Implement Virtual A/B

To implement virtual A/B on a new device, or to retrofit a launched device, you must make changes to device-specific code.

Build flags

Devices that use virtual A/B must be configured as an A/B device and must launch with dynamic partitions.

For devices launching with virtual A/B, set them to inherit the virtual A/B device base configuration:

$(call inherit-product, \
    $(SRC_TARGET_DIR)/product/virtual_ab_ota.mk)

Devices launching with virtual A/B need only half as much board size for BOARD_SUPER_PARTITION_SIZE because B slots are no longer in super. That is, BOARD_SUPER_PARTITION_SIZE must be greater than or equal to sum(size of update groups) + overhead, which, in turn, must be greater than or equal to sum(size of partitions) + overhead.

For Android 13 and higher, to enable compressed snapshots with Virtual A/B, inherit the following base configuration:

$(call inherit-product, $(SRC_TARGET_DIR)/product/generic_ramdisk.mk)
$(call inherit-product, \
    $(SRC_TARGET_DIR)/product/virtual_ab_ota/vabc_features.mk)

This enables userspace snapshots with Virtual A/B while using a no-op compression method. You can then configure the compression method to one of the supported methods,zstd and lz4. For Android 15, compression can be further customized to match device needs. For further information, see Fine tuning compression.

PRODUCT_VIRTUAL_AB_COMPRESSION_METHOD := lz4
PRODUCT_VIRTUAL_AB_COMPRESSION_FACTOR := 65536

For Android 12, to enable compressed snapshots with Virtual A/B, inherit the following base configuration:

$(call inherit-product, $(SRC_TARGET_DIR)/product/generic_ramdisk.mk)
$(call inherit-product, \
    $(SRC_TARGET_DIR)/product/virtual_ab_ota/compression.mk)

XOR compression

For devices upgrading to Android 13 and higher, the XOR compression feature isn't enabled by default. To enable XOR compression, add the following to the device's .mk file.

PRODUCT_VENDOR_PROPERTIES += ro.virtual_ab.compression.xor.enabled=true

XOR compression is enabled by default for devices that inherit from android_t_baseline.mk.

Userspace merge

In the modern version of Virtual A/B (Android T and after), the snapshot merge process happens entirely in userspace. This change is made possible by snapuserd and dm-user. Devices launching with android 13 and higher have userspace merge enabled by default and for older devices upgrading, this property can be set with the following:

PRODUCT_VENDOR_PROPERTIES += ro.virtual_ab.userspace.snapshots.enabled=true

Boot control HAL

The boot control HAL provides an interface for OTA clients to control boot slots. Virtual A/B requires a minor version upgrade of the boot control HAL because additional APIs are needed to ensure bootloader is protected during flashing or factory reset. See IBootControl.hal and types.hal for the latest version of the HAL definition.

// hardware/interfaces/boot/1.1/types.hal
enum MergeStatus : uint8_t {
    NONE, UNKNOWN, SNAPSHOTTED, MERGING, CANCELLED };

// hardware/interfaces/boot/1.1/IBootControl.hal
package android.hardware.boot@1.1;
interface IBootControl extends @1.0::IBootControl {
    setSnapshotMergeStatus(MergeStatus status)
        generates (bool success);
    getSnapshotMergeStatus()
        generates (MergeStatus status);
}

// Recommended implementation

Return<bool> BootControl::setSnapshotMergeStatus(MergeStatus v) {
    // Write value to persistent storage
    // e.g. misc partition (using libbootloader_message)
    // bootloader rejects wipe when status is SNAPSHOTTED
    // or MERGING
}

Fstab changes

The integrity of the metadata partition is essential to the boot process, especially right after an OTA update is applied. So, the metadata partition must be checked before first_stage_init mounts it. To ensure this happens, add the check fs_mgr flag to the entry for /metadata. The following provides an example:

/dev/block/by-name/metadata /metadata ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,discard,sync wait,formattable,first_stage_mount,check

Kernel requirements

To enable snapshotting, set CONFIG_DM_SNAPSHOT to true.

