presto(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual presto(4)
Name
presto - the Prestoserve pseudodevice driver
Syntax
#include <sys/presto.h>
#include <sys/prestoioctl.h>
pseudo-device presto
Description
The Prestoserve pseudodevice driver caches synchronous writes in nonvolatile memory. Prestoserve causes synchronous writes to be performed
at memory speeds, rather than at disk speeds. Synchronous writes that result in Prestoserve cache hits do not perform the earlier physical
disk writes, because only the last write is actually performed by Prestoserve. Therefore, 50% to 65% of all the physical disk write opera-
tions are avoided, because every sequential NFS write to a file also causes the inode and the indirect block to be synchronously written.
The driver is layered on other disk drivers, and it intercepts the other drivers' I/O requests by replacing the entry points of the origi-
nal driver in the bdevsw and cdevsw tables. The driver caches the intercepted synchronous write requests in the Prestoserve cache's non-
volatile memory. When Prestoserve needs to perform actual I/O, it calls the original driver's entry points to perform the I/O. A modified
form of Least Recently Used (LRU) replacement determines when the Prestoserve cache data needs to be written to the intended disks.
An accelerated disk device (one that has the pseudodevice driver layered on top of its driver), uses the same major and minor devices that
it used before it was accelerated.
The Prestoserve nonvolatile memory must be found at boot time in order for Prestoserve to perform its write-caching function. In addition,
Prestoserve must pass diagnostic tests, and there must be sufficient backup battery power to guarantee a reasonable amount of cache data
stability (measured in days or weeks) in the event of a power or hardware failure. See the appropriate appendix in the Guide to
Prestoserve for information on specific processors.
If the Prestoserve nonvolatile memory is not found or if there is not enough backup battery power, then the disks are not accelerated; how-
ever they can be opened and used as usual. In this case, the driver simply passes all I/O requests directly through to the appropriate
device.
Operation
When Prestoserve is in the PRUP state, it caches all synchronous write requests for enabled file systems and block devices to the driver in
nonvolatile memory and writes the Prestoserve cache data asynchronously to the intended disks.
When Prestoserve is in the PRDOWN state, there is no data in the Prestoserve cache, no data is put into the Prestoserve cache, and all disk
requests are passed directly to the real disk driver.
When Prestoserve is in the PRERROR state, the data in the Prestoserve cache can not be written to the intended disks because of a disk,
system, or hardware error.
When the system is shut down normally by using the system call from the or command, the Prestoserve cache data is written to the intended
disks, and Prestoserve enters the PRDOWN state. This allows you to fix any system or disk error or to upgrade or change your system with-
out losing the data in the Prestoserve cache or corrupting your disks.
If your system was shut down without following normal shutdown procedures, and you reboot the system, any data in the Prestoserve cache is
written to the intended disks, if possible. If the data is successfully written to the intended disks (and if the nonvolatile memory and
backup battery passed the diagnostic tests), Prestoserve enters the PRDOWN state. If an error occurs, Prestoserve enters the PRERROR
state. Data can exist in the Prestoserve cache after you reboot the system only in the event of a previous power failure, disk device
error, or kernel crash that resulted from a software or hardware problem.
If an error from a disk device occurs or if the backup battery power is insufficient, Prestoserve writes the cache data to the intended
disks, if possible, and enters the PRERROR state. When Prestoserve is in the PRERROR state, new data that is written to a block not found
in the Prestoserve cache is passed directly to the real disk driver. If new data is written to a block that is found in the cache,
Prestoserve replaces the existing block and attempts to write the block to the real disk driver to determine if the error condition on that
block still exists. If the write is successful and if all the Prestoserve cache data can be written to the intended disks, Prestoserve
leaves the PRERROR state.
The Prestoserve cache never discards data without being explicitly told to do so by using a PRRESET ioctl command. This can be done by
using the command. This command should only be used when there is a fatal disk error and when the data is not important.
ioctl Commands
The pseudodevice driver does not intercept ioctl commands; they go directly to the actual disk driver. The following ioctl commands can
be performed on the Prestoserve control device Some ioctl commands affect all of Prestoserve operation, while others only affect a particu-
lar accelerated file system.
PRGETSTATUS
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to a presto_status structure, which contains battery status information, Prestoserve state, cur-
rent and maximum nonvolatile memory sizes, and various Prestoserve statistics.
PRSETSTATE
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to an int. The int can be either PRUP to enable Prestoserve or PRDOWN to disable Prestoserve.
