Evaggelos Balaskas - System Engineer

There is some confusion on which is the correct way to migrate your current/local docker images to another disk. To reduce this confusion, I will share my personal notes on the subject.

Prologue

I replaced a btrfs raid-1 1TB storage with another btrfs raid-1 4TB setup. So 2 disks out, 2 new disks in. I also use luks, so all my disks are encrypted with random 4k keys before btrfs on them. There is -for sure- a write-penalty with this setup, but I am for data resilience - not speed.

Before

These are my local docker images

docker images -a

REPOSITORY        TAG           IMAGE ID         CREATED      SIZE
golang            1.19          b47c7dfaaa93     5 days   ago   993MB
archlinux         base-devel    a37dc5345d16     6 days   ago   764MB
archlinux         base          d4e07600b346    4 weeks  ago   418MB
ubuntu            22.04         58db3edaf2be    2 months ago   77.8MB
centos7           ruby          28f8bde8a757    3 months ago   532MB
ubuntu            20.04         d5447fc01ae6    4 months ago   72.8MB
ruby              latest        046e6d725a3c    4 months ago   893MB
alpine            latest        49176f190c7e    4 months ago   7.04MB
bash              latest        018f8f38ad92    5 months ago   12.3MB
ubuntu            18.04         71eaf13299f4    5 months ago   63.1MB
centos            6             5bf9684f4720   19 months ago   194MB
centos            7             eeb6ee3f44bd   19 months ago   204MB
centos            8             5d0da3dc9764   19 months ago   231MB
ubuntu            16.04         b6f507652425   19 months ago   135MB
3bal/centos6-eol  devtoolset-7  ff3fa1a19332    2 years  ago   693MB
3bal/centos6-eol  latest        aa2256d57c69    2 years  ago   194MB
centos6           ebal          d073310c1ec4    2 years  ago   3.62GB
3bal/arch         devel         76a20143aac1    2 years  ago   1.02GB
cern/slc6-base    latest        63453d0a9b55    3 years  ago   222MB

Yes, I am still using centos6! It’s stable!!

docker save - docker load

Reading docker’s documentation, the suggested way is docker save and docker load. Seems easy enough:

docker save --output busybox.tar busybox

docker load < busybox.tar.gz

which is a lie!

docker prune

before we do anything with the docker images, let us clean up the garbages

sudo docker system prune

docker save - the wrong way

so I used the ImageID as a reference:

docker images -a  | grep -v ^REPOSITORY | awk '{print "docker save -o "$3".tar "$3}'

piped out through a bash shell | bash -x
and got my images:

$ ls -1

33a093dd9250.tar
b47c7dfaaa93.tar
16eed3dc21a6.tar
d4e07600b346.tar
58db3edaf2be.tar
28f8bde8a757.tar
382715ecff56.tar
d5447fc01ae6.tar
046e6d725a3c.tar
49176f190c7e.tar
018f8f38ad92.tar
71eaf13299f4.tar
5bf9684f4720.tar
eeb6ee3f44bd.tar
5d0da3dc9764.tar
b6f507652425.tar
ff3fa1a19332.tar
aa2256d57c69.tar
d073310c1ec4.tar
76a20143aac1.tar
63453d0a9b55.tar

docker daemon

I had my docker images on tape-archive (tar) format. Now it was time to switch to my new btrfs storage. In order to do that, the safest way is my tweaking the
/etc/docker/daemon.json

and I added the data-root section

{
    "dns": ["8.8.8.8"],
    "data-root": "/mnt/WD40PURZ/var_lib_docker"
}

I will explain var_lib_docker in a bit, stay with me.
and restarted docker

sudo systemctl restart docker

docker load - the wrong way

It was time to restore aka load the docker images back to docker

ls -1 | awk '{print "docker load --input "$1".tar"}'

docker load --input 33a093dd9250.tar
docker load --input b47c7dfaaa93.tar
docker load --input 16eed3dc21a6.tar
docker load --input d4e07600b346.tar
docker load --input 58db3edaf2be.tar
docker load --input 28f8bde8a757.tar
docker load --input 382715ecff56.tar
docker load --input d5447fc01ae6.tar
docker load --input 046e6d725a3c.tar
docker load --input 49176f190c7e.tar
docker load --input 018f8f38ad92.tar
docker load --input 71eaf13299f4.tar
docker load --input 5bf9684f4720.tar
docker load --input eeb6ee3f44bd.tar
docker load --input 5d0da3dc9764.tar
docker load --input b6f507652425.tar
docker load --input ff3fa1a19332.tar
docker load --input aa2256d57c69.tar
docker load --input d073310c1ec4.tar
docker load --input 76a20143aac1.tar
docker load --input 63453d0a9b55.tar

I was really happy, till I saw the result:

