[PATCH v3 0/5] ceph: reduce mdsc->mutex contention in the cephfs kclient
From: Xiubo Li via B4 Relay
Date: Tue Aug 11 2026 - 01:18:40 EST
This series reduces mdsc->mutex hold times from hundreds of
microseconds to tens of microseconds on the hot request-submit and
reply-handling paths.
The approach is incremental:
1. Convert oldest_tid to atomic64_t so that __prepare_send_request()
and __send_request() no longer need the mutex.
2. Replace the request_tree rbtree with an xarray for O(1) lookups
and internally-locked iteration.
3. Add a dedicated wait_list_lock spinlock so wait-list operations
no longer depend on the global mutex.
4. Move mdsc->mutex acquisition inside __do_request(), then release
it during the send phase (message construction and path walking),
leaving only the brief setup/teardown under the lock.
5. Narrow the mutex scope in replay_unsafe_requests() similarly.
Tested with concurrent readdir + stat on a 5000-file directory
(32 threads). bpftrace measurements show:
before after
__do_request 354-2327 us 10-68 us (34x)
handle_reply 51-416 us 10-32 us (13x)
submit_request 89-211 us 10-41 us (5x)
Benchmark results from test_i_caps (aggregate cache test):
| Test | Before | After | Improvement |
|---------------------|----------|----------|-------------|
| stat storm ST | 692k/s | 1,420k/s | +105% (2.1x)|
| stat storm MT | 722k/s | 1,373k/s | +90% (1.9x)|
| open/close | 403k/s | 524k/s | +30% |
| stat hot (cache) | 353k/s | 540k/s | +53% |
| readdir | 877/s | 832/s | ~0% |
| Total time | 195s | 121s | -38% (1.6x)|
The 2x stat throughput gain comes from __do_request() no longer
holding mdsc->mutex during the __send_request() phase, so dentry
path walking and message encoding in create_request_message()
run outside the lock.
No functional changes intended.
Signed-off-by: Xiubo Li <xiubo.li@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v3:
- Restrict CEPH_FS to 64BIT to prevent xarray index truncation of
u64 transaction IDs on 32-bit platforms, instead of the previous
#if BITS_PER_LONG guard. There are no 32-bit users.
The survey: https://lore.kernel.org/ceph-devel/CAOJNxR+XiUxR1GNUgd8T18x2KH8kstWtpxwL-mwwE0i_qospJA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/T/#t
- Fix two plain reads of oldest_tid in the writer paths to use
READ_ONCE() for consistency with the lockless read side.
- Replace the original replay_unsafe_requests() change with a
proper collect-then-replay pattern: unsafe list entries and
matching old xarray entries are gathered under the mutex with a
reference taken, then replayed outside it. Taking a reference
ensures a concurrent reply handler cannot free an entry out
from under the local-list iterator.
- Rewrite all commit messages as descriptive prose, focusing on
the problem and the approach rather than enumerating modified
functions.
- Link to v2: https://patch.msgid.link/20260715-ceph-mdsc-mutex-optimization-v2-0-90e81b726724@xxxxxxxxx
Changes in v2:
- Add xa_store() error handling and bail out on failure in the submit path
- Guard xarray conversion with BITS_PER_LONG==64, fall back to rbtree on 32-bit
- Fix missing mutex_unlock on early-return path in __do_request()
- Move mutex_unlock before __wake_requests() and kick_requests() calls to
avoid recursive lock acquisition
- Pin requests with ceph_mdsc_get_request() across lockless __send_request()
in replay_unsafe_requests() to prevent use-after-free
- Keep mdsc->mutex held on 32-bit for rb_first()/rb_next() iteration in
replay_unsafe_requests()
- Drop stale "called under mdsc->mutex" comment on __wake_requests()
- Add benchmark results from test_i_caps (2.1x stat throughput improvement)
- Link to v1: https://patch.msgid.link/20260713-ceph-mdsc-mutex-optimization-v1-0-9ae5ac135c34@xxxxxxxxx
To: Ilya Dryomov <idryomov@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Alex Markuze <amarkuze@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Viacheslav Dubeyko <slava@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: ceph-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---
Xiubo Li (5):
ceph: use READ_ONCE/WRITE_ONCE for oldest_tid
ceph: replace the request_tree rbtree with an xarray keyed by r_tid
ceph: add wait_list_lock for wait-list serialization
ceph: move mdsc->mutex into __do_request()
ceph: narrow mdsc->mutex scope in replay_unsafe_requests
fs/ceph/Kconfig | 1 +
fs/ceph/debugfs.c | 6 +-
fs/ceph/mds_client.c | 253 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------
fs/ceph/mds_client.h | 6 +-
4 files changed, 154 insertions(+), 112 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 30c0913a2b44a66dc17283a88489b3f3e12f4327
change-id: 20260713-ceph-mdsc-mutex-optimization-7e74ab6bbc8b
Best regards,
--
Xiubo Li <xiubo.li@xxxxxxxxx>