Re: [PATCH 0/5] Alter steal time reporting in KVM

[Glauber Costa]

I am deeply sorry.

I was busy first time I read this, so I postponed answering and ended up
forgetting.

Sorry
>>
>> include/linux/sched.h:
>> unsigned long long run_delay; /* time spent waiting on a runqueue */
>>
>> So if you are out of the runqueue, you won't get steal time accounted,
>> and then I truly fail to understand what you are doing.
> So I looked at something like this in the past.  To make sure things
> haven't changed
> I set up a cgroup on my test server running a kernel built from the
> latest tip tree.
> 
> [root]# cat cpu.cfs_quota_us
> 50000
> [root]# cat cpu.cfs_period_us
> 100000
> [root]# cat cpuset.cpus
> 1
> [root]# cat cpuset.mems
> 0
> 
> Next I put the PID from the cpu thread into tasks.  When I start a
> script that will hog the cpu I see the
> following in top on the guest
> Cpu(s):  1.9%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,  0.0%id,  0.0%wa, 48.3%hi, 0.0%si,
> 49.8%st
> 
> So the steal time here is in line with the bandwidth control settings.

Ok. So I was wrong in my hunch that it would be outside the runqueue,
therefore work automatically. Still, the host kernel has all the
information in cgroups.

> So then the steal time did not show on the guest.  You have no value
> that needs to be passed
> around.  What I did not like about this approach was
> * only works for cfs bandwidth control.  If another type of hard limit
> was added to the kernel
>    the code would potentially need to change.

This is true for almost everything we have in the kernel!
It is *very* unlikely for other bandwidth control mechanism to ever
appear. If it ever does, it's *their* burden to make sure it works for
steal time (provided it is merged). Code in tree gets precedence.

> * This approach doesn't help if the limits are set by overcommitting the
> cpus.  It is my understanding
>    that this is a common approach.
> 

I can't say anything about commonality, but common or not, it is a
*crazy* approach.

When you simply overcommit, you have no way to differentiate between
intended steal time and non-intended steal time. Moreover, when you
overcommit, your cpu usage will vary over time. If two guests use the
cpu to their full power, you will have 50 % each. But if one of them
slows down, the other gets more. What is your entitlement value? How do
you define this?

And then after you define it, you end up using more than this, what is
your cpu usage? 130 %?


The only sane way to do it, is to communicate this value to the kernel
somehow. The bandwidth controller is the interface we have for that. So
everybody that wants to *intentionally* overcommit needs to communicate
this to the controller. IOW: Any sane configuration should be explicit
about your capping.

>>>>>         Add an ioctl to communicate the consign limit to the host.
>> This definitely should go away.
>>
>> More specifically, *whatever* way we use to cap the processor, the host
>> system will have all the information at all times.
> I'm not understanding that comment.  If you are capping by simply
> controlling the amount of
> overcommit on the host then wouldn't you still need some value to
> indicate the desired amount.
No, that is just crazy, and I don't like it a single bit.

So in the light of it: Whatever capping mechanism we have, we need to be
explicit about the expected entitlement. At this point, the kernel
already knows what it is, and needs no extra ioctls or anything like that.



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