[PATCH v4 0/4] Make alloc_contig_range handle Hugetlb pages

From: Oscar Salvador
Date: Wed Mar 10 2021 - 10:09:53 EST


v3 -> v4:
- Addressed some feedback from David and Michal
- Make more clear what hugetlb_lock protects in isolate_or_dissolve_huge_page
- Start reporting proper error codes from isolate_migratepages_{range,block}
- Bail out earlier in __alloc_contig_migrate_range on -ENOMEM
- Addressed internal feedback from Vastlimil wrt. compaction code changes

v2 -> v3:
- Drop usage of high-level generic helpers in favour of
low-level approach (per Michal)
- Check for the page to be marked as PageHugeFreed
- Add a one-time retry in case someone grabbed the free huge page
from under us

v1 -> v2:
- Adressed feedback by Michal
- Restrict the allocation to a node with __GFP_THISNODE
- Drop PageHuge check in alloc_and_dissolve_huge_page
- Re-order comments in isolate_or_dissolve_huge_page
- Extend comment in isolate_migratepages_block
- Place put_page right after we got the page, otherwise
dissolve_free_huge_page will fail

RFC -> v1:
- Drop RFC
- Addressed feedback from David and Mike
- Fence off gigantic pages as there is a cyclic dependency between
them and alloc_contig_range
- Re-organize the code to make race-window smaller and to put
all details in hugetlb code
- Drop nodemask initialization. First a node will be tried and then we
will back to other nodes containing memory (N_MEMORY). Details in
patch#1's changelog
- Count new page as surplus in case we failed to dissolve the old page
and the new one. Details in patch#1.

Cover letter:

alloc_contig_range lacks the hability for handling HugeTLB pages.
This can be problematic for some users, e.g: CMA and virtio-mem, where those
users will fail the call if alloc_contig_range ever sees a HugeTLB page, even
when those pages lay in ZONE_MOVABLE and are free.
That problem can be easily solved by replacing the page in the free hugepage
pool.

In-use HugeTLB are no exception though, as those can be isolated and migrated
as any other LRU or Movable page.

This patchset aims for improving alloc_contig_range->isolate_migratepages_block,
so HugeTLB pages can be recognized and handled.

Since we also need to start reporting errors down the chain (e.g: -ENOMEM due to
not be able to allocate a new hugetlb page), isolate_migratepages_{range,block}
interfaces need to change to start reporting error codes instead of the pfn == 0
vs pfn != 0 scheme it is using right now.
From now on, isolate_migratepages_block will not return the next pfn to be scanned
anymore, but -EINTR, -ENOMEM or 0, so we the next pfn to be scanned will be recorded
in cc->migrate_pfn field (as it is already done in isolate_migratepages_range()).

Below is an insight from David (thanks), where the problem can clearly be seen:

"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"

And then with this patchset running:

"Same experiment with ZONE_MOVABLE:

a) Free huge pages: all memory can get unplugged again.

b) Allocated/populated but idle huge pages: all memory can get unplugged
again.

c) Allocated/populated but all 512 huge pages are read/written in a
loop: all memory can get unplugged again, but I get a single

[ 121.192345] alloc_contig_range: [180000, 188000) PFNs busy

Most probably because it happened to try migrating a huge page while it
was busy. As virtio-mem retries on ZONE_MOVABLE a couple of times, it
can deal with this temporary failure.

Last but not least, I did something extreme:

# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 5061568 kB
MemFree: 186560 kB
MemAvailable: 354524 kB
...
HugePages_Total: 2048
HugePages_Free: 2048
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0

Triggering unplug would require to dissolve+alloc - which now fails when
trying to allocate an additional ~512 huge pages (1G).

As expected, I can properly see memory unplug not fully succeeding. + I
get a fairly continuous stream of

[ 226.611584] alloc_contig_range: [19f400, 19f800) PFNs busy
...

But more importantly, the hugepage count remains stable, as configured
by the admin (me):

HugePages_Total: 2048
HugePages_Free: 2048
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0"

Oscar Salvador (4):
mm,page_alloc: Bail out earlier on -ENOMEM in
alloc_contig_migrate_range
mm,compaction: Let isolate_migratepages_{range,block} return error
codes
mm: Make alloc_contig_range handle free hugetlb pages
mm: Make alloc_contig_range handle in-use hugetlb pages

include/linux/hugetlb.h | 7 +++
mm/compaction.c | 89 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
mm/hugetlb.c | 125 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
mm/internal.h | 2 +-
mm/page_alloc.c | 15 ++++--
mm/vmscan.c | 5 +-
6 files changed, 209 insertions(+), 34 deletions(-)

--
2.16.3