Heal info and split-brain resolution
This document explains the heal info command available in gluster for monitoring pending heals in replicate volumes and the methods available to resolve split-brains.
1. Volume heal info:
Usage: gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> info
This list all the files that need healing (and will be processed by the self-heal daemon). It prints either their path or their GFID.
Interpreting the output
All the files that are listed in the output of this command need healing to be done.The files listed may also be accompanied by the following tags:
a) 'Is in split-brain'
A file in data or metadata split-brain will
be listed with " - Is in split-brain" appended after its path/gfid. Eg.,
"/file4" in the output provided below. But for a file in gfid split-brain,
the parent directory of the file is shown to be in split-brain and the file
itself is shown to be needing heal. Eg., "/dir" in the output provided below
which is in split-brain because of gfid split-brain of file "/dir/a".
Files in split-brain cannot be healed without resolving the split-brain.
b) 'Is possibly undergoing heal'
When the heal info command is run, it (or to be more specific, the 'glfsheal' binary that is executed when you run the command) takes locks on each file to find if it needs heal. But if the self-heal daemon had already started healing the file, it would have taken locks due to which glfsheal wouldn't be able to acquire them. In such a case it could print this message. Another possible case could be multiple glfsheal processes running simultaneously (e.g., multiple users ran heal info command at the same time), competing for same lock.
The following is an example of heal info command's output.
Example
Consider a replica volume "test" with 2 bricks b1 and b2; self-heal daemon off, mounted at /mnt.
gluster volume heal test info
Brick \<hostname:brickpath-b1>
<gfid:aaca219f-0e25-4576-8689-3bfd93ca70c2> - Is in split-brain
<gfid:39f301ae-4038-48c2-a889-7dac143e82dd> - Is in split-brain
<gfid:c3c94de2-232d-4083-b534-5da17fc476ac> - Is in split-brain
<gfid:6dc78b20-7eb6-49a3-8edb-087b90142246>
Number of entries: 4
Brick <hostname:brickpath-b2>
/dir/file2
/dir/file1 - Is in split-brain
/dir - Is in split-brain
/dir/file3
/file4 - Is in split-brain
/dir/a
Number of entries: 6
Analysis of the output
It can be seen that
A) from brick b1, 4 entries need healing:
1) file with gfid:6dc78b20-7eb6-49a3-8edb-087b90142246 needs healing
2) "aaca219f-0e25-4576-8689-3bfd93ca70c2",
"39f301ae-4038-48c2-a889-7dac143e82dd" and "c3c94de2-232d-4083-b534-5da17fc476ac"
are in split-brain
B) from brick b2 6 entries need healing-
1) "a", "file2" and "file3" need healing
2) "file1", "file4" & "/dir" are in split-brain
2. Volume heal info split-brain
Usage: gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> info split-brain
This command only shows the list of files that are in split-brain. The output is therefore a subset of gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> info
Example
gluster volume heal test info split-brain
Brick <hostname:brickpath-b1>
<gfid:aaca219f-0e25-4576-8689-3bfd93ca70c2>
<gfid:39f301ae-4038-48c2-a889-7dac143e82dd>
<gfid:c3c94de2-232d-4083-b534-5da17fc476ac>
Number of entries in split-brain: 3
Brick <hostname:brickpath-b2>
/dir/file1
/dir
/file4
Number of entries in split-brain: 3
Note that similar to the heal info command, for gfid split-brains (same filename but different gfid) their parent directories are listed to be in split-brain.
3. Resolution of split-brain using gluster CLI
Once the files in split-brain are identified, their resolution can be done from the gluster command line using various policies. Entry/gfid split-brain resolution is not supported via this method. Split-brain resolution commands let the user resolve data and metadata split-brain using the following policies:
i) Select the bigger-file as source
This command is useful for per file healing where it is known/decided that the
file with bigger size is to be considered as source.
gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> split-brain bigger-file <FILE>
Here, <FILE> can be either the full file name as seen from the root of the volume
(or) the gfid-string representation of the file, which sometimes gets displayed
in the heal info command's output. Once this command is executed, the replica containing the <FILE> with bigger
size is found out and heal is completed with that brick as a source.
Example :
Consider the earlier output of heal info split-brain command.
Before healing the file, notice file size and md5 checksums :
On brick b1:
# stat b1/dir/file1
File: ‘b1/dir/file1’
Size: 17 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919362 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 13:55:40.149897333 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:55:37.206880347 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 13:55:37.206880347 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b1/dir/file1
040751929ceabf77c3c0b3b662f341a8 b1/dir/file1
On brick b2:
# stat b2/dir/file1
File: ‘b2/dir/file1’
Size: 13 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919365 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 13:54:22.974451898 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:52:22.910758923 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 13:52:22.910758923 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b2/dir/file1
cb11635a45d45668a403145059c2a0d5 b2/dir/file1
Healing file1 using the above command :-
gluster volume heal test split-brain bigger-file /dir/file1
Healed /dir/file1.
After healing is complete, the md5sum and file size on both bricks should be the same.
