[PATCH net-next] veth: set the real number of queues before registering the devices
From: Qiliang Yuan
Date: Fri Oct 16 2026 - 02:51:42 EST
Since commit 9d3684c24a52 ("veth: create by default nr_possible_cpus
queues"), each veth device is allocated with one rx and one tx queue
per possible CPU, and veth_newlink() reduces the real number of queues
to one unless the user asked for a number.
Both devices are already registered at that point, so
netif_set_real_num_tx_queues() and netif_set_real_num_rx_queues()
remove the sysfs objects of every extra queue that register_netdevice()
has just created, each one emitting an add and a remove uevent, and the
tx side also waits for an expedited RCU grace period. This happens with
RTNL held, twice per pair, and grows with the number of possible CPUs:
with 240 of them a veth pair emits about 1900 uevents, and udev
processing them slows down later sysfs work such as deleting devices.
Set the number of queues before registering each device. For a device
that is not registered yet this only updates the counters, so the extra
queues never appear in sysfs, and the error paths that undid a
registration are no longer needed.
Creating and then deleting 500 veth pairs, one ip -batch each, in a 16
vCPU guest, median of 3 runs, per pair:
before after
16 possible CPUs create 1644 us 520 us
delete 11822 us 9750 us
240 possible CPUs create 17253 us 1339 us
delete 17082 us 9941 us
uevents 1918 6
Signed-off-by: Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/net/veth.c | 20 ++++++++------------
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/net/veth.c b/drivers/net/veth.c
index 38f263d4f06b4..92ad064567327 100644
--- a/drivers/net/veth.c
+++ b/drivers/net/veth.c
@@ -1875,6 +1875,10 @@ static int veth_newlink(struct net_device *dev,
netif_inherit_tso_max(peer, dev);
+ err = veth_init_queues(peer, tb);
+ if (err)
+ goto err_register_peer;
+
err = register_netdevice(peer);
if (err < 0)
goto err_register_peer;
@@ -1904,6 +1908,10 @@ static int veth_newlink(struct net_device *dev,
else
snprintf(dev->name, IFNAMSIZ, DRV_NAME "%%d");
+ err = veth_init_queues(dev, tb);
+ if (err)
+ goto err_register_dev;
+
err = register_netdevice(dev);
if (err < 0)
goto err_register_dev;
@@ -1917,16 +1925,10 @@ static int veth_newlink(struct net_device *dev,
priv = netdev_priv(dev);
rcu_assign_pointer(priv->peer, peer);
netdev_hold(peer, &priv->peer_tracker, GFP_KERNEL);
- err = veth_init_queues(dev, tb);
- if (err)
- goto err_queues;
priv = netdev_priv(peer);
rcu_assign_pointer(priv->peer, dev);
netdev_hold(dev, &priv->peer_tracker, GFP_KERNEL);
- err = veth_init_queues(peer, tb);
- if (err)
- goto err_peer_queues;
veth_disable_gro(dev);
/* update XDP supported features */
@@ -1935,12 +1937,6 @@ static int veth_newlink(struct net_device *dev,
return 0;
-err_peer_queues:
- netdev_put(dev, &priv->peer_tracker);
- priv = netdev_priv(dev);
-err_queues:
- netdev_put(peer, &priv->peer_tracker);
- unregister_netdevice(dev);
err_register_dev:
/* nothing to do */
err_configure_peer:
---
base-commit: 6b3e73774815910a39d8ca75b9ad7df963f61d50
change-id: 20261016-bug-veth-init-queues-before-register-eebe763a01a7
Best regards,
--
Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@xxxxxxxxx>