# docker images -a

REPOSITORY   TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
<none>       <none>    b47c7dfaaa93   5 days ago      993MB
<none>       <none>    a37dc5345d16   6 days ago      764MB
<none>       <none>    16eed3dc21a6   2 weeks ago     65.5MB
<none>       <none>    d4e07600b346   4 weeks ago     418MB
<none>       <none>    58db3edaf2be   2 months ago    77.8MB
<none>       <none>    28f8bde8a757   3 months ago    532MB
<none>       <none>    382715ecff56   3 months ago    705MB
<none>       <none>    d5447fc01ae6   4 months ago    72.8MB
<none>       <none>    046e6d725a3c   4 months ago    893MB
<none>       <none>    49176f190c7e   4 months ago    7.04MB
<none>       <none>    018f8f38ad92   5 months ago    12.3MB
<none>       <none>    71eaf13299f4   5 months ago    63.1MB
<none>       <none>    5bf9684f4720   19 months ago   194MB
<none>       <none>    eeb6ee3f44bd   19 months ago   204MB
<none>       <none>    5d0da3dc9764   19 months ago   231MB
<none>       <none>    b6f507652425   19 months ago   135MB
<none>       <none>    ff3fa1a19332   2 years ago     693MB
<none>       <none>    aa2256d57c69   2 years ago     194MB
<none>       <none>    d073310c1ec4   2 years ago     3.62GB
<none>       <none>    76a20143aac1   2 years ago     1.02GB
<none>       <none>    63453d0a9b55   3 years ago     222MB

No REPOSITORY or TAG !

then after a few minutes of internet search, I’ve realized that if you use the ImageID as a reference point in docker save, you will not get these values !!!!

and there is no reference here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/save/

Removed everything , removed the data-root from /etc/docker/daemon.json and started again from the beginning

docker save - the correct way

docker images -a  | grep -v ^REPOSITORY | awk '{print "docker save -o "$3".tar "$1":"$2""}' | sh -x

output:

+ docker save -o b47c7dfaaa93.tar golang:1.19
+ docker save -o a37dc5345d16.tar archlinux:base-devel
+ docker save -o d4e07600b346.tar archlinux:base
+ docker save -o 58db3edaf2be.tar ubuntu:22.04
+ docker save -o 28f8bde8a757.tar centos7:ruby
+ docker save -o 382715ecff56.tar gitlab/gitlab-runner:ubuntu
+ docker save -o d5447fc01ae6.tar ubuntu:20.04
+ docker save -o 046e6d725a3c.tar ruby:latest
+ docker save -o 49176f190c7e.tar alpine:latest
+ docker save -o 018f8f38ad92.tar bash:latest
+ docker save -o 71eaf13299f4.tar ubuntu:18.04
+ docker save -o 5bf9684f4720.tar centos:6
+ docker save -o eeb6ee3f44bd.tar centos:7
+ docker save -o 5d0da3dc9764.tar centos:8
+ docker save -o b6f507652425.tar ubuntu:16.04
+ docker save -o ff3fa1a19332.tar 3bal/centos6-eol:devtoolset-7
+ docker save -o aa2256d57c69.tar 3bal/centos6-eol:latest
+ docker save -o d073310c1ec4.tar centos6:ebal
+ docker save -o 76a20143aac1.tar 3bal/arch:devel
+ docker save -o 63453d0a9b55.tar cern/slc6-base:latest

docker daemon with new data point

{
    "dns": ["8.8.8.8"],
    "data-root": "/mnt/WD40PURZ/var_lib_docker"
}

restart docker

sudo systemctl restart docker

docker load - the correct way

ls -1 | awk '{print "docker load --input "$1}'

and verify -moment of truth-

$ docker images -a
REPOSITORY        TAG           IMAGE         ID  CREATED  SIZE
archlinux         base-devel    33a093dd9250  3   days     ago   764MB
golang            1.19          b47c7dfaaa93  8   days     ago   993MB
archlinux         base          d4e07600b346  4   weeks    ago   418MB
ubuntu            22.04         58db3edaf2be  2   months   ago   77.8MB
centos7           ruby          28f8bde8a757  3   months   ago   532MB
gitlab/gitlab-runner ubuntu     382715ecff56  4   months   ago   705MB
ubuntu            20.04         d5447fc01ae6  4   months   ago   72.8MB
ruby              latest        046e6d725a3c  4   months   ago   893MB
alpine            latest        49176f190c7e  4   months   ago   7.04MB
bash              latest        018f8f38ad92  5   months   ago   12.3MB
ubuntu            18.04         71eaf13299f4  5   months   ago   63.1MB
centos            6             5bf9684f4720  19  months   ago   194MB
centos            7             eeb6ee3f44bd  19  months   ago   204MB
centos            8             5d0da3dc9764  19  months   ago   231MB
ubuntu            16.04         b6f507652425  19  months   ago   135MB
3bal/centos6-eol  devtoolset-7  ff3fa1a19332  2   years    ago   693MB
3bal/centos6-eol  latest        aa2256d57c69  2   years    ago   194MB
centos6           ebal          d073310c1ec4  2   years    ago   3.62GB
3bal/arch         devel         76a20143aac1  2   years    ago   1.02GB
cern/slc6-base    latest        63453d0a9b55  3   years    ago   222MB

success !

