Chapter 24. 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_bytesfile is not zero.
24.1. 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
usedto thefreestate. - Periodic discard
-
Are batch operations that are run regularly by a
systemdservice.
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.
24.2. 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
fstrimutility:To perform discard only on a selected file system, use:
# fstrim mount-pointTo 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 on your system
24.3. 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 discardmount option:# mount -o discard device mount-point
-
When mounting a file system persistently, add the
discardoption to the mount entry in the/etc/fstabfile.
Additional resources
-
mount(8)andfstab(5)man pages on your system
24.4. 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
systemdtimer:# 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.
