Copyright (C) 2004 BULL SA.
Written by Simon.Derr@bull.net
-Portions Copyright (c) 2004 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
+Portions Copyright (c) 2004-2006 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Modified by Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com>
+Modified by Christoph Lameter <clameter@sgi.com>
+Modified by Paul Menage <menage@google.com>
+Modified by Hidetoshi Seto <seto.hidetoshi@jp.fujitsu.com>
CONTENTS:
=========
1.1 What are cpusets ?
1.2 Why are cpusets needed ?
1.3 How are cpusets implemented ?
- 1.4 How do I use cpusets ?
+ 1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
+ 1.5 What is memory_pressure ?
+ 1.6 What is memory spread ?
+ 1.7 What is sched_load_balance ?
+ 1.8 What is sched_relax_domain_level ?
+ 1.9 How do I use cpusets ?
2. Usage Examples and Syntax
2.1 Basic Usage
2.2 Adding/removing cpus
----------------------
Cpusets provide a mechanism for assigning a set of CPUs and Memory
-Nodes to a set of tasks.
+Nodes to a set of tasks. In this document "Memory Node" refers to
+an on-line node that contains memory.
Cpusets constrain the CPU and Memory placement of tasks to only
the resources within a tasks current cpuset. They form a nested
hooks, beyond what is already present, required to manage dynamic
job placement on large systems.
-Each task has a pointer to a cpuset. Multiple tasks may reference
-the same cpuset. Requests by a task, using the sched_setaffinity(2)
-system call to include CPUs in its CPU affinity mask, and using the
-mbind(2) and set_mempolicy(2) system calls to include Memory Nodes
-in its memory policy, are both filtered through that tasks cpuset,
-filtering out any CPUs or Memory Nodes not in that cpuset. The
-scheduler will not schedule a task on a CPU that is not allowed in
-its cpus_allowed vector, and the kernel page allocator will not
-allocate a page on a node that is not allowed in the requesting tasks
-mems_allowed vector.
-
-If a cpuset is cpu or mem exclusive, no other cpuset, other than a direct
-ancestor or descendent, may share any of the same CPUs or Memory Nodes.
-A cpuset that is cpu exclusive has a sched domain associated with it.
-The sched domain consists of all cpus in the current cpuset that are not
-part of any exclusive child cpusets.
-This ensures that the scheduler load balacing code only balances
-against the cpus that are in the sched domain as defined above and not
-all of the cpus in the system. This removes any overhead due to
-load balancing code trying to pull tasks outside of the cpu exclusive
-cpuset only to be prevented by the tasks' cpus_allowed mask.
-
-A cpuset that is mem_exclusive restricts kernel allocations for
-page, buffer and other data commonly shared by the kernel across
-multiple users. All cpusets, whether mem_exclusive or not, restrict
-allocations of memory for user space. This enables configuring a
-system so that several independent jobs can share common kernel
-data, such as file system pages, while isolating each jobs user
-allocation in its own cpuset. To do this, construct a large
-mem_exclusive cpuset to hold all the jobs, and construct child,
-non-mem_exclusive cpusets for each individual job. Only a small
-amount of typical kernel memory, such as requests from interrupt
-handlers, is allowed to be taken outside even a mem_exclusive cpuset.
-
-User level code may create and destroy cpusets by name in the cpuset
+Cpusets use the generic cgroup subsystem described in
+Documentation/cgroups/cgroups.txt.
+
+Requests by a task, using the sched_setaffinity(2) system call to
+include CPUs in its CPU affinity mask, and using the mbind(2) and
+set_mempolicy(2) system calls to include Memory Nodes in its memory
+policy, are both filtered through that tasks cpuset, filtering out any
+CPUs or Memory Nodes not in that cpuset. The scheduler will not
+schedule a task on a CPU that is not allowed in its cpus_allowed
+vector, and the kernel page allocator will not allocate a page on a
+node that is not allowed in the requesting tasks mems_allowed vector.