btrfs mount point

Now it is time to explain the var_lib_docker

but first , let’s verify ST1000DX002 mount point with WD40PURZ

$ sudo ls -l /mnt/ST1000DX002/var_lib_docker/

total 4
drwx--x--- 1 root root  20 Nov 24  2020 btrfs
drwx------ 1 root root  20 Nov 24  2020 builder
drwx--x--x 1 root root 154 Dec 18  2020 buildkit
drwx--x--x 1 root root  12 Dec 18  2020 containerd
drwx--x--- 1 root root   0 Apr 14 19:52 containers
-rw------- 1 root root  59 Feb 13 10:45 engine-id
drwx------ 1 root root  10 Nov 24  2020 image
drwxr-x--- 1 root root  10 Nov 24  2020 network
drwx------ 1 root root  20 Nov 24  2020 plugins
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Apr 18 18:19 runtimes
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Nov 24  2020 swarm
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Apr 18 18:32 tmp
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Nov 24  2020 trust
drwx-----x 1 root root 568 Apr 18 18:19 volumes

$ sudo ls -l /mnt/WD40PURZ/var_lib_docker/

total 4
drwx--x--- 1 root root  20 Apr 18 16:51 btrfs
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root  14 Apr 18 17:46 builder
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 148 Apr 18 17:48 buildkit
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root  20 Apr 18 17:47 containerd
drwx--x--- 1 root root   0 Apr 14 19:52 containers
-rw------- 1 root root  59 Feb 13 10:45 engine-id
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root  20 Apr 18 17:48 image
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root  24 Apr 18 17:48 network
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root  34 Apr 18 17:48 plugins
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Apr 18 18:36 runtimes
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Nov 24  2020 swarm
drwx------ 1 root root  48 Apr 18 18:42 tmp
drwx------ 1 root root   0 Nov 24  2020 trust
drwx-----x 1 root root  70 Apr 18 18:36 volumes

var_lib_docker is actually a btrfs subvolume that we can mount it on our system

$ sudo btrfs subvolume show /mnt/WD40PURZ/var_lib_docker/

var_lib_docker
        Name:                   var_lib_docker
        UUID:                   5552de11-f37c-4143-855f-50d02f0a9836
        Parent UUID:            -
        Received UUID:          -
        Creation time:          2023-04-18 16:25:54 +0300
        Subvolume ID:           4774
        Generation:             219588
        Gen at creation:        215579
        Parent ID:              5
        Top level ID:           5
        Flags:                  -
        Send transid:           0
        Send time:              2023-04-18 16:25:54 +0300
        Receive transid:        0
        Receive time:           -
        Snapshot(s):

We can use the subvolume id for that:

mount -o subvolid=4774 LABEL="WD40PURZ" /var/lib/docker/

So /var/lib/docker/ path on our rootfs, is now a mount point for our BTRFS raid-1 4TB storage and we can remove the data-root declaration from /etc/docker/daemon.json and restart our docker service.

That’s it !

I’ve been using btrfs for a decade now (yes, than means 10y) on my setup (btw I use ArchLinux). I am using subvolumes and read-only snapshots with btrfs, but I have never created a script to automate my backups.

I KNOW, WHAT WAS I DOING ALL THESE YEARS!!

A few days ago, a dear friend asked me something about btrfs snapshots, and that question gave me the nudge to think about my btrfs subvolume snapshots and more specific how to automate them. A day later, I wrote a simple (I think so) script to do automate my backups.

The script as a gist

The script is online as a gist here: BTRFS: Automatic Snapshots Script . In this blog post, I’ll try to describe the requirements and what is my thinking. I waited a couple weeks so the cron (or systemd timer) script run itself and verify that everything works fine. Seems that it does (at least for now) and the behaviour is as expected. I will keep a static copy of my script in this blog post but any future changes should be done in the above gist.

Improvements

The script can be improved by many,many ways (check available space before run, measure the time of running, remove sudo, check if root is running the script, verify the partitions are on btrfs, better debugging, better reporting, etc etc). These are some of the ways of improving the script, I am sure you can think a million more - feel free to sent me your proposals. If I see something I like, I will incorporate them and attribute of-course. But be reminded that I am not driven by smart code, I prefer to have clear and simple code, something that everybody can easily read and understand.

Mount Points

To be completely transparent, I encrypt all my disks (usually with a random keyfile). I use btrfs raid1 on the disks and create many subvolumes on them. Everything exists outside of my primary ssd rootfs disk. So I use a small but fast ssd for my operating system and btrfs-raid1 for my “spinning rust” disks.

BTRFS subvolumes can be mounted as normal partitions and that is exactly what I’ve done with my home and opt. I keep everything that I’ve install outside of my distribution under opt.

