[PATCH] cgroup: Fix low cpu usage with high throttling by removing slice expiration

[Dave Chiluk]

It has been observed, that highly-threaded, non-cpu-bound applications
running under cpu.cfs_quota_us constraints can hit a high percentage of
periods throttled while simultaneously not consuming the allocated
amount of quota.  This use case is typical of user-interactive non-cpu
bound web services, such as those running in kubernetes or mesos.

This has been root caused to threads being allocated per cpu bandwidth
slices, and then not fully using that slice within the period, and then
having that quota expire.  This constant expiration of unused quota
results applications not being able to utilize the quota for which they
are allocated.

The expiration of quota was recently fixed by commit 512ac999d275
("sched/fair: Fix bandwidth timer clock drift condition"). Prior to that
it appears that this has been broken since a least commit 51f2176d74ac
("sched/fair: Fix unlocked reads of some cfs_b->quota/period") which was
introduced in v3.16-rc1 in 2014.  That commit added the following
testcase which resulted in runtime never being expired.

if (cfs_rq->runtime_expires != cfs_b->runtime_expires) {
	/* extend local deadline, drift is bounded above by 2 ticks */
	cfs_rq->runtime_expires += TICK_NSEC;

Because this was broken for nearly 5 years, and has recently been fixed
and is now being noticed by many users running kubernetes
(https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/67577) it is my opinion
that the mechanisms around expiring runtime should be removed
altogether.

This allows quota runtime slices allocated to per-cpu runqueues to live
longer than the period boundary.  This allows threads on runqueues that
do not use much CPU to continue to use their remaining slice over a
longer period of time than cpu.cfs_period_us. However, this helps
prevents the above condition of hitting throttling while also not fully
utilizing your cpu quota.

This theoretically allows a machine to use slightly more than it's
allotted quota in some periods.  This overflow would be equal to the
amount of quota that was left un-used on cfs_rq's in the previous
period.  For CPU bound tasks this will change nothing, as they should
theoretically fully utilize all of their quota in each period. For
user-interactive tasks as described above this provides a much better
user/application experience as their cpu utilization will more closely
match the amount they requested when they hit throttling.

This greatly improves performance of high-thread-count, interactive
applications with low cfs_quota_us allocation on high-core-count
machines. In the case of an artificial testcase, this performance
discrepancy has been observed to be almost 30x performance improvement,
while still maintaining correct cpu quota restrictions albeit over
longer time intervals than cpu.cfs_period_us.

Fixes: 512ac999d275 ("sched/fair: Fix bandwidth timer clock drift condition")
Signed-off-by: Dave Chiluk <chiluk+linux@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 kernel/sched/fair.c  | 71 +++++-----------------------------------------------
 kernel/sched/sched.h |  4 ---
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 69 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index fdab7eb..b0c3d76 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -4291,8 +4291,6 @@ void __refill_cfs_bandwidth_runtime(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b)
 
 	now = sched_clock_cpu(smp_processor_id());
 	cfs_b->runtime = cfs_b->quota;
-	cfs_b->runtime_expires = now + ktime_to_ns(cfs_b->period);
-	cfs_b->expires_seq++;
 }
 
 static inline struct cfs_bandwidth *tg_cfs_bandwidth(struct task_group *tg)
@@ -4314,8 +4312,7 @@ static int assign_cfs_rq_runtime(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq)
 {
 	struct task_group *tg = cfs_rq->tg;
 	struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b = tg_cfs_bandwidth(tg);
-	u64 amount = 0, min_amount, expires;
-	int expires_seq;
+	u64 amount = 0, min_amount;
 
 	/* note: this is a positive sum as runtime_remaining <= 0 */
 	min_amount = sched_cfs_bandwidth_slice() - cfs_rq->runtime_remaining;
@@ -4332,61 +4329,17 @@ static int assign_cfs_rq_runtime(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq)
 			cfs_b->idle = 0;
 		}
 	}
-	expires_seq = cfs_b->expires_seq;
-	expires = cfs_b->runtime_expires;
 	raw_spin_unlock(&cfs_b->lock);
 
 	cfs_rq->runtime_remaining += amount;
-	/*
-	 * we may have advanced our local expiration to account for allowed
-	 * spread between our sched_clock and the one on which runtime was
-	 * issued.
-	 */
-	if (cfs_rq->expires_seq != expires_seq) {
-		cfs_rq->expires_seq = expires_seq;
-		cfs_rq->runtime_expires = expires;
-	}
 
 	return cfs_rq->runtime_remaining > 0;
 }
 
-/*
- * Note: This depends on the synchronization provided by sched_clock and the
- * fact that rq->clock snapshots this value.
- */
-static void expire_cfs_rq_runtime(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq)
-{
-	struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b = tg_cfs_bandwidth(cfs_rq->tg);
-
-	/* if the deadline is ahead of our clock, nothing to do */
-	if (likely((s64)(rq_clock(rq_of(cfs_rq)) - cfs_rq->runtime_expires) < 0))
-		return;
-
-	if (cfs_rq->runtime_remaining < 0)
-		return;
-
-	/*
-	 * If the local deadline has passed we have to consider the
-	 * possibility that our sched_clock is 'fast' and the global deadline
-	 * has not truly expired.
-	 *
-	 * Fortunately we can check determine whether this the case by checking
-	 * whether the global deadline(cfs_b->expires_seq) has advanced.
-	 */
-	if (cfs_rq->expires_seq == cfs_b->expires_seq) {
-		/* extend local deadline, drift is bounded above by 2 ticks */
-		cfs_rq->runtime_expires += TICK_NSEC;
-	} else {
-		/* global deadline is ahead, expiration has passed */
-		cfs_rq->runtime_remaining = 0;
-	}
-}
-
 static void __account_cfs_rq_runtime(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq, u64 delta_exec)
 {
 	/* dock delta_exec before expiring quota (as it could span periods) */
 	cfs_rq->runtime_remaining -= delta_exec;
-	expire_cfs_rq_runtime(cfs_rq);
 
 	if (likely(cfs_rq->runtime_remaining > 0))
 		return;
@@ -4577,8 +4530,7 @@ void unthrottle_cfs_rq(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq)
 		resched_curr(rq);
 }
 
