Re: [RFC PATCH 0/5] Improve hugepage allocation success rates underload V3

From: Mel Gorman
Date: Thu Aug 09 2012 - 16:46:28 EST


On Thu, Aug 09, 2012 at 12:16:35PM -0600, Jim Schutt wrote:
> On 08/09/2012 07:49 AM, Mel Gorman wrote:
> >Changelog since V2
> >o Capture !MIGRATE_MOVABLE pages where possible
> >o Document the treatment of MIGRATE_MOVABLE pages while capturing
> >o Expand changelogs
> >
> >Changelog since V1
> >o Dropped kswapd related patch, basically a no-op and regresses if fixed (minchan)
> >o Expanded changelogs a little
> >
> >Allocation success rates have been far lower since 3.4 due to commit
> >[fe2c2a10: vmscan: reclaim at order 0 when compaction is enabled]. This
> >commit was introduced for good reasons and it was known in advance that
> >the success rates would suffer but it was justified on the grounds that
> >the high allocation success rates were achieved by aggressive reclaim.
> >Success rates are expected to suffer even more in 3.6 due to commit
> >[7db8889a: mm: have order> 0 compaction start off where it left] which
> >testing has shown to severely reduce allocation success rates under load -
> >to 0% in one case. There is a proposed change to that patch in this series
> >and it would be ideal if Jim Schutt could retest the workload that led to
> >commit [7db8889a: mm: have order> 0 compaction start off where it left].
>
> On my first test of this patch series on top of 3.5, I ran into an
> instance of what I think is the sort of thing that patch 4/5 was
> fixing. Here's what vmstat had to say during that period:
>
> <SNIP>

My conclusion looking at the vmstat data is that everything is looking ok
until system CPU usage goes through the roof. I'm assuming that's what we
are all still looking at.

I am still concerned that what patch 4/5 was actually doing was bypassing
compaction almost entirely in the contended case which "works" but not
exactly expected

> And here's a perf report, captured/displayed with
> perf record -g -a sleep 10
> perf report --sort symbol --call-graph fractal,5
> sometime during that period just after 12:00:09, when
> the run queueu was > 100.
>
> ----------
>
> Processed 0 events and LOST 1175296!
>
> <SNIP>
> #
> 34.63% [k] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave
> |
> |--97.30%-- isolate_freepages
> | compaction_alloc
> | unmap_and_move
> | migrate_pages
> | compact_zone
> | compact_zone_order
> | try_to_compact_pages
> | __alloc_pages_direct_compact
> | __alloc_pages_slowpath
> | __alloc_pages_nodemask
> | alloc_pages_vma
> | do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page
> | handle_mm_fault
> | do_page_fault
> | page_fault
> | |
> | |--87.39%-- skb_copy_datagram_iovec
> | | tcp_recvmsg
> | | inet_recvmsg
> | | sock_recvmsg
> | | sys_recvfrom
> | | system_call
> | | __recv
> | | |
> | | --100.00%-- (nil)
> | |
> | --12.61%-- memcpy
> --2.70%-- [...]

So lets just consider this. My interpretation of that is that we are
receiving data from the network and copying it into a buffer that is
faulted for the first time and backed by THP.

All good so far *BUT* we are contending like crazy on the zone lock and
probably blocking normal page allocations in the meantime.

>
> 14.31% [k] _raw_spin_lock_irq
> |
> |--98.08%-- isolate_migratepages_range

This is a variation of the same problem but on the LRU lock this time.

> <SNIP>
>
> ----------
>
> If I understand what this is telling me, skb_copy_datagram_iovec
> is responsible for triggering the calls to isolate_freepages_block,
> isolate_migratepages_range, and isolate_freepages?
>

Sortof. I do not think it's the jumbo frames that are doing it, it's the
faulting of the buffer it copies to.

> FWIW, I'm using a Chelsio T4 NIC in these hosts, with jumbo frames
> and the Linux TCP stack (i.e., no stateful TCP offload).
>

Ok, this is an untested hack and I expect it would drop allocation success
rates again under load (but not as much). Can you test again and see what
effect, if any, it has please?