This setup is very flexible as I can easy replace the disks when the storage is full by removing one by one of the disks from btrfs-raid1, remove-add the new larger disk, repair-restore raid, then remove the other disk, install the second and (re)balance the entire raid1 on them!

Although this is out of scope, I use a stub archlinux UEFI kernel so I do not have grub and my entire rootfs is also encrypted and btrfs!

mount -o subvolid=10701 LABEL="ST1000DX002" /home
mount -o subvolid=10657 LABEL="ST1000DX002" /opt

Declare variables

# paths MUST end with '/'
btrfs_paths=("/" "/home/" "/opt/")
timestamp=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
keep_snapshots=3
yymmdd="$(date +%Y/%m/%d)"
logfile="/var/log/btrfsSnapshot/${yymmdd}/btrfsSnapshot.log"

The first variable in the script is actually a bash array

btrfs_paths=("/" "/home/" "/opt/")

and all three (3) paths (rootfs, home & opt) are different mount points on different encrypted disks.

MUST end with / (forward slash), either-wise something catastrophic will occur to your system. Be very careful. Please, be very careful!

Next variable is the timestamp we will use, that will create something like

partition_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS

After that is how many snapshots we would like to keep to our system. You can increase it to whatever you like. But be careful of the storage.

keep_snapshots=3

I like using shortcuts in shell scripts to reduce the long one-liners that some people think that it is alright. I dont, so

yymmdd="$(date +%Y/%m/%d)"

is one of these shortcuts !

Last, I like to have a logfile to review at a later time and see what happened.

logfile="/var/log/btrfsSnapshot/${yymmdd}/btrfsSnapshot.log"

Log Directory

for older dudes -like me- you know that you can not have all your logs under one directory but you need to structure them. The above yymmdd shortcut can help here. As I am too lazy to check if the directory already exist, I just (re)create the log directory that the script will use.

sudo mkdir -p "/var/log/btrfsSnapshot/${yymmdd}/"

For - Loop

We enter to the crucial part of the script. We are going to iterate our btrfs commands in a bash for-loop structure so we can run the same commands for all our partitions (variable: btrfs_paths)

for btrfs_path in "${btrfs_paths[@]}"; do
    <some commands>
done

Snapshot Directory

We need to have our snapshots in a specific location. So I chose .Snapshot/ under each partition. And I am silently (re)creating this directory -again I am lazy, someone should check if the directory/path already exist- just to be sure that the directory exist.

sudo mkdir -p "${btrfs_path}".Snapshot/

I am also using very frequently mlocate (updatedb) so to avoid having multiple (duplicates) in your index, do not forget to update updatedb.conf to exclude the snapshot directories.

PRUNENAMES = ".Snapshot"

How many snapshots are there?

Yes, how many ?

In order to learn this, we need to count them. I will try to skip every other subvolume that exist under the path and count only the read-only, snapshots under each partition.

sudo btrfs subvolume list -o -r -s "${btrfs_path}" | grep -c ".Snapshot/"

Delete Previous snapshots

At this point in the script, we are ready to delete all previous snapshots and only keep the latest or to be exact whatever the keep_snapshots variables says we should keep.

To do that, we are going to iterate via a while-loop (this is a nested loop inside the above for-loop)

while [ "${keep_snapshots}" -le "${list_btrfs_snap}" ]
do
  <some commands>
done

considering that the keep_snapshots is an integer, we iterate the delete command less or equal from the list of already btrfs existing snapshots.

Delete Command

To avoid mistakes, we delete by subvolume id and not by the name of the snapshot, under the btrfs path we listed above.

btrfs subvolume delete --subvolid "${prev_btrfs_snap}" "${btrfs_path}"

and we log the output of the command into our log

Delete subvolume (no-commit): '//.Snapshot/20221107_091028'

Create a new subvolume snapshot

And now we are going to create a new read-only snapshot under our btrfs subvolume.

btrfs subvolume snapshot -r "${btrfs_path}" "${btrfs_path}.Snapshot/${timestamp}"

the log entry will have something like:

Create a readonly snapshot of '/' in '/.Snapshot/20221111_000001'

That’s it !

Output

Log Directory Structure and output

sudo tree /var/log/btrfsSnapshot/2022/11/

/var/log/btrfsSnapshot/2022/11/
├── 07
│   └── btrfsSnapshot.log
├── 10
│   └── btrfsSnapshot.log
├── 11
│   └── btrfsSnapshot.log
└── 18
    └── btrfsSnapshot.log

4 directories, 4 files

sudo cat /var/log/btrfsSnapshot/2022/11/18/btrfsSnapshot.log

######## Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:00:01 +0200 ########

Delete subvolume (no-commit): '//.Snapshot/20221107_091040'
Create a readonly snapshot of '/' in '/.Snapshot/20221118_000001'

Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/home//home/.Snapshot/20221107_091040'
Create a readonly snapshot of '/home/' in '/home/.Snapshot/20221118_000001'

Delete subvolume (no-commit): '/opt//opt/.Snapshot/20221107_091040'
Create a readonly snapshot of '/opt/' in '/opt/.Snapshot/20221118_000001'

Mount a read-only subvolume

As something extra for this article, I will mount a read-only subvolume, so you can see how it is done.