When a system reboots, Prestoserve is in the PRDOWN state and must be explicitly enabled by an ioctl. You enable Prestoserve by
using the command, which can be placed in the file. When Prestoserve goes from the PRDOWN state to the PRUP state, the Prestoserve
I/O statistics are reset. When Prestoserve goes from the PRUP state to the PRDOWN state, all the Prestoserve buffers are written to
the intended disks, and the buffers are invalidated.
PRSETMEMSZ
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to an int. This int is the size in bytes of the Prestoserve nonvolatile memory to be used. This
size cannot be larger than the maximum size reported in the presto_status structure.
PRRESET
The argument to ioctl is ignored. Like the PRSETSTATE ioctl, PRRESET sets the Prestoserve state to PRDOWN, but it also reinitial-
izes all of nonvolatile Prestoserve memory. If Prestoserve was in the PRERROR state and some Prestoserve buffers could not be writ-
ten to the intended disks because of disk I/O errors, the data in the buffers is lost. This is the only method you can use to force
Prestoserve to discard data that cannot be written to disk, and it can be accomplished by using the command.
PRFLUSH
The argument to ioctl is ignored. All the data in the Prestoserve buffers is written to the intended disks, but the buffers are not
invalidated. This command can be used by a daemon that flushes the cache periodically to minimize the risk to data in the event of a
catastrophic failure. The cache data can be flushed to the intended disks by using the command.
PRGETUPRTAB
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to a struct uprtab. On input, the field upt_bmajordev specifies the block device major number of
the device whose struct uprtab should be returned. The field upt_bmajordev is set to NODEV , which is defined in the header file if
the requested device does not exist or if it is not accelerated. The struct uprtab contains a upt_enabled field that is a bit vec-
tor indexed by a minor device number and that indicates whether the minor device number has Prestoserve caching enabled.
PRNEXTUPRTAB
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to a struct uprtab. This ioctl returns the struct uprtab for the accelerated device with the
smallest block device major number that is greater than the bmajordev field of the struct uprtab argument. This allows each accel-
erated device's struct uprtab to be retrieved sequentially by specifying the previous device's block device major number. To get the
first accelerated device's struct uprtab, set the upt_bmajordev field to NODEV . Use the same struct uprtab that was returned on
the previous call for the next call. When the upt_bmajordev field of the argument struct uprtab is greater than or equal to the
last accelerated device's major block device number, the struct uprtab that is returned has the upt_bmajordev field set to NODEV.
PRENABLE
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to a dev_t. This enables Prestoserve caching on the specified file system or block device.
PRDISABLE
The argument to ioctl is a pointer to a dev_t. If all cached data for the specified file system or block device can be successfully
written to disk, Prestoserve caching is disabled for this file system or block device.
Diagnostics
Prestoserve license not registered
This message is displayed if you attempt to use Prestoserve on a system that has not had its license registered. It is necessary to regis-
ter a valid license in order to use Prestoserve.
presto: using %d bytes of NVRAM at 0x%x
This message is displayed at boot time and indicates that Prestoserve recognized its control information portion of the cache. It is a
normal Prestoserve startup message.
presto: initializing %d bytes of NVRAM at 0x%x
This message is displayed at boot time and indicates that Prestoserve did not recognize the cache as being in either a clean (containing no
data) or a dirty (containing data) state. The message is usually displayed when the cache is used for the first time, after the cache has
been cleared by using a diagnostic command, or after backup battery failure.
presto: NVRAM tested %s
This message is displayed at boot time, and it indicates that the cache tested as either "read/write ok" or "readonly ok." The message is
a normal Prestoserve startup message.
presto: %s battery %s
The status for the primary battery or a secondary battery, if applicable, is reported as either OK , LOW , or DISABLED . This message is
displayed at boot time and when there is a change in the state of the backup battery power level.
presto: cache contains dirty data
This message is displayed at boot time if Prestoserve was not shut down by using the normal system shutdown procedures.
presto: %d dirty buffers found
This message indicates that dirty buffers were found after the system rebooted. The data is written to the intended disks as soon as pos-
sible, usually when the first I/O request occurs for any accelerated device.
presto: writing dirty buffers
This message indicates that Prestoserve has begun to write the data in the dirty buffers to the intended disks.
presto: dirty buffers written
This message indicates that the data in the dirty buffers has been successfully written to the intended disks.
presto: using software version %d -- version %d last used
This message is displayed at boot time and indicates that the kernel is now being run with a version of the Prestoserve software that is
different from the version used previously. Usually, this message is displayed when you first boot the system after performing a software
upgrade.
presto: expected sizes %d, %d -- found %d, %d
This message indicates that the block size and fragment size in the Prestoserve control information portion of the cache are different from
the information that was expected. This message should only be displayed when you first boot the system after performing a software
upgrade.
presto: NVRAM increased from %d to %d bytes at 0x%x
This message indicates that only a portion of the Prestoserve cache was being used when the system was shut down, but now Prestoserve is
using the entire cache. The command, which changes the size of the Prestoserve cache, is described in in the ULTRIX Reference Pages.
presto: decreased from %d to %d bytes!
