Flexible data placement

At the 2025 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF) Kanchan Joshi and Keith Busch led a combined storage and filesystem session on data placement, which concerns how the data on a storage device is actually written. In a discussion that hearkened back to previous summits, the idea is to give hints to enterprise-class SSDs to help them make better choices on where the data should go; hinting was most recently discussed at the summit in 2023. If SSDs can group data with similar lifetimes together, it can lead to longer life for the devices, but there is a need to work out the details.

在 2025 年的 Linux 存储、文件系统、内存管理与 BPF 峰会（LSFMM+BPF）上，Kanchan Joshi 和 Keith Busch 主持了一场关于数据放置的联合存储与文件系统会议，探讨如何在存储设备上实际写入数据。这一话题曾在往届峰会中多次提及，讨论的核心是在企业级 SSD 上使用提示机制（hinting），以帮助设备更智能地决定数据的写入位置；最近一次关于 hinting 的讨论是在 2023 年的峰会。如果 SSD 能够将生命周期相近的数据聚合在一起，就有可能延长设备寿命，但这仍需进一步明确细节。

Joshi began by noting that the logical placement of data provided by the host system is not the same as the physical placement of it on the device. There is a question of where the placement decision is made; if there is a data creator and multiple layers between it and the device (e.g. filesystem, device mapper), it is the piece that is closest to the device that ultimately decides where the data goes, he said. Currently, data is generally written sequentially because there is a single append point in a single open erase block on the device.

Joshi 指出，主机系统所提供的数据逻辑放置位置并不等同于设备上的物理放置位置。他提出了一个问题：写入数据的位置决定权究竟由谁做出？如果在数据创建者和设备之间存在多个层次（如文件系统、设备映射器等），那么最终决定数据放置位置的是最接近设备的那个层。他补充说，目前数据通常是顺序写入的，因为设备上只有一个打开的擦除块，且只有一个追加点。

Flexible data placement (FDP) is an NVMe SSD feature that allows writes to be tagged to indicate whether they should be grouped together or not. SSDs with FDP can have multiple append points in separate erase blocks in order to group the data based on its tag. It is not an error to write untagged data or with an invalid tag, however. It is an open question whether the applications or the layers between, like filesystems, should be deciding which tags to apply; the device itself does not care, but if the data is tagged, it "can get grouped as originally intended", Joshi said.

灵活数据放置（FDP）是 NVMe SSD 的一项特性，它允许写入数据时附带标签，以指示这些数据是否应被归为一组。支持 FDP 的 SSD 可在不同的擦除块中设有多个追加点，从而根据标签对数据进行归类。不过，写入未打标签或标签无效的数据并不会报错。目前仍存在争议的是，应由应用程序还是诸如文件系统之类的中间层来决定应用哪个标签；Joshi 表示，设备本身并不关心这些标签，但如果打上了标签，数据“就可以按照预期的方式进行分组”。

Busch said that SSDs generally have a lot of resources to do things in parallel, but that "without any hints, it's not going to know what the separation should be". Hints would allow multiple applications to be writing without sharing the resources. These hints will also help reduce write amplification because data with the same lifetime can be placed (and updated or erased) together.

Busch 表示，SSD 通常拥有丰富的资源以支持并行操作，但“如果没有提示机制，它就无法知道应如何区分数据”。使用提示机制可以让多个应用程序并行写入而不共享资源。这些提示还有助于减少写放大效应，因为具有相同生命周期的数据可以被集中放置（并被统一更新或擦除）。

Josef Bacik sa