$ sudo btrfs subvolume list -o -r -s /

ID 462 gen 5809766 cgen 5809765 top level 5 otime 2022-11-10 18:11:20 path .Snapshot/20221110_181120
ID 463 gen 5810106 cgen 5810105 top level 5 otime 2022-11-11 00:00:01 path .Snapshot/20221111_000001
ID 464 gen 5819886 cgen 5819885 top level 5 otime 2022-11-18 00:00:01 path .Snapshot/20221118_000001

$ sudo mount -o subvolid=462 /media/
mount: /media/: can't find in /etc/fstab.

$ sudo mount -o subvolid=462 LABEL=rootfs /media/

$ df -HP /media/
Filesystem       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/ssd  112G  9.1G  102G   9% /media

$ sudo touch /media/etc/ebal
touch: cannot touch '/media/etc/ebal': Read-only file system

$ sudo diff /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /media/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

294c294
< Server = http://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/linux/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
---
> #Server = http://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/linux/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch

$ sudo umount /media

The Script

Last, but not least, the full script as was the date of this article.

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# ebal, Mon, 07 Nov 2022 08:49:37 +0200

## 0 0 * * Fri /usr/local/bin/btrfsSnapshot.sh

# paths MUST end with '/'
btrfs_paths=("/" "/home/" "/opt/")
timestamp=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
keep_snapshots=3
yymmdd="$(date +%Y/%m/%d)"
logfile="/var/log/btrfsSnapshot/${yymmdd}/btrfsSnapshot.log"

sudo mkdir -p "/var/log/btrfsSnapshot/${yymmdd}/"

echo "######## $(date -R) ########" | sudo tee -a "${logfile}"
echo "" | sudo tee -a "${logfile}"

for btrfs_path in "${btrfs_paths[@]}"; do

    ## Create Snapshot directory
    sudo mkdir -p "${btrfs_path}".Snapshot/

    ## How many Snapshots are there ?
    list_btrfs_snap=$(sudo btrfs subvolume list -o -r -s "${btrfs_path}" | grep -c ".Snapshot/")

    ## Get oldest rootfs btrfs snapshot
    while [ "${keep_snapshots}" -le "${list_btrfs_snap}" ]
    do
        prev_btrfs_snap=$(sudo btrfs subvolume list -o -r -s  "${btrfs_path}" | grep ".Snapshot/" | sort | head -1 | awk '{print $2}')

        ## Delete a btrfs snapshot by their subvolume id
        sudo btrfs subvolume delete --subvolid "${prev_btrfs_snap}" "${btrfs_path}" | sudo tee -a "${logfile}"

        list_btrfs_snap=$(sudo btrfs subvolume list -o -r -s "${btrfs_path}" | grep -c ".Snapshot/")
    done

    ## Create a new read-only btrfs snapshot
    sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot -r "${btrfs_path}" "${btrfs_path}.Snapshot/${timestamp}" | sudo tee -a "${logfile}"

    echo "" | sudo tee -a "${logfile}"

done

Hi! I’m writing this article as a mini-HOWTO on how to setup a btrfs-raid1 volume on encrypted disks (luks). This page servers as my personal guide/documentation, althought you can use it with little intervention.

Disclaimer: Be very careful! This is a mini-HOWTO article, do not copy/paste commands. Modify them to fit your environment.

$ date -R
Thu, 03 Dec 2020 07:58:49 +0200

Prologue

I had to replace one of my existing data/media setup (btrfs-raid0) due to some random hardware errors in one of the disks. The existing disks are 7.1y WD 1TB and the new disks are WD Purple 4TB.

Western Digital Green  1TB, about  70€ each, SATA III (6 Gbit/s), 7200 RPM, 64 MB Cache
Western Digital Purple 4TB, about 100€ each, SATA III (6 Gbit/s), 5400 RPM, 64 MB Cache

This will give me about 3.64T (from 1.86T). I had concerns with the slower RPM but in the end of this article, you will see some related stats.

My primarly daily use is streaming media (video/audio/images) via minidlna instead of cifs/nfs (samba), although the service is still up & running.

Disks

It is important to use disks with the exact same size and speed. Usually for Raid 1 purposes, I prefer using the same model. One can argue that diversity of models and manufactures to reduce possible firmware issues of a specific series should be preferable. When working with Raid 1, the most important things to consider are:

• Geometry (size)
• RPM (speed)

and all the disks should have the same specs, otherwise size and speed will downgraded to the smaller and slower disk.

