Portworx

Updating Volumes using pxctl

This section will walk you through the commands for updating your Portworx volumes. First, let’s use the built-in help that to discover the available commands:

sudo /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl volume update --help
Update volume settings

Usage:
  pxctl volume update [flags]

Examples:
pxctl volume update [flags] volName

Flags:
  -l, --label string        list of comma-separated name=value pairs to update (use empty label value to remove label)
      --shared string       set shared setting (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --sticky string       set sticky setting (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --journal string      Journal data for this volume (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --early_ack string    Reply to async write requests after it is copied to shared memory (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --async_io string     Enable async IO to backing storage (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --nodiscard string    Disable discard support for this volume (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --io_profile string   IO Profile (Valid Values: [sequential cms db db_remote sync_shared]) (default "sequential")
      --sharedv4 string     set sharedv4 setting (Valid Values: [on off]) (default "off")
      --queue_depth uint    block device queue depth (Valid Range: [1 256]) (default 128)
      --scale uint          New scale factor (Valid Range: [1 1024]) (default 1)
  -s, --size uint           New size for the volume (GiB) (default 1)
  -h, --help                help for update

Global Flags:
      --ca string        path to root certificate for ssl usage
      --cert string      path to client certificate for ssl usage
      --color            output with color coding
      --config string    config file (default is $HOME/.pxctl.yaml)
      --context string   context name that overrides the current auth context
  -j, --json             output in json
      --key string       path to client key for ssl usage
      --raw              raw CLI output for instrumentation
      --ssl              ssl enabled for portworx

Sharing and unsharing volumes

You can use the --shared flag to share or unshare a given volume across multiple namespaces.

Say we’ve created a volume named clitest. You can see its settings using this command:

pxctl volume inspect clitest
Volume	:  970758537931791410
	Name            	 :  clitest
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Shared          	 :  no
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  detached
	Reads           	 :  0
	Reads MS        	 :  0
	Bytes Read      	 :  0
	Writes          	 :  0
	Writes MS       	 :  0
	Bytes Written   	 :  0
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  33 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  10.99.117.133

Note that the shared field is shown as no, indicating that clitest is not a shared volume.

Next, let’s turn on sharing:

pxctl volume update clitest --shared=on

At this point, the volume’s sharing settings should have been updated. We can easily check by running pxctl volume inspect on the volume again:

pxctl volume inspect clitest
Volume	:  970758537931791410
	Name            	 :  clitest
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Shared          	 :  yes
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  detached
	Reads           	 :  0
	Reads MS        	 :  0
	Bytes Read      	 :  0
	Writes          	 :  0
	Writes MS       	 :  0
	Bytes Written   	 :  0
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  33 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  10.99.117.133

As shown above, the shared field is set to yes indicating that clitest is now a shared volume

  • For more information about creating shared Portworx volumes through Kubernetes, refer to the Create shared PVCs page.

Changing a volume’s sticky option

For adding the --sticky attribute to a volume, use the following command:

pxctl volume update clitest --sticky=on

Doing a subsequent inspect on the volume shows the attributes field set to sticky:

pxctl volume inspect clitest
Volume	:  970758537931791410
	Name            	 :  clitest
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Creation time   	 :  Feb 26 08:17:20 UTC 2017
	Shared          	 :  yes
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  detached
	Attributes      	 :  sticky
	Reads           	 :  0
	Reads MS        	 :  0
	Bytes Read      	 :  0
	Writes          	 :  0
	Writes MS       	 :  0
	Bytes Written   	 :  0
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  33 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  10.99.117.133

Increase volume size

Here is an example of how to increase the size of an existing volume.

First, let’s create a volume with the default parameters (1 GiB):

pxctl volume create vol_resize_test
Volume successfully created: 485002114762355071

Next, we would want inspect our new volume:

pxctl volume inspect vol_resize_test
Volume	:  485002114762355071
	Name            	 :  vol_resize_test
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Creation time   	 :  Apr 10 18:53:11 UTC 2017
	Shared          	 :  no
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  detached
	Reads           	 :  0
	Reads MS        	 :  0
	Bytes Read      	 :  0
	Writes          	 :  0
	Writes MS       	 :  0
	Bytes Written   	 :  0
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  32 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  172.31.55.104

Note the default volume size - 1 GiB.

In order to update the size of a given volume, you should first mount it. If it’s a shared volume, then this operation can be done from any of the nodes where the volume is attached.