For devices using F2FS, include the f2fs: export FS_NOCOW_FL flag to user kernel patch to fix file pinning. Include the f2fs: support aligned pinned file kernel patch as well.

Virtual A/B relies on features added in kernel version 4.3: the overflow status bit in the snapshot and snapshot-merge targets. All devices launching with Android 9 and later should already have kernel version 4.4 or later.

To enable compressed snapshots, the minimum supported kernel version is 4.19. Set CONFIG_DM_USER=m or CONFIG_DM_USER=y. If using the former (a module), the module must be loaded in the first-stage ramdisk. This can be achieved by adding the following line to the device Makefile:

BOARD_GENERIC_RAMDISK_KERNEL_MODULES_LOAD := dm-user.ko

Fastboot tooling changes

Android 11 makes the following changes to the fastboot protocol:

  • getvar snapshot-update-status — Returns the value that the boot control HAL communicated to the bootloader:
    • If the state is MERGING, the bootloader must return merging.
    • If the state is SNAPSHOTTED, the bootloader must return snapshotted.
    • Otherwise, the bootloader must return none.
  • snapshot-update merge — Completes a merge operation, booting to recovery/fastbootd if necessary. This command is valid only if snapshot-update-status is merging, and is only supported in fastbootd.
  • snapshot-update cancel — Sets the boot control HAL's merge status to CANCELLED. This command is invalid when the device is locked.
  • erase or wipe — An erase or wipe of metadata, userdata, or a partition holding the merge status for the boot control HAL should check the snapshot merge status. If the status is MERGING or SNAPSHOTTED, the device should abort the operation.
  • set_active — A set_active command that changes the active slot should check the snapshot merge status. If the status is MERGING, the device should abort the operation. The slot can safely be changed in the SNAPSHOTTED state.

These changes are designed to prevent accidentally making a device unbootable, but they can be disruptive to automated tooling. When the commands are used as a component of flashing all partitions, such as running fastboot flashall, it's recommended to use the following flow:

  1. Query getvar snapshot-update-status.
  2. If merging or snapshotted, issue snapshot-update cancel.
  3. Proceed with flashing steps.

Reduce storage requirements

Devices that don't have full A/B storage allocated in super, and are expecting to use /data as necessary, are strongly recommended to use the block mapping tool. The block mapping tool keeps block allocation consistent between builds, reducing unnecessary writes to the snapshot. This is documented under Reducing OTA Size.

OTA compression algorithms

OTA packages can be tuned for different performance metrics. Android provides several supported compression methods (lz4, zstd, and none) that have tradeoffs between install time, COW space usage, boot time, and snapshot merge time. The default option enabled for virtual ab with compression is the lz4 compression method.

Fine tuning compression

Compression algorithms can be further customized through two methods: (compression level) (the amount of compression achieved at the expense of speed) and (compression factor) (the maximum compressible window size). Compression level is available to certain algorithms such as zstd, and changing the level incurs a tradeoff between speed and compression ratio. Compression factor describes the maximum compression window size used during OTA installation. The default is set at 64k, but can be overridden by customizing the build parameter PRODUCT_VIRTUAL_AB_COMPRESSION_FACTOR. Supported compression factors 4k, 8k, 16k, 32k, 64k, 128k and 256k.

PRODUCT_VIRTUAL_AB_COMPRESSION_FACTOR := 65536

Incremental OTA on Pixel 8 Pro

Install time w/o postinstall phase COW Space Usage Post OTA boot time Snapshot merge time
lz4 18 min 15s 2.5 GB 32.7 sec 98.6 sec
zstd 24 min 49s 2.05 GB 36.3 sec 133.2 sec
none 16 min 42s 4.76 GB 28.7 sec 76.6 sec

Full OTA on Pixel 8 Pro

Install time w/o postinstall phase COW Space Usage Post OTA boot time Snapshot merge time
lz4 15 min 11s 4.16 GB 17.6 sec 82.2 sec
zstd 16 min 19s 3.46 GB 21.0 sec 106.3 sec
none 13 min 33s 6.39 GB 18.5 sec 92.5 sec