console to rewrite the whole disk with zeros. This option is slower because the program has to go through the whole disk, but it is more secure. Use this option if the disk includes any data and you need to overwrite it.

    If you do not select the Overwrite existing data with zeros checkbox, the RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. This increases the speed of formatting.

  9. If you want to encrypt the volume, select the type of encryption from the Encryption drop-down menu.

    If you do not want to encrypt the volume, select No encryption.

  10. In the At boot drop-down menu, select when you want to mount the volume.
  11. In the Mount options section:

    1. Select the Mount read only checkbox if you want the to mount the volume as a read-only logical volume.
    2. Select the Custom mount options checkbox and add the mount options if you want to change the default mount option.
  12. Format the RAID partition:

    • If you want to format and mount the partition, click the Format and mount button.
    • If you want to only format the partition, click the Format only button.

      Formatting can take several minutes depending on the volume size and which formatting options are selected.

Verification

  • After the formatting has completed successfully, you can see the details of the formatted logical volume in the Storage table on the Storage page.

19.9. Creating a partition table on RAID by using the web console

Format RAID with the partition table on the new software RAID device created in the RHEL 9 interface.

RAID requires formatting as any other storage device. You have two options:

  • Format the RAID device without partitions
  • Create a partition table with partitions

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • Physical disks are connected and visible by the system.
  • RAID is created.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the RAID device on which you want to create a partition table.
  4. Click the menu button, in the MDRAID device section.
  5. From the drop-down menu, select Create partition table.
  6. In the Initialize disk dialog box, select the following:

    1. Partitioning:

      • Compatible with all systems and devices (MBR)
      • Compatible with modern system and hard disks > 2TB (GPT)
      • No partitioning
    2. Overwrite:

      • Select the Overwrite existing data with zeros checkbox if you want the RHEL web console to rewrite the whole disk with zeros. This option is slower because the program has to go through the whole disk, but it is more secure. Use this option if the disk includes any data and you want to overwrite it.

        If you do not select the Overwrite existing data with zeros checkbox, the RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. This increases the speed of formatting.

  7. Click Initialize.

    The partitioning table is created and you can now create partitions on that table.

19.10. Creating partitions on RAID by using the web console

Create a partition in the existing partition table.

Prerequisites

  • The RHEL 9 web console is installed and accessible.

    For details, see Installing the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • A partition table on RAID is created.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the RAID device on which you want to create a partition.
  4. On the RAID device page, scroll to the GPT partitions section and click the menu button, , next to the partition table you created. It is named Free space by default.
  5. Click Create partition.
  6. In the Create partition dialog box, enter a name for the file system. Do not use spaces in the name.
  7. In the Mount Point field, add the mount path.
  8. In the Type drop-down list, select the type of file system.
  9. In the Size field, set the size of the partition.
  10. Select the Overwrite existing data with zeros checkbox if you want the RHEL web console to rewrite the whole disk with zeros. This option is slower because the program has to go through the whole disk, but it is more secure. Use this option if the disk includes any data and you want to overwrite it.

    If you do not select the Overwrite existing data with zeros checkbox, the RHEL web console rewrites only the disk header. This increases the speed of formatting.

  11. If you want to encrypt the volume, select the type of encryption in the Encryption drop-down menu.

    If you do not want to encrypt the volume, select No encryption.

  12. In the At boot drop-down menu, select when you want to mount the volume.
  13. In the Mount options section:

    1. Select the Mount read only checkbox if you want the to mount the volume as a read-only logical volume.
    2. Select the Custom mount options checkbox and add the mount options if you want to change the default mount option.
  14. Create the partition:

    • If you want to create and mount the partition, click the Create and mount button.
    • If you want to only create the partition, click the Create only button.

      Formatting can take several minutes depending on the volume size and which formatting options are selected.

      You can create more partitions after the partition is created.

      At this point, the system uses mounted and formatted RAID.

Verification

  • You can see the details of the formatted logical volume in the Storage table on the main storage page.

19.11. Creating a volume group on top of RAID by using the web console

Build a volume group from software RAID.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • The RAID device that is not formatted and not mounted.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 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 LVM2 volume group.

    Image displaying the available options in the Storage table drop-down menu. Selecting Create LVM2 volume group.

  5. In the Create LVM2 volume group dialog box, enter a name for the new volume group.
  6. From the Disks list, select a RAID device.

    If you do not see the RAID in the list, unmount the RAID from the system. The RAID device must not be in use by the RHEL 9 system.

  7. Click Create.

19.12. Configuring a RAID volume by using the storage RHEL system role

With the storage system role, you can configure a RAID volume on RHEL by using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible-Core. Create an Ansible playbook with the parameters to configure a RAID volume to suit your requirements.

Warning

Device names might change in certain circumstances, for example, when you add a new disk to a system. Therefore, to prevent data loss, do not use specific disk names in the playbook.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Configure the storage
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      tasks:
        - name: Create a RAID on sdd, sde, sdf, and sdg
          ansible.builtin.include_role:
            name: rhel-system-roles.storage
          vars:
            storage_safe_mode: false
            storage_volumes:
              - name: data
                type: raid
                disks: [sdd, sde, sdf, sdg]
                raid_level: raid0
                raid_chunk_size: 32 KiB
                mount_point: /mnt/data
                state: present
  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md file
  • /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/ directory

19.13. Extending RAID

You can extend a RAID using the --grow option of the mdadm utility.

Prerequisites

  • Enough disk space.
  • The parted package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Extend RAID partitions. For more information, see Resizing a partition with parted.
  2. Extend RAID to the maximum of the partition capacity:

    # mdadm --grow --size=max /dev/md0

    To set a specific size, write the value of the --size parameter in kB, for example --size=524228.

  3. Increase the size of file system. For example, if the volume uses XFS and is mounted to /mnt/, enter:

    # xfs_growfs /mnt/

Additional resources

19.14. Shrinking RAID

You can shrink RAID using the --grow option of the mdadm utility.

Important

The XFS file system does not support shrinking.

Prerequisites

  • The parted package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Shrink the file system. For more information, see Managing file systems.
  2. Decrease the RAID to the size, for example to 512 MB:

    # mdadm --grow --size=524228 /dev/md0

    Write the --size parameter in kB.

  3. Shrink the partition to the size you need.

Additional resources

19.15. Supported RAID conversions

It is possible to convert from one RAID level to another. For example, you can convert from RAID5 to RAID10, but not from RAID10 to RAID5. The following table describes the supported RAID conversions:

Source levelDestination level

RAID0

RAID4, RAID5, RAID10

RAID1

RAID0, RAID5

RAID4

RAID0, RAID5

RAID5

RAID0, RAID1, RAID4, RAID6, RAID10

RAID6

RAID5

RAID10

RAID0

Note

Converting RAID 5 to RAID0 and RAID4 is only possible with the ALGORITHM_PARITY_N layout.

Additional resources.

  • The mdadm(8) man page

19.16. Converting a RAID level

You can convert RAID to a different RAID level as required. The following example converts the RAID device /dev/md0 with level 0 to 5 and add one more disk /dev/sdd to the array.

Prerequisites

  • Enough disks for conversion.
  • The mdadm package is installed.
  • Ensure the intended conversion is supported. See Supported RAID conversions.

Procedure

  1. Convert the RAID /dev/md0 to RAID level 5:

    # mdadm --grow --level=5 -n 3 /dev/md0 --force
  2. Add a new disk to the array:

    # mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sdd

Verification

  • Verify if the RAID level is converted:

    # mdadm --detail /dev/md0
    /dev/md0:
               Version : 1.2
         Creation Time : Thu Oct 13 15:17:39 2022
            Raid Level : raid0
            Array Size : 18649600 (17.79 GiB 19.10 GB)
          Raid Devices : 5
    [...]

Additional resources

  • The mdadm(8) man page

19.17. Converting a root disk to RAID1 after installation

This section describes how to convert a non-RAID root disk to a RAID1 mirror after installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

On the PowerPC (PPC) architecture, take the following additional steps:

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Copy the contents of the PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) boot partition from /dev/sda1 to /dev/sdb1:

    # dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1
  2. Update the prep and boot flag on the first partition on both disks:

    $ parted /dev/sda set 1 prep on
    $ parted /dev/sda set 1 boot on
    
    $ parted /dev/sdb set 1 prep on
    $ parted /dev/sdb set 1 boot on
Note

Executing the grub2-install /dev/sda command does not work on a PowerPC machine and returns an error, but the system boots as expected.

19.18. Creating advanced RAID devices

In some cases, you might want to install the operating system on an array that is created before the installation completes. Usually, this means setting up the /boot or root file system arrays on a complex RAID device. In such cases, you might need to use array options that are not supported by the Anaconda installer. To work around this, perform the following steps.

Note

The limited Rescue Mode of the installer does not include man pages. Both the mdadm and md man pages contain useful information for creating custom RAID arrays, and might be needed throughout the workaround.

Procedure

  1. Insert the install disk.
  2. During the initial boot up, select Rescue Mode instead of Install or Upgrade. When the system fully boots into Rescue mode, you can see the command line terminal.
  3. From this terminal, execute the following commands:

    1. Create RAID partitions on the target hard drives by using the parted command.
    2. Manually create raid arrays by using the mdadm command from those partitions using any and all settings and options available.
  4. Optional: After creating arrays, create file systems on the arrays as well.
  5. Reboot the computer and select Install or Upgrade to install. As the Anaconda installer searches the disks in the system, it finds the pre-existing RAID devices.
  6. When asked about how to use the disks in the system, select Custom Layout and click Next. In the device listing, the pre-existing MD RAID devices are listed.
  7. Select a RAID device and click Edit.
  8. Configure its mount point and optionally the type of file system it should use if you did not create one earlier, and then click Done. Anaconda installs to this pre-existing RAID device, preserving the custom options you selected when you created it in Rescue Mode.

