[PATCH 07/13] dynamically allocate a capped number of skbs when necessary

From: Ed L. Cashin
Date: Thu Dec 20 2007 - 17:18:40 EST

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What this Patch Does

Even before this recent series of 12 patches to 2.6.22-rc4, the aoe
driver was reusing a small set of skbs that were allocated once and
were only used for outbound AoE commands.

The network layer cannot be allowed to put_page on the data that is
still associated with a bio we haven't returned to the block layer,
so the aoe driver (even before the patch under discussion) is still
the owner of skbs that have been handed to the network layer for
transmission. We need to keep track of these skbs so that we can
free them, but by tracking them, we can also easily re-use them.

The new patch was a response to the behavior of certain network
drivers. We cannot reuse an skb that the network driver still has
in its transmit ring. Network drivers can defer transmit ring
cleanup and then use the state in the skb to determine how many data
segments to clean up in its transmit ring. The tg3 driver is one
driver that behaves in this way.

When the network driver defers cleanup of its transmit ring, the aoe
driver can find itself in a situation where it would like to send an
AoE command, and the AoE target is ready for more work, but the
network driver still has all of the pre-allocated skbs. In that
case, the new patch just calls alloc_skb, as you'd expect.

We don't want to get carried away, though. We try not to do
excessive allocation in the write path, so we cap the number of skbs
we dynamically allocate.

Probably calling it a "dynamic pool" is misleading. We were already
trying to use a small fixed-size set of pre-allocated skbs before
this patch, and this patch just provides a little headroom (with a
ceiling, though) to accomodate network drivers that hang onto skbs,
by allocating when needed. The d->skbpool_hd list of allocated skbs
is necessary so that we can free them later.

We didn't notice the need for this headroom until AoE targets got
fast enough.

Alternatives

If the network layer never did a put_page on the pages in the bio's
we get from the block layer, then it would be possible for us to
hand skbs to the network layer and forget about them, allowing the
network layer to free skbs itself (and thereby calling our own
skb->destructor callback function if we needed that). In that case
we could get rid of the pre-allocated skbs and also the
d->skbpool_hd, instead just calling alloc_skb every time we wanted
to transmit a packet. The slab allocator would effectively maintain
the list of skbs.

Besides a loss of CPU cache locality, the main concern with that
approach the danger that it would increase the likelihood of
deadlock when VM is trying to free pages by writing dirty data from
the page cache through the aoe driver out to persistent storage on
an AoE device. Right now we have a situation where we have
pre-allocation that corresponds to how much we use, which seems
ideal.

Of course, there's still the separate issue of receiving the packets
that tell us that a write has successfully completed on the AoE
target. When memory is low and VM is using AoE to flush dirty data
to free up pages, it would be perfect if there were a way for us to
register a fast callback that could recognize write command
completion responses. But I don't think the current problems with
the receive side of the situation are a justification for
exacerbating the problem on the transmit side.

Signed-off-by: Ed L. Cashin <ecashin@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/block/aoe/aoe.h | 5 ++
drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c | 117 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
drivers/block/aoe/aoedev.c | 52 +++++++++++++++++---
3 files changed, 133 insertions(+), 41 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/block/aoe/aoe.h b/drivers/block/aoe/aoe.h
index 2248ab2..67ef4d7 100644
--- a/drivers/block/aoe/aoe.h
+++ b/drivers/block/aoe/aoe.h
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ enum {
MIN_BUFS = 16,
NTARGETS = 8,
NAOEIFS = 8,
+ NSKBPOOLMAX = 128,

TIMERTICK = HZ / 10,
MINTIMER = HZ >> 2,
@@ -138,6 +139,7 @@ struct aoetgt {
u16 useme;
ulong lastwadj; /* last window adjustment */
int wpkts, rpkts;
+ int dataref;
};

struct aoedev {
@@ -159,6 +161,9 @@ struct aoedev {
spinlock_t lock;
struct sk_buff *sendq_hd; /* packets needing to be sent, list head */
struct sk_buff *sendq_tl;
+ struct sk_buff *skbpool_hd;
+ struct sk_buff *skbpool_tl;
+ int nskbpool;
mempool_t *bufpool; /* for deadlock-free Buf allocation */
struct list_head bufq; /* queue of bios to work on */
struct buf *inprocess; /* the one we're currently working on */
diff --git a/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c b/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c
index 1be5150..b49e06e 100644
--- a/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c
+++ b/drivers/block/aoe/aoecmd.c
@@ -106,45 +106,104 @@ ifrotate(struct aoetgt *t)
}
}

