Re: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V with dynamic memory enabled RE: [PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:

From: Victor Miasnikov
Date: Fri Mar 07 2014 - 04:51:38 EST


Hi!

VVM>>>>
VVM>>>> Question to Linux kernel team: may be patch
VVM>>>> >>> [PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context"
VVM>>>> can solve problems with dynamic memory hot add in Hyper-V VMs with Linux OS ?
VVM>>>>
K.Y.S>>>
K.Y.S>>> I will try to get my in-context onlining patches accepted upstream.
K.Y.S>>>

VVM>>
VVM>> Thanks! Feature dynamic memory hot add in Hyper-V VMs with Linux OS -- is very usefull for Hyper-V sysadmins
VVM> Stable work for this feature -- must be hi-priority task for developers
VVM>
+
B.W.>>
B.W.>> So can I expect to see this patched by the next kernel version?
B.W.>>


J.L.>
J.L.> I would hold your breath on this one.
J.L.>


J.L.>
J.L.> The maintainers of the memory subsystem has rejected the patch exposing certain functions
J.L.>

When?

Please resend to me message from maintainer with "reject"

(
I again search in my archive of messages from this mail list, and not found message[s],
about Brian Wong write
)

J.L.>
J.L.> so hv_balloon can online the newly added memory to the system.
J.L.> They think that having udev to handle such events is a better place.
J.L.>

Look like You read "Bug 979257" . . .


J.L.> And in case if somebody hasn't posted it here, this is the udev rule that KY has given to me in the past:
==
SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/sh -c '[ -f /sys$devpath/state ] && echo online > /sys$devpath/state'"
==

Add to Youre collection of udev rules:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/21519c00-47d4-44a4-b2d3-64cd3098849e/rhel-70-centos-70-rhel-65-centos-65-rhel-64-centos-64-include-support-for-hyperv?forum=linuxintegrationservices
==
Michael Kelley:
The VM crash . . . ( VVM: some details skipped by me ) should be fixed by adding the udev rule. The udev rule looks
like:
SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", DEVPATH=="/devices/system/memory/memory*[0-9]", TEST=="/sys$devpath/state",
RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo online > /sys$devpath/state'"


Nikolay Pushkarev:
Following rule works slightly faster for me (assuming that memory0 bank always in online state):

SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", DEVPATH=="/devices/system/memory/memory[1-9]*", RUN+="/bin/cp
/sys$devpath/../memory0/state /sys$devpath/state"
==


And another topic in russian:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ru-RU/addd8d0a-fe38-4679-b0be-c355e12b5b32/centos-65-?forum=virtualizationru
( But You can use Google translate service or vice versa )



Best regards, Victor Miasnikov
Blog: http://vvm.blog.tut.by/


----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Leung"
To: "Brian Wong"; "Victor Miasnikov" ; "KY Srinivasan" ( zzzzzzzzzz (at) microsoft.com ); linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: "Abhishek Gupta (LIS)" ( zzzzzzzzz (at) microsoft.com)
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 9:25 PM
Subject: RE: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V with dynamic memory enabled RE: [PATCH 2/2]
Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:


B.W.> So can I expect to see this patched by the next kernel version?

I would hold your breath on this one.
The maintainers of the memory subsystem has rejected the patch exposing certain functions
so hv_balloon can online the newly added memory to the system.
They think that having udev to handle such events is a better place.

And in case if somebody hasn't posted it here, this is the udev rule that KY has given to me in the past:

SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/sh -c '[ -f
/sys$devpath/state ] && echo online > /sys$devpath/state'"

--




----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Wong"
To: "Victor Miasnikov"; "KY Srinivasan" ( zzzzzzzzzz (at) microsoft.com ); linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: "Abhishek Gupta (LIS)" ( zzzzzzzzz (at) microsoft.com)
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 9:11 PM
Subject: Re: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V with dynamic memory enabled RE: [PATCH 2/2]
Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:


. . .

VVM>>>
VVM>>> Question to Linux kernel team: may be patch
VVM>>> >>> [PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context"
VVM>>> can solve problems with dynamic memory hot add in Hyper-V VMs with Linux OS ?
VVM>>>
K.Y.S>>
K.Y.S>> I will try to get my in-context onlining patches accepted upstream.
K.Y.S>>
VVM>
VVM> Thanks!
VVM>
VVM> Feature dynamic memory hot add in Hyper-V VMs with Linux OS -- is very usefull for Hyper-V sysadmins
VVM> Stable work for this feature -- must be hi-priority task for developers
VVM>


So can I expect to see this patched by the next kernel version?

--
Brian Wong
http://www.fierydragonlord.com
--





----- Original Message ----- From: "KY Srinivasan"
To: "Victor Miasnikov"; linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; "Brian Wong"
Cc: "Abhishek Gupta (LIS)"
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 1:23 PM
Subject: RE: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V with dynamic memory enabled RE: [PATCH 2/2]
Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:


Victor,

I will try to get my in-context onlining patches accepted upstream.

K. Y

-----Original Message-----
From: Victor Miasnikov [mailto:vvm@xxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, March 6, 2014 3:38 PM
To: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Brian Wong
Cc: Abhishek Gupta (LIS); KY Srinivasan
Subject: Re: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V
with dynamic memory enabled RE: [PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online
the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:



----- Original Message ----- From: "Victor Miasnikov"
To: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; "Brian Wong"
Cc: "Abhishek Gupta (LIS)" ( zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (at) microsoft.com>; "KY Srinivasan" zzzzzzzzzzz (at) microsoft.com
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 1:07 PM
Subject: Re: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V with dynamic memory enabled RE: [PATCH 2/2]
Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:

Hi!

