zram: Compressed RAM based block devices ---------------------------------------- * Introduction The zram module creates RAM based block devices named /dev/zram ( = 0, 1, ...). Pages written to these disks are compressed and stored in memory itself. These disks allow very fast I/O and compression provides good amounts of memory savings. Some of the usecases include /tmp storage, use as swap disks, various caches under /var and maybe many more :) Statistics for individual zram devices are exported through sysfs nodes at /sys/block/zram/ * Usage There are several ways to configure and manage zram device(-s): a) using zram and zram_control sysfs attributes b) using zramctl utility, provided by util-linux (util-linux@vger.kernel.org). In this document we will describe only 'manual' zram configuration steps, IOW, zram and zram_control sysfs attributes. In order to get a better idea about zramctl please consult util-linux documentation, zramctl man-page or `zramctl --help'. Please be informed that zram maintainers do not develop/maintain util-linux or zramctl, should you have any questions please contact util-linux@vger.kernel.org Following shows a typical sequence of steps for using zram. WARNING ======= For the sake of simplicity we skip error checking parts in most of the examples below. However, it is your sole responsibility to handle errors. zram sysfs attributes always return negative values in case of errors. The list of possible return codes: -EBUSY -- an attempt to modify an attribute that cannot be changed once the device has been initialised. Please reset device first; -ENOMEM -- zram was not able to allocate enough memory to fulfil your needs; -EINVAL -- invalid input has been provided. If you use 'echo', the returned value that is changed by 'echo' utility, and, in general case, something like: echo 3 > /sys/block/zram0/max_comp_streams if [ $? -ne 0 ]; handle_error fi should suffice. 1) Load Module: modprobe zram num_devices=4 This creates 4 devices: /dev/zram{0,1,2,3} num_devices parameter is optional and tells zram how many devices should be pre-created. Default: 1. 2) Set max number of compression streams Regardless the value passed to this attribute, ZRAM will always allocate multiple compression streams - one per online CPUs - thus allowing several concurrent compression operations. The number of allocated compression streams goes down when some of the CPUs become offline. There is no single-compression-stream mode anymore, unless you are running a UP system or has only 1 CPU online. To find out how many streams are currently available: cat /sys/block/zram0/max_comp_streams 3) Select compression algorithm Using comp_algorithm device attribute one can see available and currently selected (shown in square brackets) compression algorithms, change selected compression algorithm (once the device is initialised there is no way to change compression algorithm). Examples: #show supported compression algorithms cat /sys/block/zram0/comp_algorithm lzo [lz4] #select lzo compression algorithm echo lzo > /sys/block/zram0/comp_algorithm For the time being, the `comp_algorithm' content does not necessarily show every compression algorithm supported by the kernel. We keep this list primarily to simplify device configuration and one can configure a new device with a compression algorithm that is not listed in `comp_algorithm'. The thing is that, internally, ZRAM uses Crypto API and, if some of the algorithms were built as modules, it's impossible to list all of them using, for instance, /proc/crypto or any other method. This, however, has an advantage of permitting the usage of custom crypto compression modules (implementing S/W or H/W compression). 4) Set Disksize Set disk size by writing the value to sysfs node 'disksize'. The value can be either in bytes or you can use mem suffixes. Examples: # Initialize /dev/zram0 with 50MB disksize echo $((50*1024*1024)) > /sys/block/zram0/disksize # Using mem suffixes echo 256K > /sys/block/zram0/disksize echo 512M > /sys/block/zram0/disksize echo 1G > /sys/block/zram0/disksize Note: There is little point creating a zram of greater than twice the size of memory since we expect a 2:1 compression ratio. Note that zram uses about 0.1% of the size of the disk when not in use so a huge zram is wasteful. 5) Set memory limit: Optional Set memory limit by writing the value to sysfs node 'mem_limit'. The value can be either in bytes or you can use mem suffixes. In addition, you could change the value in runtime. Examples: # limit /dev/zram0 with 50MB memory echo $((50*1024*1024)) > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit # Using mem suffixes echo 256K > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit echo 512M > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit echo 1G > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit # To disable memory limit echo 0 > /sys/block/zram0/mem_limit 6) Activate: mkswap /dev/zram0 swapon /dev/zram0 mkfs.ext4 /dev/zram1 mount /dev/zram1 /tmp 7) Add/remove zram devices zram provides a control interface, which enables dynamic (on-demand) device addition and removal. In order to add a new /dev/zramX device, perform read operation on hot_add attribute. This will return either new device's device id (meaning that you can use /dev/zram) or error code. Example: cat /sys/class/zram-control/hot_add 1 To remove the existing /dev/zramX device (where X is a device id) execute echo X > /sys/class/zram-control/hot_remove 8) Stats: Per-device statistics are exported as various nodes under /sys/block/zram/ A brief description of exported device attributes. For more details please read Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-block-zram. Name access description ---- ------ ----------- disksize RW show and set the device's disk size initstate RO shows the initialization state of the device reset WO trigger device reset mem_used_max WO reset the `mem_used_max' counter (see later) mem_limit WO specifies the maximum amount of memory ZRAM can use to store the compressed data max_comp_streams RW the number of possible concurrent compress operations comp_algorithm RW show and change the compression algorithm compact WO trigger memory compaction debug_stat RO this file is used for zram debugging purposes backing_dev RW set up backend storage for zram to write out User space is advised to use the following files to read the device statistics. File /sys/block/zram/stat Represents block layer statistics. Read Documentation/block/stat.txt for details. File /sys/block/zram/io_stat The stat file represents device's I/O statistics not accounted by block layer and, thus, not available in zram/stat file. It consists of a single line of text and contains the following stats separated by whitespace: failed_reads the number of failed reads failed_writes the number of failed writes invalid_io the number of non-page-size-aligned I/O requests notify_free Depending on device usage scenario it may account a) the number of pages freed because of swap slot free notifications or b) the number of pages freed because of REQ_DISCARD requests sent by bio. The former ones are sent to a swap block device when a swap slot is freed, which implies that this disk is being used as a swap disk. The latter ones are sent by filesystem mounted with discard option, whenever some data blocks are getting discarded. File /sys/block/zram/mm_stat The stat file represents device's mm statistics. It consists of a single line of text and contains the following stats separated by whitespace: orig_data_size uncompressed size of data stored in this disk. This excludes same-element-filled pages (same_pages) since no memory is allocated for them. Unit: bytes compr_data_size compressed size of data stored in this disk mem_used_total the amount of memory allocated for this disk. This includes allocator fragmentation and metadata overhead, allocated for this disk. So, allocator space efficiency can be calculated using compr_data_size and this statistic. Unit: bytes mem_limit the maximum amount of memory ZRAM can use to store the compressed data mem_used_max the maximum amount of memory zram have consumed to store the data same_pages the number of same element filled pages written to this disk. No memory is allocated for such pages. pages_compacted the number of pages freed during compaction 9) Deactivate: swapoff /dev/zram0 umount /dev/zram1 10) Reset: Write any positive value to 'reset' sysfs node echo 1 > /sys/block/zram0/reset echo 1 > /sys/block/zram1/reset This frees all the memory allocated for the given device and resets the disksize to zero. You must set the disksize again before reusing the device. * Optional Feature = writeback With incompressible pages, there is no memory saving with zram. Instead, with CONFIG_ZRAM_WRITEBACK, zram can write incompressible page to backing storage rather than keeping it in memory. User should set up backing device via /sys/block/zramX/backing_dev before disksize setting. Nitin Gupta ngupta@vflare.org