+
+User level code may create and destroy cpusets by name in the cgroup
virtual file system, manage the attributes and permissions of these
cpusets and which CPUs and Memory Nodes are assigned to each cpuset,
specify and query to which cpuset a task is assigned, and list the
But larger systems, which benefit more from careful processor and
memory placement to reduce memory access times and contention,
and which typically represent a larger investment for the customer,
-can benefit from explictly placing jobs on properly sized subsets of
+can benefit from explicitly placing jobs on properly sized subsets of
the system.
This can be especially valuable on:
and a database), or
* NUMA systems running large HPC applications with demanding
performance characteristics.
- * Also cpu_exclusive cpusets are useful for servers running orthogonal
- workloads such as RT applications requiring low latency and HPC
- applications that are throughput sensitive
These subsets, or "soft partitions" must be able to be dynamically
adjusted, as the job mix changes, without impacting other concurrently
-executing jobs.
+executing jobs. The location of the running jobs pages may also be moved
+when the memory locations are changed.
The kernel cpuset patch provides the minimum essential kernel
mechanisms required to efficiently implement such subsets. It
1.3 How are cpusets implemented ?
---------------------------------
-Cpusets provide a Linux kernel (2.6.7 and above) mechanism to constrain
-which CPUs and Memory Nodes are used by a process or set of processes.
+Cpusets provide a Linux kernel mechanism to constrain which CPUs and
+Memory Nodes are used by a process or set of processes.
The Linux kernel already has a pair of mechanisms to specify on which
CPUs a task may be scheduled (sched_setaffinity) and on which Memory
- Cpusets are sets of allowed CPUs and Memory Nodes, known to the
kernel.
- Each task in the system is attached to a cpuset, via a pointer
- in the task structure to a reference counted cpuset structure.
+ in the task structure to a reference counted cgroup structure.
- Calls to sched_setaffinity are filtered to just those CPUs
allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- Calls to mbind and set_mempolicy are filtered to just
- A cpuset may be marked exclusive, which ensures that no other
cpuset (except direct ancestors and descendents) may contain
any overlapping CPUs or Memory Nodes.
- Also a cpu_exclusive cpuset would be associated with a sched
- domain.
- You can list all the tasks (by pid) attached to any cpuset.
The implementation of cpusets requires a few, simple hooks
into the rest of the kernel, none in performance critical paths:
- - in main/init.c, to initialize the root cpuset at system boot.
+ - in init/main.c, to initialize the root cpuset at system boot.
- in fork and exit, to attach and detach a task from its cpuset.
- in sched_setaffinity, to mask the requested CPUs by what's
allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- in sched.c migrate_all_tasks(), to keep migrating tasks within
the CPUs allowed by their cpuset, if possible.
- - in sched.c, a new API partition_sched_domains for handling
- sched domain changes associated with cpu_exclusive cpusets
- and related changes in both sched.c and arch/ia64/kernel/domain.c
- in the mbind and set_mempolicy system calls, to mask the requested
Memory Nodes by what's allowed in that tasks cpuset.
- - in page_alloc, to restrict memory to allowed nodes.
+ - in page_alloc.c, to restrict memory to allowed nodes.
- in vmscan.c, to restrict page recovery to the current cpuset.
-In addition a new file system, of type "cpuset" may be mounted,
-typically at /dev/cpuset, to enable browsing and modifying the cpusets
-presently known to the kernel. No new system calls are added for
-cpusets - all support for querying and modifying cpusets is via
-this cpuset file system.
+You should mount the "cgroup" filesystem type in order to enable
+browsing and modifying the cpusets presently known to the kernel. No
+new system calls are added for cpusets - all support for querying and
+modifying cpusets is via this cpuset file system.
-Each task under /proc has an added file named 'cpuset', displaying
-the cpuset name, as the path relative to the root of the cpuset file
-system.