-static u64 distribute_cfs_runtime(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b,
-		u64 remaining, u64 expires)
+static u64 distribute_cfs_runtime(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b, u64 remaining)
 {
 	struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq;
 	u64 runtime;
@@ -4600,7 +4552,6 @@ static u64 distribute_cfs_runtime(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b,
 		remaining -= runtime;
 
 		cfs_rq->runtime_remaining += runtime;
-		cfs_rq->runtime_expires = expires;
 
 		/* we check whether we're throttled above */
 		if (cfs_rq->runtime_remaining > 0)
@@ -4625,7 +4576,7 @@ static u64 distribute_cfs_runtime(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b,
  */
 static int do_sched_cfs_period_timer(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b, int overrun, unsigned long flags)
 {
-	u64 runtime, runtime_expires;
+	u64 runtime;
 	int throttled;
 
 	/* no need to continue the timer with no bandwidth constraint */
@@ -4653,8 +4604,6 @@ static int do_sched_cfs_period_timer(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b, int overrun, u
 	/* account preceding periods in which throttling occurred */
 	cfs_b->nr_throttled += overrun;
 
-	runtime_expires = cfs_b->runtime_expires;
-
 	/*
 	 * This check is repeated as we are holding onto the new bandwidth while
 	 * we unthrottle. This can potentially race with an unthrottled group
@@ -4667,8 +4616,7 @@ static int do_sched_cfs_period_timer(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b, int overrun, u
 		cfs_b->distribute_running = 1;
 		raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&cfs_b->lock, flags);
 		/* we can't nest cfs_b->lock while distributing bandwidth */
-		runtime = distribute_cfs_runtime(cfs_b, runtime,
-						 runtime_expires);
+		runtime = distribute_cfs_runtime(cfs_b, runtime);
 		raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&cfs_b->lock, flags);
 
 		cfs_b->distribute_running = 0;
@@ -4745,8 +4693,7 @@ static void __return_cfs_rq_runtime(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq)
 		return;
 
 	raw_spin_lock(&cfs_b->lock);
-	if (cfs_b->quota != RUNTIME_INF &&
-	    cfs_rq->runtime_expires == cfs_b->runtime_expires) {
+	if (cfs_b->quota != RUNTIME_INF) {
 		cfs_b->runtime += slack_runtime;
 
 		/* we are under rq->lock, defer unthrottling using a timer */
@@ -4779,7 +4726,6 @@ static void do_sched_cfs_slack_timer(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b)
 {
 	u64 runtime = 0, slice = sched_cfs_bandwidth_slice();
 	unsigned long flags;
-	u64 expires;
 
 	/* confirm we're still not at a refresh boundary */
 	raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&cfs_b->lock, flags);
@@ -4796,7 +4742,6 @@ static void do_sched_cfs_slack_timer(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b)
 	if (cfs_b->quota != RUNTIME_INF && cfs_b->runtime > slice)
 		runtime = cfs_b->runtime;
 
-	expires = cfs_b->runtime_expires;
 	if (runtime)
 		cfs_b->distribute_running = 1;
 
@@ -4805,11 +4750,9 @@ static void do_sched_cfs_slack_timer(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b)
 	if (!runtime)
 		return;
 
-	runtime = distribute_cfs_runtime(cfs_b, runtime, expires);
+	runtime = distribute_cfs_runtime(cfs_b, runtime);
 
 	raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&cfs_b->lock, flags);
-	if (expires == cfs_b->runtime_expires)
-		lsub_positive(&cfs_b->runtime, runtime);
 	cfs_b->distribute_running = 0;
 	raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&cfs_b->lock, flags);
 }
@@ -4940,8 +4883,6 @@ void start_cfs_bandwidth(struct cfs_bandwidth *cfs_b)
 
 	cfs_b->period_active = 1;
 	overrun = hrtimer_forward_now(&cfs_b->period_timer, cfs_b->period);
-	cfs_b->runtime_expires += (overrun + 1) * ktime_to_ns(cfs_b->period);
-	cfs_b->expires_seq++;
 	hrtimer_start_expires(&cfs_b->period_timer, HRTIMER_MODE_ABS_PINNED);
 }
 
diff --git a/kernel/sched/sched.h b/kernel/sched/sched.h
index efa686e..69d9bf9 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/sched.h
+++ b/kernel/sched/sched.h
@@ -341,8 +341,6 @@ struct cfs_bandwidth {
 	u64			quota;
 	u64			runtime;
 	s64			hierarchical_quota;
-	u64			runtime_expires;
-	int			expires_seq;
 
 	short			idle;
 	short			period_active;
@@ -562,8 +560,6 @@ struct cfs_rq {
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_CFS_BANDWIDTH
 	int			runtime_enabled;
-	int			expires_seq;
-	u64			runtime_expires;
 	s64			runtime_remaining;
 
 	u64			throttled_clock;
-- 
1.8.3.1