On brick b1:
# stat b1/dir/file1
File: ‘b1/dir/file1’
Size: 17 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919362 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 14:17:27.752429505 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:55:37.206880347 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 14:17:12.880343950 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b1/dir/file1
040751929ceabf77c3c0b3b662f341a8 b1/dir/file1
On brick b2:
# stat b2/dir/file1
File: ‘b2/dir/file1’
Size: 17 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919365 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 14:17:23.249403600 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:55:37.206880000 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 14:17:12.881343955 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b2/dir/file1
040751929ceabf77c3c0b3b662f341a8 b2/dir/file1
ii) Select the file with the latest mtime as source
gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> split-brain latest-mtime <FILE>
As is perhaps self-explanatory, this command uses the brick which has the latest modification time for <FILE> and uses it as the source.
iii) Select one replica as source for a particular file
gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> split-brain source-brick <HOSTNAME:BRICKNAME> <FILE>
Here, <HOSTNAME:BRICKNAME> is selected as source brick and <FILE> present in the source brick is taken as source for healing.
Example :
Notice the md5 checksums and file size before and after heal.
Before heal :
On brick b1:
stat b1/file4
File: ‘b1/file4’
Size: 4 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919356 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 13:53:19.417085062 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:53:19.426085114 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 13:53:19.426085114 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b1/file4
b6273b589df2dfdbd8fe35b1011e3183 b1/file4
On brick b2:
# stat b2/file4
File: ‘b2/file4’
Size: 4 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919358 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 13:52:35.761833096 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:52:35.769833142 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 13:52:35.769833142 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b2/file4
0bee89b07a248e27c83fc3d5951213c1 b2/file4
Healing the file with gfid c3c94de2-232d-4083-b534-5da17fc476ac using the above command :
gluster volume heal test split-brain source-brick test-host:/test/b1 gfid:c3c94de2-232d-4083-b534-5da17fc476ac
Healed gfid:c3c94de2-232d-4083-b534-5da17fc476ac.
After healing :
On brick b1:
# stat b1/file4
File: ‘b1/file4’
Size: 4 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919356 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 14:23:38.944609863 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:53:19.426085114 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 14:27:15.058927962 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b1/file4
b6273b589df2dfdbd8fe35b1011e3183 b1/file4
On brick b2:
# stat b2/file4
File: ‘b2/file4’
Size: 4 Blocks: 16 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Device: fd03h/64771d Inode: 919358 Links: 2
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2015-03-06 14:23:38.944609000 +0530
Modify: 2015-03-06 13:53:19.426085000 +0530
Change: 2015-03-06 14:27:15.059927968 +0530
Birth: -
# md5sum b2/file4
b6273b589df2dfdbd8fe35b1011e3183 b2/file4
iv) Select one replica as source for all files
gluster volume heal <VOLNAME> split-brain source-brick <HOSTNAME:BRICKNAME>
Consider a scenario where many files are in split-brain such that one brick of
replica pair is source. As the result of the above command all split-brained
files in <HOSTNAME:BRICKNAME> are selected as source and healed to the sink.
Example:
Consider a volume having three entries "a, b and c" in split-brain.
`gluster volume heal test split-brain source-brick test-host:/test/b1`
Healed gfid:944b4764-c253-4f02-b35f-0d0ae2f86c0f.
Healed gfid:3256d814-961c-4e6e-8df2-3a3143269ced.
Healed gfid:b23dd8de-af03-4006-a803-96d8bc0df004.
Number of healed entries: 3
Note:
As mentioned earlier, entry split-brain and gfid split-brain healing are not supported using CLI. Trying to heal /dir would fail as it is in entry split-brain.
Example
gluster volume heal test split-brain source-brick test-host:/test/b1 /dir
Healing /dir failed:Operation not permitted.
Volume heal failed.
However, they can be fixed by deleting the file from all but one bricks. See the Fixing Directory entry split-brain section described here
An overview of working of heal info commands
When these commands are invoked, a "glfsheal" process is spawned which reads
the entries from the various sub-directories under /<brick-path>/.glusterfs/indices/ of all
the bricks that are up (that it can connect to) one after another. These
entries are GFIDs of files that might need healing. Once GFID entries from a
brick are obtained, based on the lookup response of this file on each
participating brick of replica-pair & trusted.afr.* extended attributes it is
found out if the file needs healing, is in split-brain etc based on the
requirement of each command and displayed to the user.
4. Resolution of split-brain from the mount point
A set of getfattr and setfattr commands have been provided to detect the data and metadata split-brain status of a file and resolve split-brain, if any, from mount point.
Consider a volume "test", having bricks b0, b1, b2 and b3.
# gluster volume info test
Volume Name: test
Type: Distributed-Replicate
Volume ID: 00161935-de9e-4b80-a643-b36693183b61
Status: Started
Number of Bricks: 2 x 2 = 4
Transport-type: tcp
Bricks:
Brick1: test-host:/test/b0
Brick2: test-host:/test/b1
Brick3: test-host:/test/b2
Brick4: test-host:/test/b3
Directory structure of the bricks is as follows:
# tree -R /test/b?
/test/b0
├── dir
│ └── a
└── file100
/test/b1
├── dir
│ └── a
└── file100
/test/b2
├── dir
├── file1
├── file2
└── file99
/test/b3
├── dir
├── file1
├── file2
└── file99
Some files in the volume are in split-brain.