Identify Disks

the two (2) Western Digital Purple 4TB are manufacture model: WDC WD40PURZ

The system sees them as:

$ sudo find /sys/devices -type f -name model -exec cat {} +

WDC WD40PURZ-85A
WDC WD40PURZ-85T

try to identify them from the kernel with list block devices:

$ lsblk

NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
sdc            8:32   0   3.6T  0 disk
sde            8:64   0   3.6T  0 disk

verify it with hwinfo

$ hwinfo --short --disk
disk:
  /dev/sde             WDC WD40PURZ-85A
  /dev/sdc             WDC WD40PURZ-85T

$ hwinfo --block --short

  /dev/sde             WDC WD40PURZ-85A
  /dev/sdc             WDC WD40PURZ-85T

with list hardware:

$ sudo lshw -short | grep disk

/0/100/1f.5/0        /dev/sdc   disk           4TB WDC WD40PURZ-85T
/0/100/1f.5/1        /dev/sde   disk           4TB WDC WD40PURZ-85A

$ sudo lshw -class disk -json | jq -r .[].product

WDC WD40PURZ-85T
WDC WD40PURZ-85A

Luks

Create Random Encrypted keys

I prefer to use random generated keys for the disk encryption. This is also useful for automated scripts (encrypt/decrypt disks) instead of typing a pass phrase.

Create a folder to save the encrypted keys:

$ sudo mkdir -pv /etc/crypttab.keys/

create keys with dd against urandom:

WD40PURZ-85A

$ sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85A bs=4096 count=1

1+0 records in
1+0 records out
4096 bytes (4.1 kB, 4.0 KiB) copied, 0.00015914 s, 25.7 MB/s

WD40PURZ-85T

$ sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85T bs=4096 count=1

1+0 records in
1+0 records out
4096 bytes (4.1 kB, 4.0 KiB) copied, 0.000135452 s, 30.2 MB/s

verify two (2) 4k size random keys, exist on the above directory with list files:

$ sudo ls -l /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85*

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Dec  3 08:00 /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85A
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Dec  3 08:00 /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85T

Format & Encrypt Hard Disks

It is time to format and encrypt the hard disks with Luks

Be very careful, choose the correct disk, type uppercase YES to confirm.

$ sudo  cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sde --key-file /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85A

WARNING!
========
This will overwrite data on /dev/sde irrevocably.

Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES

$ sudo  cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sdc --key-file /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85T

WARNING!
========
This will overwrite data on /dev/sdc irrevocably.

Are you sure? (Type 'yes' in capital letters): YES

Verify Encrypted Disks

print block device attributes:

$ sudo  blkid | tail -2

/dev/sde: UUID="d5800c02-2840-4ba9-9177-4d8c35edffac" TYPE="crypto_LUKS"
/dev/sdc: UUID="2ffb6115-09fb-4385-a3c9-404df3a9d3bd" TYPE="crypto_LUKS"

Open and Decrypt

opening encrypted disks with luks

• WD40PURZ-85A

$ sudo  cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-uuid/d5800c02-2840-4ba9-9177-4d8c35edffac WD40PURZ-85A -d /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85A

• WD40PURZ-85T

$ sudo  cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-uuid/2ffb6115-09fb-4385-a3c9-404df3a9d3bd WD40PURZ-85T -d /etc/crypttab.keys/WD40PURZ-85T

Verify Status

• WD40PURZ-85A

$ sudo  cryptsetup status   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A

/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A is active.

  type:         LUKS2
  cipher:       aes-xts-plain64
  keysize:      512 bits
  key location: keyring
  device:       /dev/sde
  sector size:  512
  offset:       32768 sectors
  size:         7814004400 sectors
  mode:         read/write

• WD40PURZ-85T

$ sudo  cryptsetup status   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T

/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T is active.

  type:         LUKS2
  cipher:       aes-xts-plain64
  keysize:      512 bits
  key location: keyring
  device:       /dev/sdc
  sector size:  512
  offset:       32768 sectors
  size:         7814004400 sectors
  mode:         read/write

BTRFS

Current disks

$sudo btrfs device stats /mnt/data/

[/dev/mapper/western1T].write_io_errs     28632
[/dev/mapper/western1T].read_io_errs      916948985
[/dev/mapper/western1T].flush_io_errs     0
[/dev/mapper/western1T].corruption_errs   0
[/dev/mapper/western1T].generation_errs   0
[/dev/mapper/western1Tb].write_io_errs    0
[/dev/mapper/western1Tb].read_io_errs     0
[/dev/mapper/western1Tb].flush_io_errs    0
[/dev/mapper/western1Tb].corruption_errs  0
[/dev/mapper/western1Tb].generation_errs  0

There are a lot of write/read errors :(

btrfs version

$ sudo  btrfs --version
btrfs-progs v5.9

$ sudo  mkfs.btrfs --version
mkfs.btrfs, part of btrfs-progs v5.9

Create BTRFS Raid 1 Filesystem

by using mkfs, selecting a disk label, choosing raid1 metadata and data to be on both disks (mirror):

$ sudo mkfs.btrfs
  -L WD40PURZ
  -m raid1
  -d raid1
  /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A
  /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T

or in one-liner (as-root):

mkfs.btrfs -L WD40PURZ -m raid1 -d raid1 /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T

format output

btrfs-progs v5.9
See http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for more information.

