[pbs-devel] [PATCH v6 proxmox-backup 3/8] fix #5982: garbage collection: check atime updates are honored

Christian Ebner c.ebner at proxmox.com
Wed Mar 19 18:24:27 CET 2025


Check if the filesystem backing the chunk store actually updates the
atime to avoid potential data loss in phase 2 of garbage collection,
in case the atime update is not honored.

Perform the check before phase 1 of garbage collection, as well as
on datastore creation. The latter to early detect and disallow
datastore creation on filesystem configurations which otherwise most
likely would lead to data losses. To perform the check also when
reusing an existing datastore, open the chunks store also on reuse.

Enable the atime update check by default, but allow to opt-out by
setting a datastore tuning parameter flag for backwards compatibility.
This is honored by both, garbage collection and datastore creation.

The check uses a 4 MiB fixed sized, unencypted and compressed chunk
as test marker, inserted if not present. This all zero-chunk is very
likely anyways for unencrypted backup contents with large all-zero
regions using fixed size chunking (e.g. VMs).

To avoid cases were the timestamp will not be updated because of the
Linux kernels timestamp granularity, sleep in-between chunk insert
(including an atime update if pre-existing) and the subsequent
stating + utimensat for 1 second.

Fixes: https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5982
Signed-off-by: Christian Ebner <c.ebner at proxmox.com>
---
changes since version 5:
- Also perform check when reusing datastores, not just new one.
- Expand on comment for sleep, fix incorrect wording in commit message.
- Add additional error context to before/after stat calls.
- Soften wording of error messages if check is skipped because disabled.

 pbs-datastore/src/chunk_store.rs | 72 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 pbs-datastore/src/datastore.rs   | 13 ++++++
 src/api2/config/datastore.rs     | 35 ++++++++++++----
 3 files changed, 109 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/pbs-datastore/src/chunk_store.rs b/pbs-datastore/src/chunk_store.rs
index 5e02909a1..dcb499426 100644
--- a/pbs-datastore/src/chunk_store.rs
+++ b/pbs-datastore/src/chunk_store.rs
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
+use std::os::unix::fs::MetadataExt;
 use std::os::unix::io::AsRawFd;
 use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};
+use std::time::{Duration, UNIX_EPOCH};
 
-use anyhow::{bail, format_err, Error};
-use tracing::info;
+use anyhow::{bail, format_err, Context, Error};
+use tracing::{info, warn};
 
 use pbs_api_types::{DatastoreFSyncLevel, GarbageCollectionStatus};
 use proxmox_io::ReadExt;
@@ -13,6 +15,7 @@ use proxmox_sys::process_locker::{
 };
 use proxmox_worker_task::WorkerTaskContext;
 