---8<---
mm: compaction: back out if contended

---
include/linux/compaction.h | 4 ++--
mm/compaction.c | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
mm/internal.h | 1 +
mm/page_alloc.c | 13 +++++++++----
4 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/compaction.h b/include/linux/compaction.h
index 5673459..9c94cba 100644
--- a/include/linux/compaction.h
+++ b/include/linux/compaction.h
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ extern int sysctl_extfrag_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
extern int fragmentation_index(struct zone *zone, unsigned int order);
extern unsigned long try_to_compact_pages(struct zonelist *zonelist,
int order, gfp_t gfp_mask, nodemask_t *mask,
- bool sync, struct page **page);
+ bool sync, bool *contended, struct page **page);
extern int compact_pgdat(pg_data_t *pgdat, int order);
extern unsigned long compaction_suitable(struct zone *zone, int order);

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ static inline bool compaction_deferred(struct zone *zone, int order)
#else
static inline unsigned long try_to_compact_pages(struct zonelist *zonelist,
int order, gfp_t gfp_mask, nodemask_t *nodemask,
- bool sync, struct page **page)
+ bool sync, bool *contended, struct page **page)
{
return COMPACT_CONTINUE;
}
diff --git a/mm/compaction.c b/mm/compaction.c
index c2d0958..8e290d2 100644
--- a/mm/compaction.c
+++ b/mm/compaction.c
@@ -50,6 +50,27 @@ static inline bool migrate_async_suitable(int migratetype)
return is_migrate_cma(migratetype) || migratetype == MIGRATE_MOVABLE;
}

+/*
+ * Compaction requires the taking of some coarse locks that are potentially
+ * very heavily contended. For async compaction, back out in the event there
+ * is contention.
+ */
+static bool compact_trylock_irqsave(spinlock_t *lock, unsigned long *flags,
+ struct compact_control *cc)
+{
+ if (cc->sync) {
+ spin_lock_irqsave(lock, *flags);
+ } else {
+ if (!spin_trylock_irqsave(lock, *flags)) {
+ if (cc->contended)
+ *cc->contended = true;
+ return false;
+ }
+ }
+
+ return true;
+}
+
static void compact_capture_page(struct compact_control *cc)
{
unsigned long flags;
@@ -87,7 +108,8 @@ static void compact_capture_page(struct compact_control *cc)
continue;

/* Take the lock and attempt capture of the page */
- spin_lock_irqsave(&cc->zone->lock, flags);
+ if (!compact_trylock_irqsave(&cc->zone->lock, &flags, cc))
+ return;
if (!list_empty(&area->free_list[mtype])) {
page = list_entry(area->free_list[mtype].next,
struct page, lru);
@@ -514,7 +536,16 @@ static void isolate_freepages(struct zone *zone,
* are disabled
*/
isolated = 0;
- spin_lock_irqsave(&zone->lock, flags);
+
+ /*
+ * The zone lock must be held to isolate freepages. This
+ * unfortunately this is a very coarse lock and can be
+ * heavily contended if there are parallel allocations
+ * or parallel compactions. For async compaction do not
+ * spin on the lock
+ */
+ if (!compact_trylock_irqsave(&zone->lock, &flags, cc))
+ break;
if (suitable_migration_target(page)) {
end_pfn = min(pfn + pageblock_nr_pages, zone_end_pfn);
trace_mm_compaction_freepage_scanpfn(pfn);
@@ -837,8 +868,8 @@ out:
}