19.19. Setting up email notifications to monitor a RAID

You can set up email alerts to monitor RAID with the mdadm tool. Once the MAILADDR variable is set to the required email address, the monitoring system sends the alerts to the added email address.

Prerequisites

  • The mdadm package is installed.
  • The mail service is set up.

Procedure

  1. Create the /etc/mdadm.conf configuration file for monitoring array by scanning the RAID details:

    # mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm.conf

    Note, that ARRAY and MAILADDR are mandatory variables.

  2. Open the /etc/mdadm.conf configuration file with a text editor of your choice and add the MAILADDR variable with the mail address for the notification. For example, add new line:

    MAILADDR example@example.com

    Here, example@example.com is an email address to which you want to receive the alerts from the array monitoring.

  3. Save changes in the /etc/mdadm.conf file and close it.

Additional resources

  • The mdadm.conf(5) man page

19.20. Replacing a failed disk in RAID

You can reconstruct the data from the failed disks using the remaining disks. RAID level and the total number of disks determines the minimum amount of remaining disks needed for a successful data reconstruction.

In this procedure, the /dev/md0 RAID contains four disks. The /dev/sdd disk has failed and you need to replace it with the /dev/sdf disk.

Prerequisites

  • A spare disk for replacement.
  • The mdadm package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Check the failed disk:

    1. View the kernel logs:

      # journalctl -k -f
    2. Search for a message similar to the following:

      md/raid:md0: Disk failure on sdd, disabling device.
      
      md/raid:md0: Operation continuing on 3 devices.
    3. Press Ctrl+C on your keyboard to exit the journalctl program.
  2. Mark the failed disk as faulty:

    # mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --fail /dev/sdd
  3. Optional: Check if the failed disk was marked correctly:

    # mdadm --detail /dev/md0

    At the end of the output is a list of disks in the /dev/md0 RAID where the disk /dev/sdd has the faulty status:

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8       16        0      active sync   /dev/sdb
       1       8       32        1      active sync   /dev/sdc
       -       0        0        2      removed
       3       8       64        3      active sync   /dev/sde
    
       2       8       48        -      faulty   /dev/sdd
  4. Remove the failed disk from the RAID:

    # mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --remove /dev/sdd
    Warning

    If your RAID cannot withstand another disk failure, do not remove any disk until the new disk has the active sync status. You can monitor the progress using the watch cat /proc/mdstat command.

  5. Add the new disk to the RAID:

    # mdadm --manage /dev/md0 --add /dev/sdf

    The /dev/md0 RAID now includes the new disk /dev/sdf and the mdadm service will automatically starts copying data to it from other disks.

Verification

  • Check the details of the array:

    # mdadm --detail /dev/md0

    If this command shows a list of disks in the /dev/md0 RAID where the new disk has spare rebuilding status at the end of the output, data is still being copied to it from other disks:

    Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
       0       8       16        0      active sync   /dev/sdb
       1       8       32        1      active sync   /dev/sdc
       4       8       80        2      spare rebuilding   /dev/sdf
       3       8       64        3      active sync   /dev/sde

    After data copying is finished, the new disk has an active sync status.

19.21. Repairing RAID disks

This procedure describes how to repair disks in a RAID array.

Prerequisites

  • The mdadm package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Check the array for the failed disks behavior:

    # echo check > /sys/block/md0/md/sync_action

    This checks the array and the /sys/block/md0/md/sync_action file shows the sync action.

  2. Open the /sys/block/md0/md/sync_action file with the text editor of your choice and see if there is any message about disk synchronization failures.
  3. View the /sys/block/md0/md/mismatch_cnt file. If the mismatch_cnt parameter is not 0, it means that the RAID disks need repair.
  4. Repair the disks in the array:

    # echo repair > /sys/block/md0/md/sync_action

    This repairs the disks in the array and writes the result into the /sys/block/md0/md/sync_action file.

  5. View the synchronization progress:

    # cat /sys/block/md0/md/sync_action
    repair
    
    # cat /proc/mdstat
    Personalities : [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid1]
    md0 : active raid1 sdg[1] dm-3[0]
          511040 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU]
    unused devices: <none>

Chapter 20. Encrypting block devices using LUKS

By using the disk encryption, you can protect the data on a block device by encrypting it. To access the device’s decrypted contents, enter a passphrase or key as authentication. This is important for mobile computers and removable media because it helps to protect the device’s contents even if it has been physically removed from the system. The LUKS format is a default implementation of block device encryption in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

20.1. LUKS disk encryption

Linux Unified Key Setup-on-disk-format (LUKS) provides a set of tools that simplifies managing the encrypted devices. With LUKS, you can encrypt block devices and enable multiple user keys to decrypt a master key. For bulk encryption of the partition, use this master key.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses LUKS to perform block device encryption. By default, the option to encrypt the block device is unchecked during the installation. If you select the option to encrypt your disk, the system prompts you for a passphrase every time you boot the computer. This passphrase unlocks the bulk encryption key that decrypts your partition. If you want to modify the default partition table, you can select the partitions that you want to encrypt. This is set in the partition table settings.

Ciphers

The default cipher used for LUKS is aes-xts-plain64. The default key size for LUKS is 512 bits. The default key size for LUKS with Anaconda XTS mode is 512 bits. The following are the available ciphers:

  • Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
  • Twofish
  • Serpent

Operations performed by LUKS

  • LUKS encrypts entire block devices and is therefore well-suited for protecting contents of mobile devices such as removable storage media or laptop disk drives.
  • The underlying contents of the encrypted block device are arbitrary, which makes it useful for encrypting swap devices. This can also be useful with certain databases that use specially formatted block devices for data storage.
  • LUKS uses the existing device mapper kernel subsystem.
  • LUKS provides passphrase strengthening, which protects against dictionary attacks.
  • LUKS devices contain multiple key slots, which means you can add backup keys or passphrases.
Important

LUKS is not recommended for the following scenarios:

  • Disk-encryption solutions such as LUKS protect the data only when your system is off. After the system is on and LUKS has decrypted the disk, the files on that disk are available to anyone who have access to them.
  • Scenarios that require multiple users to have distinct access keys to the same device. The LUKS1 format provides eight key slots and LUKS2 provides up to 32 key slots.
  • Applications that require file-level encryption.

20.2. LUKS versions in RHEL

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the default format for LUKS encryption is LUKS2. The old LUKS1 format remains fully supported and it is provided as a format compatible with earlier Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases. LUKS2 re-encryption is considered more robust and safe to use as compared to LUKS1 re-encryption.

The LUKS2 format enables future updates of various parts without a need to modify binary structures. Internally it uses JSON text format for metadata, provides redundancy of metadata, detects metadata corruption, and automatically repairs from a metadata copy.

Important

Do not use LUKS2 in systems that support only LUKS1.

Since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2, you can use the cryptsetup reencrypt command for both the LUKS versions to encrypt the disk.

Online re-encryption

The LUKS2 format supports re-encrypting encrypted devices while the devices are in use. For example, you do not have to unmount the file system on the device to perform the following tasks:

  • Changing the volume key
  • Changing the encryption algorithm

    When encrypting a non-encrypted device, you must still unmount the file system. You can remount the file system after a short initialization of the encryption.

    The LUKS1 format does not support online re-encryption.

Conversion

In certain situations, you can convert LUKS1 to LUKS2. The conversion is not possible specifically in the following scenarios:

  • A LUKS1 device is marked as being used by a Policy-Based Decryption (PBD) Clevis solution. The cryptsetup tool does not convert the device when some luksmeta metadata are detected.
  • A device is active. The device must be in an inactive state before any conversion is possible.

20.3. Options for data protection during LUKS2 re-encryption

LUKS2 provides several options that prioritize performance or data protection during the re-encryption process. It provides the following modes for the resilience option, and you can select any of these modes by using the cryptsetup reencrypt --resilience resilience-mode /dev/sdx command:

checksum

The default mode. It balances data protection and performance.

This mode stores individual checksums of the sectors in the re-encryption area, which the recovery process can detect for the sectors that were re-encrypted by LUKS2. The mode requires that the block device sector write is atomic.

journal
The safest mode but also the slowest. Since this mode journals the re-encryption area in the binary area, the LUKS2 writes the data twice.
none
The none mode prioritizes performance and provides no data protection. It protects the data only against safe process termination, such as the SIGTERM signal or the user pressing Ctrl+C key. Any unexpected system failure or application failure might result in data corruption.

If a LUKS2 re-encryption process terminates unexpectedly by force, LUKS2 can perform the recovery in one of the following ways:

Automatically

By performing any one of the following actions triggers the automatic recovery action during the next LUKS2 device open action:

  • Executing the cryptsetup open command.
  • Attaching the device with the systemd-cryptsetup command.
Manually
By using the cryptsetup repair /dev/sdx command on the LUKS2 device.