+static void
+skb_pool_put(struct aoedev *d, struct sk_buff *skb)
+{
+ if (!d->skbpool_hd)
+ d->skbpool_hd = skb;
+ else
+ d->skbpool_tl->next = skb;
+ d->skbpool_tl = skb;
+}
+
+static struct sk_buff *
+skb_pool_get(struct aoedev *d)
+{
+ struct sk_buff *skb;
+
+ skb = d->skbpool_hd;
+ if (skb && atomic_read(&skb_shinfo(skb)->dataref) == 1) {
+ d->skbpool_hd = skb->next;
+ skb->next = NULL;
+ return skb;
+ }
+ if (d->nskbpool < NSKBPOOLMAX
+ && (skb = new_skb(ETH_ZLEN))) {
+ d->nskbpool++;
+ return skb;
+ }
+ return NULL;
+}
+
+/* freeframe is where we do our load balancing so it's a little hairy. */
static struct frame *
freeframe(struct aoedev *d)
{
- struct frame *f, *e;
+ struct frame *f, *e, *rf;
struct aoetgt **t;
- ulong n;
+ struct sk_buff *skb;

if (d->targets[0] == NULL) { /* shouldn't happen, but I'm paranoid */
printk(KERN_ERR "aoe: NULL TARGETS!\n");
return NULL;
}
- t = d->targets;
- do {
- if (t != d->htgt
- && (*t)->ifp->nd
- && (*t)->nout < (*t)->maxout) {
- n = (*t)->nframes;
+ t = d->tgt;
+ t++;
+ if (t >= &d->targets[NTARGETS] || !*t)
+ t = d->targets;
+ for (;;) {
+ if ((*t)->nout < (*t)->maxout
+ && t != d->htgt
+ && (*t)->ifp->nd) {
+ rf = NULL;
f = (*t)->frames;
- e = f + n;
+ e = f + (*t)->nframes;
for (; f < e; f++) {
if (f->tag != FREETAG)
continue;
- if (atomic_read(&skb_shinfo(f->skb)->dataref)
+ skb = f->skb;
+ if (!skb
+ && !(f->skb = skb = new_skb(ETH_ZLEN)))
+ continue;
+ if (atomic_read(&skb_shinfo(skb)->dataref)
!= 1) {
- n--;
+ if (!rf)
+ rf = f;
continue;
}
- skb_shinfo(f->skb)->nr_frags = 0;
- f->skb->data_len = 0;
- skb_trim(f->skb, 0);
+gotone: skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags = skb->data_len = 0;
+ skb_trim(skb, 0);
d->tgt = t;
ifrotate(*t);
return f;
}
- if (n == 0) /* slow polling network card */
+ /* Work can be done, but the network layer is
+ holding our precious packets. Try to grab
+ one from the pool. */
+ f = rf;
+ if (f == NULL) { /* more paranoia */
+ printk(KERN_ERR
+ "aoe: freeframe: %s.\n",
+ "unexpected null rf");
+ d->flags |= DEVFL_KICKME;
+ return NULL;
+ }
+ skb = skb_pool_get(d);
+ if (skb) {
+ skb_pool_put(d, f->skb);
+ f->skb = skb;
+ goto gotone;
+ }
+ (*t)->dataref++;
+ if ((*t)->nout == 0)
d->flags |= DEVFL_KICKME;
}
+ if (t == d->tgt) /* we've looped and found nada */
+ break;
t++;
- } while (t < &d->targets[NTARGETS] && *t);
+ if (t >= &d->targets[NTARGETS] || !*t)
+ t = d->targets;
+ }
return NULL;
}