# gluster v heal test info split-brain
Brick test-host:/test/b0/
/file100
/dir
Number of entries in split-brain: 2
Brick test-host:/test/b1/
/file100
/dir
Number of entries in split-brain: 2
Brick test-host:/test/b2/
/file99
<gfid:5399a8d1-aee9-4653-bb7f-606df02b3696>
Number of entries in split-brain: 2
Brick test-host:/test/b3/
<gfid:05c4b283-af58-48ed-999e-4d706c7b97d5>
<gfid:5399a8d1-aee9-4653-bb7f-606df02b3696>
Number of entries in split-brain: 2
To know data/metadata split-brain status of a file:
getfattr -n replica.split-brain-status <path-to-file>
The above command executed from mount provides information if a file is in data/metadata split-brain. Also provides the list of afr children to analyze to get more information about the file. This command is not applicable to gfid/directory split-brain.
Example:
1) "file100" is in metadata split-brain. Executing the above mentioned command for file100 gives :
# getfattr -n replica.split-brain-status file100
# file: file100
replica.split-brain-status="data-split-brain:no metadata-split-brain:yes Choices:test-client-0,test-client-1"
2) "file1" is in data split-brain.
# getfattr -n replica.split-brain-status file1
# file: file1
replica.split-brain-status="data-split-brain:yes metadata-split-brain:no Choices:test-client-2,test-client-3"
3) "file99" is in both data and metadata split-brain.
# getfattr -n replica.split-brain-status file99
# file: file99
replica.split-brain-status="data-split-brain:yes metadata-split-brain:yes Choices:test-client-2,test-client-3"
4) "dir" is in directory split-brain but as mentioned earlier, the above command is not applicable to such split-brain. So it says that the file is not under data or metadata split-brain.
# getfattr -n replica.split-brain-status dir
# file: dir
replica.split-brain-status="The file is not under data or metadata split-brain"
5) "file2" is not in any kind of split-brain.
# getfattr -n replica.split-brain-status file2
# file: file2
replica.split-brain-status="The file is not under data or metadata split-brain"
To analyze the files in data and metadata split-brain
Trying to do operations (say cat, getfattr etc) from the mount on files in split-brain, gives an input/output error. To enable the users analyze such files, a setfattr command is provided.
# setfattr -n replica.split-brain-choice -v "choiceX" <path-to-file>
Using this command, a particular brick can be chosen to access the file in split-brain from.
Example:
1) "file1" is in data-split-brain. Trying to read from the file gives input/output error.
# cat file1
cat: file1: Input/output error
Split-brain choices provided for file1 were test-client-2 and test-client-3.
Setting test-client-2 as split-brain choice for file1 serves reads from b2 for the file.
# setfattr -n replica.split-brain-choice -v test-client-2 file1
Now, read operations on the file can be done.
# cat file1
xyz
Similarly, to inspect the file from other choice, replica.split-brain-choice is to be set to test-client-3.
Trying to inspect the file from a wrong choice errors out.
To undo the split-brain-choice that has been set, the above mentioned setfattr command can be used with "none" as the value for extended attribute.
Example:
1) setfattr -n replica.split-brain-choice -v none file1
Now performing cat operation on the file will again result in input/output error, as before.
# cat file
cat: file1: Input/output error
Once the choice for resolving split-brain is made, source brick is supposed to be set for the healing to be done. This is done using the following command:
# setfattr -n replica.split-brain-heal-finalize -v <heal-choice> <path-to-file>
Example
# setfattr -n replica.split-brain-heal-finalize -v test-client-2 file1
The above process can be used to resolve data and/or metadata split-brain on all the files.
NOTE:
1) If "fopen-keep-cache" fuse mount option is disabled then inode needs to be invalidated each time before selecting a new replica.split-brain-choice to inspect a file. This can be done by using:
# sefattr -n inode-invalidate -v 0 <path-to-file>
2) The above mentioned process for split-brain resolution from mount will not work on nfs mounts as it doesn't provide xattrs support.
5. Automagic unsplit-brain by [ctime|mtime|size|majority]
The CLI and fuse mount based resolution methods require intervention in the sense that the admin/ user needs to run the commands manually. There is a cluster.favorite-child-policy volume option which when set to one of the various policies available, automatically resolve split-brains without user intervention. The default value is 'none', i.e. it is disabled.
gluster volume set help|grep -A3 cluster.favorite-child-policy
Option: cluster.favorite-child-policy
Default Value: none
Description: This option can be used to automatically resolve split-brains using various policies without user intervention. "size" picks the file with the biggest size as the source. "ctime" and "mtime" pick the file with the latest ctime and mtime respectively as the source. "majority" picks a file with identical mtime and size in more than half the number of bricks in the replica.
cluster.favorite-child-policy applies to all files of the volume. It is assumed that if this option is enabled with a particular policy, you don't care to examine the split-brain files on a per file basis but just want the split-brain to be resolved as and when it occurs based on the set policy.