Documentation for a newer release is available. View Latest

Storage

Stratis 2.1.0

The latest version of the Stratis local storage management utility now supports per-pool encryption of devices that form a pool data tier. It is possible to encrypt the pool or to activate the pool’s individual encrypted devices using a key in the kernel keyring.

The stratisd daemon of version 2.1.0 provides the following new D-Bus interfaces:

  • org.storage.stratis2.manager.r1 - Provides an extended CreatePool method to support an optional argument for encryption. Also, it supplies a number of methods for key management.

  • org.storage.stratis2.pool.r1 - Supports explicit initialization of a cache tier. Also, it supports a new Encrypted property.

  • org.storage.stratis2.FetchProperties.r1 - Supports an additional HasCache property.

  • org.storage.stratis2.Report.r1 - Supports a set of ad-hoc reports about Stratis. The interface and the names by which the reports can be accessed are not stable. Any report is only in the JSON format.

The stratis command-line utility of version 2.1.0, requires stratisd of the same version. Users can observe the following changes in stratis:

  • The command for creating pools now allows also encryption.

  • New pool init_cache command for initializing a cache.

  • key is a new sub-command for key management tasks.

  • report is a new sub-command for displaying of reports generated by stratisd.

  • The output of the pool list command now includes a Properties column. Each entry in this column is a string encoding the following properties of the pool:

    • Whether or not it has a cache.

    • Whether or not it is encrypted.

  • All commands now verify that stratis is communicating with a compatible version of stratisd. If stratisd is of incompatible version, stratis will fail with an appropriate error.

The following are significant implementation details:

  • Each block device in an encrypted pool’s data tier is encrypted with a distinct, randomly chosen Media Encryption Key (MEK) on initialization.

  • All devices from a single encrypted pool share a single passphrase that is supplied through the kernel keyring.

  • This release requires the cryptsetup utility of version 2.3.

Storage Instantiation Daemon has been introduced

Storage Instantiation Daemon (SID) provides a system-level infrastructure for convenient handling of storage-device-related events through modules provided by other developers.

Fedora 33 introduces a package with SID. At first, this daemon will be disabled by default and will provide limited functionality. Further Fedora updates will enhance the SID functionality.

The general theme running across benefits of this Fedora update is centralization of solutions that address storage issues with udev.

This change brings the following benefits:

  • Identifying specific Linux storage devices and their dependencies

  • Collecting information and state tracking

  • Central infrastructure for storage event processing

  • Improving recognition of the storage events and their sequences

  • Centralized solution for delayed actions on storage devices and groups of devices

  • Single notion of device readiness shared among various storage subsystems

  • Enhanced possibilities to store and retrieve storage-device-related records when compared to the udev database

  • Centralized solution for scheduling triggers with associated actions defined on groups of storage devices

  • Direct support for generic device grouping

dmraid-activation.service no longer depends on systemd-udev-settle.service

The dmraid package is necessary for supporting firmware-based Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) sets of non-Intel® systems and Fedora only support these RAID sets when they are already configured in BIOS during the OS installation.

The dmraid package provides the dmraid-activation.service that required an obsoleted service systemd-udev-settle.service in the default Fedora installation. The systemd-udev-settle.service service waited a long time for detection of all devices. As a result, a system booting was significantly prolonged.

To solve this problem, dmraid-activation.service now disables itself if no supported RAID sets are found when the service runs for the first time.

Fedora Workstation now uses Btrfs by default

The default partitioning scheme on Fedora Workstation now uses Btrfs. See Distribution-wide Changes for more information.

Want to help? Learn how to contribute to Fedora Docs ›