Re: [PATCH 1/2] mm: Make alloc_contig_range handle free hugetlb pages

From: David Hildenbrand
Date: Wed Feb 17 2021 - 09:10:16 EST


On 17.02.21 14:59, Michal Hocko wrote:
On Wed 17-02-21 14:53:37, David Hildenbrand wrote:
On 17.02.21 14:50, Michal Hocko wrote:
[...]
Do we have any real life examples? Or does this fall more into, let's
optimize an existing implementation category.


It's a big TODO item I have on my list and I am happy that Oscar is looking
into it. So yes, I noticed it while working on virtio-mem. It's real.

Do not take me wrong, I am not opposing to the functionality. I am
asking for the specific usecase.

Makes sense, and a proper motivation should be included in the patches/cover letter. So here comes a quick-n-dirty example:


Start a VM with 4G. Hotplug 1G via virtio-mem and online it to ZONE_MOVABLE. Allocate 512 huge pages.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 5061512 kB
MemFree: 3319396 kB
MemAvailable: 3457144 kB
...
HugePages_Total: 512
HugePages_Free: 512
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB


The huge pages get partially allocate from ZONE_MOVABLE. Try unplugging 1G via virtio-mem (remember, all ZONE_MOVABLE). Inside the guest:

[ 180.058992] alloc_contig_range: [1b8000, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.060531] alloc_contig_range: [1b8000, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.061972] alloc_contig_range: [1b8000, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.063413] alloc_contig_range: [1b8000, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.064838] alloc_contig_range: [1b8000, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.065848] alloc_contig_range: [1bfc00, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.066794] alloc_contig_range: [1bfc00, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.067738] alloc_contig_range: [1bfc00, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.068669] alloc_contig_range: [1bfc00, 1c0000) PFNs busy
[ 180.069598] alloc_contig_range: [1bfc00, 1c0000) PFNs busy


I succeed in unplugging 540MB - 484 MB remain blocked by huge pages ("which did not end up there by pure luck"). These pages are movable (and even free!) and can easily be reallocated.

--
Thanks,

David / dhildenb