Additional resources

  • cryptsetup-reencrypt(8) and cryptsetup-repair(8) man pages

20.4. Encrypting existing data on a block device using LUKS2

You can encrypt the existing data on a not yet encrypted device by using the LUKS2 format. A new LUKS header is stored in the head of the device.

Prerequisites

  • The block device has a file system.
  • You have backed up your data.

    Warning

    You might lose your data during the encryption process due to a hardware, kernel, or human failure. Ensure that you have a reliable backup before you start encrypting the data.

Procedure

  1. Unmount all file systems on the device that you plan to encrypt, for example:

    # umount /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
  2. Make free space for storing a LUKS header. Use one of the following options that suits your scenario:

    • In the case of encrypting a logical volume, you can extend the logical volume without resizing the file system. For example:

      # lvextend -L+32M /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
    • Extend the partition by using partition management tools, such as parted.
    • Shrink the file system on the device. You can use the resize2fs utility for the ext2, ext3, or ext4 file systems. Note that you cannot shrink the XFS file system.
  3. Initialize the encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --encrypt --init-only --reduce-device-size 32M /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00 lv00_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted is now active and ready for online encryption.
  4. Mount the device:

    # mount /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted /mnt/lv00_encrypted
  5. Add an entry for a persistent mapping to the /etc/crypttab file:

    1. Find the luksUUID:

      # cryptsetup luksUUID /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
      
      a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325
    2. Open /etc/crypttab in a text editor of your choice and add a device in this file:

      $ vi /etc/crypttab
      
      lv00_encrypted UUID=a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325 none

      Replace a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325 with your device’s luksUUID.

    3. Refresh initramfs with dracut:

      $ dracut -f --regenerate-all
  6. Add an entry for a persistent mounting to the /etc/fstab file:

    1. Find the file system’s UUID of the active LUKS block device:

      $ blkid -p /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted
      
      /dev/mapper/lv00-encrypted: UUID="37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="xfs" USAGE="filesystem"
    2. Open /etc/fstab in a text editor of your choice and add a device in this file, for example:

      $ vi /etc/fstab
      
      UUID=37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9 /home auto rw,user,auto 0

      Replace 37bc2492-d8fa-4969-9d9b-bb64d3685aa9 with your file system’s UUID.

  7. Resume the online encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --resume-only /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
    
    Enter passphrase for /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00:
    Auto-detected active dm device 'lv00_encrypted' for data device /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00.
    Finished, time 00:31.130, 10272 MiB written, speed 330.0 MiB/s

Verification

  1. Verify if the existing data was encrypted:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00
    
    LUKS header information
    Version: 2
    Epoch: 4
    Metadata area: 16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area: 16744448 [bytes]
    UUID: a52e2cc9-a5be-47b8-a95d-6bdf4f2d9325
    Label: (no label)
    Subsystem: (no subsystem)
    Flags: (no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
    	offset: 33554432 [bytes]
    	length: (whole device)
    	cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    [...]
  2. View the status of the encrypted blank block device:

    # cryptsetup status lv00_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/lv00_encrypted is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/mapper/vg00-lv00

Additional resources

  • cryptsetup(8), cryptsetup-reencrypt(8), lvextend(8), resize2fs(8), and parted(8) man pages

20.5. Encrypting existing data on a block device using LUKS2 with a detached header

You can encrypt existing data on a block device without creating free space for storing a LUKS header. The header is stored in a detached location, which also serves as an additional layer of security. The procedure uses the LUKS2 encryption format.

Prerequisites

  • The block device has a file system.
  • You have backed up your data.

    Warning

    You might lose your data during the encryption process due to a hardware, kernel, or human failure. Ensure that you have a reliable backup before you start encrypting the data.

Procedure

  1. Unmount all file systems on the device, for example:

    # umount /dev/nvme0n1p1
  2. Initialize the encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --encrypt --init-only --header /home/header /dev/nvme0n1p1 nvme_encrypted
    
    WARNING!
    ========
    Header file does not exist, do you want to create it?
    
    Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES
    Enter passphrase for /home/header:
    Verify passphrase:
    /dev/mapper/nvme_encrypted is now active and ready for online encryption.

    Replace /home/header with a path to the file with a detached LUKS header. The detached LUKS header has to be accessible to unlock the encrypted device later.

  3. Mount the device:

    # mount /dev/mapper/nvme_encrypted /mnt/nvme_encrypted
  4. Resume the online encryption:

    # cryptsetup reencrypt --resume-only --header /home/header /dev/nvme0n1p1
    
    Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p1:
    Auto-detected active dm device 'nvme_encrypted' for data device /dev/nvme0n1p1.
    Finished, time 00m51s,   10 GiB written, speed 198.2 MiB/s

Verification

  1. Verify if the existing data on a block device using LUKS2 with a detached header is encrypted:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /home/header
    
    LUKS header information
    Version:       	2
    Epoch:         	88
    Metadata area: 	16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area: 	16744448 [bytes]
    UUID:          	c4f5d274-f4c0-41e3-ac36-22a917ab0386
    Label:         	(no label)
    Subsystem:     	(no subsystem)
    Flags:       	(no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
    	offset: 0 [bytes]
    	length: (whole device)
    	cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    	sector: 512 [bytes]
    [...]
  2. View the status of the encrypted blank block device:

    # cryptsetup status nvme_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/nvme_encrypted is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/nvme0n1p1

Additional resources

  • cryptsetup(8) and cryptsetup-reencrypt(8) man pages

20.6. Encrypting a blank block device using LUKS2

You can encrypt a blank block device, which you can use for an encrypted storage by using the LUKS2 format.

Prerequisites

  • A blank block device. You can use commands such as lsblk to find if there is no real data on that device, for example, a file system.

Procedure

  1. Setup a partition as an encrypted LUKS partition:

    # cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/nvme0n1p1
    
    WARNING!
    ========
    This will overwrite data on /dev/nvme0n1p1 irrevocably.
    Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES
    Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p1:
    Verify passphrase:
  2. Open an encrypted LUKS partition:

    # cryptsetup open /dev/nvme0n1p1 nvme0n1p1_encrypted
    
    Enter passphrase for /dev/nvme0n1p1:

    This unlocks the partition and maps it to a new device by using the device mapper. To not overwrite the encrypted data, this command alerts the kernel that the device is an encrypted device and addressed through LUKS by using the /dev/mapper/device_mapped_name path.

  3. Create a file system to write encrypted data to the partition, which must be accessed through the device mapped name:

    # mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_encrypted
  4. Mount the device:

    # mount /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_encrypted mount-point

Verification

  1. Verify if the blank block device is encrypted:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/nvme0n1p1
    
    LUKS header information
    Version:       	2
    Epoch:         	3
    Metadata area: 	16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area: 	16744448 [bytes]
    UUID:          	34ce4870-ffdf-467c-9a9e-345a53ed8a25
    Label:         	(no label)
    Subsystem:     	(no subsystem)
    Flags:       	(no flags)
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
    	offset: 16777216 [bytes]
    	length: (whole device)
    	cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    	sector: 512 [bytes]
    [...]
  2. View the status of the encrypted blank block device:

    # cryptsetup status nvme0n1p1_encrypted
    
    /dev/mapper/nvme0n1p1_encrypted is active and is in use.
      type:    LUKS2
      cipher:  aes-xts-plain64
      keysize: 512 bits
      key location: keyring
      device:  /dev/nvme0n1p1
      sector size:  512
      offset:  32768 sectors
      size:    20938752 sectors
      mode:    read/write

Additional resources

  • cryptsetup(8), cryptsetup-open (8), and cryptsetup-lusFormat(8) man pages

20.7. Configuring the LUKS passphrase in the web console

If you want to add encryption to an existing logical volume on your system, you can only do so through formatting the volume.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The cockpit-storaged package is installed on your system.
  • Available existing logical volume without encryption.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the menu button, , next to the storage device you want to encrypt.
  4. From the drop-down menu, select Format.
  5. In the Encryption field, select the encryption specification, LUKS1 or LUKS2.
  6. Set and confirm your new passphrase.
  7. Optional: Modify further encryption options.
  8. Finalize formatting settings.
  9. Click Format.

20.8. Changing the LUKS passphrase in the web console

Change a LUKS passphrase on an encrypted disk or partition in the web console.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage
  3. In the Storage table, select the disk with encrypted data.
  4. On the disk page, scroll to the Keys section and click the edit button.

    cockpit LUKS edit

  5. In the Change passphrase dialog window:

    1. Enter your current passphrase.
    2. Enter your new passphrase.
    3. Confirm your new passphrase.

      cockpit change pwd

  6. Click Save

20.9. Creating a LUKS2 encrypted volume by using the storage RHEL system role

You can use the storage role to create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS by running an Ansible playbook.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content:

    ---
    - name: Create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS
      hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
      roles:
        - rhel-system-roles.storage
      vars:
        storage_volumes:
          - name: barefs
            type: disk
            disks:
             - sdb
            fs_type: xfs
            fs_label: label-name
            mount_point: /mnt/data
            encryption: true
            encryption_password: <password>

    You can also add other encryption parameters, such as encryption_key, encryption_cipher, encryption_key_size, and encryption_luks, to the playbook file.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax:

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook:

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Verification

  1. View the encryption status:

    # cryptsetup status sdb
    
    /dev/mapper/sdb is active and is in use.
    type: LUKS2
    cipher: aes-xts-plain64
    keysize: 512 bits
    key location: keyring
    device: /dev/sdb
    ...
  2. Verify the created LUKS encrypted volume:

    # cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sdb
    
    Version:        2
    Epoch:          6
    Metadata area:  16384 [bytes]
    Keyslots area:  33521664 [bytes]
    UUID:           a4c6be82-7347-4a91-a8ad-9479b72c9426
    Label:          (no label)
    Subsystem:      (no subsystem)
    Flags:          allow-discards
    
    Data segments:
      0: crypt
            offset: 33554432 [bytes]
            length: (whole device)
            cipher: aes-xts-plain64
            sector: 4096 [bytes]
    ...

