Using Btrfs with Multiple Devices
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Multiple Devices
A Btrfs filesystem can be created on top of many devices, and more devices can be added after the FS has been created.
By default, metadata will be mirrored across two devices and data will be striped across all of the devices present.
If only one device is present, metadata will be duplicated on that one device.
Current Status
Btrfs can add and remove devices online. Adding devices at mkfs time gives the most control over the raid levels used.
Btrfs can do raid0, raid1, raid10 and it can duplicate metadata on a single spindle. When blocks are read in, checksums are verified and if there are any errors, Btrfs tries to read from an alternate copy.
See the Gotchas page for some current issues when using btrfs with multiple volumes of differing sizes in a RAID1 style setup.
Creating a Multi-device FS
mkfs.btrfs will accept more than one device on the command line. It has options to control the raid configuration for data and metadata. Valid choices are raid0, raid1, raid10 and single. Single means that no duplication of metadata is done, which may be desired when using hardware raid.
Raid10 requires at least 4 devices.
# Create a filesystem across four drives (metadata mirrored, data striped) mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde
# Stripe the metadata without mirroring mkfs.btrfs -m raid0 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc
# Use raid10 for both data and metadata mkfs.btrfs -m raid10 -d raid10 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde
# Don't duplicate metadata on a single drive mkfs.btrfs -m single /dev/sdb
Once you create a multi-device filesystem, you can use any device in the FS for the mount command:
mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sde mount /dev/sde /mnt
If you want to mount a multi-device filesystem using a loopback device, it's not sufficient to use mount -o loop. Instead, you'll have to set up the loopbacks manually:
# Create and mount a filesystem made of several disk images mkfs.btrfs img0 img1 img2 losetup /dev/loop0 img0 losetup /dev/loop1 img1 losetup /dev/loop2 img2 mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/btrfs
After a reboot or reloading the btrfs module, you'll need to use btrfs device scan to discover all multi-device filesystems on the machine (see below)
Finding and Listing Multi-device Filesystems
OLD NEW --------------------- -------------------------- btrfsctl -a btrfs device scan btrfsctl -A /dev/sdb btrfs device scan /dev/sdb btrfs-show btrfs filesystem show
btrfs device scan is used to scan all of the block devices under /dev and probe for Btrfs volumes. This is required after loading the btrfs module if you're running with more than one device in a filesystem.
# Scan all devices btrfs device scan
# Scan a single device btrfs device scan /dev/sdb
btrfs filesystem show will print information about all of the Btrfs filesystems on the machine.
Adding New Devices
OLD NEW -------------------------- ---------------------------------------- btrfs-show btrfs filesystem show btrfs-vol -a <dev> <path> btrfs device add <dev [<dev>...] <path> btrfs-vol -b <path> btrfs filesystem balance <path>
btrfs filesystem show gives you a list of all the btrfs filesystems on the systems and which devices they include.
btrfs device add is used to add new devices to a mounted filesystem.
btrfs filesystem balance can balance (restripe) the allocated extents across all of the existing devices. For example:
mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdb mount /dev/sdb /mnt # Create some files btrfs- device add /dev/sdc /mnt
At this point we have a filesystem with two devices, but all of the metadata and data are still stored on /dev/sdb. The filesystem must be balanced to spread the files across all of the devices.
btrfs filesystem balance /mnt
The balance operation will take some time. It reads in all of the FS data and metadata and rewrites it across the new device.
Removing Devices
OLD NEW -------------------------- ---------------------------------------- btrfs-vol -r <dev> <path> btrfs device delete <dev [<dev>...] <path>
btrfs device remove is used to remove devices online. It redistributes the any extents in use on the device being removed to the other devices in the filesystem. Example:
mkfs.btrfs /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde mount /dev/sdb /mnt # Put some data on the filesystem here btrfs device delete /dev/sdc /mnt
Replacing Failed Devices
OLD NEW -------------------------- ---------------------------------------- btrfs-vol -r missing <path> btrfs device delete missing <path>
The example above can be used to remove a failed device if the super block can still be read. But, if a device is missing or the super block has been corrupted, the filesystem will need to be mounted in degraded mode:
mkfs.btrfs -m raid1 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde # # sdd is destroyed or removed, use -o degraded to force the mount # to ignore missing devices # mount -o degraded /dev/sdb /mnt # # 'missing' is a special device name # btrfs device delete missing /mnt
btrfs device delete missing tells btrfs to remove the first device that is described by the filesystem metadata but not present when the FS was mounted.
In case of raidXX layout, you cannot go below the minimum number of the device required. So before removing a device (even the missing one) you may need to add a new one. For example if you have a raid1 layout with two device, and a device fails, you must:
- mount in degraded mode
- add a new device
- remove the missing device
Mounting a multi-device filesystem from /etc/fstab
If you don't have an initrd, or your initrd doesn't perform a btrfs device scan, you can still mount a multi-volume btrfs filesystem by passing all the devices in the filesystem explicitly to the mount command. A suitable /etc/fstab entry would be:
/dev/sdb /mnt btrfs device=/dev/sdb,device=/dev/sdc,device=/dev/sdd,device=/dev/sde 0 0
