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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
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tree2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/switch.rst
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Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt: - Fix error output of boot instance creation failure Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by strsep(). Print the saved name instead. While at it, print the error code of the failure. - Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events. But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate histogram and crash the kernel. Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram data. - Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error returned. - Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring buffer sub-buffer size. - Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false. Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized upon creation. - Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed. - Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state. It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still using it. In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will not free the parent's descriptor. - Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a failed replacement leaves it at -1. But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it. - Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING. * tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei() tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop() tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
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+=========
+dm-switch
+=========
+
+The device-mapper switch target creates a device that supports an
+arbitrary mapping of fixed-size regions of I/O across a fixed set of
+paths. The path used for any specific region can be switched
+dynamically by sending the target a message.
+
+It maps I/O to underlying block devices efficiently when there is a large
+number of fixed-sized address regions but there is no simple pattern
+that would allow for a compact representation of the mapping such as
+dm-stripe.
+
+Background
+----------
+
+Dell EqualLogic and some other iSCSI storage arrays use a distributed
+frameless architecture. In this architecture, the storage group
+consists of a number of distinct storage arrays ("members") each having
+independent controllers, disk storage and network adapters. When a LUN
+is created it is spread across multiple members. The details of the
+spreading are hidden from initiators connected to this storage system.
+The storage group exposes a single target discovery portal, no matter
+how many members are being used. When iSCSI sessions are created, each
+session is connected to an eth port on a single member. Data to a LUN
+can be sent on any iSCSI session, and if the blocks being accessed are
+stored on another member the I/O will be forwarded as required. This
+forwarding is invisible to the initiator. The storage layout is also
+dynamic, and the blocks stored on disk may be moved from member to
+member as needed to balance the load.
+
+This architecture simplifies the management and configuration of both
+the storage group and initiators. In a multipathing configuration, it
+is possible to set up multiple iSCSI sessions to use multiple network
+interfaces on both the host and target to take advantage of the
+increased network bandwidth. An initiator could use a simple round
+robin algorithm to send I/O across all paths and let the storage array
+members forward it as necessary, but there is a performance advantage to
+sending data directly to the correct member.
+
+A device-mapper table already lets you map different regions of a
+device onto different targets. However in this architecture the LUN is
+spread with an address region size on the order of 10s of MBs, which
+means the resulting table could have more than a million entries and
+consume far too much memory.
+
+Using this device-mapper switch target we can now build a two-layer
+device hierarchy:
+
+ Upper Tier - Determine which array member the I/O should be sent to.
+ Lower Tier - Load balance amongst paths to a particular member.
+
+The lower tier consists of a single dm multipath device for each member.
+Each of these multipath devices contains the set of paths directly to
+the array member in one priority group, and leverages existing path
+selectors to load balance amongst these paths. We also build a
+non-preferred priority group containing paths to other array members for
+failover reasons.
+
+The upper tier consists of a single dm-switch device. This device uses
+a bitmap to look up the location of the I/O and choose the appropriate
+lower tier device to route the I/O. By using a bitmap we are able to
+use 4 bits for each address range in a 16 member group (which is very
+large for us). This is a much denser representation than the dm table
+b-tree can achieve.
+
+Construction Parameters
+=======================
+
+ <num_paths> <region_size> <num_optional_args> [<optional_args>...] [<dev_path> <offset>]+
+ <num_paths>
+ The number of paths across which to distribute the I/O.
+
+ <region_size>
+ The number of 512-byte sectors in a region. Each region can be redirected
+ to any of the available paths.
+
+ <num_optional_args>
+ The number of optional arguments. Currently, no optional arguments
+ are supported and so this must be zero.
+
+ <dev_path>
+ The block device that represents a specific path to the device.
+
+ <offset>
+ The offset of the start of data on the specific <dev_path> (in units
+ of 512-byte sectors). This number is added to the sector number when
+ forwarding the request to the specific path. Typically it is zero.
+
+Messages
+========
+
+set_region_mappings <index>:<path_nr> [<index>]:<path_nr> [<index>]:<path_nr>...
+
+Modify the region table by specifying which regions are redirected to
+which paths.
+
+<index>
+ The region number (region size was specified in constructor parameters).
+ If index is omitted, the next region (previous index + 1) is used.
+ Expressed in hexadecimal (WITHOUT any prefix like 0x).
+
+<path_nr>
+ The path number in the range 0 ... (<num_paths> - 1).
+ Expressed in hexadecimal (WITHOUT any prefix like 0x).
+
+R<n>,<m>
+ This parameter allows repetitive patterns to be loaded quickly. <n> and <m>
+ are hexadecimal numbers. The last <n> mappings are repeated in the next <m>
+ slots.
+
+Status
+======
+
+No status line is reported.
+
+Example
+=======
+
+Assume that you have volumes vg1/switch0 vg1/switch1 vg1/switch2 with
+the same size.
+
+Create a switch device with 64kB region size::
+
+ dmsetup create switch --table "0 `blockdev --getsz /dev/vg1/switch0`
+ switch 3 128 0 /dev/vg1/switch0 0 /dev/vg1/switch1 0 /dev/vg1/switch2 0"
+
+Set mappings for the first 7 entries to point to devices switch0, switch1,
+switch2, switch0, switch1, switch2, switch1::
+
+ dmsetup message switch 0 set_region_mappings 0:0 :1 :2 :0 :1 :2 :1
+
+Set repetitive mapping. This command::
+
+ dmsetup message switch 0 set_region_mappings 1000:1 :2 R2,10
+
+is equivalent to::
+
+ dmsetup message switch 0 set_region_mappings 1000:1 :2 :1 :2 :1 :2 :1 :2 \
+ :1 :2 :1 :2 :1 :2 :1 :2 :1 :2