[PATCH net V2] vhost: net: switch to use data copy if pending DMAs exceed the limit

[Jason Wang]

We used to stop the handling of tx when the number of pending DMAs
exceeds VHOST_MAX_PEND. This is used to reduce the memory occupation
of both host and guest. But it was too aggressive in some cases, since
any delay or blocking of a single packet may delay or block the guest
transmission. Consider the following setup:

    +-----+        +-----+
    | VM1 |        | VM2 |
    +--+--+        +--+--+
       |              |
    +--+--+        +--+--+
    | tap0|        | tap1|
    +--+--+        +--+--+
       |              |
    pfifo_fast   htb(10Mbit/s)
       |              |
    +--+--------------+---+
    |     bridge          |
    +--+------------------+
       |
    pfifo_fast
       |
    +-----+
    | eth0|(100Mbit/s)
    +-----+

- start two VMs and connect them to a bridge
- add an physical card (100Mbit/s) to that bridge
- setup htb on tap1 and limit its throughput to 10Mbit/s
- run two netperfs in the same time, one is from VM1 to VM2. Another is
  from VM1 to an external host through eth0.
- result shows that not only the VM1 to VM2 traffic were throttled but
  also the VM1 to external host through eth0 is also throttled somehow.

This is because the delay added by htb may lead the delay the finish
of DMAs and cause the pending DMAs for tap0 exceeds the limit
(VHOST_MAX_PEND). In this case vhost stop handling tx request until
htb send some packets. The problem here is all of the packets
transmission were blocked even if it does not go to VM2.

We can solve this issue by relaxing it a little bit: switching to use
data copy instead of stopping tx when the number of pending DMAs
exceed half of the vq size. This is safe because:

- The number of pending DMAs were still limited (half of the vq size)
- The out of order completion during mode switch can make sure that
  most of the tx buffers were freed in time in guest.

So even if about 50% packets were delayed in zero-copy case, vhost
could continue to do the transmission through data copy in this case.

Test result:

Before this patch:
VM1 to VM2 throughput is 9.3Mbit/s
VM1 to External throughput is 40Mbit/s
CPU utilization is 7%

After this patch:
VM1 to VM2 throughput is 9.3Mbit/s
Vm1 to External throughput is 93Mbit/s
CPU utilization is 16%

Completed performance test on 40gbe shows no obvious changes in both
throughput and cpu utilization with this patch.

The patch only solve this issue when unlimited sndbuf. We still need a
solution for limited sndbuf.

Cc: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Qin Chuanyu <qinchuanyu@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Jason Wang <jasowang@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes from V1:
- Remove VHOST_MAX_PEND and switch to use half of the vq size as the limit
- Add cpu utilization in commit log
---
 drivers/vhost/net.c | 19 +++++++------------
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/vhost/net.c b/drivers/vhost/net.c
index a0fa5de..2925e9a 100644
--- a/drivers/vhost/net.c
+++ b/drivers/vhost/net.c
@@ -38,8 +38,6 @@ MODULE_PARM_DESC(experimental_zcopytx, "Enable Zero Copy TX;"
  * Using this limit prevents one virtqueue from starving others. */
 #define VHOST_NET_WEIGHT 0x80000
 
-/* MAX number of TX used buffers for outstanding zerocopy */
-#define VHOST_MAX_PEND 128
 #define VHOST_GOODCOPY_LEN 256
 
 /*
@@ -345,7 +343,7 @@ static void handle_tx(struct vhost_net *net)
 		.msg_flags = MSG_DONTWAIT,
 	};
 	size_t len, total_len = 0;
-	int err;
+	int err, num_pends;
 	size_t hdr_size;
 	struct socket *sock;
 	struct vhost_net_ubuf_ref *uninitialized_var(ubufs);
@@ -366,13 +364,6 @@ static void handle_tx(struct vhost_net *net)
 		if (zcopy)
 			vhost_zerocopy_signal_used(net, vq);
 
-		/* If more outstanding DMAs, queue the work.
-		 * Handle upend_idx wrap around
-		 */
-		if (unlikely((nvq->upend_idx + vq->num - VHOST_MAX_PEND)
-			      % UIO_MAXIOV == nvq->done_idx))
-			break;
-
 		head = vhost_get_vq_desc(&net->dev, vq, vq->iov,
 					 ARRAY_SIZE(vq->iov),
 					 &out, &in,
@@ -405,9 +396,13 @@ static void handle_tx(struct vhost_net *net)
 			break;
 		}
 
+		num_pends = likely(nvq->upend_idx >= nvq->done_idx) ?
+			    (nvq->upend_idx - nvq->done_idx) :
+			    (nvq->upend_idx + UIO_MAXIOV -
+			     nvq->done_idx);
+
 		zcopy_used = zcopy && len >= VHOST_GOODCOPY_LEN
-				   && (nvq->upend_idx + 1) % UIO_MAXIOV !=
-				      nvq->done_idx
+				   && num_pends <= vq->num >> 1
 				   && vhost_net_tx_select_zcopy(net);
 
 		/* use msg_control to pass vhost zerocopy ubuf info to skb */
-- 
1.8.3.2

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/