Re: [PATCH V2] mm/cma: using per-CMA locks to improve concurrent allocation performance

From: David Hildenbrand
Date: Tue Mar 18 2025 - 09:02:38 EST


On 18.03.25 04:43, Andrew Morton wrote:
On Mon, 10 Feb 2025 09:56:06 +0800 yangge1116@xxxxxxx wrote:

From: yangge <yangge1116@xxxxxxx>

For different CMAs, concurrent allocation of CMA memory ideally should not
require synchronization using locks. Currently, a global cma_mutex lock is
employed to synchronize all CMA allocations, which can impact the
performance of concurrent allocations across different CMAs.

To test the performance impact, follow these steps:
1. Boot the kernel with the command line argument hugetlb_cma=30G to
allocate a 30GB CMA area specifically for huge page allocations. (note:
on my machine, which has 3 nodes, each node is initialized with 10G of
CMA)
2. Use the dd command with parameters if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/file bs=1G
count=30 to fully utilize the CMA area by writing zeroes to a file in
/dev/shm.
3. Open three terminals and execute the following commands simultaneously:
(Note: Each of these commands attempts to allocate 10GB [2621440 * 4KB
pages] of CMA memory.)
On Terminal 1: time echo 2621440 > /sys/kernel/debug/cma/hugetlb1/alloc
On Terminal 2: time echo 2621440 > /sys/kernel/debug/cma/hugetlb2/alloc
On Terminal 3: time echo 2621440 > /sys/kernel/debug/cma/hugetlb3/alloc

We attempt to allocate pages through the CMA debug interface and use the
time command to measure the duration of each allocation.
Performance comparison:
Without this patch With this patch
Terminal1 ~7s ~7s
Terminal2 ~14s ~8s
Terminal3 ~21s ~7s

To slove problem above, we could use per-CMA locks to improve concurrent
allocation performance. This would allow each CMA to be managed
independently, reducing the need for a global lock and thus improving
scalability and performance.

This patch was in and out of mm-unstable for a while, as Frank's series
"hugetlb/CMA improvements for large systems" was being added and
dropped.

Consequently it hasn't received any testing for a while.

Below is the version which I've now re-added to mm-unstable. Can
you please check this and retest it?

Thanks.

From: Ge Yang <yangge1116@xxxxxxx>
Subject: mm/cma: using per-CMA locks to improve concurrent allocation performance
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2025 09:56:06 +0800

For different CMAs, concurrent allocation of CMA memory ideally should not
require synchronization using locks. Currently, a global cma_mutex lock
is employed to synchronize all CMA allocations, which can impact the
performance of concurrent allocations across different CMAs.

To test the performance impact, follow these steps:
1. Boot the kernel with the command line argument hugetlb_cma=30G to
allocate a 30GB CMA area specifically for huge page allocations. (note:
on my machine, which has 3 nodes, each node is initialized with 10G of
CMA)
2. Use the dd command with parameters if=/dev/zero of=/dev/shm/file bs=1G
count=30 to fully utilize the CMA area by writing zeroes to a file in
/dev/shm.
3. Open three terminals and execute the following commands simultaneously:
(Note: Each of these commands attempts to allocate 10GB [2621440 * 4KB
pages] of CMA memory.)
On Terminal 1: time echo 2621440 > /sys/kernel/debug/cma/hugetlb1/alloc
On Terminal 2: time echo 2621440 > /sys/kernel/debug/cma/hugetlb2/alloc
On Terminal 3: time echo 2621440 > /sys/kernel/debug/cma/hugetlb3/alloc

We attempt to allocate pages through the CMA debug interface and use the
time command to measure the duration of each allocation.
Performance comparison:
Without this patch With this patch
Terminal1 ~7s ~7s
Terminal2 ~14s ~8s
Terminal3 ~21s ~7s

To solve problem above, we could use per-CMA locks to improve concurrent
allocation performance. This would allow each CMA to be managed
independently, reducing the need for a global lock and thus improving
scalability and performance.

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/1739152566-744-1-git-send-email-yangge1116@xxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Ge Yang <yangge1116@xxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Barry Song <baohua@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Aisheng Dong <aisheng.dong@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@xxxxxxxxxx>

--
Cheers,

David / dhildenb