Additional resources

Chapter 21. Using NVDIMM persistent memory storage

You can enable and manage various types of storage on Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) devices connected to your system.

For installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 on NVDIMM storage, see Installing to an NVDIMM device instead.

21.1. The NVDIMM persistent memory technology

Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) persistent memory, also called storage class memory or pmem, is a combination of memory and storage.

NVDIMM combines the durability of storage with the low access latency and the high bandwidth of dynamic RAM (DRAM). The following are the other advantages of using NVDIMM:

  • NVDIMM storage is byte-addressable, which means it can be accessed by using the CPU load and store instructions. In addition to the read() and write() system calls, which are required for accessing traditional block-based storage, NVDIMM also supports direct load and a store programming model.
  • The performance characteristics of NVDIMM are similar to DRAM with very low access latency, typically in the tens to hundreds of nanoseconds.
  • Data stored on NVDIMM is preserved when the power is off, similar to a persistent memory.
  • With the direct access (DAX) technology, applications to memory map storage directly are possible without going through the system page cache. This frees up DRAM for other purposes.

NVDIMM is beneficial in use cases such as:

Databases
The reduced storage access latency on NVDIMM improves database performance.
Rapid restart

Rapid restart is also called the warm cache effect. For example, a file server has none of the file contents in memory after starting. As clients connect and read or write data, that data is cached in the page cache. Eventually, the cache contains mostly hot data. After a reboot, the system must start the process again on traditional storage.

With NVDIMM, it is possible for an application to keep the warm cache across reboots if the application is designed properly. In this example, there would be no page cache involved: the application would cache data directly in the persistent memory.

Fast write-cache
File servers often do not acknowledge a client write request until the data is on durable media. Using NVDIMM as a fast write-cache, enables a file server to acknowledge the write request quickly, and results in low latency.

21.2. NVDIMM interleaving and regions

Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) devices support grouping into interleaved regions.

NVDIMM devices can be grouped into interleave sets in the same way as regular dynamic RAM (DRAM). An interleave set is similar to a RAID 0 level (stripe) configuration across multiple DIMMs. An Interleave set is also called a region.

Interleaving has the following advantages:

  • NVDIMM devices benefit from increased performance when they are configured into interleave sets.
  • Interleaving can combine multiple smaller NVDIMM devices into a larger logical device.

NVDIMM interleave sets are configured in the system BIOS or UEFI firmware. Red Hat Enterprise Linux creates one region device for each interleave set.

21.3. NVDIMM namespaces

Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) regions can be divided into one or more namespaces depending on the size of the label area. Using namespaces, you can access the device using different methods, based on the access modes of the namespace such as sector, fsdax, devdax, and raw. For more information, NVDIMM access modes.

Some NVDIMM devices do not support multiple namespaces on a region:

  • If your ⁠NVDIMM device supports labels, you can subdivide the region into namespaces.
  • If your NVDIMM device does not support labels, the region can only contain a single namespace. In that case, Red Hat Enterprise Linux creates a default namespace that covers the entire region.

21.4. NVDIMM access modes

You can configure Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) namespaces to use either of the following modes:

sector

Presents the storage as a fast block device. This mode is useful for legacy applications that are not modified to use NVDIMM storage, or for applications that use the full I/O stack, including Device Mapper.

A sector device can be used in the same way as any other block device on the system. You can create partitions or file systems on it, configure it as part of a software RAID set, or use it as the cache device for dm-cache.

Devices in this mode are available as /dev/pmemNs. After creating the namespace, see the listed blockdev value.

devdax, or device direct access (DAX)

With devdax, NVDIMM devices support direct access programming as described in the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Programming Model specification. In this mode, I/O bypasses the storage stack of the kernel. Therefore, no Device Mapper drivers can be used.

Device DAX provides raw access to NVDIMM storage by using a DAX character device node. Data on a devdax device can be made durable using CPU cache flushing and fencing instructions. Certain databases and virtual machine hypervisors might benefit from this mode. File systems cannot be created on devdax devices.

Devices in this mode are available as /dev/daxN.M. After creating the namespace, see the listed chardev value.

fsdax, or file system direct access (DAX)

With fsdax, NVDIMM devices support direct access programming as described in the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Programming Model specification. In this mode, I/O bypasses the storage stack of the kernel, and many Device Mapper drivers therefore cannot be used.

You can create file systems on file system DAX devices.

Devices in this mode are available as /dev/pmemN. After creating the namespace, see the listed blockdev value.

Important

The file system DAX technology is provided only as a Technology Preview, and is not supported by Red Hat.

raw

Presents a memory disk that does not support DAX. In this mode, namespaces have several limitations and should not be used.

Devices in this mode are available as /dev/pmemN. After creating the namespace, see the listed blockdev value.

21.5. Installing ndctl

You can install the ndctl utility to configure and monitor Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) devices.

Procedure

  • Install the ndctl utility:

    # dnf install ndctl

21.6. Creating a sector namespace on an NVDIMM to act as a block device

You can configure a Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) device in sector mode, also called legacy mode, to support traditional, block-based storage.

You can either:

  • reconfigure an existing namespace to sector mode, or
  • create a new sector namespace if there is available space.

Prerequisites

  • An NVDIMM device is attached to your system.

21.6.1. Reconfiguring an existing NVDIMM namespace to sector mode

You can reconfigure an Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) namespace to sector mode for using it as a fast block device.

Warning

Reconfiguring a namespace deletes previously stored data on the namespace.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. View the existing namespaces:

    # ndctl list --namespaces --idle
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace1.0",
        "mode":"raw",
        "size":34359738368,
        "state":"disabled",
        "numa_node":1
      },
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.0",
        "mode":"raw",
        "size":34359738368,
        "state":"disabled",
        "numa_node":0
      }
    ]
  2. Reconfigure the selected namespace to the sector mode:

    # ndctl create-namespace --force --reconfig=namespace-ID --mode=sector

    Example 21.1. Reconfiguring namespace1.0 in sector mode

    # ndctl create-namespace --force --reconfig=namespace1.0 --mode=sector
    {
      "dev":"namespace1.0",
      "mode":"sector",
      "size":"755.26 GiB (810.95 GB)",
      "uuid":"2509949d-1dc4-4ee0-925a-4542b28aa616",
      "sector_size":4096,
      "blockdev":"pmem1s"
    }

    The reconfigured namespace is now available under the /dev directory as the /dev/pmem1s file.

Verification

  • Verify if the existing namespace on your system is reconfigured:

    # ndctl list --namespace namespace1.0
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace1.0",
        "mode":"sector",
        "size":810954706944,
        "uuid":"2509949d-1dc4-4ee0-925a-4542b28aa616",
        "sector_size":4096,
        "blockdev":"pmem1s"
      }
    ]

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

21.6.2. Creating a new NVDIMM namespace in sector mode

You can create a Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) namespace in sector mode for using it as a fast block device if there is available space in the region.

Prerequisites

  • The ndctl utility is installed. For more information, see Installing ndctl.
  • The NVDIMM device supports labels to create multiple namespaces in a region. You can check this using the following command:

    # ndctl read-labels nmem0 >/dev/null
      read 1 nmem

    This indicates that it read the label of one NVDIMM device. If the value is 0, it implies that your device does not support labels.

Procedure

  1. List the pmem regions on your system that have available space. In the following example, space is available in the region1 and region0 regions:

    # ndctl list --regions
    [
      {
        "dev":"region1",
        "size":2156073582592,
        "align":16777216,
        "available_size":2117418876928,
        "max_available_extent":2117418876928,
        "type":"pmem",
        "iset_id":-9102197055295954944,
        "badblock_count":1,
        "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
      },
      {
        "dev":"region0",
        "size":2156073582592,
        "align":16777216,
        "available_size":2143188680704,
        "max_available_extent":2143188680704,
        "type":"pmem",
        "iset_id":736272362787276936,
        "badblock_count":3,
        "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
      }
    ]
  2. Allocate one or more namespaces on any of the available regions:

    # ndctl create-namespace --mode=sector --region=regionN --size=namespace-size

    Example 21.2. Creating a 36-GiB sector namespace on region0

    # ndctl create-namespace --mode=sector --region=region0 --size=36G
    {
      "dev":"namespace0.1",
      "mode":"sector",
      "size":"35.96 GiB (38.62 GB)",
      "uuid":"ff5a0a16-3495-4ce8-b86b-f0e3bd9d1817",
      "sector_size":4096,
      "blockdev":"pmem0.1s"
    }

    The new namespace is now available as /dev/pmem0.1s.

