Stratis Description
Stratis is a tool to easily configure pools and filesystems with enhanced storage
functionality that works within the existing Linux storage management stack.
To achieve this, Stratis prioritizes a straightforward command-line experience, a
rich API, and a fully automated approach to storage management.
It builds upon elements of the existing storage stack as much as possible.
Specifically, Stratis uses device-mapper, LUKS, XFS, and Clevis.
Stratis may also incorporate additional technologies in the future.
How to Install Stratis to Manage Layered Local Storage on RHEL 8:
Stratis is one of the new features that ships with RHEL 8 distribution. It uses the
XFS file system and grants you access to advanced storage capabilities such as:
Thin provisioning
File system snapshots
Tiering
Pool-based management
Monitoring
Let’s see how you can install Stratis on your RHEL 8 system, log in as root user
and run the command.
# dnf install stratisd stratis-cli -y
To find more information about the installed packages run the command.
# rpm -qi stratisd stratis-cli
After the successful installation of Stratis, start the service by running the
command.
# systemctl enable --now stratisd
To check the status of Stratis, run the command.
# systemctl status stratisd
Create a Stratis Pool
To create a Stratis pool you need block devices that are not in use or mounted.
Also, it is assumed that Stratisd service is up and running. Additionally, the
block devices that you are going to use need to be at least 1 GB in size.
# lsblk
None of these block devices should have a partition table. You can confirm this
using the command.
# blkid -p /dev/sdb
If you get no output, then it means that your block devices do not have any
partition table residing on them. However, in the event that a partition table
exists, you can wipe it using the command:
# wipefs -a /dev/sdb
Create a Stratis Pool from One Block Device
# stratis pool create my_pool_1 /dev/sdb
# lsblk
To confirm the created pool run.
# stratis pool list
Create a Stratis Pool from Multiple Block Devices
# stratis pool create my_pool_2 /dev/sdc /dev/sdd/ /dev/sde
Once again, list the pools available using the command.
# stratis pool list
At this point, you should have 2 pools: my_pool_1 and my_pool_2.
Create a Filesystem from a Pool
For instance, to create filesystem-1 and filesystem-2 from my_pool_1 and my_pool_2
respectively run commands:
# stratis fs create my_pool_1 filesystem-1
# stratis fs create my_pool_2 filesystem-2
To view the newly created filesystems, run the command.
# stratis fs list
Now, if you run the lsblk command, the output should be somewhat similar to the
sample output below.
# lsblk -f
Mounting a Stratis Filesystem
For the filesystem in the first pool, run the command:
# mkdir /data
# mount /dev/stratis/my_pool_1/filesystem-1 /data
For the second filesystem in the second pool, run the command.
# mkdir /block
# mount /dev/stratis/my_pool_2/filesystem-2 /block
To verify the existence of the current mount points run df command:
# df -Th | grep stratis
Perfect! We can clearly see that our mount points are present.
Persistently Mount Stratis Filesystems
The mount points that we have just created cannot survive a reboot. To make them
persistent, first obtain the UUID of each of the filesystems:
# blkid -p /dev/stratis/my_pool_1/filesystem-1
# blkid -p /dev/stratis/my_pool_2/filesystem-2
And make an entry in /etc/fstab with these UUIDs.
/dev/stratis/my_pool_1/filesystem-1 /data xfs defaults 0 0
Removing a Stratis Filesystem
To remove a filesystem, you need to, first of all, unmount the file system as
shown.
# umount /data
To destroy the filesystem, use the syntax:
# stratis filesystem destroy my_pool_1 filesystem-1
To confirm the removal of the filesystem, issue the command.
# stratis filesystem list my_pool_1
# stratis filesystem list
From the output, we can clearly see that the filesystem associated with my_pool_1
has been deleted.
Adding a Disk to an Existing Stratis Pool
# stratis pool add-data my_pool_1 /dev/sdf
# lsblk -f
Notice that the size of my_pool_1 has double in size after adding the extra volume.
Create Stratis Snapshots
Copy some data on filesystem first.
# cd /block
# cal > cal.txt ; mkdir aa bb cc dd ; echo Nehra Classes are awesome > nehra.txt
# du -sh .
A snapshot is a thinly provisioned read and writes a copy of a filesystem at a
given point in time.
# stratis fs snapshot my_pool_2 filesystem-2 mysnapshot
Remove all the data after taking snapshot.
# rm -rf *
# cd
To verify the creation of the snapshot, run the command:
# stratis filesystem list my_pool_2
To revert a Stratis filesystem to a previously created snapshot, first, unmount and
destroy the original filesystem.
# umount /dev/stratis/my_pool_2/filesystem-2
Then create a copy of the snapshot using the original file system:
# stratis filesystem snapshot my_pool_2 mysnapshot block
Finally, mount the snapshot.
# mount /dev/stratis/my_pool_2/mysnapshot /block
# cd /block
Verify the data which you deleted earlier.
# ls
# du -sh .
Removing a Stratis Snapshot
# rm /dev/stratis/my_pool_2/mysnapshot
Next, proceed and destroy the snapshot:
# stratis filesystem destroy my_pool_2 mysnapshot
To remove a Stratis pool, follow the simple steps below.
1. List the filesystems that exist in the pool.
# stratis filesystem list (poolname)
2. Next, unmount all the filesystems in the pool.
# umount /block
3. Destroy the filesystems.
# stratis filesystem destroy my_pool_2 mysnapshot
4. And then, get rid of the pool.
# stratis pool destroy my_pool_2
# lsblk -f
# stratis pool destroy my_pool_1
You can verify the pool list again.
# stratis pool list
Finally, remove the entries in the /etc/fstab for the filesystems.