-
-The /proc/<pid>/status file for each task has two added lines,
+The /proc/<pid>/status file for each task has four added lines,
displaying the tasks cpus_allowed (on which CPUs it may be scheduled)
and mems_allowed (on which Memory Nodes it may obtain memory),
-in the format seen in the following example:
+in the two formats seen in the following example:
Cpus_allowed: ffffffff,ffffffff,ffffffff,ffffffff
+ Cpus_allowed_list: 0-127
Mems_allowed: ffffffff,ffffffff
+ Mems_allowed_list: 0-63
-Each cpuset is represented by a directory in the cpuset file system
-containing the following files describing that cpuset:
+Each cpuset is represented by a directory in the cgroup file system
+containing (on top of the standard cgroup files) the following
+files describing that cpuset:
- cpus: list of CPUs in that cpuset
- mems: list of Memory Nodes in that cpuset
+ - memory_migrate flag: if set, move pages to cpusets nodes
- cpu_exclusive flag: is cpu placement exclusive?
- mem_exclusive flag: is memory placement exclusive?
- - tasks: list of tasks (by pid) attached to that cpuset
+ - mem_hardwall flag: is memory allocation hardwalled
+ - memory_pressure: measure of how much paging pressure in cpuset
+
+In addition, the root cpuset only has the following file:
+ - memory_pressure_enabled flag: compute memory_pressure?
New cpusets are created using the mkdir system call or shell
command. The properties of a cpuset, such as its flags, allowed
The following rules apply to each cpuset:
- Its CPUs and Memory Nodes must be a subset of its parents.
- - It can only be marked exclusive if its parent is.
+ - It can't be marked exclusive unless its parent is.
- If its cpu or memory is exclusive, they may not overlap any sibling.
These rules, and the natural hierarchy of cpusets, enable efficient
to represent the cpuset hierarchy provides for a familiar permission
and name space for cpusets, with a minimum of additional kernel code.
-1.4 How do I use cpusets ?
+The cpus and mems files in the root (top_cpuset) cpuset are
+read-only. The cpus file automatically tracks the value of
+cpu_online_map using a CPU hotplug notifier, and the mems file
+automatically tracks the value of node_states[N_HIGH_MEMORY]--i.e.,
+nodes with memory--using the cpuset_track_online_nodes() hook.
+
+
+1.4 What are exclusive cpusets ?
+--------------------------------
+
+If a cpuset is cpu or mem exclusive, no other cpuset, other than
+a direct ancestor or descendent, may share any of the same CPUs or
+Memory Nodes.
+
+A cpuset that is mem_exclusive *or* mem_hardwall is "hardwalled",
+i.e. it restricts kernel allocations for page, buffer and other data
+commonly shared by the kernel across multiple users. All cpusets,
+whether hardwalled or not, restrict allocations of memory for user
+space. This enables configuring a system so that several independent
+jobs can share common kernel data, such as file system pages, while
+isolating each job's user allocation in its own cpuset. To do this,
+construct a large mem_exclusive cpuset to hold all the jobs, and
+construct child, non-mem_exclusive cpusets for each individual job.
+Only a small amount of typical kernel memory, such as requests from
+interrupt handlers, is allowed to be taken outside even a
+mem_exclusive cpuset.
+
+
+1.5 What is memory_pressure ?
+-----------------------------
+The memory_pressure of a cpuset provides a simple per-cpuset metric
+of the rate that the tasks in a cpuset are attempting to free up in
+use memory on the nodes of the cpuset to satisfy additional memory
+requests.
+
+This enables batch managers monitoring jobs running in dedicated
+cpusets to efficiently detect what level of memory pressure that job
+is causing.
+
+This is useful both on tightly managed systems running a wide mix of
+submitted jobs, which may choose to terminate or re-prioritize jobs that
+are trying to use more memory than allowed on the nodes assigned them,
+and with tightly coupled, long running, massively parallel scientific
+computing jobs that will dramatically fail to meet required performance
+goals if they start to use more memory than allowed to them.