Verification

  • Verify if the new namespace is created in the sector mode:

    # ndctl list -RN -n namespace0.1
    {
      "regions":[
        {
          "dev":"region0",
          "size":2156073582592,
          "align":16777216,
          "available_size":2104533975040,
          "max_available_extent":2104533975040,
          "type":"pmem",
          "iset_id":736272362787276936,
          "badblock_count":3,
          "persistence_domain":"memory_controller",
          "namespaces":[
            {
              "dev":"namespace0.1",
              "mode":"sector",
              "size":38615912448,
              "uuid":"ff5a0a16-3495-4ce8-b86b-f0e3bd9d1817",
              "sector_size":4096,
              "blockdev":"pmem0.1s"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

21.7. Creating a device DAX namespace on an NVDIMM

Configure the NVDIMM device that is attached to your system, in device DAX mode to support character storage with direct access capabilities.

Consider the following options:

  • Reconfiguring an existing namespace to device DAX mode.
  • Creating a new device DAX namespace, if there is space available.

21.7.1. NVDIMM in device direct access mode

Device direct access (device DAX, devdax) provides a means for applications to directly access storage, without the involvement of a file system. The benefit of device DAX is that it provides a guaranteed fault granularity, which can be configured using the --align option of the ndctl utility.

For the Intel 64 and AMD64 architecture, the following fault granularities are supported:

  • 4 KiB
  • 2 MiB
  • 1 GiB

Device DAX nodes support only the following system calls:

  • open()
  • close()
  • mmap()

You can view the supported alignments of your NVDIMM device using the ndctl list --human --capabilities command. For example, to view it for the region0 device, use the ndctl list --human --capabilities -r region0 command.

Note

The read() and write() system calls are not supported because the device DAX use case is tied to the SNIA Non-Volatile Memory Programming Model.

21.7.2. Reconfiguring an existing NVDIMM namespace to device DAX mode

You can reconfigure an existing Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) namespace to device DAX mode.

Warning

Reconfiguring a namespace deletes previously stored data on the namespace.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. List all namespaces on your system:

    # ndctl list --namespaces --idle
    
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace1.0",
        "mode":"raw",
        "size":34359738368,
        "uuid":"ac951312-b312-4e76-9f15-6e00c8f2e6f4"
        "state":"disabled",
        "numa_node":1
      },
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.0",
        "mode":"raw",
        "size":38615912448,
        "uuid":"ff5a0a16-3495-4ce8-b86b-f0e3bd9d1817",
        "state":"disabled",
        "numa_node":0
      }
    ]
  2. Reconfigure any namespace:

    # ndctl create-namespace --force --mode=devdax --reconfig=namespace-ID

    Example 21.3. Reconfiguring a namespace as device DAX

    The following command reconfigures namespace0.1 for data storage that supports DAX. It is aligned to a 2-MiB fault granularity to ensure that the operating system faults in 2-MiB pages at a time:

    # ndctl create-namespace --force --mode=devdax  --align=2M --reconfig=namespace0.1
    {
      "dev":"namespace0.1",
      "mode":"devdax",
      "map":"dev",
      "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
      "uuid":"426d6a52-df92-43d2-8cc7-046241d6d761",
      "daxregion":{
        "id":0,
        "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
        "align":2097152,
        "devices":[
          {
            "chardev":"dax0.1",
            "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
            "target_node":4,
            "mode":"devdax"
          }
        ]
      },
      "align":2097152
    }

    The namespace is now available at the /dev/dax0.1 path.

Verification

  • Verify if the existing namespaces on your system is reconfigured:

    # ndctl list --namespace namespace0.1
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.1",
        "mode":"devdax",
        "map":"dev",
        "size":38048628736,
        "uuid":"426d6a52-df92-43d2-8cc7-046241d6d761",
        "chardev":"dax0.1",
        "align":2097152
      }
    ]

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

21.7.3. Creating a new NVDIMM namespace in device DAX mode

You can create a new device DAX namespace on an Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) device if there is available space in the region.

Prerequisites

  • The ndctl utility is installed. For more information, see Installing ndctl.
  • The NVDIMM device supports labels to create multiple namespaces in a region. You can check this using the following command:

    # ndctl read-labels nmem0 >/dev/null
    read 1 nmem

    This indicates that it read the label of one NVDIMM device. If the value is 0, it implies that your device does not support labels.

Procedure

  1. List the pmem regions on your system that have available space. In the following example, space is available in the region1 and region0 regions:

    # ndctl list --regions
    [
      {
        "dev":"region1",
        "size":2156073582592,
        "align":16777216,
        "available_size":2117418876928,
        "max_available_extent":2117418876928,
        "type":"pmem",
        "iset_id":-9102197055295954944,
        "badblock_count":1,
        "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
      },
      {
        "dev":"region0",
        "size":2156073582592,
        "align":16777216,
        "available_size":2143188680704,
        "max_available_extent":2143188680704,
        "type":"pmem",
        "iset_id":736272362787276936,
        "badblock_count":3,
        "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
      }
    ]
  2. Allocate one or more namespaces on any of the available regions:

    # ndctl create-namespace --mode=devdax --region=region_N_ --size=namespace-size

    Example 21.4. Creating a namespace on a region

    The following command creates a 36-GiB device DAX namespace on region0. It is aligned to a 2-MiB fault granularity to ensure that the operating system faults in 2-MiB pages at a time:

    # ndctl create-namespace --mode=devdax --region=region0 --align=2M --size=36G
    {
      "dev":"namespace0.2",
      "mode":"devdax",
      "map":"dev",
      "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
      "uuid":"89d13f41-be6c-425b-9ec7-1e2a239b5303",
      "daxregion":{
        "id":0,
        "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
        "align":2097152,
        "devices":[
          {
            "chardev":"dax0.2",
            "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
            "target_node":4,
            "mode":"devdax"
          }
        ]
      },
      "align":2097152
    }

    The namespace is now available as /dev/dax0.2.

Verification

  • Verify if the new namespace is created in the sector mode:

    # ndctl list -RN -n namespace0.2
    {
      "regions":[
        {
          "dev":"region0",
          "size":2156073582592,
          "align":16777216,
          "available_size":2065879269376,
          "max_available_extent":2065879269376,
          "type":"pmem",
          "iset_id":736272362787276936,
          "badblock_count":3,
          "persistence_domain":"memory_controller",
          "namespaces":[
            {
              "dev":"namespace0.2",
              "mode":"devdax",
              "map":"dev",
              "size":38048628736,
              "uuid":"89d13f41-be6c-425b-9ec7-1e2a239b5303",
              "chardev":"dax0.2",
              "align":2097152
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

21.8. Creating a file system DAX namespace on an NVDIMM

Configure an NVDIMM device that is attached to your system, in file system DAX mode to support a file system with direct access capabilities.

Consider the following options:

  • Reconfiguring an existing namespace to file system DAX mode.
  • Creating a new file system DAX namespace if there is available space.
Important

The file system DAX technology is provided only as a Technology Preview, and is not supported by Red Hat.

21.8.1. NVDIMM in file system direct access mode

When an NVDIMM device is configured in file system direct access (file system DAX, fsdax) mode, you can create a file system on top of it. Any application that performs an mmap() operation on a file on this file system gets direct access to its storage. This enables the direct access programming model on NVDIMM.

The following new -o dax options are now available, and direct access behavior can be controlled through a file attribute if required:

-o dax=inode

This is the default option when you do not specify any dax option while mounting a file system. Using this option, you can set an attribute flag on files to control if the dax mode can be activated. If required, you can set this flag on individual files.

You can also set this flag on a directory and any files in that directory will be created with the same flag. You can set this attribute flag by using the xfs_io -c 'chattr +x' directory-name command.

-o dax=never
With this option, the dax mode will not be enabled even if the dax flag is set to an inode mode. This means that the per-inode dax attribute flag is ignored, and files set with this flag will never be direct-access enabled.
-o dax=always

This option is equivalent to the old -o dax behavior. With this option, you can activate direct access mode for any file on the file system, regardless of the dax attribute flag.

Warning

In further releases, -o dax might not be supported and if required, you can use -o dax=always instead. In this mode, every file might be in the direct-access mode.

Per-page metadata allocation

This mode requires allocating per-page metadata in the system DRAM or on the NVDIMM device itself. The overhead of this data structure is 64 bytes per each 4-KiB page:

  • On small devices, the amount of overhead is small enough to fit in DRAM with no problems. For example, a 16-GiB namespace only requires 256 MiB for page structures. Since NVDIMM devices are usually small and expensive, storing the page tracking data structures in DRAM is preferable.
  • On NVDIMM devices that are be terabytes in size or larger, the amount of memory required to store the page tracking data structures might exceed the amount of DRAM in the system. One TiB of NVDIMM requires 16 GiB for page structures. As a result, storing the data structures on the NVDIMM itself is preferable in such cases.

    You can configure where per-page metadata are stored using the --map option when configuring a namespace:

  • To allocate in the system RAM, use --map=mem.
  • To allocate on the NVDIMM, use --map=dev.

21.8.2. Reconfiguring an existing NVDIMM namespace to file system DAX mode

You can reconfigure an existing Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) namespace to file system DAX mode.