Now that we’ve created a new volume, let’s attach it to resize it.

pxctl host attach vol_resize_test
Volume successfully attached at: /dev/pxd/pxd485002114762355071

With vol_resize_test attached, the next steps are to create a new directory:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/osd/mounts/voldir

and then mount the volume:

pxctl host mount vol_resize_test /var/lib/osd/mounts/voldir
Volume vol_resize_test successfully mounted at /var/lib/osd/mounts/voldir

Lastly, to update the size of this volume to 5 GB do:

pxctl volume update vol_resize_test --size=5
Update Volume: Volume update successful for volume vol_resize_test

Let’s verify the size with the following command:

pxctl volume inspect vol_resize_test
Volume	:  485002114762355071
	Name            	 :  vol_resize_test
	Size            	 :  5.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Creation time   	 :  Apr 10 18:53:11 UTC 2017
	Shared          	 :  no
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  Attached: 43109685-e98a-448f-9805-293128e2d78b
	Device Path     	 :  /dev/pxd/pxd485002114762355071
	Reads           	 :  138
	Reads MS        	 :  108
	Bytes Read      	 :  974848
	Writes          	 :  161
	Writes MS       	 :  1667
	Bytes Written   	 :  68653056
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  97 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  172.31.55.104

For more information about dynamically resizing a volume (PVC) using Kubernetes and Portworx, refer to the Resize a Portworx PVC page.

Update a volume’s replication factor

pxctl volume ha-update can be used to increase or decrease the replication factor for a given Portworx volume.

NOTE: The maximum replication factor is 3.

Increasing the replication factor

Say there was a volume named clitest with the replication factor set to 1. Let’s look at how to increase it.

Start by listing the nodes in the cluster:

pxctl cluster list
Cluster ID: MY_CLUSTER_ID
Status: OK

Nodes in the cluster:
ID					DATA IP		CPU		MEM TOTAL	MEM FREE	CONTAINERS	VERSION		STATUS
fa18451d-9091-45b4-a241-d816357f634b	10.99.117.133	0.5		8.4 GB	7.9 GB		N/A		1.1.6-a879596	Online
b1aa39df-9cfd-4c21-b5d4-0dc1c09781d8	10.99.117.137	0.250313	8.4 GB	7.9 GB		N/A		1.1.6-a879596	Online
bb605ca6-c014-4e6c-8a23-55c967d1a963	10.99.117.135	0.625782	8.4 GB	7.9 GB		N/A		1.1.6-a879596	Online

Next, make it so the volume is replicated to NodeID b1aa39df-9cfd-4c21-b5d4-0dc1c09781d8 by running:

pxctl volume ha-update --repl=2 --node b1aa39df-9cfd-4c21-b5d4-0dc1c09781d8 clitest

Once the replication completes and the new node is added to the replication set, pxctl volume inspect will show both nodes:

pxctl volume inspect clitest
Volume	:  970758537931791410
	Name            	 :  clitest
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  2
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Creation time   	 :  Feb 26 08:17:20 UTC 2017
	Shared          	 :  yes
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  detached
	Attributes      	 :  sticky
	Reads           	 :  0
	Reads MS        	 :  0
	Bytes Read      	 :  0
	Writes          	 :  0
	Writes MS       	 :  0
	Bytes Written   	 :  0
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  33 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  10.99.117.133
			Node 	 :  10.99.117.137

pxctl alerts show --type volume will show when the replication is complete:

pxctl alerts show --type volume
AlertID	VolumeID		Timestamp			Severity	AlertType			Description
25	970758537931791410	Feb 26 22:02:04 UTC 2017	NOTIFY		Volume operation success	Volume (Id: 970758537931791410 Name: clitest) HA updated from 1 to 2

Decreasing the replication factor

The ha-update command can be used to reduce the replication factor as well. Continuing our example with clitest, let’s reduce the volume’s replication factor:

pxctl volume ha-update  --repl=1 --node b1aa39df-9cfd-4c21-b5d4-0dc1c09781d8 clitest
Update Volume Replication: Replication update started successfully for volume clitest

Once the replication factor has been reduced to 1, the output of the volume inspect command would look something like this:

pxctl volume inspect clitest
Volume	:  970758537931791410
	Name            	 :  clitest
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Creation time   	 :  Feb 26 08:17:20 UTC 2017
	Shared          	 :  yes
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  detached
	Attributes      	 :  sticky
	Reads           	 :  0
	Reads MS        	 :  0
	Bytes Read      	 :  0
	Writes          	 :  0
	Writes MS       	 :  0
	Bytes Written   	 :  0
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  33 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 	 :  10.99.117.133

Here is the output of pxctl alerts show --type volume:

25	970758537931791410	Feb 26 22:02:04 UTC 2017	NOTIFY		Volume operation success	Volume (Id: 970758537931791410 Name: clitest) HA updated from 1 to 2
26	970758537931791410	Feb 26 22:58:17 UTC 2017	NOTIFY		Volume operation success	Volume (Id: 970758537931791410 Name: clitest) HA updated
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Last edited: Wednesday, Apr 8, 2020
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