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From: Max Reitz <mreitz@redhat.com>
To: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>, Alberto Garcia <berto@igalia.com>,
	qemu-devel@nongnu.org
Cc: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>, Derek Su <dereksu@qnap.com>,
	Vladimir Sementsov-Ogievskiy <vsementsov@virtuozzo.com>,
	qemu-block@nongnu.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v9 30/34] qcow2: Add prealloc field to QCowL2Meta
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2020 17:09:47 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <a053de54-93f7-8f13-be5e-6f5d276a7d3d@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <687f5402-2316-e06a-2fd1-37375a4fa119@redhat.com>


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On 02.07.20 16:58, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 7/2/20 9:50 AM, Max Reitz wrote:
>> On 28.06.20 13:02, Alberto Garcia wrote:
>>> This field allows us to indicate that the L2 metadata update does not
>>> come from a write request with actual data but from a preallocation
>>> request.
>>>
>>> For traditional images this does not make any difference, but for
>>> images with extended L2 entries this means that the clusters are
>>> allocated normally in the L2 table but individual subclusters are
>>> marked as unallocated.
>>>
>>> This will allow preallocating images that have a backing file.
>>>
>>> There is one special case: when we resize an existing image we can
>>> also request that the new clusters are preallocated. If the image
>>> already had a backing file then we have to hide any possible stale
>>> data and zero out the new clusters (see commit 955c7d6687 for more
>>> details).
>>>
>>> In this case the subclusters cannot be left as unallocated so the L2
>>> bitmap must be updated.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Alberto Garcia <berto@igalia.com>
>>> Reviewed-by: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
>>> ---
>>>   block/qcow2.h         | 8 ++++++++
>>>   block/qcow2-cluster.c | 2 +-
>>>   block/qcow2.c         | 6 ++++++
>>>   3 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> Sounds good, but I’m just not quite sure about the details on
>> falloc/full allocation: With .prealloc = true, writing to the
>> preallocated subclusters will require a COW operation.  That’s not
>> ideal, and avoiding those COWs may be a reason to do preallocation in
>> the first place.
> 
> I'm not sure I follow the complaint.  If a cluster is preallocated but
> the subcluster is marked unallocated, then doing a partial write to that
> subcluster must provide the correct contents for the rest of the
> subcluster (either filling with zero, or reading from a backing file) -
> but this COW can be limited to just the portion of the subcluster, and
> is no different than the COW you have to perform without subclusters
> when doing a write to a preallocated cluster in general.

It was my impression that falloc/full preallocation would create normal
data clusters, not zero clusters, so no COW was necessary when writing
to them.

>> Now, with backing files, it’s entirely correct.  You need a COW
>> operation, because that’s the point of having a backing file.
>>
>> But without a backing file I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to set
>> .prealloc = false to avoid that COW.
> 
> Without a backing file, there is no read required - writing to an
> unallocated subcluster within a preallocated cluster merely has to
> provide zeros to the rest of the write.  And depending on whether we can
> intelligently guarantee that the underlying protocol already reads as
> zeroes when preallocated, we even have an optimization where even that
> is not necessary.  We can still lump it in the "COW" terminology, in
> that our write is more complex than merely writing in place, but it
> isn't a true copy-on-write operation as there is nothing to be copied.

The term “COW” specifically in the qcow2 driver also refers to having to
write zeroes to an area that isn’t written to by the guest as part of
the process of having to allocate a (sub)cluster.

(Of course there is no COW from a backing file if there is no backing file.)

Max


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  reply	other threads:[~2020-07-02 15:10 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 71+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-06-28 11:02 [PATCH v9 00/34] Add subcluster allocation to qcow2 Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 01/34] qcow2: Make Qcow2AioTask store the full host offset Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 02/34] qcow2: Convert qcow2_get_cluster_offset() into qcow2_get_host_offset() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-30 10:19   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-30 10:27     ` Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 03/34] qcow2: Add calculate_l2_meta() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 04/34] qcow2: Split cluster_needs_cow() out of count_cow_clusters() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 05/34] qcow2: Process QCOW2_CLUSTER_ZERO_ALLOC clusters in handle_copied() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-30 10:38   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 06/34] qcow2: Add get_l2_entry() and set_l2_entry() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 07/34] qcow2: Document the Extended L2 Entries feature Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 08/34] qcow2: Add dummy has_subclusters() function Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 09/34] qcow2: Add subcluster-related fields to BDRVQcow2State Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 10/34] qcow2: Add offset_to_sc_index() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 11/34] qcow2: Add offset_into_subcluster() and size_to_subclusters() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-01 12:23   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 12/34] qcow2: Add l2_entry_size() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 13/34] qcow2: Update get/set_l2_entry() and add get/set_l2_bitmap() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-01 12:28   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 14/34] qcow2: Add QCow2SubclusterType and qcow2_get_subcluster_type() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-01 12:52   ` Max Reitz
2020-07-01 16:26     ` Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02  9:57       ` Max Reitz
2020-07-02 22:00         ` Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03  7:17           ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 15/34] qcow2: Add qcow2_get_subcluster_range_type() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-01 13:37   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 16/34] qcow2: Add qcow2_cluster_is_allocated() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-01 13:55   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 17/34] qcow2: Add cluster type parameter to qcow2_get_host_offset() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 18/34] qcow2: Replace QCOW2_CLUSTER_* with QCOW2_SUBCLUSTER_* Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 19/34] qcow2: Handle QCOW2_SUBCLUSTER_UNALLOCATED_ALLOC Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 20/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to calculate_l2_meta() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 11:30   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 21/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to qcow2_get_host_offset() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 12:46   ` Max Reitz
2020-07-02 22:04     ` Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 22/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to zero_in_l2_slice() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 12:56   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 23/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to discard_in_l2_slice() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 13:24   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 24/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to check_refcounts_l2() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 13:32   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 25/34] qcow2: Update L2 bitmap in qcow2_alloc_cluster_link_l2() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 14:01   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 26/34] qcow2: Clear the L2 bitmap when allocating a compressed cluster Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 27/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to handle_alloc_space() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 28/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to qcow2_co_pwrite_zeroes() Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 14:28   ` Max Reitz
2020-07-02 22:40     ` Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03  7:18       ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 29/34] qcow2: Add subcluster support to qcow2_measure() Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 30/34] qcow2: Add prealloc field to QCowL2Meta Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 14:50   ` Max Reitz
2020-07-02 14:58     ` Eric Blake
2020-07-02 15:09       ` Max Reitz [this message]
2020-07-02 23:05         ` Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03  7:22           ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 31/34] qcow2: Add the 'extended_l2' option and the QCOW2_INCOMPAT_EXTL2 bit Alberto Garcia
2020-07-02 15:13   ` Max Reitz
2020-07-03 12:43     ` Alberto Garcia
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 32/34] qcow2: Allow preallocation and backing files if extended_l2 is set Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03  7:45   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 33/34] qcow2: Assert that expand_zero_clusters_in_l1() does not support subclusters Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03  7:46   ` Max Reitz
2020-06-28 11:02 ` [PATCH v9 34/34] iotests: Add tests for qcow2 images with extended L2 entries Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03  9:49   ` Max Reitz
2020-07-03 13:06     ` Alberto Garcia
2020-07-03 13:47       ` Max Reitz
2020-07-03 15:20         ` Alberto Garcia
2020-07-06 13:57       ` Eric Blake

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