Warning

Reconfiguring a namespace deletes previously stored data on the namespace.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. List all namespaces on your system:

    # ndctl list --namespaces --idle
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace1.0",
        "mode":"raw",
        "size":34359738368,
        "uuid":"ac951312-b312-4e76-9f15-6e00c8f2e6f4"
        "state":"disabled",
        "numa_node":1
      },
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.0",
        "mode":"raw",
        "size":38615912448,
        "uuid":"ff5a0a16-3495-4ce8-b86b-f0e3bd9d1817",
        "state":"disabled",
        "numa_node":0
      }
    ]
  2. Reconfigure any namespace:

    # ndctl create-namespace --force --mode=fsdax --reconfig=namespace-ID

    Example 21.5. Reconfiguring a namespace as file system DAX

    To use namespace0.0 for a file system that supports DAX, use the following command:

    # ndctl create-namespace --force --mode=fsdax --reconfig=namespace0.0
    {
      "dev":"namespace0.0",
      "mode":"fsdax",
      "map":"dev",
      "size":"11.81 GiB (12.68 GB)",
      "uuid":"f8153ee3-c52d-4c6e-bc1d-197f5be38483",
      "sector_size":512,
      "align":2097152,
      "blockdev":"pmem0"
    }

    The namespace is now available at the /dev/pmem0 path.

Verification

  • Verify if the existing namespaces on your system is reconfigured:

    # ndctl list --namespace namespace0.0
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.0",
        "mode":"fsdax",
        "map":"dev",
        "size":12681478144,
        "uuid":"f8153ee3-c52d-4c6e-bc1d-197f5be38483",
        "sector_size":512,
        "align":2097152,
        "blockdev":"pmem0"
      }
    ]

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

21.8.3. Creating a new NVDIMM namespace in file system DAX mode

You can create a new file system DAX namespace on an Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) device if there is available space in the region.

Prerequisites

  • The ndctl utility is installed. For more information, see Installing ndctl.
  • The NVDIMM device supports labels to create multiple namespaces in a region. You can check this using the following command:

    # ndctl read-labels nmem0 >/dev/null
    read 1 nmem

    This indicates that it read the label of one NVDIMM device. If the value is 0, it implies that your device does not support labels.

Procedure

  1. List the pmem regions on your system that have available space. In the following example, space is available in the region1 and region0 regions:

    # ndctl list --regions
    [
      {
        "dev":"region1",
        "size":2156073582592,
        "align":16777216,
        "available_size":2117418876928,
        "max_available_extent":2117418876928,
        "type":"pmem",
        "iset_id":-9102197055295954944,
        "badblock_count":1,
        "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
      },
      {
        "dev":"region0",
        "size":2156073582592,
        "align":16777216,
        "available_size":2143188680704,
        "max_available_extent":2143188680704,
        "type":"pmem",
        "iset_id":736272362787276936,
        "badblock_count":3,
        "persistence_domain":"memory_controller"
      }
    ]
  2. Allocate one or more namespaces on any of the available regions:

    # ndctl create-namespace --mode=fsdax --region=regionN --size=namespace-size

    Example 21.6. Creating a namespace on a region

    The following command creates a 36-GiB file system DAX namespace on region0:

    # ndctl create-namespace --mode=fsdax --region=region0 --size=36G
    {
      "dev":"namespace0.3",
      "mode":"fsdax",
      "map":"dev",
      "size":"35.44 GiB (38.05 GB)",
      "uuid":"99e77865-42eb-4b82-9db6-c6bc9b3959c2",
      "sector_size":512,
      "align":2097152,
      "blockdev":"pmem0.3"
    }

    The namespace is now available as /dev/pmem0.3.

Verification

  • Verify if the new namespace is created in the sector mode:

    # ndctl list -RN -n namespace0.3
    {
      "regions":[
        {
          "dev":"region0",
          "size":2156073582592,
          "align":16777216,
          "available_size":2027224563712,
          "max_available_extent":2027224563712,
          "type":"pmem",
          "iset_id":736272362787276936,
          "badblock_count":3,
          "persistence_domain":"memory_controller",
          "namespaces":[
            {
              "dev":"namespace0.3",
              "mode":"fsdax",
              "map":"dev",
              "size":38048628736,
              "uuid":"99e77865-42eb-4b82-9db6-c6bc9b3959c2",
              "sector_size":512,
              "align":2097152,
              "blockdev":"pmem0.3"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-create-namespace(1) man page

21.8.4. Creating a file system on a file system DAX device

You can create a file system on a file system DAX device and mount the file system. After creating a file system, application can use persistent memory and create files in the mount-point directory, open the files, and use the mmap operation to map the files for direct access.

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, both the XFS and ext4 file system can be created on NVDIMM as a Technology Preview.

Procedure

  1. Optional: Create a partition on the file system DAX device. For more information, see Creating a partition with parted.

    Note

    When creating partitions on an fsdax device, partitions must be aligned on page boundaries. On the Intel 64 and AMD64 architecture, at least 4 KiB alignment is required for the start and end of the partition. 2 MiB is the preferred alignment.

    By default, the parted tool aligns partitions on 1 MiB boundaries. For the first partition, specify 2 MiB as the start of the partition. If the size of the partition is a multiple of 2 MiB, all other partitions are also aligned.

  2. Create an XFS or ext4 file system on the partition or the NVDIMM device:

    # mkfs.xfs  -d su=2m,sw=1 fsdax-partition-or-device
    Note

    The dax-capable and reflinked files can now co-exist on the file system. However, for an individual file, dax and reflink are mutually exclusive.

    For XFS, disable shared copy-on-write data extents because they are incompatible with the dax mount option. Additionally, in order to increase the likelihood of large page mappings, set the stripe unit and stripe width.

  3. Mount the file system:

    # mount f_sdax-partition-or-device mount-point_

    There is no need to mount a file system with the dax option to enable direct access mode. When you do not specify any dax option while mounting, the file system is in the dax=inode mode. Set the dax option on the file before direct access mode is activated.

Additional resources

21.9. Monitoring NVDIMM health using S.M.A.R.T.

Some Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) devices support Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) interfaces for retrieving health information.

Important

Monitor NVDIMM health regularly to prevent data loss. If S.M.A.R.T. reports problems with the health status of an NVDIMM device, replace it as described in Detecting and replacing a broken NVDIMM device.

Prerequisites

  • Optional: On some systems, upload the acpi_ipmi driver to retrieve health information using the following command:

    # modprobe acpi_ipmi

Procedure

  • Access the health information:

    # ndctl list --dimms --health
    [
      {
        "dev":"nmem1",
        "id":"8089-a2-1834-00001f13",
        "handle":17,
        "phys_id":32,
        "security":"disabled",
        "health":{
          "health_state":"ok",
          "temperature_celsius":36.0,
          "controller_temperature_celsius":37.0,
          "spares_percentage":100,
          "alarm_temperature":false,
          "alarm_controller_temperature":false,
          "alarm_spares":false,
          "alarm_enabled_media_temperature":true,
          "temperature_threshold":82.0,
          "alarm_enabled_ctrl_temperature":true,
          "controller_temperature_threshold":98.0,
          "alarm_enabled_spares":true,
          "spares_threshold":50,
          "shutdown_state":"clean",
          "shutdown_count":4
        }
      },
    [...]
    ]

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-list(1) man page

21.10. Detecting and replacing a broken NVDIMM device

If you find error messages related to Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Modules (NVDIMM) reported in your system log or by S.M.A.R.T., it might mean an NVDIMM device is failing. In that case, it is necessary to:

  1. Detect which NVDIMM device is failing
  2. Back up data stored on it
  3. Physically replace the device

Procedure

  1. Detect the broken device:

    # ndctl list --dimms --regions --health
    {
      "dimms":[
        {
          "dev":"nmem1",
          "id":"8089-a2-1834-00001f13",
          "handle":17,
          "phys_id":32,
          "security":"disabled",
          "health":{
            "health_state":"ok",
            "temperature_celsius":35.0,
            [...]
          }
    [...]
    }
  2. Find the phys_id attribute of the broken NVDIMM:

    # ndctl list --dimms --human

    From the previous example, you know that nmem0 is the broken NVDIMM. Therefore, find the phys_id attribute of nmem0.

    Example 21.7. The phys_id attributes of NVDIMMs

    In the following example, the phys_id is 0x10:

    # ndctl list --dimms --human
    
    [
      {
        "dev":"nmem1",
        "id":"XXXX-XX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX",
        "handle":"0x120",
        "phys_id":"0x1c"
      },
      {
        "dev":"nmem0",
        "id":"XXXX-XX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX",
        "handle":"0x20",
        "phys_id":"0x10",
        "flag_failed_flush":true,
        "flag_smart_event":true
      }
    ]
  3. Find the memory slot of the broken NVDIMM:

    # dmidecode

    In the output, find the entry where the Handle identifier matches the phys_id attribute of the broken NVDIMM. The Locator field lists the memory slot used by the broken NVDIMM.

    Example 21.8. NVDIMM Memory Slot Listing

    In the following example, the nmem0 device matches the 0x0010 identifier and uses the DIMM-XXX-YYYY memory slot:

    # dmidecode
    
    ...
    Handle 0x0010, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
    Memory Device
            Array Handle: 0x0004
            Error Information Handle: Not Provided
            Total Width: 72 bits
            Data Width: 64 bits
            Size: 125 GB
            Form Factor: DIMM
            Set: 1
            Locator: DIMM-XXX-YYYY
            Bank Locator: Bank0
            Type: Other
            Type Detail: Non-Volatile Registered (Buffered)
    ...
  4. Back up all data in the namespaces on the NVDIMM. If you do not back up the data before replacing the NVDIMM, the data will be lost when you remove the NVDIMM from your system.

    Warning

    In some cases, such as when the NVDIMM is completely broken, the backup might fail.

    To prevent this, regularly monitor your NVDIMM devices using S.M.A.R.T. as described in Monitoring NVDIMM health using S.M.A.R.T. and replace failing NVDIMMs before they break.

