Re: [PATCH v3 11/21] sched/cache: Prioritize tasks preferring destination LLC during balancing

[Tim Chen]

On Wed, 2026-02-18 at 00:03 +0530, Madadi Vineeth Reddy wrote:
> On 11/02/26 03:48, Tim Chen wrote:
> > During LLC load balancing, first check for tasks that prefer the
> > destination LLC and balance them to it before others.
> > 
> > Mark source sched groups containing tasks preferring non local LLCs
> > with the group_llc_balance flag. This ensures the load balancer later
> > pulls or pushes these tasks toward their preferred LLCs.
> > 
> > The load balancer selects the busiest sched_group and migrates tasks
> > to less busy groups to distribute load across CPUs.
> > 
> > With cache-aware scheduling enabled, the busiest sched_group is
> > the one with most tasks preferring the destination LLC. If
> > the group has the llc_balance flag set, cache aware load balancing is
> > triggered.
> > 
> > Introduce the helper function update_llc_busiest() to identify the
> > sched_group with the most tasks preferring the destination LLC.
> > 
> > Suggested-by: K Prateek Nayak <kprateek.nayak@xxxxxxx>
> > Co-developed-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Signed-off-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Signed-off-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > 
> > Notes:
> >     v2->v3:
> >     Consider sd->nr_balance_failed when deciding whether
> >     LLC load balance should be used.
> >     (Peter Zijlstra)
> > 
> >  kernel/sched/fair.c | 77 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
> >  1 file changed, 76 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> > index b0cf4424d198..43dcf2827298 100644
> > --- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
> > +++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
> > @@ -9649,6 +9649,11 @@ enum group_type {
> >  	 * from balancing the load across the system.
> >  	 */
> >  	group_imbalanced,
> > +	/*
> > +	 * There are tasks running on non-preferred LLC, possible to move
> > +	 * them to their preferred LLC without creating too much imbalance.
> > +	 */
> > +	group_llc_balance,
> >  	/*
> >  	 * The CPU is overloaded and can't provide expected CPU cycles to all
> >  	 * tasks.
> > @@ -10561,6 +10566,7 @@ struct sg_lb_stats {
> >  	enum group_type group_type;
> >  	unsigned int group_asym_packing;	/* Tasks should be moved to preferred CPU */
> >  	unsigned int group_smt_balance;		/* Task on busy SMT be moved */
> > +	unsigned int group_llc_balance;		/* Tasks should be moved to preferred LLC */
> >  	unsigned long group_misfit_task_load;	/* A CPU has a task too big for its capacity */
> >  #ifdef CONFIG_NUMA_BALANCING
> >  	unsigned int nr_numa_running;
> > @@ -10819,6 +10825,9 @@ group_type group_classify(unsigned int imbalance_pct,
> >  	if (group_is_overloaded(imbalance_pct, sgs))
> >  		return group_overloaded;
> >  
> > +	if (sgs->group_llc_balance)
> > +		return group_llc_balance;
> > +
> 
> group_llc_balance is placed before group_imbalanced. In cases where a group is both imbalanced and
> contains tasks preferring the destination LLC, LLC balancing will be selected first.
> 
> I assume the reasoning is that migrating tasks toward their preferred LLC may also help reduce
> imbalance, and in cases where the goals conflict, the nr_balance_failed / cache_nice_tries
> logic will eventually fall back to regular load balancing. Is that the intended policy?
> 
> It might be helpful to briefly mention this reasoning in the changelog, since this ordering
> changes balancing priority.
> 

group_llc_balance naturally aggregate tasks to LLC and could create imbalance
between LLC domains. 

If we do group_imbalanced first, then after we balanced the load 
and move on to consider group_llc_balance,
group_llc_balance will cause load imbalance between the LLCs again
and undo all the previous load balance work.

It is better to do group_llc_balance to move the tasks to their preferred
LLC first, then let group_imbalanced do adjustments to imbalance in load.
The can_migrate_llc_task() check will prevent group_imbalanced from undoing
the work done previously in group_llc_balance.

Yes, we'll add some comments to explain the reasoning of load balance priority.

Tim