Re: [PATCH RFC 1/2] kvm: Handle undercommitted guest case in PLEhandler

[Gleb Natapov]

On Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 10:59:21AM +0200, Avi Kivity wrote:
> On 09/27/2012 09:44 AM, Gleb Natapov wrote:
> > On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 10:54:21AM +0200, Avi Kivity wrote:
> >> On 09/25/2012 10:09 AM, Raghavendra K T wrote:
> >> > On 09/24/2012 09:36 PM, Avi Kivity wrote:
> >> >> On 09/24/2012 05:41 PM, Avi Kivity wrote:
> >> >>>
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> case 2)
> >> >>>> rq1 : vcpu1->wait(lockA) (spinning)
> >> >>>> rq2 : vcpu3 (running) ,  vcpu2->holding(lockA) [scheduled out]
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> I agree that checking rq1 length is not proper in this case, and as
> >> >>>> you
> >> >>>> rightly pointed out, we are in trouble here.
> >> >>>> nr_running()/num_online_cpus() would give more accurate picture here,
> >> >>>> but it seemed costly. May be load balancer save us a bit here in not
> >> >>>> running to such sort of cases. ( I agree load balancer is far too
> >> >>>> complex).
> >> >>>
> >> >>> In theory preempt notifier can tell us whether a vcpu is preempted or
> >> >>> not (except for exits to userspace), so we can keep track of whether
> >> >>> it's we're overcommitted in kvm itself.  It also avoids false positives
> >> >>> from other guests and/or processes being overcommitted while our vm
> >> >>> is fine.
> >> >>
> >> >> It also allows us to cheaply skip running vcpus.
> >> >
> >> > Hi Avi,
> >> >
> >> > Could you please elaborate on how preempt notifiers can be used
> >> > here to keep track of overcommit or skip running vcpus?
> >> >
> >> > Are we planning set some flag in sched_out() handler etc?
> >> >
> >> 
> >> Keep a bitmap kvm->preempted_vcpus.
> >> 
> >> In sched_out, test whether we're TASK_RUNNING, and if so, set a vcpu
> >> flag and our bit in kvm->preempted_vcpus.  On sched_in, if the flag is
> >> set, clear our bit in kvm->preempted_vcpus.  We can also keep a counter
> >> of preempted vcpus.
> >> 
> >> We can use the bitmap and the counter to quickly see if spinning is
> >> worthwhile (if the counter is zero, better to spin).  If not, we can use
> >> the bitmap to select target vcpus quickly.
> >> 
> >> The only problem is that in order to keep this accurate we need to keep
> >> the preempt notifiers active during exits to userspace.  But we can
> >> prototype this without this change, and add it later if it works.
> >> 
> > Can user return notifier can be used instead? Set bit in
> > kvm->preempted_vcpus on return to userspace.
> > 
> 
> User return notifier is per-cpu, not per-task.  There is a new task_work
> (<linux/task_work.h>) that does what you want.  With these
> technicalities out of the way, I think it's the wrong idea.  If a vcpu
> thread is in userspace, that doesn't mean it's preempted, there's no
> point in boosting it if it's already running.
> 
Ah, so you want to set bit in kvm->preempted_vcpus if task is _not_
TASK_RUNNING in sched_out (you wrote opposite in your email)? If a task 
is in userspace it is definitely not preempted.
 
> btw, we can have secondary effects.  A vcpu can be waiting for a lock in
> the host kernel, or for a host page fault.  There's no point in boosting
> anything for that.  Or a vcpu in userspace can be waiting for a lock
> that is held by another thread, which has been preempted. 
Do you mean userspace spinlock? Because otherwise task that's waits on
a kernel lock will sleep in the kernel.

>                                                            This is (like
> I think Peter already said) a priority inheritance problem.  However
> with fine-grained locking in userspace, we can make it go away.  The
> guest kernel is unlikely to access one device simultaneously from two
> threads (and if it does, we just need to improve the threading in the
> device model).
> 
> -- 
> error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function

--
			Gleb.
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