  5. List the namespaces on the NVDIMM:

    # ndctl list --namespaces --dimm=DIMM-ID-number

    Example 21.9. NVDIMM namespaces listing

    In the following example, the nmem0 device contains the namespace0.0 and namespace0.2 namespaces, which you need to back up:

    # ndctl list --namespaces --dimm=0
    
    [
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.2",
        "mode":"sector",
        "size":67042312192,
        "uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "raw_uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "sector_size":4096,
        "blockdev":"pmem0.2s",
        "numa_node":0
      },
      {
        "dev":"namespace0.0",
        "mode":"sector",
        "size":67042312192,
        "uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "raw_uuid":"XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX",
        "sector_size":4096,
        "blockdev":"pmem0s",
        "numa_node":0
      }
    ]
  6. Replace the broken NVDIMM physically.

Additional resources

  • The ndctl-list(1) and dmidecode(8) man pages

Chapter 22. Discarding unused blocks

You can perform or schedule discard operations on block devices that support them. The block discard operation communicates to the underlying storage which filesystem blocks are no longer in use by the mounted filesystem. Block discard operations allow SSDs to optimize garbage collection routines, and they can inform thinly-provisioned storage to repurpose unused physical blocks.

Requirements

  • The block device underlying the file system must support physical discard operations.

    Physical discard operations are supported if the value in the /sys/block/<device>/queue/discard_max_bytes file is not zero.

22.1. Types of block discard operations

You can run discard operations using different methods:

Batch discard
Is triggered explicitly by the user and discards all unused blocks in the selected file systems.
Online discard
Is specified at mount time and triggers in real time without user intervention. Online discard operations discard only blocks that are transitioning from the used to the free state.
Periodic discard
Are batch operations that are run regularly by a systemd service.

All types are supported by the XFS and ext4 file systems.

Recommendations

Red Hat recommends that you use batch or periodic discard.

Use online discard only if:

  • the system’s workload is such that batch discard is not feasible, or
  • online discard operations are necessary to maintain performance.

22.2. Performing batch block discard

You can perform a batch block discard operation to discard unused blocks on a mounted file system.

Prerequisites

  • The file system is mounted.
  • The block device underlying the file system supports physical discard operations.

Procedure

  • Use the fstrim utility:

    • To perform discard only on a selected file system, use:

      # fstrim mount-point
    • To perform discard on all mounted file systems, use:

      # fstrim --all

If you execute the fstrim command on:

  • a device that does not support discard operations, or
  • a logical device (LVM or MD) composed of multiple devices, where any one of the device does not support discard operations,

the following message displays:

# fstrim /mnt/non_discard

fstrim: /mnt/non_discard: the discard operation is not supported

Additional resources

  • fstrim(8) man page.

22.3. Enabling online block discard

You can perform online block discard operations to automatically discard unused blocks on all supported file systems.

Procedure

  • Enable online discard at mount time:

    • When mounting a file system manually, add the -o discard mount option:

      # mount -o discard device mount-point
    • When mounting a file system persistently, add the discard option to the mount entry in the /etc/fstab file.

Additional resources

  • mount(8) man page.
  • fstab(5) man page.

22.4. Enabling periodic block discard

You can enable a systemd timer to regularly discard unused blocks on all supported file systems.

Procedure

  • Enable and start the systemd timer:

    # systemctl enable --now fstrim.timer
    Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/fstrim.timer → /usr/lib/systemd/system/fstrim.timer.

Verification

  • Verify the status of the timer:

    # systemctl status fstrim.timer
    fstrim.timer - Discard unused blocks once a week
       Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/fstrim.timer; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
       Active: active (waiting) since Wed 2023-05-17 13:24:41 CEST; 3min 15s ago
      Trigger: Mon 2023-05-22 01:20:46 CEST; 4 days left
         Docs: man:fstrim
    
    May 17 13:24:41 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Started Discard unused blocks once a week.

Chapter 23. Removing storage devices

You can safely remove a storage device from a running system, which helps prevent system memory overload and data loss.

Prerequisites

  • Before you remove a storage device, you must ensure that you have enough free system memory due to the increased system memory load during an I/O flush. Use the following commands to view the current memory load and free memory of the system:

    # vmstat 1 100
    # free
  • Red Hat does not recommend removing a storage device on a system where:

    • Free memory is less than 5% of the total memory in more than 10 samples per 100.
    • Swapping is active (non-zero si and so columns in the vmstat command output).

23.1. Safe removal of storage devices

Safely removing a storage device from a running system requires a top-to-bottom approach. Start from the top layer, which typically is an application or a file system, and work towards the bottom layer, which is the physical device.

You can use storage devices in multiple ways, and they can have different virtual configurations on top of physical devices. For example, you can group multiple instances of a device into a multipath device, make it part of a RAID, or you can make it part of an LVM group. Additionally, devices can be accessed via a file system, or they can be accessed directly such as a “raw” device.

While using the top-to-bottom approach, you must ensure that:

  • the device that you want to remove is not in use
  • all pending I/O to the device is flushed
  • the operating system is not referencing the storage device

23.2. Removing block devices and associated metadata

To safely remove a block device from a running system, to help prevent system memory overload and data loss you need to first remove metadata from them. Address each layer in the stack, starting with the file system, and proceed to the disk. These actions prevent putting your system into an inconsistent state.

Use specific commands that may vary depending on what type of devices you are removing:

  • lvremove, vgremove and pvremove are specific to LVM.
  • For software RAID, run mdadm to remove the array. For more information, see Managing RAID.
  • For block devices encrypted using LUKS, there are specific additional steps. The following procedure will not work for the block devices encrypted using LUKS. For more information, see Encrypting block devices using LUKS.
Warning

Rescanning the SCSI bus or performing any other action that changes the state of the operating system, without following the procedure documented here can cause delays due to I/O timeouts, devices to be removed unexpectedly, or data loss.

Prerequisites

  • You have an existing block device stack containing the file system, the logical volume, and the volume group.
  • You ensured that no other applications or services are using the device that you want to remove.
  • You backed up the data from the device that you want to remove.
  • Optional: If you want to remove a multipath device, and you are unable to access its path devices, disable queueing of the multipath device by running the following command:

    # multipathd disablequeueing map multipath-device

    This enables the I/O of the device to fail, allowing the applications that are using the device to shut down.

Note

Removing devices with their metadata one layer at a time ensures no stale signatures remain on the disk.

Procedure

  1. Unmount the file system:

    # umount /mnt/mount-point
  2. Remove the file system:

    # wipefs -a /dev/vg0/myvol
    Note

    If you have added an entry into /etc/fstab file to make a persistent association between the file system and a mount point you should also edit /etc/fstab at this point to remove that entry.

    Continue with the following steps, depending on the type of the device you want to remove:

  3. Remove the logical volume (LV) that contained the file system:

    # lvremove vg0/myvol
  4. If there are no other logical volumes remaining in the volume group (VG), you can safely remove the VG that contained the device:

    # vgremove vg0
  5. Remove the physical volume (PV) metadata from the PV device(s):

    # pvremove /dev/sdc1
    # wipefs -a /dev/sdc1
  6. Remove the partitions that contained the PVs:

    # parted /dev/sdc rm 1
Note

Follow the next steps only if you want to fully wipe the device.

  1. Remove the partition table:

    # wipefs -a /dev/sdc
Note

Follow the next steps only if you want to physically remove the device.

  • If you are removing a multipath device, execute the following commands:

    1. View all the paths to the device:

      # multipath -l

      The output of this command is required in a later step.

      1. Flush the I/O and remove the multipath device:

        # multipath -f multipath-device
  • If the device is not configured as a multipath device, or if the device is configured as a multipath device and you have previously passed I/O to the individual paths, flush any outstanding I/O to all device paths that are used:

    # blockdev --flushbufs device

    This is important for devices accessed directly where the umount or vgreduce commands do not flush the I/O.

  • If you are removing a SCSI device, execute the following commands:

    1. Remove any reference to the path-based name of the device, such as /dev/sd, /dev/disk/by-path, or the major:minor number, in applications, scripts, or utilities on the system. This ensures that different devices added in the future are not mistaken for the current device.
    2. Remove each path to the device from the SCSI subsystem:

      # echo 1 > /sys/block/device-name/device/delete

      Here the device-name is retrieved from the output of the multipath -l command, if the device was previously used as a multipath device.

  1. Remove the physical device from a running system. Note that the I/O to other devices does not stop when you remove this device.

Verification

  • Verify that the devices you intended to remove are not displaying on the output of lsblk command. The following is an example output:

    # lsblk
    
    NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
    sda      8:0    0    5G  0 disk
    sr0     11:0    1 1024M  0 rom
    vda    252:0    0   10G  0 disk
    |-vda1 252:1    0    1M  0 part
    |-vda2 252:2    0  100M  0 part /boot/efi
    `-vda3 252:3    0  9.9G  0 part /

Additional resources

  • The multipath(8), pvremove(8), vgremove(8), lvremove(8), wipefs(8), parted(8), blockdev(8) and umount(8) man pages.

Chapter 24. 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.

24.1. 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

24.2. 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.

24.3. 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.

24.4. Installing Stratis

Install the required packages for Stratis.

Procedure

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

    # dnf install stratisd stratis-cli
  2. Verify that the stratisd service is enabled:

    # systemctl enable --now stratisd

24.5. 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

24.6. 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 9 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 9 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.