+
+This mechanism provides a very economical way for the batch manager
+to monitor a cpuset for signs of memory pressure. It's up to the
+batch manager or other user code to decide what to do about it and
+take action.
+
+==> Unless this feature is enabled by writing "1" to the special file
+ /dev/cpuset/memory_pressure_enabled, the hook in the rebalance
+ code of __alloc_pages() for this metric reduces to simply noticing
+ that the cpuset_memory_pressure_enabled flag is zero. So only
+ systems that enable this feature will compute the metric.
+
+Why a per-cpuset, running average:
+
+ Because this meter is per-cpuset, rather than per-task or mm,
+ the system load imposed by a batch scheduler monitoring this
+ metric is sharply reduced on large systems, because a scan of
+ the tasklist can be avoided on each set of queries.
+
+ Because this meter is a running average, instead of an accumulating
+ counter, a batch scheduler can detect memory pressure with a
+ single read, instead of having to read and accumulate results
+ for a period of time.
+
+ Because this meter is per-cpuset rather than per-task or mm,
+ the batch scheduler can obtain the key information, memory
+ pressure in a cpuset, with a single read, rather than having to
+ query and accumulate results over all the (dynamically changing)
+ set of tasks in the cpuset.
+
+A per-cpuset simple digital filter (requires a spinlock and 3 words
+of data per-cpuset) is kept, and updated by any task attached to that
+cpuset, if it enters the synchronous (direct) page reclaim code.
+
+A per-cpuset file provides an integer number representing the recent
+(half-life of 10 seconds) rate of direct page reclaims caused by
+the tasks in the cpuset, in units of reclaims attempted per second,
+times 1000.
+
+
+1.6 What is memory spread ?
+---------------------------
+There are two boolean flag files per cpuset that control where the
+kernel allocates pages for the file system buffers and related in
+kernel data structures. They are called 'memory_spread_page' and
+'memory_spread_slab'.
+
+If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_page' is set, then
+the kernel will spread the file system buffers (page cache) evenly
+over all the nodes that the faulting task is allowed to use, instead
+of preferring to put those pages on the node where the task is running.
+
+If the per-cpuset boolean flag file 'memory_spread_slab' is set,
+then the kernel will spread some file system related slab caches,
+such as for inodes and dentries evenly over all the nodes that the
+faulting task is allowed to use, instead of preferring to put those
+pages on the node where the task is running.
+
+The setting of these flags does not affect anonymous data segment or
+stack segment pages of a task.
+
+By default, both kinds of memory spreading are off, and memory
+pages are allocated on the node local to where the task is running,
+except perhaps as modified by the tasks NUMA mempolicy or cpuset
+configuration, so long as sufficient free memory pages are available.
+
+When new cpusets are created, they inherit the memory spread settings
+of their parent.
+
+Setting memory spreading causes allocations for the affected page
+or slab caches to ignore the tasks NUMA mempolicy and be spread
+instead. Tasks using mbind() or set_mempolicy() calls to set NUMA
+mempolicies will not notice any change in these calls as a result of
+their containing tasks memory spread settings. If memory spreading
+is turned off, then the currently specified NUMA mempolicy once again
+applies to memory page allocations.
+
+Both 'memory_spread_page' and 'memory_spread_slab' are boolean flag
+files. By default they contain "0", meaning that the feature is off
+for that cpuset. If a "1" is written to that file, then that turns
+the named feature on.
+
+The implementation is simple.
+
+Setting the flag 'memory_spread_page' turns on a per-process flag
+PF_SPREAD_PAGE for each task that is in that cpuset or subsequently
+joins that cpuset. The page allocation calls for the page cache
+is modified to perform an inline check for this PF_SPREAD_PAGE task
+flag, and if set, a call to a new routine cpuset_mem_spread_node()
+returns the node to prefer for the allocation.
+
+Similarly, setting 'memory_spread_slab' turns on the flag
+PF_SPREAD_SLAB, and appropriately marked slab caches will allocate
+pages from the node returned by cpuset_mem_spread_node().