This message indicates that a hardware or software problem exists because the size of the Prestoserve cache at reboot is less than the size
of the cache when the system shut down.
presto: dirty buffers found for host id 0x%x,
which is different from this host's id (0x%x)
This message is displayed at boot time and indicates that Prestoserve was not shut down normally and that the cache contents were previ-
ously in a different system (for example, either the cache was moved or the system ID, which is usually the on-board Ethernet hardware
address, has changed). Prestoserve allows you to do one of the following interactively: discard the data, write the data to disk, or halt
the machine.
The Prestoserve cache failed memory self-tests.
The cache may contain data which has not been written to disk yet.
When these messages are displayed, Prestoserve allows you to do one of the following interactively: continue with the boot or halt the
machine.
presto: error %d opening dev (%d, %d), skipping writing of its buffers...
This message indicates that dirty Prestoserve buffers were found after the system rebooted, and the data in the dirty buffers could not be
written to the specified device because the device failed to open. You should verify that the device is online and that the kernel suc-
cessfully found the device at boot time. Refer to in the ULTRIX Reference Pages for a complete description of the error.
presto: error %d opening block device (%d, %d)
This message indicates that the specified device failed to open. You should check your disk configuration and make sure that the drive is
on line. Refer to in the ULTRIX Reference Pages for a complete description of the error.
presto: error %d ioctl'ing dev (%d, %d)
This message indicates that an ioctl failed for the specified device. Refer to in the ULTRIX Reference Pages for a complete description of
the error.
presto: can NOT do direct I/0 for block device (%d, %d)
presto: using block device (%d, %d) in `bounceio' mode
These messages indicate that the disk controller for the specified device could not directly address the cache when Prestoserve was enabled
on the file system or block device. Refer to the Guide to Prestoserve for information about bounceio state.
presto: flush dirty buffers
This message is displayed when Prestoserve is in the PRERROR state and receives a request to write the data in a dirty buffer to the
intended disks.
presto: Block device %d not present or is not Presto-ized in this kernel!
This message indicates that Prestoserve was not shut down cleanly, and the system was previously running a kernel with an accelerated
device that the current kernel does not accelerate. You should boot a kernel that accelerates all the devices that were previously accel-
erated.
presto: NVRAM probe error
This message is displayed at system startup if a Prestoserve cache read/write error occurred, and it indicates that the cache could not be
accessed. It indicates a hardware or software error.
presto: failed to write and read 0x%x from 0x%x
This message indicates that the Prestoserve cache failed the read/write test at the specified address.
presto: error on dev (%d, %d)
This message indicates that an I/O error occurred on the specified disk during a Prestoserve write-back operation.
presto: not enough backup battery power!
This message indicates that there is inadequate backup battery power. Prestoserve attempts to write all Prestoserve cache data to the
intended disks and then enters the PRERROR state.
presto: disabling...
This message indicates that Prestoserve disabled itself because of inadequate backup battery power or because a disk error occurred during
a write to disk.
presto: back online!
This message indicates that a disk error or low backup battery power condition has been corrected and that Prestoserve is enabled again.
Errors
[EACCESS] Indicates that Prestoserve is not registered for use on this system.
[EPERM] Indicates that a caller whose uid is not root tried to use the PRSETSTATE, PRSETMEMSZ, PRRESET, PRENABLE or PRDISABLE command.
[EBUSY] Indicates that you tried to use the PRSETSTATE, PRSETMEMSZ, or PRDISABLE command, but a fatal disk error or a battery problem
exists.
[ENOMEM] Indicates that the memory size you specified in the PRSETSTATE command exceeds the maximum size of the cache reported in the
presto_status structure.
[ENODEV] Indicates that Prestoserve was not successfully started at boot time, or it indicates that you used the PRENABLE or PRDISABLE
command and the device specified by dev_t is not a device initialized for use with Prestoserve or an error occurred in trying
to open/ioctl the device.
[EINVAL] Indicates that an invalid argument was specified with the PRSETMEMSZ or PRSETSTATE command or that an invalid command was used.
Files
Generic Prestoserve control device
See Also
errno(2), ioctl(2), presto(8), dxpresto(8X), prestoctl_svc(8)
Guide to Prestoserve
presto(4)