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stop writing metadata file #6769

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@problame problame commented Feb 15, 2024

Building atop #6777, this PR removes the code that writes the metadata file and adds a piece of migration code that removes any remaining metadata files.

We'll remove the migration code after this PR has been deployed.

part of #6663

More cleanups punted into follow-up issue, as they touch a lot of code:
#6890

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github-actions bot commented Feb 15, 2024

2412 tests run: 2290 passed, 0 failed, 122 skipped (full report)


Flaky tests (1)

Postgres 14

  • test_location_conf_churn[3]: release

Code coverage* (full report)

  • functions: 28.8% (6778 of 23528 functions)
  • lines: 47.7% (41232 of 86522 lines)

* collected from Rust tests only


The comment gets automatically updated with the latest test results
ba1cdc8 at 2024-02-23T12:18:53.399Z :recycle:

@problame problame changed the title feat(pageserver): remove ability to run without remote storage feat(pageserver): remove local metadata file Feb 15, 2024
@problame problame changed the base branch from main to problame/integrate-tokio-epoll-uring/write-path/remove-save-metadata--part-1 February 15, 2024 16:30
@problame problame changed the title feat(pageserver): remove local metadata file stop writing metadata file Feb 15, 2024
…save-metadata--part-1' into problame/integrate-tokio-epoll-uring/write-path/remove-save-metadata
@problame problame requested review from koivunej and arpad-m February 15, 2024 16:50
Base automatically changed from problame/integrate-tokio-epoll-uring/write-path/remove-save-metadata--part-1 to main February 16, 2024 09:35
@problame problame marked this pull request as ready for review February 23, 2024 11:34
@problame problame requested a review from a team as a code owner February 23, 2024 11:34
@problame problame merged commit cd449d6 into main Feb 23, 2024
50 checks passed
@problame problame deleted the problame/integrate-tokio-epoll-uring/write-path/remove-save-metadata branch February 23, 2024 13:33
problame added a commit that referenced this pull request Feb 23, 2024
…dle::block_on in callers"" (#6775)

Reverts #6765 , bringing back #6731

We concluded that #6731 never was the root cause for the instability in
staging.
More details:
https://neondb.slack.com/archives/C033RQ5SPDH/p1708011674755319

However, the massive amount of concurrent `spawn_blocking` calls from
the `save_metadata` calls during startups might cause a performance
regression.
So, we'll merge this PR here after we've stopped writing the metadata
#6769).
problame added a commit that referenced this pull request Mar 5, 2024
part of #6663 
See that epic for more context & related commits.

Problem
-------

Before this PR, the layer-file-creating code paths were using
VirtualFile, but under the hood these were still blocking system calls.

Generally this meant we'd stall the executor thread, unless the caller
"knew" and used the following pattern instead:

```
spawn_blocking(|| {
    Handle::block_on(async {
        VirtualFile::....().await;
    })
}).await
```

Solution
--------

This PR adopts `tokio-epoll-uring` on the layer-file-creating code paths
in pageserver.

Note that on-demand downloads still use `tokio::fs`, these will be
converted in a future PR.

Design: Avoiding Regressions With `std-fs` 
------------------------------------------

If we make the VirtualFile write path truly async using
`tokio-epoll-uring`, should we then remove the `spawn_blocking` +
`Handle::block_on` usage upstack in the same commit?

No, because if we’re still using the `std-fs` io engine, we’d then block
the executor in those places where previously we were protecting us from
that through the `spawn_blocking` .

So, if we want to see benefits from `tokio-epoll-uring` on the write
path while also preserving the ability to switch between
`tokio-epoll-uring` and `std-fs` , where `std-fs` will behave identical
to what we have now, we need to ***conditionally* use `spawn_blocking +
Handle::block_on`** .

I.e., in the places where we use that know, we’ll need to make that
conditional based on the currently configured io engine.

It boils down to investigating all the places where we do
`spawn_blocking(... block_on(... VirtualFile::...))`.