Label:              WD40PURZ
UUID:               095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d
Node size:          16384
Sector size:        4096
Filesystem size:    7.28TiB
Block group profiles:
  Data:             RAID1             1.00GiB
  Metadata:         RAID1             1.00GiB
  System:           RAID1             8.00MiB
SSD detected:       no
Incompat features:  extref, skinny-metadata
Runtime features:
Checksum:           crc32c
Number of devices:  2
Devices:
   ID        SIZE  PATH
    1     3.64TiB  /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A
    2     3.64TiB  /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T

Notice that both disks have the same UUID (Universal Unique IDentifier) number:

UUID: 095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d

Verify block device

$ blkid | tail -2

/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A: LABEL="WD40PURZ" UUID="095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d" UUID_SUB="75c9e028-2793-4e74-9301-2b443d922c40" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="btrfs"
/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T: LABEL="WD40PURZ" UUID="095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d" UUID_SUB="2ee4ec50-f221-44a7-aeac-aa75de8cdd86" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="btrfs"

once more, be aware of the same UUID: 095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d on both disks!

Mount new block disk

create a new mount point

$ sudo  mkdir -pv /mnt/WD40PURZ
mkdir: created directory '/mnt/WD40PURZ'

append the below entry in /etc/fstab (as-root)

echo 'UUID=095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d    /mnt/WD40PURZ    auto    defaults,noauto,user,exec    0    0' >> /etc/fstab

and finally, mount it!

$ sudo  mount /mnt/WD40PURZ

$ mount | grep WD
/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A on /mnt/WD40PURZ type btrfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,space_cache,subvolid=5,subvol=/)

Disk Usage

check disk usage and free space for the new encrypted mount point

$ df -h /mnt/WD40PURZ/

Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A  3.7T  3.4M  3.7T   1% /mnt/WD40PURZ

btrfs filesystem disk usage

$ btrfs filesystem df /mnt/WD40PURZ | column -t

Data,           RAID1:   total=1.00GiB,  used=512.00KiB
System,         RAID1:   total=8.00MiB,  used=16.00KiB
Metadata,       RAID1:   total=1.00GiB,  used=112.00KiB
GlobalReserve,  single:  total=3.25MiB,  used=0.00B

btrfs filesystem show

$ sudo btrfs filesystem show /mnt/WD40PURZ

Label: 'WD40PURZ'  uuid: 095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d
    Total devices 2 FS bytes used 640.00KiB
    devid    1 size 3.64TiB used 2.01GiB path /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A
    devid    2 size 3.64TiB used 2.01GiB path /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T

stats

$ sudo  btrfs device stats /mnt/WD40PURZ/

[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A].write_io_errs    0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A].read_io_errs     0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A].flush_io_errs    0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A].corruption_errs  0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A].generation_errs  0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T].write_io_errs    0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T].read_io_errs     0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T].flush_io_errs    0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T].corruption_errs  0
[/dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T].generation_errs  0

btrfs fi disk usage

btrfs filesystem disk usage

$ sudo  btrfs filesystem usage /mnt/WD40PURZ

Overall:
    Device size:                  7.28TiB
    Device allocated:             4.02GiB
    Device unallocated:           7.27TiB
    Device missing:                 0.00B
    Used:                         1.25MiB
    Free (estimated):             3.64TiB   (min: 3.64TiB)
    Data ratio:                      2.00
    Metadata ratio:                  2.00
    Global reserve:               3.25MiB   (used: 0.00B)
    Multiple profiles:                 no

Data,RAID1: Size:1.00GiB, Used:512.00KiB (0.05%)
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A    1.00GiB
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T    1.00GiB

Metadata,RAID1: Size:1.00GiB, Used:112.00KiB (0.01%)
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A    1.00GiB
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T    1.00GiB

System,RAID1: Size:8.00MiB, Used:16.00KiB (0.20%)
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A    8.00MiB
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T    8.00MiB

Unallocated:
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85A    3.64TiB
   /dev/mapper/WD40PURZ-85T    3.64TiB

Speed

Using hdparm to test/get some speed stats

$ sudo  hdparm -tT /dev/sde

/dev/sde:
 Timing cached reads:    25224 MB in  1.99 seconds = 12662.08 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 544 MB in  3.01 seconds = 181.02 MB/sec

$ sudo  hdparm -tT /dev/sdc

/dev/sdc:
 Timing cached reads:    24852 MB in  1.99 seconds = 12474.20 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 534 MB in  3.00 seconds = 177.85 MB/sec