+
+The cpuset_mem_spread_node() routine is also simple. It uses the
+value of a per-task rotor cpuset_mem_spread_rotor to select the next
+node in the current tasks mems_allowed to prefer for the allocation.
+
+This memory placement policy is also known (in other contexts) as
+round-robin or interleave.
+
+This policy can provide substantial improvements for jobs that need
+to place thread local data on the corresponding node, but that need
+to access large file system data sets that need to be spread across
+the several nodes in the jobs cpuset in order to fit. Without this
+policy, especially for jobs that might have one thread reading in the
+data set, the memory allocation across the nodes in the jobs cpuset
+can become very uneven.
+
+1.7 What is sched_load_balance ?
+--------------------------------
+
+The kernel scheduler (kernel/sched.c) automatically load balances
+tasks. If one CPU is underutilized, kernel code running on that
+CPU will look for tasks on other more overloaded CPUs and move those
+tasks to itself, within the constraints of such placement mechanisms
+as cpusets and sched_setaffinity.
+
+The algorithmic cost of load balancing and its impact on key shared
+kernel data structures such as the task list increases more than
+linearly with the number of CPUs being balanced. So the scheduler
+has support to partition the systems CPUs into a number of sched
+domains such that it only load balances within each sched domain.
+Each sched domain covers some subset of the CPUs in the system;
+no two sched domains overlap; some CPUs might not be in any sched
+domain and hence won't be load balanced.
+
+Put simply, it costs less to balance between two smaller sched domains
+than one big one, but doing so means that overloads in one of the
+two domains won't be load balanced to the other one.
+
+By default, there is one sched domain covering all CPUs, except those
+marked isolated using the kernel boot time "isolcpus=" argument.
+
+This default load balancing across all CPUs is not well suited for
+the following two situations:
+ 1) On large systems, load balancing across many CPUs is expensive.
+ If the system is managed using cpusets to place independent jobs
+ on separate sets of CPUs, full load balancing is unnecessary.
+ 2) Systems supporting realtime on some CPUs need to minimize
+ system overhead on those CPUs, including avoiding task load
+ balancing if that is not needed.
+
+When the per-cpuset flag "sched_load_balance" is enabled (the default
+setting), it requests that all the CPUs in that cpusets allowed 'cpus'
+be contained in a single sched domain, ensuring that load balancing
+can move a task (not otherwised pinned, as by sched_setaffinity)
+from any CPU in that cpuset to any other.
+
+When the per-cpuset flag "sched_load_balance" is disabled, then the
+scheduler will avoid load balancing across the CPUs in that cpuset,
+--except-- in so far as is necessary because some overlapping cpuset
+has "sched_load_balance" enabled.
+
+So, for example, if the top cpuset has the flag "sched_load_balance"
+enabled, then the scheduler will have one sched domain covering all
+CPUs, and the setting of the "sched_load_balance" flag in any other
+cpusets won't matter, as we're already fully load balancing.
+
+Therefore in the above two situations, the top cpuset flag
+"sched_load_balance" should be disabled, and only some of the smaller,
+child cpusets have this flag enabled.
+
+When doing this, you don't usually want to leave any unpinned tasks in
+the top cpuset that might use non-trivial amounts of CPU, as such tasks
+may be artificially constrained to some subset of CPUs, depending on
+the particulars of this flag setting in descendent cpusets. Even if
+such a task could use spare CPU cycles in some other CPUs, the kernel
+scheduler might not consider the possibility of load balancing that
+task to that underused CPU.
+
+Of course, tasks pinned to a particular CPU can be left in a cpuset
+that disables "sched_load_balance" as those tasks aren't going anywhere
+else anyway.
+
+There is an impedance mismatch here, between cpusets and sched domains.
+Cpusets are hierarchical and nest. Sched domains are flat; they don't
+overlap and each CPU is in at most one sched domain.