Short:

Question to Linux kernel team:

may be patch

[PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context"

can solve problems with dynamic memory hot add in Hyper-V VMs with Linux OS ?



Full:

BW>> .., if I set the startup memory to 512 MB, and enable dynamic
BW>> memory with a minimum of 512 MB and a maximum of 8192 MB,
BW>> the system will never allocate than 512 MB of physical memory

BW>>
BW>> Have I encountered a bug in the Hyper-V balloon driver?
BW>>

Unfortunately, It's long story . . . :-(

a)

I already ( on January 09, 2014 2:18 PM ) write about problems with "Online the hot-added memory" in "user space" see
P.P.S.

b)

See

Bug 979257 -[Hyper-V][RHEL6.5][RFE]in-kernel online support for memory hot-add
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=979257

( Info from this topic may be interessant not only for RedHat users )


b2)

Detail about pathes related problem "Online the hot-added memory" in "user space" :

[PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context"


=== 0001-Drivers-base-memory-Export-functionality-for-in-kern.patch
. . .
+/*
+ * Given the start pfn of a memory block; bring the memory
+ * block online. This API would be useful for drivers that may
+ * want to bring "online" the memory that has been hot-added.
+ */
+
+int online_memory_block(unsigned long start_pfn) { struct mem_section
+*cur_section; struct memory_block *cur_memory_block;

. . .
===


==
. . .
== 0002-Drivers-hv-balloon-Online-the-hot-added-memory-in-co.patch
. . .
/*
- * Wait for the memory block to be onlined.
- * Since the hot add has succeeded, it is ok to
- * proceed even if the pages in the hot added region
- * have not been "onlined" within the allowed time.
+ * Before proceeding to hot add the next segment,
+ * online the segment that has been hot added.
*/
- wait_for_completion_timeout(&dm_device.ol_waitevent, 5*HZ);
+ online_memory_block(start_pfn);

}




c)

Before apply patches ( see in P.S. about native udev-script) we are need use one of this methods:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/8e1994b9-9ca1-4411-ad8e-25e6b1ee28e1/dynamic-memory-on-linux-vm?forum=linuxintegrationservices



c1)

"/bin/cp method" by Nikolay Pushkarev :

Following udev rule works slightly faster for me (assuming that memory0 bank always in online state):

SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", DEVPATH=="/devices/system/memory/memory[1-9]*",
RUN+="/bin/cp /sys$devpath/../memory0/state /sys$devpath/state"}}

( VVM : of course all need be place in one line, 2 line in this msg. -- only for good visual formating reasons )


c2)

udev rule using "putarg" by Nikolay Pushkarev :


Even "/bin/cp method" udev rule work time to time not as need :-(


As a result, Nikolay Pushkarev write a program putarg.c, that is even faster than "/bin/cp method" :

==
#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
int i, fd;
if (argc < 2) return 0;
if ((fd = open(argv[1], O_RDWR)) < 0) return 1;
for (i = 2; i < argc; i++) {
if (write(fd, argv[i], strlen(argv[i])) < 0) {
close(fd);
return i;
}
}
close(fd);
return 0;
}
==

The first argument - the name of the output file ,
and argument number 2 ( and all subsequent ( if exist ) ) - are text that are wiil be written in output file.


Compile source code to executable file by run command:
gcc -o putarg -s putarg.c

The resulting binary need be placed an accessible location , such as /usr/bin, or wherever you want.


Now udev rule using "putarg" can be written as :

SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/putarg /sys$devpath/state online"


This complex solutions ( compiled file and udev-rule ) works exceptionally fast.





Best regards, Victor Miasnikov
Blog: http://vvm.blog.tut.by/

P.S.

Nikolay Pushkarev about standart udev-script :

{{

Strange, that the native udev-script

SUBSYSTEM=="memory", ACTION=="add", ATTR{state}="online"


triggered somehow through time ( VVM: very often not work as need )


}}



P.P.S.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Victor Miasnikov"
To: "Dan Carpenter"; "K. Y. Srinivasan" ; <linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Greg KH" ; <devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <olaf (at) aepfle.de>; ""Andy Whitcroft"" <zzzzzzzzzzzz (at)
canonical.com>;
<jasowang (at) redhat.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 2:18 PM
Subject: RE: [PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context" Re: [PATCH 1/1] Drivers: hv:
Implement the file copy service


Hi!

Is there no way we could implement file copying in user space?


For "file copy service" "user space" may be pretty good

But I ( and other Hyper-V sysadmin) see non-Ok ( in "political correct" terminalogy) results with "hv: balloon: Online
the hot-added memory" in "user space"


==
[PATCH 2/2] Drivers: hv: balloon: Online the hot-added memory "in context"
==


What news? Roadmap?


Best regards, Victor Miasnikov
Blog: http://vvm.blog.tut.by/




P.P.S.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Brian Wong"
To: <linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: Linux does not use more than the startup RAM under Hyper-V with dynamic memory enabled


On 3/6/2014 1:20 AM, Brian Wong wrote:

. . .

The kernel is built with the full set of Hyper-V drivers, including the
key "Microsoft Hyper-V Balloon Driver" as well as memory hot-add and
hot-remove functionality. This is happening with both the Gentoo-patched
3.10.32 kernel and the vanilla 3.13.5 kernel. The host machine has a
total of 24 GB of memory.

For now, I am working around the issue by starting the VM with the
startup memory set to the maximum and letting Hyper-V take the usused
memory back when it is not in use. The VM will then get the extra memory
when it needs it.

Have I encountered a bug in the Hyper-V balloon driver?


. . .



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