+use crate::data_blob::DataChunkBuilder;
 use crate::file_formats::{
     COMPRESSED_BLOB_MAGIC_1_0, ENCRYPTED_BLOB_MAGIC_1_0, UNCOMPRESSED_BLOB_MAGIC_1_0,
 };
@@ -177,7 +180,7 @@ impl ChunkStore {
     /// Note that this must be used with care, as it's dangerous to create two instances on the
     /// same base path, as closing the underlying ProcessLocker drops all locks from this process
     /// on the lockfile (even if separate FDs)
-    pub(crate) fn open<P: Into<PathBuf>>(
+    pub fn open<P: Into<PathBuf>>(
         name: &str,
         base: P,
         sync_level: DatastoreFSyncLevel,
@@ -442,6 +445,69 @@ impl ChunkStore {
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    /// Check if atime updates are honored by the filesystem backing the chunk store.
+    ///
+    /// Checks if the atime is always updated by utimensat taking into consideration the Linux
+    /// kernel timestamp granularity.
+    /// If `retry_on_file_changed` is set to true, the check is performed again on the changed file
+    /// if a file change while testing is detected by differences in bith time or inode number.
+    /// Uses a 4 MiB fixed size, compressed but unencrypted chunk to test. The chunk is inserted in
+    /// the chunk store if not yet present.
+    /// Returns with error if the check could not be performed.
+    pub fn check_fs_atime_updates(&self, retry_on_file_changed: bool) -> Result<(), Error> {
+        let (zero_chunk, digest) = DataChunkBuilder::build_zero_chunk(None, 4096 * 1024, true)?;
+        let (pre_existing, _) = self.insert_chunk(&zero_chunk, &digest)?;
+        let (path, _digest) = self.chunk_path(&digest);
+
+        // Take into account timestamp update granularity in the kernel
+        // Blocking the thread is fine here since this runs in a worker.
+        std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_secs(1));
+
+        let metadata_before = std::fs::metadata(&path).context(format!(
+            "failed to get metadata for {path:?} before atime update"
+        ))?;
+
+        // Second atime update if chunk pre-existed, insert_chunk already updates pre-existing ones
+        self.cond_touch_path(&path, true)?;
+
+        let metadata_now = std::fs::metadata(&path).context(format!(
+            "failed to get metadata for {path:?} after atime update"
+        ))?;
+
+        // Check for the unlikely case that the file changed in-between the
+        // two metadata calls, try to check once again on changed file
+        if metadata_before.ino() != metadata_now.ino() {
+            if retry_on_file_changed {
+                return self.check_fs_atime_updates(false);
+            }
+            bail!("chunk {path:?} changed twice during access time safety check, cannot proceed.");
+        }
+
+        if metadata_before.accessed()? >= metadata_now.accessed()? {
+            let chunk_info_str = if pre_existing {
+                "pre-existing"
+            } else {
+                "newly inserted"
+            };
+            warn!("Chunk metadata was not correctly updated during access time safety check:");
+            info!(
+                "Timestamps before update: accessed {:?}, modified {:?}, created {:?}",
+                metadata_before.accessed().unwrap_or(UNIX_EPOCH),
+                metadata_before.modified().unwrap_or(UNIX_EPOCH),
+                metadata_before.created().unwrap_or(UNIX_EPOCH),
+            );
+            info!(
+                "Timestamps after update: accessed {:?}, modified {:?}, created {:?}",
+                metadata_now.accessed().unwrap_or(UNIX_EPOCH),
+                metadata_now.modified().unwrap_or(UNIX_EPOCH),
+                metadata_now.created().unwrap_or(UNIX_EPOCH),
+            );
+            bail!("access time safety check using {chunk_info_str} chunk failed, aborting GC!");
+        }
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     pub fn insert_chunk(&self, chunk: &DataBlob, digest: &[u8; 32]) -> Result<(bool, u64), Error> {
         // unwrap: only `None` in unit tests
         assert!(self.locker.is_some());
diff --git a/pbs-datastore/src/datastore.rs b/pbs-datastore/src/datastore.rs
index a6a91ca79..09b5808e0 100644
--- a/pbs-datastore/src/datastore.rs
+++ b/pbs-datastore/src/datastore.rs
@@ -1170,6 +1170,19 @@ impl DataStore {
                 upid: Some(upid.to_string()),
                 ..Default::default()
             };
+            let tuning: DatastoreTuning = serde_json::from_value(
+                DatastoreTuning::API_SCHEMA
+                    .parse_property_string(gc_store_config.tuning.as_deref().unwrap_or(""))?,
+            )?;
+            if tuning.gc_atime_safety_check.unwrap_or(true) {
+                self.inner
+                    .chunk_store
+                    .check_fs_atime_updates(true)
+                    .map_err(|err| format_err!("atime safety check failed - {err:#}"))?;
+                info!("Access time update check successful, proceeding with GC.");
+            } else {
+                info!("Access time update check disabled by datastore tuning options.");
+            }
 
             info!("Start GC phase1 (mark used chunks)");
 
diff --git a/src/api2/config/datastore.rs b/src/api2/config/datastore.rs
index fe3260f6d..7e97a7de3 100644
--- a/src/api2/config/datastore.rs
+++ b/src/api2/config/datastore.rs
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ use ::serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 use anyhow::{bail, format_err, Error};
 use hex::FromHex;
 use serde_json::Value;
-use tracing::warn;
+use tracing::{info, warn};
 
 use proxmox_router::{http_bail, Permission, Router, RpcEnvironment, RpcEnvironmentType};
 use proxmox_schema::{api, param_bail, ApiType};
@@ -98,7 +98,15 @@ pub(crate) fn do_create_datastore(
     )?;
 
     let res = if reuse_datastore {
-        ChunkStore::verify_chunkstore(&path)
+        ChunkStore::verify_chunkstore(&path).and_then(|_| {
+            // Must be the only instance accessing and locking the chunk store,
+            // dropping will close all other locks from this process on the lockfile as well.
+            ChunkStore::open(
+                &datastore.name,
+                &path,
+                tuning.sync_level.unwrap_or_default(),
+            )
+        })
     } else {
         let mut is_empty = true;
         if let Ok(dir) = std::fs::read_dir(&path) {
@@ -120,19 +128,30 @@ pub(crate) fn do_create_datastore(
                 backup_user.gid,
                 tuning.sync_level.unwrap_or_default(),
             )
-            .map(|_| ())
         } else {
             Err(format_err!("datastore path not empty"))
         }
     };
 
-    if res.is_err() {
-        if need_unmount {
-            if let Err(e) = unmount_by_mountpoint(&path) {
-                warn!("could not unmount device: {e}");
+    match res {
+        Ok(chunk_store) => {
+            if tuning.gc_atime_safety_check.unwrap_or(true) {
+                chunk_store
+                    .check_fs_atime_updates(true)
+                    .map_err(|err| format_err!("access time safety check failed - {err:#}"))?;
+                info!("Access time update check successful.");
+            } else {
+                info!("Access time update check skipped.");
+            }
+        }
+        Err(err) => {
+            if need_unmount {
+                if let Err(e) = unmount_by_mountpoint(&path) {
+                    warn!("could not unmount device: {e}");
+                }
             }
+            return Err(err);
         }
-        return res;
     }
 
     config.set_data(&datastore.name, "datastore", &datastore)?;
-- 
2.39.5





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