static unsigned long compact_zone_order(struct zone *zone,
- int order, gfp_t gfp_mask,
- bool sync, struct page **page)
+ int order, gfp_t gfp_mask, bool sync,
+ bool *contended, struct page **page)
{
struct compact_control cc = {
.nr_freepages = 0,
@@ -848,6 +879,7 @@ static unsigned long compact_zone_order(struct zone *zone,
.zone = zone,
.sync = sync,
.page = page,
+ .contended = contended,
};
INIT_LIST_HEAD(&cc.freepages);
INIT_LIST_HEAD(&cc.migratepages);
@@ -869,7 +901,7 @@ int sysctl_extfrag_threshold = 500;
*/
unsigned long try_to_compact_pages(struct zonelist *zonelist,
int order, gfp_t gfp_mask, nodemask_t *nodemask,
- bool sync, struct page **page)
+ bool sync, bool *contended, struct page **page)
{
enum zone_type high_zoneidx = gfp_zone(gfp_mask);
int may_enter_fs = gfp_mask & __GFP_FS;
@@ -889,7 +921,8 @@ unsigned long try_to_compact_pages(struct zonelist *zonelist,
nodemask) {
int status;

- status = compact_zone_order(zone, order, gfp_mask, sync, page);
+ status = compact_zone_order(zone, order, gfp_mask, sync,
+ contended, page);
rc = max(status, rc);

/* If a normal allocation would succeed, stop compacting */
diff --git a/mm/internal.h b/mm/internal.h
index 064f6ef..344b555 100644
--- a/mm/internal.h
+++ b/mm/internal.h
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@ struct compact_control {
int order; /* order a direct compactor needs */
int migratetype; /* MOVABLE, RECLAIMABLE etc */
struct zone *zone;
+ bool *contended; /* True if a lock was contended */
struct page **page; /* Page captured of requested size */
};

diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 781d6e4..75b30ea 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -2086,7 +2086,7 @@ __alloc_pages_direct_compact(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
struct zonelist *zonelist, enum zone_type high_zoneidx,
nodemask_t *nodemask, int alloc_flags, struct zone *preferred_zone,
int migratetype, bool sync_migration,
- bool *deferred_compaction,
+ bool *contended_compaction, bool *deferred_compaction,
unsigned long *did_some_progress)
{
struct page *page = NULL;
@@ -2101,7 +2101,8 @@ __alloc_pages_direct_compact(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,

current->flags |= PF_MEMALLOC;
*did_some_progress = try_to_compact_pages(zonelist, order, gfp_mask,
- nodemask, sync_migration, &page);
+ nodemask, sync_migration,
+ contended_compaction, &page);
current->flags &= ~PF_MEMALLOC;

/* If compaction captured a page, prep and use it */
@@ -2154,7 +2155,7 @@ __alloc_pages_direct_compact(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
struct zonelist *zonelist, enum zone_type high_zoneidx,
nodemask_t *nodemask, int alloc_flags, struct zone *preferred_zone,
int migratetype, bool sync_migration,
- bool *deferred_compaction,
+ bool *contended_compaction, bool *deferred_compaction,
unsigned long *did_some_progress)
{
return NULL;
@@ -2318,6 +2319,7 @@ __alloc_pages_slowpath(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order,
unsigned long did_some_progress;
bool sync_migration = false;
bool deferred_compaction = false;
+ bool contended_compaction = false;

/*
* In the slowpath, we sanity check order to avoid ever trying to
@@ -2399,6 +2401,7 @@ rebalance:
nodemask,
alloc_flags, preferred_zone,
migratetype, sync_migration,
+ &contended_compaction,
&deferred_compaction,
&did_some_progress);
if (page)
@@ -2411,7 +2414,8 @@ rebalance:
* has requested the system not be heavily disrupted, fail the
* allocation now instead of entering direct reclaim
*/
- if (deferred_compaction && (gfp_mask & __GFP_NO_KSWAPD))
+ if ((deferred_compaction || contended_compaction) &&
+ (gfp_mask & __GFP_NO_KSWAPD))
goto nopage;

/* Try direct reclaim and then allocating */
@@ -2482,6 +2486,7 @@ rebalance:
nodemask,
alloc_flags, preferred_zone,
migratetype, sync_migration,
+ &contended_compaction,
&deferred_compaction,
&did_some_progress);
if (page)

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