linux-next/Documentation/device-mapper/statistics.txt

DM statistics
=============

Device Mapper supports the collection of I/O statistics on user-defined
regions of a DM device.	 If no regions are defined no statistics are
collected so there isn't any performance impact.  Only bio-based DM
devices are currently supported.

Each user-defined region specifies a starting sector, length and step.
Individual statistics will be collected for each step-sized area within
the range specified.

The I/O statistics counters for each step-sized area of a region are
in the same format as /sys/block/*/stat or /proc/diskstats (see:
Documentation/iostats.txt).  But two extra counters (12 and 13) are
provided: total time spent reading and writing.  When the histogram
argument is used, the 14th parameter is reported that represents the
histogram of latencies.  All these counters may be accessed by sending
the @stats_print message to the appropriate DM device via dmsetup.

The reported times are in milliseconds and the granularity depends on
the kernel ticks.  When the option precise_timestamps is used, the
reported times are in nanoseconds.

Each region has a corresponding unique identifier, which we call a
region_id, that is assigned when the region is created.	 The region_id
must be supplied when querying statistics about the region, deleting the
region, etc.  Unique region_ids enable multiple userspace programs to
request and process statistics for the same DM device without stepping
on each other's data.

The creation of DM statistics will allocate memory via kmalloc or
fallback to using vmalloc space.  At most, 1/4 of the overall system
memory may be allocated by DM statistics.  The admin can see how much
memory is used by reading
/sys/module/dm_mod/parameters/stats_current_allocated_bytes

Messages
========

    @stats_create <range> <step>
		[<number_of_optional_arguments> <optional_arguments>...]
		[<program_id> [<aux_data>]]

	Create a new region and return the region_id.

	<range>
	  "-" - whole device
	  "<start_sector>+<length>" - a range of <length> 512-byte sectors
				      starting with <start_sector>.

	<step>
	  "<area_size>" - the range is subdivided into areas each containing
			  <area_size> sectors.
	  "/<number_of_areas>" - the range is subdivided into the specified
				 number of areas.

	<number_of_optional_arguments>
	  The number of optional arguments

	<optional_arguments>
	  The following optional arguments are supported
	  precise_timestamps - use precise timer with nanosecond resolution
		instead of the "jiffies" variable.  When this argument is
		used, the resulting times are in nanoseconds instead of
		milliseconds.  Precise timestamps are a little bit slower
		to obtain than jiffies-based timestamps.
	  histogram:n1,n2,n3,n4,... - collect histogram of latencies.  The
		numbers n1, n2, etc are times that represent the boundaries
		of the histogram.  If precise_timestamps is not used, the
		times are in milliseconds, otherwise they are in
		nanoseconds.  For each range, the kernel will report the
		number of requests that completed within this range. For
		example, if we use "histogram:10,20,30", the kernel will
		report four numbers a:b:c:d. a is the number of requests
		that took 0-10 ms to complete, b is the number of requests
		that took 10-20 ms to complete, c is the number of requests
		that took 20-30 ms to complete and d is the number of
		requests that took more than 30 ms to complete.

	<program_id>
	  An optional parameter.  A name that uniquely identifies
	  the userspace owner of the range.  This groups ranges together
	  so that userspace programs can identify the ranges they
	  created and ignore those created by others.
	  The kernel returns this string back in the output of
	  @stats_list message, but it doesn't use it for anything else.
	  If we omit the number of optional arguments, program id must not
	  be a number, otherwise it would be interpreted as the number of
	  optional arguments.

	<aux_data>
	  An optional parameter.  A word that provides auxiliary data
	  that is useful to the client program that created the range.
	  The kernel returns this string back in the output of
	  @stats_list message, but it doesn't use this value for anything.

    @stats_delete <region_id>

	Delete the region with the specified id.

	<region_id>
	  region_id returned from @stats_create

    @stats_clear <region_id>

	Clear all the counters except the in-flight i/o counters.

	<region_id>
	  region_id returned from @stats_create

    @stats_list [<program_id>]

	List all regions registered with @stats_create.

	<program_id>
	  An optional parameter.
	  If this parameter is specified, only matching regions
	  are returned.
	  If it is not specified, all regions are returned.

	Output format:
	  <region_id>: <start_sector>+<length> <step> <program_id> <aux_data>
	        precise_timestamps histogram:n1,n2,n3,...

	The strings "precise_timestamps" and "histogram" are printed only
	if they were specified when creating the region.

    @stats_print <region_id> [<starting_line> <number_of_lines>]

	Print counters for each step-sized area of a region.

	<region_id>
	  region_id returned from @stats_create

	<starting_line>
	  The index of the starting line in the output.
	  If omitted, all lines are returned.

	<number_of_lines>
	  The number of lines to include in the output.
	  If omitted, all lines are returned.

	Output format for each step-sized area of a region:

	  <start_sector>+<length> counters

	  The first 11 counters have the same meaning as
	  /sys/block/*/stat or /proc/diskstats.

	  Please refer to Documentation/iostats.txt for details.

	  1. the number of reads completed
	  2. the number of reads merged
	  3. the number of sectors read
	  4. the number of milliseconds spent reading
	  5. the number of writes completed
	  6. the number of writes merged
	  7. the number of sectors written
	  8. the number of milliseconds spent writing
	  9. the number of I/Os currently in progress
	  10. the number of milliseconds spent doing I/Os
	  11. the weighted number of milliseconds spent doing I/Os

	  Additional counters:
	  12. the total time spent reading in milliseconds
	  13. the total time spent writing in milliseconds

    @stats_print_clear <region_id> [<starting_line> <number_of_lines>]

	Atomically print and then clear all the counters except the
	in-flight i/o counters.	 Useful when the client consuming the
	statistics does not want to lose any statistics (those updated
	between printing and clearing).

	<region_id>
	  region_id returned from @stats_create

	<starting_line>
	  The index of the starting line in the output.
	  If omitted, all lines are printed and then cleared.

	<number_of_lines>
	  The number of lines to process.
	  If omitted, all lines are printed and then cleared.

    @stats_set_aux <region_id> <aux_data>

	Store auxiliary data aux_data for the specified region.

	<region_id>
	  region_id returned from @stats_create

	<aux_data>
	  The string that identifies data which is useful to the client
	  program that created the range.  The kernel returns this
	  string back in the output of @stats_list message, but it
	  doesn't use this value for anything.

Examples
========

Subdivide the DM device 'vol' into 100 pieces and start collecting
statistics on them:

  dmsetup message vol 0 @stats_create - /100

Set the auxillary data string to "foo bar baz" (the escape for each
space must also be escaped, otherwise the shell will consume them):

  dmsetup message vol 0 @stats_set_aux 0 foo\\ bar\\ baz

List the statistics:

  dmsetup message vol 0 @stats_list

Print the statistics:

  dmsetup message vol 0 @stats_print 0

Delete the statistics:

  dmsetup message vol 0 @stats_delete 0