[PATCH v3 05/18] Documentation, x86: Documentation for Intel resource allocation user interface

[Fenghua Yu]

From: Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@xxxxxxxxx>

The documentation describes user interface of how to allocate resource
in Intel RDT.

Please note that the documentation covers generic user interface. Current
patch set code only implemente CAT L3. CAT L2 code will be sent later.

Signed-off-by: Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Tony Luck <tony.luck@xxxxxxxxx>
---
 Documentation/x86/intel_rdt_ui.txt | 162 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 162 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 Documentation/x86/intel_rdt_ui.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/x86/intel_rdt_ui.txt b/Documentation/x86/intel_rdt_ui.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad51455
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/x86/intel_rdt_ui.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,162 @@
+User Interface for Resource Allocation in Intel Resource Director Technology
+
+Copyright (C) 2016 Intel Corporation
+
+Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@xxxxxxxxx>
+Tony Luck <tony.luck@xxxxxxxxx>
+
+This feature is enabled by the CONFIG_INTEL_RDT Kconfig and the
+X86 /proc/cpuinfo flag bits "rdt", "cat_l3" and "cdp_l3".
+
+To use the feature mount the file system:
+
+ # mount -t resctrl resctrl [-o cdp] /sys/fs/resctrl
+
+mount options are:
+
+"cdp": Enable code/data prioritization in L3 cache allocations.
+
+
+Resource groups
+---------------
+Resource groups are represented as directories in the resctrl file
+system. The default group is the root directory. Other groups may be
+created as desired by the system administrator using the "mkdir(1)"
+command, and removed using "rmdir(1)".
+
+There are three files associated with each group:
+
+"tasks": A list of tasks that belongs to this group. Tasks can be
+	added to a group by writing the task ID to the "tasks" file
+	(which will automatically remove them from the previous
+	group to which they belonged). New tasks created by fork(2)
+	and clone(2) are added to the same group as their parent.
+	If a pid is not in any sub partition, it is in root partition
+	(i.e. default partition).
+
+"cpus": A bitmask of logical CPUs assigned to this group. Writing
+	a new mask can add/remove CPUs from this group. Added CPUs
+	are removed from their previous group. Removed ones are
+	given to the default (root) group. You cannot remove CPUs
+	from the default group.
+
+"schemata": A list of all the resources available to this group.
+	Each resource has its own line and format - see below for
+	details.
+
+When a task is running the following rules define which resources
+are available to it:
+
+1) If the task is a member of a non-default group, then the schemata
+for that group is used.
+
+2) Else if the task belongs to the default group, but is running on a
+CPU that is assigned to some specific group, then the schemata for
+the CPU's group is used.
+
+3) Otherwise the schemata for the default group is used.
+
+
+Schemata files - general concepts
+---------------------------------
+Each line in the file describes one resource. The line starts with
+the name of the resource, followed by specific values to be applied
+in each of the instances of that resource on the system.
+
+Cache IDs
+---------
+On current generation systems there is one L3 cache per socket and L2
+caches are generally just shared by the hyperthreads on a core, but this
+isn't an architectural requirement. We could have multiple separate L3
+caches on a socket, multiple cores could share an L2 cache. So instead
+of using "socket" or "core" to define the set of logical cpus sharing
+a resource we use a "Cache ID". At a given cache level this will be a
+unique number across the whole system (but it isn't guaranteed to be a
+contiguous sequence, there may be gaps).  To find the ID for each logical
+CPU look in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cache/index*/id
+
+Cache Bit Masks (CBM)
+---------------------
+For cache resources we describe the portion of the cache that is available
+for allocation using a bitmask. The maximum value of the mask is defined
+by each cpu model (and may be different for different cache levels). It
+is found using CPUID, but is also provided in the "info" directory of
+the resctrl file system in "info/{resource}/max_cbm_val". X86 hardware
+requires that these masks have all the '1' bits in a contiguous block. So
+0x3, 0x6 and 0xC are legal 4-bit masks with two bits set, but 0x5, 0x9
+and 0xA are not.  On a system with a 20-bit mask each bit represents 5%
+of the capacity of the cache. You could partition the cache into four
+equal parts with masks: 0x1f, 0x3e0, 0x7c00, 0xf8000.
+
+
+L3 details (code and data prioritization disabled)
+--------------------------------------------------
+With CDP disabled the L3 schemata format is:
+
+	L3:<cache_id0>=<cbm>;<cache_id1>=<cbm>;...
+
+L3 details (CDP enabled via mount option to resctrl)
+----------------------------------------------------
+When CDP is enabled, you need to specify separate cache bit masks for
+code and data access. The generic format is:
+
+	L3:<cache_id0>=<d_cbm>,<i_cbm>;<cache_id1>=<d_cbm>,<i_cbm>;...
+
+where the d_cbm masks are for data access, and the i_cbm masks for code.
+
+
+Example 1
+---------
+On a two socket machine (one L3 cache per socket) with just four bits
+for cache bit masks
+
+# mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
+# cd /sys/fs/resctrl
+# mkdir p0 p1
+# echo "L3:0=3;1=c" > /sys/fs/resctrl/p0/schemata
+# echo "L3:0=3;1=3" > /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/schemata
+
+The default resource group is unmodified, so we have access to all parts
+of all caches (its schemata file reads "L3:0=f;1=f").
+
+Tasks that are under the control of group "p0" may only allocate from the
+"lower" 50% on cache ID 0, and the "upper" 50% of cache ID 1.
+Tasks in group "p1" use the "lower" 50% of cache on both sockets.
+
+Example 2
+---------
+Again two sockets, but this time with a more realistic 20-bit mask.
+
+Two real time tasks pid=1234 running on processor 0 and pid=5678 running on
+processor 1 on socket 0 on a 2-socket and dual core machine. To avoid noisy
+neighbors, each of the two real-time tasks exclusively occupies one quarter
+of L3 cache on socket 0.
+
+# mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
+# cd /sys/fs/resctrl
+
+First we reset the schemata for the default group so that the "upper"
+50% of the L3 cache on socket 0 cannot be used by ordinary tasks:
+
+# echo "L3:0=3ff;1=fffff" > schemata
+
+Next we make a resource group for our first real time task and give
+it access to the "top" 25% of the cache on socket 0.
+
+# mkdir p0
+# echo "L3:0=f8000;1=fffff" > p0/schemata
+
+Finally we move our first real time task into this resource group. We
+also use taskset(1) to ensure the task always runs on a dedicated CPU
+on socket 0. Most uses of resource groups will also constrain which
+processors tasks run on.
+
+# echo 1234 > p0/tasks
+# taskset -cp 1 1234
+
+Ditto for the second real time task (with the remaining 25% of cache):
+
+# mkdir p1
+# echo "L3:0=7c00;1=fffff" > p1/schemata
+# echo 5678 > p1/tasks
+# taskset -cp 2 5678
-- 
2.5.0