+
+It is necessary for sched domains to be flat because load balancing
+across partially overlapping sets of CPUs would risk unstable dynamics
+that would be beyond our understanding. So if each of two partially
+overlapping cpusets enables the flag 'sched_load_balance', then we
+form a single sched domain that is a superset of both. We won't move
+a task to a CPU outside it cpuset, but the scheduler load balancing
+code might waste some compute cycles considering that possibility.
+
+This mismatch is why there is not a simple one-to-one relation
+between which cpusets have the flag "sched_load_balance" enabled,
+and the sched domain configuration. If a cpuset enables the flag, it
+will get balancing across all its CPUs, but if it disables the flag,
+it will only be assured of no load balancing if no other overlapping
+cpuset enables the flag.
+
+If two cpusets have partially overlapping 'cpus' allowed, and only
+one of them has this flag enabled, then the other may find its
+tasks only partially load balanced, just on the overlapping CPUs.
+This is just the general case of the top_cpuset example given a few
+paragraphs above. In the general case, as in the top cpuset case,
+don't leave tasks that might use non-trivial amounts of CPU in
+such partially load balanced cpusets, as they may be artificially
+constrained to some subset of the CPUs allowed to them, for lack of
+load balancing to the other CPUs.
+
+1.7.1 sched_load_balance implementation details.
+------------------------------------------------
+
+The per-cpuset flag 'sched_load_balance' defaults to enabled (contrary
+to most cpuset flags.) When enabled for a cpuset, the kernel will
+ensure that it can load balance across all the CPUs in that cpuset
+(makes sure that all the CPUs in the cpus_allowed of that cpuset are
+in the same sched domain.)
+
+If two overlapping cpusets both have 'sched_load_balance' enabled,
+then they will be (must be) both in the same sched domain.
+
+If, as is the default, the top cpuset has 'sched_load_balance' enabled,
+then by the above that means there is a single sched domain covering
+the whole system, regardless of any other cpuset settings.
+
+The kernel commits to user space that it will avoid load balancing
+where it can. It will pick as fine a granularity partition of sched
+domains as it can while still providing load balancing for any set
+of CPUs allowed to a cpuset having 'sched_load_balance' enabled.
+
+The internal kernel cpuset to scheduler interface passes from the
+cpuset code to the scheduler code a partition of the load balanced
+CPUs in the system. This partition is a set of subsets (represented
+as an array of cpumask_t) of CPUs, pairwise disjoint, that cover all
+the CPUs that must be load balanced.
+
+Whenever the 'sched_load_balance' flag changes, or CPUs come or go
+from a cpuset with this flag enabled, or a cpuset with this flag
+enabled is removed, the cpuset code builds a new such partition and
+passes it to the scheduler sched domain setup code, to have the sched
+domains rebuilt as necessary.
+
+This partition exactly defines what sched domains the scheduler should
+setup - one sched domain for each element (cpumask_t) in the partition.
+
+The scheduler remembers the currently active sched domain partitions.
+When the scheduler routine partition_sched_domains() is invoked from
+the cpuset code to update these sched domains, it compares the new
+partition requested with the current, and updates its sched domains,
+removing the old and adding the new, for each change.
+
+
+1.8 What is sched_relax_domain_level ?
+--------------------------------------
+
+In sched domain, the scheduler migrates tasks in 2 ways; periodic load
+balance on tick, and at time of some schedule events.
+
+When a task is woken up, scheduler try to move the task on idle CPU.
+For example, if a task A running on CPU X activates another task B
+on the same CPU X, and if CPU Y is X's sibling and performing idle,
+then scheduler migrate task B to CPU Y so that task B can start on
+CPU Y without waiting task A on CPU X.
+
+And if a CPU run out of tasks in its runqueue, the CPU try to pull
+extra tasks from other busy CPUs to help them before it is going to
+be idle.
+
+Of course it takes some searching cost to find movable tasks and/or
+idle CPUs, the scheduler might not search all CPUs in the domain
+everytime. In fact, in some architectures, the searching ranges on
+events are limited in the same socket or node where the CPU locates,
+while the load balance on tick searchs all.
