[libvirt] [RFC PATCH 1/n] snapshot: add revert-and-create branching of external snapshots
Eric Blake
eblake at redhat.com
Wed Nov 14 00:47:56 UTC 2012
On 11/13/2012 08:26 AM, Peter Krempa wrote:
> On 11/09/12 05:47, Eric Blake wrote:
>> Right now, libvirt refuses to revert to the state at the time
>> of an external snapshot, because doing so would reset things so
>> that the next time the domain boots, we are using the backing
>> file; but modifying the backing file invalidates all qcow2
>> files that are based on top of it. There are three possibilities
>> for lifting this restriction:
>> 1. delete all snapshot metadata and qcow2 files that are
>> invalidated by the revert (losing changes since the snapshot)
>> 2. perform a block commit (such as with qemu-img commit) to
>> merge the qcow2 file back into the backing file (keeping the
>> changes since the snapshot)
>> 3. create NEW qcow2 files that wrap the same base file as
>> the original snapshot (keeping the changes since the original
>> snapshot)
>
> We will need to think of a mechanism how to return to a branch of the
> snapshot tree that was previously left by this revert-and-branch
> operation. Otherwise you will need either to:
> 1) create a new snapshot on the previous branch prior leaving it
> 2) if your machine was running when you were leaving your branch, it
> will need to be reverted to the previous snapshot state
> 3) we will need to add a ability to add a automagic temporary snapshot
> that will not create new disk overlays but will store the memory image
> to allow reverting to the end of the branch
Hmm, if the guest is offline and you are branching away from an external
snapshot, the disk image already contains the old state. But you are
right that for an online guest, it might be worth having a way to save a
checkpoint just before the revert - and this is true whether the point
you are going to was an internal or an external snapshot (although for
first implementation, I will only allow branching from an external
snapshot). In fact, this is true even if we don't add the atomic
revert-and-create operation - even a plain revert can abandon runtime
state that might be nice to remember.
My original idea was that specifying <branch> means that <memory> is
ignored on the incoming <domainsnapshot> XML; but maybe I should instead
state that the <memory> controls what to do with the branch-point being
abandoned: snapshot=no says discard the runtime state (what revert has
always done, even without the create operation merged in), and
'snapshot=internal name=...' or 'snapshot=external file=...' says to
create a new checkpoint before abandoning running state (so the
revert-and-create branch operation would actually be creating two
snapshots at once).
Or we could just say that this is the responsibility of management apps
to avoid abandoning running state - anyone wanting to return to a
running domain is responsible for first pausing and saving that domain
as an independent operation, and then only use the revert-and-create
from an offline or paused state. In a way, it would be easier to insist
that branching only ever be done from an offline state; but transient
domains throw a wrench in that idea (there is never an offline state for
transient domains).
Another thought - maybe snapshots should remember if the domain has ever
been unpaused after the snapshot was first taken. That is, a snapshot
starts life clean as long as the domain remains offline or paused, but
is marked dirty the first time the guest is allowed to run (or if any
changes are made to the domain definition, such as a hotplug); knowing
if a snapshot is dirty would determine whether an additional snapshot is
even needed before leaving that branch in a revert operation.
Maybe virDomainRevertToSnapshot() needs a way to do a create-and-revert
mode of operation; and then virDomainSnapshotCreateXML needs a
create-revert-create operation. Perhaps it is time to introduce a new
API to give better control over a snapshot being created before the
revert, vs. the snapshot being created after the revert; although that
would not be something that can be backported to older releases
(sometimes there are interesting design trade-offs for what can be done
without changing the .so entry points).
I'll think about that some more as I continue writing patches. But for
now, since our existing revert has always discarded runtime state (and
left it to management apps to do their own snapshot prior to revert if
they don't want to lose anything), keeping that as the status quo
doesn't hurt.
>> 1.
>> Enhance virDomainSnapshotListFlags to add two new filter groups:
>> VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_OFFLINE
>> VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_ONLINE
>> VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_DISK_ONLY
>>
>> VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_INTERNAL
>> VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_LIST_EXTERNAL
Now done in a separate thread.
>> 4.
>> Think about ramifications on revert - right now, with no options,
>> revert means to go back to the state where the snapshot was created;
>> but now that we allow the creation of branches, and since the branches
>> have external disk state which persists even when not on the branch, we
>> need a new revert flag that says to revert to an external snapshots
>> and its subsequent changes
>
> Ah yeah, this would be applicable. This would work if you shut down your
> guest prior to leaving the branch (or can justify loosing data.) And if
> you want to return to an existing state, you still can create another
> snapshot. Although it would be cool to have it automatic.
For an online guest, if we allow the create-before-revert, then the
solution is to revert to the checkpoint taken before we did the revert.
But for an offline guest, we shouldn't need a magic snapshot at the end
of a branch; so I still think we need a new mode to revert that says to
revert to the changes beyond the external snapshot.