@@ -894,33 +953,23 @@ addtgt(struct aoedev *d, char *addr, ulong nframes)
return NULL;

t = kcalloc(1, sizeof *t, GFP_ATOMIC);
+ if (!t)
+ return NULL;
f = kcalloc(nframes, sizeof *f, GFP_ATOMIC);
- if (!t || !f)
- goto bail;
+ if (!f) {
+ kfree(t);
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
t->nframes = nframes;
t->frames = f;
e = f + nframes;
- for (; f < e; f++) {
+ for (; f < e; f++)
f->tag = FREETAG;
- f->skb = new_skb(ETH_ZLEN);
- if (!f->skb)
- break;
- }
- if (f != e) {
- while (f > t->frames) {
- f--;
- dev_kfree_skb(f->skb);
- }
- goto bail;
- }
memcpy(t->addr, addr, sizeof t->addr);
t->ifp = t->ifs;
t->maxout = t->nframes;
return *tt = t;
-bail:
- kfree(t);
- kfree(f);
- return NULL;
}

void
diff --git a/drivers/block/aoe/aoedev.c b/drivers/block/aoe/aoedev.c
index e26f6f4..839a964 100644
--- a/drivers/block/aoe/aoedev.c
+++ b/drivers/block/aoe/aoedev.c
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@
#include <linux/hdreg.h>
#include <linux/blkdev.h>
#include <linux/netdevice.h>
+#include <linux/delay.h>
#include "aoe.h"

static void dummy_timer(ulong);
static void aoedev_freedev(struct aoedev *);
-static void freetgt(struct aoetgt *t);
+static void freetgt(struct aoedev *d, struct aoetgt *t);
+static void skbpoolfree(struct aoedev *d);

static struct aoedev *devlist;
static spinlock_t devlist_lock;
@@ -125,9 +127,10 @@ aoedev_freedev(struct aoedev *d)
t = d->targets;
e = t + NTARGETS;
for (; t < e && *t; t++)
- freetgt(*t);
+ freetgt(d, *t);
if (d->bufpool)
mempool_destroy(d->bufpool);
+ skbpoolfree(d);
kfree(d);
}

@@ -176,6 +179,43 @@ aoedev_flush(const char __user *str, size_t cnt)
return 0;
}

+/* I'm not really sure that this is a realistic problem, but if the
+network driver goes gonzo let's just leak memory after complaining. */
+static void
+skbfree(struct sk_buff *skb)
+{
+ enum { Sms = 100, Tms = 3*1000};
+ int i = Tms / Sms;
+
+ if (skb == NULL)
+ return;
+ while (atomic_read(&skb_shinfo(skb)->dataref) != 1 && i-- > 0)
+ msleep(Sms);
+ if (i <= 0) {
+ printk(KERN_ERR
+ "aoe: %s holds ref: %s\n",
+ skb->dev ? skb->dev->name : "netif",
+ "cannot free skb -- memory leaked.");
+ return;
+ }
+ skb_shinfo(skb)->nr_frags = skb->data_len = 0;
+ skb_trim(skb, 0);
+ dev_kfree_skb(skb);
+}
+
+static void
+skbpoolfree(struct aoedev *d)
+{
+ struct sk_buff *skb;
+
+ while ((skb = d->skbpool_hd)) {
+ d->skbpool_hd = skb->next;
+ skb->next = NULL;
+ skbfree(skb);
+ }
+ d->skbpool_tl = NULL;
+}
+
/* find it or malloc it */
struct aoedev *
aoedev_by_sysminor_m(ulong sysminor)
@@ -215,16 +255,14 @@ aoedev_by_sysminor_m(ulong sysminor)
}

static void
-freetgt(struct aoetgt *t)
+freetgt(struct aoedev *d, struct aoetgt *t)
{
struct frame *f, *e;

f = t->frames;
e = f + t->nframes;
- for (; f < e; f++) {
- skb_shinfo(f->skb)->nr_frags = 0;
- dev_kfree_skb(f->skb);
- }
+ for (; f < e; f++)
+ skbfree(f->skb);
kfree(t->frames);
kfree(t);
}
--
1.5.3.4

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Next message: Ed L. Cashin: "[PATCH 08/13] only install new AoE device once"
Previous message: Ed L. Cashin: "[PATCH 06/13] user can ask driver to forget previously detected devices"
In reply to: Ed L. Cashin: "[PATCH 06/13] user can ask driver to forget previously detected devices"
Next in thread: Ed L. Cashin: "[PATCH 08/13] only install new AoE device once"
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