Detailed [write-up of that investigation in
Notion](https://neondatabase.notion.site/Surveying-VirtualFile-write-path-usage-wrt-tokio-epoll-uring-integration-spawn_blocking-Handle-bl-5dc2270dbb764db7b2e60803f375e015?pvs=4
), made publicly accessible.

tl;dr: Preceding PRs addressed the relevant call sites:
- `metadata` file: turns out we could simply remove it (#6777, #6769,
#6775)
- `create_delta_layer()`: made sensitive to `virtual_file_io_engine` in
#6986

NB: once we are switched over to `tokio-epoll-uring` everywhere in
production, we can deprecate `std-fs`; to keep macOS support, we can use
`tokio::fs` instead. That will remove this whole headache.


Code Changes In This PR
-----------------------

- VirtualFile API changes
  - `VirtualFile::write_at`
- implement an `ioengine` operation and switch `VirtualFile::write_at`
to it
  - `VirtualFile::metadata()`
- curiously, we only use it from the layer writers' `finish()` methods
- introduce a wrapper `Metadata` enum because `std::fs::Metadata` cannot
be constructed by code outside rust std
- `VirtualFile::sync_all()` and for completeness sake, add
`VirtualFile::sync_data()`

Testing & Rollout
-----------------

Before merging this PR, we ran the CI with both io engines.

Additionally, the changes will soak in staging.

We could have a feature gate / add a new io engine
`tokio-epoll-uring-write-path` to do a gradual rollout. However, that's
not part of this PR.


Future Work
-----------

There's still some use of `std::fs` and/or `tokio::fs` for directory
namespace operations, e.g. `std::fs::rename`.

We're not addressing those in this PR, as we'll need to add the support
in tokio-epoll-uring first. Note that rename itself is usually fast if
the directory is in the kernel dentry cache, and only the fsync after
rename is slow. These fsyncs are using tokio-epoll-uring, so, the impact
should be small.
jcsp added a commit that referenced this pull request May 13, 2024
## Problem

Since #6769, the pageserver is
intentionally not usable without remote storage: it's purpose is to act
as a cache to an object store, rather than as a source of truth in its
own right.

## Summary of changes

- Make remote storage configuration mandatory: the pageserver will
refuse to start if it is not provided.

This is a precursor that will make it safe to subsequently remove all
the internal Option<>s
a-masterov pushed a commit that referenced this pull request May 20, 2024
## Problem

Since #6769, the pageserver is
intentionally not usable without remote storage: it's purpose is to act
as a cache to an object store, rather than as a source of truth in its
own right.

## Summary of changes

- Make remote storage configuration mandatory: the pageserver will
refuse to start if it is not provided.

This is a precursor that will make it safe to subsequently remove all
the internal Option<>s
koivunej added a commit that referenced this pull request Jun 4, 2024
…lease (#7693)

## Problem

Currently we serialize the `TimelineMetadata` into bytes to put it into
`index_part.json`. This `Vec<u8>` (hopefully `[u8; 512]`) representation
was chosen because of problems serializing TimelineId and Lsn between
different serializers (bincode, json). After #5335, the serialization of
those types became serialization format aware or format agnostic.

We've removed the pageserver local `metadata` file writing in #6769.

## Summary of changes

Allow switching from the current serialization format to plain JSON for
the legacy TimelineMetadata format in the future by adding a competitive
serialization method to the current one
(`crate::tenant::metadata::modern_serde`), which accepts both old bytes
and new plain JSON.

The benefits of this are that dumping the index_part.json with pretty
printing no longer produces more than 500 lines of output, but after
enabling it produces lines only proportional to the layer count, like:

```json
{
  "version": ???,
  "layer_metadata": { ... },
  "disk_consistent_lsn": "0/15FD5D8",
  "legacy_metadata": {
    "disk_consistent_lsn": "0/15FD5D8",
    "prev_record_lsn": "0/15FD5A0",
    "ancestor_timeline": null,
    "ancestor_lsn": "0/0",
    "latest_gc_cutoff_lsn": "0/149FD18",
    "initdb_lsn": "0/149FD18",
    "pg_version": 15
  }
}
```

In the future, I propose we completely stop using this legacy metadata
type and wasting time trying to come up with another version numbering
scheme in addition to the informative-only one already found in
`index_part.json`, and go ahead with storing metadata or feature flags
on the `index_part.json` itself.

#7699 is the "one release after" changes which starts to produce
metadata in the index_part.json as json.
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