Re: [PATCH v3 10/11] mm: vmalloc: Set nr_nodes based on CPUs in a system

[Uladzislau Rezki]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 08:28:05AM +1100, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 18, 2024 at 07:23:47PM +0100, Uladzislau Rezki wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 09:06:02AM +1100, Dave Chinner wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 08:09:29PM +0100, Uladzislau Rezki wrote:
> > > > We can easily set nr_nodes to num_possible_cpus() and let it scale for
> > > > anyone. But before doing this, i would like to give it a try as a first
> > > > step because i have not tested it well on really big NUMA systems.
> > > 
> > > I don't think you need to have large NUMA systems to test it. We
> > > have the "fakenuma" feature for a reason.  Essentially, once you
> > > have enough CPU cores that catastrophic lock contention can be
> > > generated in a fast path (can take as few as 4-5 CPU cores), then
> > > you can effectively test NUMA scalability with fakenuma by creating
> > > nodes with >=8 CPUs each.
> > > 
> > > This is how I've done testing of numa aware algorithms (like
> > > shrinkers!) for the past decade - I haven't had direct access to a
> > > big NUMA machine since 2008, yet it's relatively trivial to test
> > > NUMA based scalability algorithms without them these days.
> > > 
> > I see your point. NUMA-aware scalability require reworking adding extra
> > layer that allows such scaling.
> > 
> > If the socket has 256 CPUs, how do scale VAs inside that node among
> > those CPUs?
> 
> It's called "sub-numa clustering" and is a bios option that presents
> large core count CPU packages as multiple NUMA nodes. See:
> 
> https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/fourth-generation-xeon-scalable-family-overview.html
> 
> Essentially, large core count CPUs are a cluster of smaller core
> groups with their own resources and memory controllers. This is how
> they are laid out either on a single die (intel) or as a collection
> of smaller dies (AMD compute complexes) that are tied together by
> the interconnect between the LLCs and memory controllers. They only
> appear as a "unified" CPU because they are configured that way by
> the bios, but can also be configured to actually expose their inner
> non-uniform memory access topology for operating systems and
> application stacks that are NUMA aware (like Linux).
> 
> This means a "256 core" CPU would probably present as 16 smaller 16
> core CPUs each with their own L1/2/3 caches and memory controllers.
> IOWs, a single socket appears to the kernel as a 16 node NUMA system
> with 16 cores per node. Most NUMA aware scalability algorithms will
> work just fine with this sort setup - it's just another set of
> numbers in the NUMA distance table...
> 
Thank you for your input. I will go through it to see what we can
do in terms of NUMA-aware with thousands of CPUs in total.

Thanks!

--
Uladzislau Rezki