btrfs-progs: docs: add a warning when converting to a profile with lo…

…wer redundancy

[BUG]
There is a bug report that when deleting a device using sysfs
/sys/block/<dev>/device/delete, the kernel module will still try to read
and write the device.

Normally it's fine as long as all chunks can tolerate that removed
device (e.g. all RAID1).

But the problem is when one is trying to lower the redundancy by
converting to another profile:

  # mkfs.btrfs -f -m raid1 -d raid1 /dev/sdd /dev/sde
  # mount /dev/sdd /mnt
  # echo 1 > /sys/block/sde/device/delete
  # btrfs balance start --force -mdup -dsingle /mnt

This will lead to the filesystem mounted RO, with the following error messages:

  sd 6:0:0:0: [sde] Synchronizing SCSI cache
  ata7.00: Entering standby power mode
  btrfs: attempt to access beyond end of device
  sde: rw=6145, sector=21696, nr_sectors = 32 limit=0
  btrfs: attempt to access beyond end of device
  sde: rw=6145, sector=21728, nr_sectors = 32 limit=0
  btrfs: attempt to access beyond end of device
  sde: rw=6145, sector=21760, nr_sectors = 32 limit=0
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 1, rd 0, flush 0, corrupt 0, gen 0
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 2, rd 0, flush 0, corrupt 0, gen 0
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 3, rd 0, flush 0, corrupt 0, gen 0
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 3, rd 0, flush 1, corrupt 0, gen 0
  btrfs: attempt to access beyond end of device
  sde: rw=145409, sector=128, nr_sectors = 8 limit=0
  BTRFS warning (device sdd): lost super block write due to IO error on /dev/sde (-5)
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 4, rd 0, flush 1, corrupt 0, gen 0
  btrfs: attempt to access beyond end of device
  sde: rw=14337, sector=131072, nr_sectors = 8 limit=0
  BTRFS warning (device sdd): lost super block write due to IO error on /dev/sde (-5)
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 5, rd 0, flush 1, corrupt 0, gen 0
  BTRFS error (device sdd): error writing primary super block to device 2
  BTRFS info (device sdd): balance: start -dconvert=single -mconvert=dup -sconvert=dup
  BTRFS info (device sdd): relocating block group 1372585984 flags data|raid1
  BTRFS error (device sdd): bdev /dev/sde errs: wr 5, rd 0, flush 2, corrupt 0, gen 0
  BTRFS warning (device sdd): chunk 2446327808 missing 1 devices, max tolerance is 0 for writable mount
  BTRFS: error (device sdd) in write_all_supers:4044: errno=-5 IO failure (errors while submitting device barriers.)
  BTRFS info (device sdd state E): forced readonly
  BTRFS warning (device sdd state E): Skipping commit of aborted transaction.
  BTRFS error (device sdd state EA): Transaction aborted (error -5)
  BTRFS: error (device sdd state EA) in cleanup_transaction:2017: errno=-5 IO failure
  BTRFS info (device sdd state EA): balance: ended with status: -5

[CAUSE]
Btrfs doesn't have any runtime device error handling, it fully rely on
the extra copy provided.

For the sysfs block device removal, normally there is a device shutdown
callback to the running fs, but unfortunately btrfs doesn't support this
callback yet.

Thus even with that device removed, btrfs will still access that
removed device (both read and write, even if they will fail).

Normally for a full RAID1 btrfs, it will still be fine reading/write the
fs as usual.  The proper action is to replace the
removed/missing/failing device with a newer one using `btrfs device
replace`.

But when doing the convert, btrfs will allocate new metadata chunks on
to the removed device (which will lose all writes).

And since the new metadata profile is DUP, which can not handle any
missing device of that metadata chunk, finally it triggers the final
protection at transaction commit time, and flips the filesystem to RO,
before causing any real data loss.

[DOC ENHANCEMENT]
Add a warning to the `convert` filter about the dangerous doing convert
to a lower redundancy profile when there is a known failing/removed
device.

And mention the proper way to handle such failing/missing device.

The root fix is to introduce a failing/removed device detection for
btrfs, but that will be a pretty big feature and will take quite some
time before landing it upstream.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-btrfs/[email protected]/
Reported-by: Jeff Siddall <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Qu Wenruo <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: David Sterba <[email protected]>

Documentation/ch-balance-filters.rst

@@ -79,10 +79,26 @@ convert=<profile>
                 Starting with kernel 4.5, the ``data`` chunks can be converted to/from the
                 ``DUP`` profile on a single device.
 
-        .. note::
                 Starting with kernel 4.6, all profiles can be converted to/from ``DUP`` on
                 multi-device filesystems.
 
+	.. warning::
+                Bad or missing device are not detected immediately during
+                runtime and this depends on some later event like failed write
+                or failed transaction commit. If there's a known failing
+                device, or a device deleted by :file:`/sys/block/<dev>/device/delete` interface,
+                the device will be still accessed and written to.
+
+                In such case, one should not convert to a profile with lower
+                redundancy (e.g. from *RAID1* to *SINGLE*),
+                as attempts to create new chunks on the new devices will cause
+                various problems.
+
+                The proper action is to use :command:`btrfs replace` or
+                :command:`btrfs device remove` to handle the failing/missing
+                device first. Then convert will work with all devices
+                correctly.
+
 limit=<number>, limit=<range>
         Process only given number of chunks, after all filters are applied. This can be
         used to specifically target a chunk in connection with other filters (``drange``,