Merge pull request #1390 from trapexit/tiered

Add tiered cache details to docs

mkdocs/docs/usage_patterns.md

@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+# Usage Patterns
+
+## tiered cache
+
+Some storage technologies support what is called "tiered" caching. The
+placing of smaller, faster storage as a transparent cache to larger,
+slower storage. NVMe, SSD, Optane in front of traditional HDDs for
+instance.
+
+mergerfs does not natively support any sort of tiered caching. Most
+users have no use for such a feature and its inclusion would
+complicate the code as it exists today. However, there are a few
+situations where a cache filesystem could help with a typical mergerfs
+setup.
+
+1.  Fast network, slow filesystems, many readers: You've a 10+Gbps
+    network with many readers and your regular filesystems can't keep
+    up.
+2.  Fast network, slow filesystems, small'ish bursty writes: You have
+    a 10+Gbps network and wish to transfer amounts of data less than
+    your cache filesystem but wish to do so quickly and the time
+    between bursts is long enough to migrate data.
+
+With #1 it's arguable if you should be using mergerfs at all. A RAID
+level that can aggregate performance or using higher performance
+storage would probably be the better solution. If you're going to use
+mergerfs there are other tactics that may help: spreading the data
+across filesystems (see the mergerfs.dup tool) and setting
+`func.open=rand`, using `symlinkify`, or using dm-cache or a similar
+technology to add tiered cache to the underlying device itself.
+
+With #2 one could use dm-cache as well but there is another solution
+which requires only mergerfs and a cronjob.
+
+1.  Create 2 mergerfs pools. One which includes just the slow branches
+    and one which has both the fast branches (SSD,NVME,etc.) and slow
+    branches. The 'base' pool and the 'cache' pool.
+2.  The 'cache' pool should have the cache branches listed first in
+    the branch list.
+3.  The best `create` policies to use for the 'cache' pool would
+    probably be `ff`, `epff`, `lfs`, `msplfs`, or `eplfs`. The latter
+    three under the assumption that the cache filesystem(s) are far
+    smaller than the backing filesystems. If using path preserving
+    policies remember that you'll need to manually create the core
+    directories of those paths you wish to be cached. Be sure the
+    permissions are in sync. Use `mergerfs.fsck` to check / correct
+    them. You could also set the slow filesystems mode to `NC` though
+    that'd mean if the cache filesystems fill you'd get "out of space"
+    errors.
+4.  Enable `moveonenospc` and set `minfreespace` appropriately. To
+    make sure there is enough room on the "slow" pool you might want
+    to set `minfreespace` to at least as large as the size of the
+    largest cache filesystem if not larger. This way in the worst case
+    the whole of the cache filesystem(s) can be moved to the other
+    drives.
+5.  Set your programs to use the 'cache' pool.
+6.  Save one of the below scripts or create you're own. The script's
+    responsibility is to move files from the cache filesystems (not
+    pool) to the 'base' pool.
+7.  Use `cron` (as root) to schedule the command at whatever frequency
+    is appropriate for your workflow.
+
+
+### time based expiring
+
+Move files from cache to base pool based only on the last time the
+file was accessed. Replace `-atime` with `-amin` if you want minutes
+rather than days. May want to use the `fadvise` / `--drop-cache`
+version of rsync or run rsync with the tool
+[nocache](https://github.com/Feh/nocache).
+
+**NOTE:** The arguments to these scripts include the cache
+**filesystem** itself. Not the pool with the cache filesystem. You
+could have data loss if the source is the cache pool.
+
+[mergerfs.time-based-mover](https://github.com/trapexit/mergerfs/blob/latest-release/tools/mergerfs.time-based-mover?raw=1)
+
+
+### percentage full expiring
+
+Move the oldest file from the cache to the backing pool. Continue till
+below percentage threshold.
+
+**NOTE:** The arguments to these scripts include the cache
+**filesystem** itself. Not the pool with the cache filesystem. You
+could have data loss if the source is the cache pool.
+
+[mergerfs.percent-full-mover](https://github.com/trapexit/mergerfs/blob/latest-release/tools/mergerfs.percent-full-mover?raw=1)

mkdocs/mkdocs.yml

@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ nav:
 - performance.md
 - benchmarking.md
 - tooling.md
+- usage_patterns.md
 - FAQ:
   - faq/reliability_and_scalability.md
   - faq/usage_and_functionality.md