Micron Working On NVMe SSD Abrupt Shutdown Support For Linux

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Micron Working On NVMe SSD Abrupt Shutdown Support For Linux

The NVMe specification provides for an abrupt shutdown mode over the normal/safe shutdown command if needing to quickly get the NVMe solid-state storage ready for powering off as quickly as possible. Currently the Linux kernel isn't making use of the NVMe abrupt shutdown command but a proposal by Micron is looking to begin its usage...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVMe-Abrupt-Shutdown-Linux

[bachchain]

Admittedly, I don't have much experience in enterprise environments, but I feel like if your super-important system's emergency backup doesn't last long enough to do a normal shutdown, the solution shouldn't be to add a "mostly harmless" storage shutdown protocol

[pkunk]

Admittedly, I don't have much experience in enterprise environments, but I feel like if your super-important system's emergency backup doesn't last long enough to do a normal shutdown, the solution shouldn't be to add a "mostly harmless" storage shutdown protocol

Can be variation on crash-only architecture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash-only_software

[stormcrow]

Admittedly, I don't have much experience in enterprise environments, but I feel like if your super-important system's emergency backup doesn't last long enough to do a normal shutdown, the solution shouldn't be to add a "mostly harmless" storage shutdown protocol

Laptops. You make it seem like people are 100% attentive here. They aren't.

[bachchain]

Laptops. You make it seem like people are 100% attentive here. They aren't.

A laptop should know well in advance when it's going to run out of power. Besides, my laptop running Linux can do a full clean shutdown within four seconds.

[xxmitsu]

A laptop should know well in advance when it's going to run out of power. Besides, my laptop running Linux can do a full clean shutdown within four seconds.

Perhaps is for situations where there is some level of battery wear.

[OneTimeShot]

I thought SSDs had capacitors in them to deal with power failures? What does this add?

[CommunityMember]

I thought SSDs had capacitors in them to deal with power failures? What does this add?

Some (and the keyword here is some) SSD/NVMe devices have full power failure protection (sometimes referred to as Super Capacitors) to insure that any final writes are complete, and the device will not corrupt other flash memory lines or system state (sometimes effectively bricking the device or in loss of data on the device) when power fails. Those devices tend to Enterprise qualified devices, with the expected pricing premium. The compromise for consumer pricing in recent generation devices is that when power fails the devices will try to not corrupt the system state, but that says nothing about the state of the flash memory line (and the filesystem on it), although some vendors will market that (incorrectly) as handling power failures.

Having any additional hint to flush the buffers before the power is abruptly pulled can only be a good thing. Of course, not all controllers will properly support such, but if they do, your data may thank you.

[Developer12]

A laptop should know well in advance when it's going to run out of power. Besides, my laptop running Linux can do a full clean shutdown within four seconds.

Laptop battery calibration, especially on older batteries or ones that haven't been discharged in a while, is a joke. Best to get the storage device ready in case of an abrupt failure.

[Developer12]

Admittedly, I don't have much experience in enterprise environments, but I feel like if your super-important system's emergency backup doesn't last long enough to do a normal shutdown, the solution shouldn't be to add a "mostly harmless" storage shutdown protocol

1) batteries cost money
2) accidents (or strange situations) happen