Re: [PATCH 1/3] Reintroduce zone_reclaim_interval for when zone_reclaim() scans and fails to avoid CPU spinning at 100% on NUMA

From: KOSAKI Motohiro
Date: Tue Jun 09 2009 - 04:45:23 EST


Hi

> > > @@ -1192,6 +1192,15 @@ static struct ctl_table vm_table[] = {
> > > .extra1 = &zero,
> > > },
> > > {
> > > + .ctl_name = CTL_UNNUMBERED,
> > > + .procname = "zone_reclaim_interval",
> > > + .data = &zone_reclaim_interval,
> > > + .maxlen = sizeof(zone_reclaim_interval),
> > > + .mode = 0644,
> > > + .proc_handler = &proc_dointvec_jiffies,
> > > + .strategy = &sysctl_jiffies,
> > > + },
> >
> > hmmm, I think nobody can know proper interval settings on his own systems.
> > I agree with Wu. It can be hidden.
> >
>
> For the few users that case, I expect the majority of those will choose
> either 0 or the default value of 30. They might want to alter this while
> setting zone_reclaim_mode if they don't understand the different values
> it can have for example.
>
> My preference would be that this not exist at all but the
> scan-avoidance-heuristic has to be perfect to allow that.

Ah, I didn't concern interval==0. thanks.
I can ack this now, but please add documentation about interval==0 meaning?




> > > @@ -2414,6 +2426,16 @@ int zone_reclaim(struct zone *zone, gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order)
> > > ret = __zone_reclaim(zone, gfp_mask, order);
> > > zone_clear_flag(zone, ZONE_RECLAIM_LOCKED);
> > >
> > > + if (!ret) {
> > > + /*
> > > + * We were unable to reclaim enough pages to stay on node and
> > > + * unable to detect in advance that the scan would fail. Allow
> > > + * off node accesses for zone_reclaim_inteval jiffies before
> > > + * trying zone_reclaim() again
> > > + */
> > > + zone->zone_reclaim_failure = jiffies;
> >
> > Oops, this simple assignment don't care jiffies round-trip.
> >
>
> Here it is just recording the jiffies value. The real smarts with the counter
> use time_before() which I assumed could handle jiffie wrap-arounds. Even
> if it doesn't, the consequence is that one scan will occur that could have
> been avoided around the time of the jiffie wraparound. The value will then
> be reset and it will be fine.

time_before() assume two argument are enough nearly time.
if we use 32bit cpu and HZ=1000, about jiffies wraparound about one month.

Then,

1. zone reclaim failure occur
2. system works fine for one month
3. jiffies wrap and time_before() makes mis-calculation.

I think.



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