$ sudo  hdparm -tT /dev/disk/by-uuid/095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d

/dev/disk/by-uuid/095d3b5c-58dc-4893-a79a-98d56a84d75d:
 Timing cached reads:   25058 MB in  1.99 seconds = 12577.91 MB/sec
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
 Timing buffered disk reads: 530 MB in  3.00 seconds = 176.56 MB/sec

These are the new disks with 5400 rpm, let’s see what the old 7200 rpm disk shows here:

/dev/sdb:
 Timing cached reads:    26052 MB in  1.99 seconds = 13077.22 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 446 MB in  3.01 seconds = 148.40 MB/sec

/dev/sdd:
 Timing cached reads:    25602 MB in  1.99 seconds = 12851.19 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 420 MB in  3.01 seconds = 139.69 MB/sec

So even that these new disks are 5400 seems to be faster than the old ones !!
Also, I have mounted as read-only the problematic Raid-0 setup.

Rsync

I am now moving some data to measure time

• Folder-A

du -sh /mnt/data/Folder-A/
795G   /mnt/data/Folder-A/

time rsync -P -rax /mnt/data/Folder-A/ Folder-A/
sending incremental file list
created directory Folder-A
./
...

real  163m27.531s
user    8m35.252s
sys    20m56.649s

• Folder-B

du -sh /mnt/data/Folder-B/
464G   /mnt/data/Folder-B/

time rsync -P -rax /mnt/data/Folder-B/ Folder-B/
sending incremental file list
created directory Folder-B
./
...

real    102m1.808s
user    7m30.923s
sys     18m24.981s

Control and Monitor Utility for SMART Disks

Last but not least, some smart info with smartmontools

$sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sdc

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.79-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 2 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Thu Dec  3 08:58:06 2020 EET
Use smartctl -X to abort test.

result :

$sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sdc

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.79-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         1         -

details

$sudo smartctl -A  /dev/sdc

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.79-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   100   253   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   119   119   000    Old_age   Always       -       31
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

Second disk

$sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sde

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.79-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 2 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Thu Dec  3 09:00:56 2020 EET
Use smartctl -X to abort test.

selftest results

$sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sde

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.79-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         1         -

details

$sudo smartctl -A  /dev/sde

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [x86_64-linux-5.4.79-1-lts] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   100   253   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   116   116   000    Old_age   Always       -       34
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

that’s it !

-ebal

# /sbin/btrfs fi show /mnt/VB0250EAVER/

Label: ‘VB0250EAVER’ uuid: e76cefe1-7ce3-43fa-953a-31602616d9ca
Total devices 2 FS bytes used 106.34GiB
devid 1 size 232.88GiB used 109.03GiB path /dev/mapper/sdd
devid 2 size 232.88GiB used 109.01GiB path /dev/mapper/sde

Btrfs v3.18

# /sbin/btrfs scrub start -Bd /mnt/VB0250EAVER/

scrub device /dev/dm-3 (id 1) done
scrub started at Mon Mar 30 16:48:32 2015 and finished after 1150 seconds
total bytes scrubbed: 106.34GiB with 0 errors
scrub device /dev/mapper/sde (id 2) done
scrub started at Mon Mar 30 16:48:32 2015 and finished after 1133 seconds
total bytes scrubbed: 106.34GiB with 0 errors

# btrfs filesystem df /mnt/VB0250EAVER/

Data, RAID1: total=106.00GiB, used=104.84GiB
Data, single: total=8.00MiB, used=0.00B
System, RAID1: total=8.00MiB, used=16.00KiB
System, single: total=4.00MiB, used=0.00B
Metadata, RAID1: total=3.00GiB, used=1.50GiB
Metadata, single: total=8.00MiB, used=0.00B
GlobalReserve, single: total=512.00MiB, used=0.00B

Just a mini old page about btrfs: subvolumes and snapshots

I’ve written down some simple (i hope) instructions on creating an encrypted btrfs raid1 disk !

My notes have the form of a mini howto, you can read all about them here:

Btrfs with Multiple Devices on LUKS

I am a very proud member of Athen’s Hackerspace.

I am enjoying the entire 3+ years time (and money) that i’ve spend at this hackerspace. Love it.

Today was a very productive day.

With a good friend of mine, are working to setup an ansible, docker, btrfs workshop !

We want to contribute back to the community and we thought that this is a great opportunity.
We are not guru or anything like that - no, we just want to share the knowledge we are getting by spending time at hackerspace. Nothing more, nothing less. Just share our feedback to all the people that have helped us till now.

So, we are working together (collaboration) by making small steps towards to build these workshop.
Today’s work: Creating a tiny compressed archlinux docker image.

My instruction set is documented here: archlinux installation for docker.

Hopefully my next blog post will be about a simple ssh docker file.
We are trying to keep simple notes so that many people can read and use them.

Click here Mini Btrfs workshop

Open participation / free entry