24.7. 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

24.8. 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 9 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 9 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.

24.9. 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 9 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 9 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.

24.10. 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 --no-overprovision pool-name /dev/sdb
    • By using the --no-overprovision option, the pool cannot allocate more logical space than actual available physical space.
  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

24.11. 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.

24.12. 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.

24.13. 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

24.14. 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.

24.15. 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

24.16. 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 24.1. 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

24.17. 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 9 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.

24.18. 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

24.19. Persistently mounting a Stratis file system

This procedure persistently mounts a Stratis file system so that it is available automatically after booting the system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Determine the UUID attribute of the file system:

    $ lsblk --output=UUID /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs

    For example:

    Example 24.2. Viewing the UUID of Stratis file system

    $ lsblk --output=UUID /dev/stratis/my-pool/fs1
    
    UUID
    a1f0b64a-4ebb-4d4e-9543-b1d79f600283
  2. If the mount point directory does not exist, create it:

    # mkdir --parents mount-point
  3. As root, edit the /etc/fstab file and add a line for the file system, identified by the UUID. Use xfs as the file system type and add the x-systemd.requires=stratisd.service option.

    For example:

    Example 24.3. The /fs1 mount point in /etc/fstab

    UUID=a1f0b64a-4ebb-4d4e-9543-b1d79f600283 /fs1 xfs defaults,x-systemd.requires=stratisd.service 0 0
  4. Regenerate mount units so that your system registers the new configuration:

    # systemctl daemon-reload
  5. Try mounting the file system to verify that the configuration works:

    # mount mount-point

24.20. 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

  • For all non-root Stratis filesystems, use:

    # /dev/stratis/[STRATIS_SYMLINK] [MOUNT_POINT] xfs defaults, x-systemd.requires=stratis-fstab-setup@[POOL_UUID].service,x-systemd.after=stratis-stab-setup@[POOL_UUID].service <dump_value> <fsck_value>

Additional resources

Chapter 25. Extending a Stratis volume with additional block devices

You can attach additional block devices to a Stratis pool to provide more storage capacity for Stratis file systems.

25.1. 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.

25.2. Adding block devices to a Stratis pool

This procedure adds one or more block devices to a Stratis pool to be usable by Stratis file systems.

Prerequisites

  • Stratis is installed. See Installing Stratis.
  • The stratisd service is running.
  • The block devices that you are adding to the Stratis pool are not in use and not mounted.
  • The block devices that you are adding to the Stratis pool are at least 1 GiB in size each.

Procedure

  • To add one or more block devices to the pool, use:

    # stratis pool add-data my-pool device-1 device-2 device-n

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page

25.3. Adding a block device to a Stratis pool by using the web console

You can use the web console to add a block device to an existing Stratis pool. You can also add caches as a block device.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 web console.

    For instructions, see Installing and enabling the web console.

  • The stratisd service is running.
  • A Stratis pool is created.
  • 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 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the Stratis pool to which you want to add a block device.
  4. On the Stratis pool page, click Add block devices.

    Image displaying the Stratis pool page.

  5. In the Add block devices dialog box, select the Tier, whether you want to add a block device as data or cache.

    Image displaying the Add block devices dialog box.

  6. Optional: If you are adding the block device to a Stratis pool that is encrypted with a passphrase, then you must enter the passphrase.
  7. Under Block devices, select the devices you want to add to the pool.
  8. Click Add.

25.4. Additional resources

Chapter 26. Monitoring Stratis file systems

As a Stratis user, you can view information about Stratis volumes on your system to monitor their state and free space.

26.1. Stratis sizes reported by different utilities

This section explains the difference between Stratis sizes reported by standard utilities such as df and the stratis utility.

Standard Linux utilities such as df report the size of the XFS file system layer on Stratis, which is 1 TiB. This is not useful information, because the actual storage usage of Stratis is less due to thin provisioning, and also because Stratis automatically grows the file system when the XFS layer is close to full.

Important

Regularly monitor the amount of data written to your Stratis file systems, which is reported as the Total Physical Used value. Make sure it does not exceed the Total Physical Size value.

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

26.2. Displaying information about Stratis volumes

This procedure lists statistics about your Stratis volumes, such as the total, used, and free size or file systems and block devices belonging to a pool.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • To display information about all block devices used for Stratis on your system:

    # stratis blockdev
    
    Pool Name  Device Node    Physical Size   State  Tier
    my-pool    /dev/sdb            9.10 TiB  In-use  Data
  • To display information about all Stratis pools on your system:

    # stratis pool
    
    Name    Total Physical Size  Total Physical Used
    my-pool            9.10 TiB              598 MiB
  • To display information about all Stratis file systems on your system:

    # stratis filesystem
    
    Pool Name  Name  Used     Created            Device
    my-pool    my-fs 546 MiB  Nov 08 2018 08:03  /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

26.3. Viewing a Stratis pool by using the web console

You can use the web console to view an existing Stratis pool and the file systems it contains.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.
  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the Stratis pool you want to view.

    The Stratis pool page displays all the information about the pool and the file systems that you created in the pool.

    Image displaying the Stratis pool page.

26.4. Additional resources

Chapter 27. Using snapshots on Stratis file systems

You can use snapshots on Stratis file systems to capture file system state at arbitrary times and restore it in the future.

27.1. Characteristics of Stratis snapshots

In Stratis, a snapshot is a regular Stratis file system created as a copy of another Stratis file system. The snapshot initially contains the same file content as the original file system, but can change as the snapshot is modified. Whatever changes you make to the snapshot will not be reflected in the original file system.

The current snapshot implementation in Stratis is characterized by the following:

  • A snapshot of a file system is another file system.
  • A snapshot and its origin are not linked in lifetime. A snapshotted file system can live longer than the file system it was created from.
  • A file system does not have to be mounted to create a snapshot from it.
  • Each snapshot uses around half a gigabyte of actual backing storage, which is needed for the XFS log.

27.2. Creating a Stratis snapshot

This procedure creates a Stratis file system as a snapshot of an existing Stratis file system.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • To create a Stratis snapshot, use:

    # stratis fs snapshot my-pool my-fs my-fs-snapshot

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

27.3. Accessing the content of a Stratis snapshot

This procedure mounts a snapshot of a Stratis file system to make it accessible for read and write operations.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • To access the snapshot, mount it as a regular file system from the /dev/stratis/my-pool/ directory:

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

Additional resources

27.4. Reverting a Stratis file system to a previous snapshot

This procedure reverts the content of a Stratis file system to the state captured in a Stratis snapshot.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Optional: Back up the current state of the file system to be able to access it later:

    # stratis filesystem snapshot my-pool my-fs my-fs-backup
  2. Unmount and remove the original file system:

    # umount /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs
    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs
  3. Create a copy of the snapshot under the name of the original file system:

    # stratis filesystem snapshot my-pool my-fs-snapshot my-fs
  4. Mount the snapshot, which is now accessible with the same name as the original file system:

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

The content of the file system named my-fs is now identical to the snapshot my-fs-snapshot.

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

27.5. Removing a Stratis snapshot

This procedure removes a Stratis snapshot from a pool. Data on the snapshot are lost.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Unmount the snapshot:

    # umount /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs-snapshot
  2. Destroy the snapshot:

    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs-snapshot

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

27.6. Additional resources

Chapter 28. Removing Stratis file systems

You can remove an existing Stratis file system, or a Stratis pool, by destroying data on them.

28.1. 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.

28.2. Removing a Stratis file system

This procedure removes an existing Stratis file system. Data stored on it are lost.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Unmount the file system:

    # umount /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs
  2. Destroy the file system:

    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs
  3. Verify that the file system no longer exists:

    # stratis filesystem list my-pool

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

28.3. Deleting a file system from a Stratis pool by using the web console

You can use the web console to delete a file system from an existing Stratis pool.

Note

Deleting a Stratis pool file system erases all the data it contains.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed the RHEL 9 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.
  • You have an existing Stratis pool.
  • You have created a file system on the Stratis pool.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the Stratis pool from which you want to delete a file system.
  4. On the Stratis pool page, scroll to the Stratis filesystems section and click the menu button next to the file system you want to delete.

    Image displaying the Stratis pool page.

  5. From the drop-down menu, select delete.

    Image displaying the drop-down menu of a stratis file system.

  6. In the Confirm deletion dialog box, click Delete.

28.4. Removing a Stratis pool

This procedure removes an existing Stratis pool. Data stored on it are lost.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. List file systems on the pool:

    # stratis filesystem list my-pool
  2. Unmount all file systems on the pool:

    # umount /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs-1 \
             /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs-2 \
             /dev/stratis/my-pool/my-fs-n
  3. Destroy the file systems:

    # stratis filesystem destroy my-pool my-fs-1 my-fs-2
  4. Destroy the pool:

    # stratis pool destroy my-pool
  5. Verify that the pool no longer exists:

    # stratis pool list

Additional resources

  • stratis(8) man page.

28.5. Deleting a Stratis pool by using the web console

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

Note

Deleting a Stratis pool erases all the data it contains.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to the RHEL 9 web console.

    For details, see Logging in to the web console.

  2. Click Storage.
  3. In the Storage table, click the menu button, , next to the Stratis pool you want to delete.
  4. From the drop-down menu, select Delete pool.
  5. In the Permanently delete pool dialog box, click Delete.

28.6. Additional resources

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