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  • Book Overview & Buying Architecture and Design of the Linux Storage Stack
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Architecture and Design of the Linux Storage Stack

Architecture and Design of the Linux Storage Stack

By : Muhammad Umer
4.8 (18)
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Architecture and Design of the Linux Storage Stack

Architecture and Design of the Linux Storage Stack

4.8 (18)
By: Muhammad Umer
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

The Linux storage stack serves as a prime example of meticulously coordinated layers. Embark on a journey through the kernel code with Architecture and Design of the Linux Storage Stack, crafted for anyone seeking in-depth knowledge about the layered design of Linux storage and its landscape. You’ll explore the Linux storage stack and its various concepts. You’ll unlock the secrets of the virtual filesystem and the actual filesystem and the differences in their implementation, the role of the block layer, the Multi-Queue and Device Mapper frameworks, I/O schedulers, physical storage layout, and how to analyze all the layers in the storage stack. By the end of this book, you’ll be acquainted with how a simple I/O request from a process travels down through all the layers and ends up in physical storage.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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Who this book is for
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What this book covers
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To get the most out of this book
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Download the example code files
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Conventions used
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Get in touch
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1
Part 1: Diving into the Virtual Filesystem
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Part 1: Diving into the Virtual Filesystem
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2
Chapter 1: Where It All Starts From – The Virtual Filesystem
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Chapter 1: Where It All Starts From – The Virtual Filesystem
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Technical requirements
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Understanding storage in a modern-day data center
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Understanding system calls
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Explaining the need for a Virtual Filesystem
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Describing the VFS
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Tracing VFS functions
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Explaining the Everything is a file philosophy
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Summary
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Chapter 2: Explaining the Data Structures in a VFS
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Chapter 2: Explaining the Data Structures in a VFS
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Technical requirements
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Data structures in VFS
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Inodes – indexing files and directories
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Directory entries – mapping inodes to filenames
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File objects – representing open files
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Superblocks – describing filesystem metadata
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Summary
4
Chapter 3: Exploring the Actual Filesystems Under the VFS
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Chapter 3: Exploring the Actual Filesystems Under the VFS
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Technical requirements
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The Linux filesystem gallery
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The diary of a filesystem – the concept of journaling
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The curious case of CoW filesystems
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Extended filesystem
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Network filesystem
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FUSE – a unique method for creating filesystems
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Summary
5
Part 2: Navigating Through the Block Layer
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Part 2: Navigating Through the Block Layer
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Chapter 4: Understanding the Block Layer, Block Devices, and Data Structures
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Chapter 4: Understanding the Block Layer, Block Devices, and Data Structures
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Technical requirements
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Explaining the role of the block layer
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Defining block devices
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The defining characteristics of a block device
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Looking at the representation of block devices
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Looking at data structures in the block layer
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The journey of an I/O request in the block layer
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Summary
7
Chapter 5: Understanding the Block Layer, Multi-Queue, and Device Mapper
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Chapter 5: Understanding the Block Layer, Multi-Queue, and Device Mapper
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Technical requirements
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Looking at problems with single-request queues
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Understanding the multi-queue block I/O framework
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Summary
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Chapter 6: Understanding I/O Handling and Scheduling in the Block Layer
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Chapter 6: Understanding I/O Handling and Scheduling in the Block Layer
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Technical requirements
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Understanding the I/O handling techniques in block layer
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Explaining the Linux I/O schedulers
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Discussing the scheduling conundrum
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Summary
9
Part 3: Descending into the Physical Layer
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Part 3: Descending into the Physical Layer
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Chapter 7: The SCSI Subsystem
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Chapter 7: The SCSI Subsystem
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Technical requirements
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The device driver model
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Explaining the SCSI subsystem
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Summary
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Chapter 8: Illustrating the Layout of Physical Media
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Chapter 8: Illustrating the Layout of Physical Media
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Technical requirements
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Understanding mechanical hard drives
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Explaining the architecture of solid-state drives
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Understanding drive endurance
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Reinventing SSDs with NVMe
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Summary
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Part 4: Analyzing and Troubleshooting Storage Performance
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Part 4: Analyzing and Troubleshooting Storage Performance
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Chapter 9: Analyzing Physical Storage Performance
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Chapter 9: Analyzing Physical Storage Performance
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Technical requirements
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How do we gauge performance?
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Understanding storage topology
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Analyzing physical storage
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Using disk I/O analysis tools
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Summary
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Chapter 10: Analyzing Filesystems and the Block Layer
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Chapter 10: Analyzing Filesystems and the Block Layer
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Technical requirements
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Investigating filesystems and the block layer
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The different types of filesystem I/O
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What causes filesystem latency?
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Identifying the target layers
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Finding the right tools
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Summary
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Chapter 11: Tuning the I/O Stack
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Chapter 11: Tuning the I/O Stack
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Technical requirements
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How memory usage affects I/O
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Tuning the memory subsystem
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Tuning the filesystem
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Choosing the right scheduler
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Summary
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Index
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Index
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Why subscribe?
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Other Books You May Enjoy
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Other Books You May Enjoy
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Understanding the Block Layer, Multi-Queue, and Device Mapper

“I feel the need... the need for speed.” – Maverick in Top Gun

Chapter 4 introduced us to the role of the block layer in the kernel. We were able to see what constitutes a block device and explored the major data structures in the block layer. This chapter will build on that knowledge as we continue understanding the block layer.

This chapter will introduce you to two major concepts: the multi-queue block I/O mechanism and the device mapper framework. The kernel’s block layer has undergone significant changes in recent years to tackle performance concerns. The introduction of the multi-queue framework was a significant milestone in this direction, as discussed in Chapter 4. Performance is a critical consideration when dealing with block devices, and the kernel has implemented various improvements to optimize disk drive performance. In Chapter 4, we looked at the request and response queue...

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