>> 5.
>> Think about ramifications on delete - for example, if two branches
>> of external snapshots share a common memory state file, and we delete
>> only one of the two branches, the memory state file must not be
>> deleted.
>
> Or we could use the name provided in the new snapshot XML to store the
> same memory image (although copying it might not be that cool, it would
> save a ton of logic to wire that up).
Or use hard-links instead of copies, and let the file system do the
reference counting for us :) But if we do that, _and_ we do the idea of
create-revert-create for marking the old point prior to creating the new
branch, then the user has to be able to specify the external memory file
name of both snapshots.
Lots of ideas; thankfully, I don't see a problem with adding features
incrementally.
>> +++ b/docs/formatsnapshot.html.in
>> @@ -87,7 +87,12 @@
>> sets that snapshot as current, and the prior current snapshot is
>> the parent of the new snapshot. Branches in the hierarchy can
>> be formed by reverting to a snapshot with a child, then creating
>> - another snapshot.
>> + another snapshot. In the case of external snapshots, modifying
>> + the backing files would invalidate all external files that
>> + depend on the backing file, so the action of reverting to a
>> + snapshot must be accompanied by either a request to delete all
>> + invalidated snapshots, or to create a new snapshot at the same
>> + time as the revert.
>
> Hm, this comment should probably be in my patch adding the revert
> functionality for external snapshots. (With a few changes stating for
> example that --force invalidates the image chain and doesn't care)
Well, the phrase about 'create a new snapshot at the same time as the
revert' applies to this patch, but the phrase about 'request to delete
all invalidated snapshots' indeed goes better with yours. I'm okay if
the documentation is slightly inaccurate as our patches converge, as
long as the final documentation in 1.0.1 matches what we have together.
So it may be best to just separate this into its own patch, to be
applied after both our code approaches have been merged.
>> +++ b/docs/schemas/domainsnapshot.rng
>> @@ -85,6 +85,11 @@
>> </element>
>> </element>
>> </optional>
>> + <optional>
>> + <element name='parent'>
>
> Doesn't match the docs. s/parent/branch/
Oops. Proof that I need to add a test case for RNG validation.
>> + * If @flags includes VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_BRANCH, then @xmlDesc
>> + * must describe an existing external snapshot as well as actions to
>> + * create a new snapshot from the point where the existing snapshot was
>> + * created rather than the current state of the guest. In this mode,
>> + * the new snapshot branch is created but not activated unless the
>> + * VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_CURRENT flag is also present. It is an
>> + * error to request VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_LIVE or
>> + * VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_QUIESCE in this mode.
Actually, if we add a create-revert-create ability, then _LIVE would
apply to the first create (the branch we are leaving). But it
definitely doesn't work for the branch we are creating.
>> @@ -18673,6 +18690,14 @@ error:
>> * inactive snapshots with a @flags request to start the domain after
>> * the revert.
>> *
>> + * Reverting to a snapshot with external state and then running the
>> + * domain would invalidate all external files that depend on the backing
>> + * file. Therefore, this function will fail unless any child external
>> + * snapshots of the revert point first been deleted or merged. It is
>> + * also possible to effectively revert and create a new snapshot branch
>> + * in one operation, without invalidating snapshots, by using the
>> + * VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_BRANCH flag of
>> virDomainSnapshotCreateXML().
>> + *
>
> This also probably should go into the revert series.
Indeed, also a candidate for a final doc cleanup patch after both of our
improvements are in.
>> @@ -340,6 +349,19 @@ cmdSnapshotCreateAs(vshControl *ctl, const vshCmd
>> *cmd)
>> flags |= VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_ATOMIC;
>> if (vshCommandOptBool(cmd, "live"))
>> flags |= VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_LIVE;
>> + if (vshCommandOptBool(cmd, "branch")) {
>> + flags |= VIR_DOMAIN_SNAPSHOT_CREATE_BRANCH;
>> + if (vshCommandOptString(cmd, "branch", &branch) < 0) {
>> + vshError(ctl, _("argument must not be empty"));
>
> This error message isn't very helpful when viewed out of context. Add
> the parameter name to make it clear please.
Copy and paste, so I'll also fix the point it copied from.
>
> Looks good. There are a few details we should sort out before doing this
> but I think this is useful and the right way.
>
> I was also thinking of enhancing virsh with a ability to generate memory
> image names from the snapshot names when the user only provides the
> prefix. This saves a lot of hassle when doing multiple snapshots in a
> row with the "[up-arrow][enter]" approach.
In fact, the names we generate for --disk-only are generated by libvirt
(snapshot_conf.c:virDomainSnapshotAlignDisks), not virsh; so if we come
up with a reasonable approach for auto-naming an external memory
snapshot, it should be done in the same place. But yes, an ability to
autoname external snapshots would be a nice independent patch.
--
Eric Blake eblake at redhat.com +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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