+
+For example, assume CPU Z is relatively far from CPU X. Even if CPU Z
+is idle while CPU X and the siblings are busy, scheduler can't migrate
+woken task B from X to Z since it is out of its searching range.
+As the result, task B on CPU X need to wait task A or wait load balance
+on the next tick. For some applications in special situation, waiting
+1 tick may be too long.
+
+The 'sched_relax_domain_level' file allows you to request changing
+this searching range as you like. This file takes int value which
+indicates size of searching range in levels ideally as follows,
+otherwise initial value -1 that indicates the cpuset has no request.
+
+ -1 : no request. use system default or follow request of others.
+ 0 : no search.
+ 1 : search siblings (hyperthreads in a core).
+ 2 : search cores in a package.
+ 3 : search cpus in a node [= system wide on non-NUMA system]
+ ( 4 : search nodes in a chunk of node [on NUMA system] )
+ ( 5 : search system wide [on NUMA system] )
+
+The system default is architecture dependent. The system default
+can be changed using the relax_domain_level= boot parameter.
+
+This file is per-cpuset and affect the sched domain where the cpuset
+belongs to. Therefore if the flag 'sched_load_balance' of a cpuset
+is disabled, then 'sched_relax_domain_level' have no effect since
+there is no sched domain belonging the cpuset.
+
+If multiple cpusets are overlapping and hence they form a single sched
+domain, the largest value among those is used. Be careful, if one
+requests 0 and others are -1 then 0 is used.
+
+Note that modifying this file will have both good and bad effects,
+and whether it is acceptable or not will be depend on your situation.
+Don't modify this file if you are not sure.
+
+If your situation is:
+ - The migration costs between each cpu can be assumed considerably
+ small(for you) due to your special application's behavior or
+ special hardware support for CPU cache etc.
+ - The searching cost doesn't have impact(for you) or you can make
+ the searching cost enough small by managing cpuset to compact etc.
+ - The latency is required even it sacrifices cache hit rate etc.
+then increasing 'sched_relax_domain_level' would benefit you.
+
+
+1.9 How do I use cpusets ?
--------------------------
In order to minimize the impact of cpusets on critical kernel
memory placement, as above, the next time that the kernel attempts
to allocate a page of memory for that task.
-If a cpuset has its CPUs modified, then each task using that
-cpuset does _not_ change its behavior automatically. In order to
-minimize the impact on the critical scheduling code in the kernel,
-tasks will continue to use their prior CPU placement until they
-are rebound to their cpuset, by rewriting their pid to the 'tasks'
-file of their cpuset. If a task had been bound to some subset of its
-cpuset using the sched_setaffinity() call, and if any of that subset
-is still allowed in its new cpuset settings, then the task will be
-restricted to the intersection of the CPUs it was allowed on before,
-and its new cpuset CPU placement. If, on the other hand, there is
-no overlap between a tasks prior placement and its new cpuset CPU
-placement, then the task will be allowed to run on any CPU allowed
-in its new cpuset. If a task is moved from one cpuset to another,
-its CPU placement is updated in the same way as if the tasks pid is
-rewritten to the 'tasks' file of its current cpuset.
+If a cpuset has its 'cpus' modified, then each task in that cpuset
+will have its allowed CPU placement changed immediately. Similarly,
+if a tasks pid is written to a cpusets 'tasks' file, in either its
+current cpuset or another cpuset, then its allowed CPU placement is
+changed immediately. If such a task had been bound to some subset
+of its cpuset using the sched_setaffinity() call, the task will be
+allowed to run on any CPU allowed in its new cpuset, negating the
+affect of the prior sched_setaffinity() call.
In summary, the memory placement of a task whose cpuset is changed is
updated by the kernel, on the next allocation of a page for that task,
impacting the scheduler code in the kernel with a check for changes
in a tasks processor placement.
+Normally, once a page is allocated (given a physical page
+of main memory) then that page stays on whatever node it
+was allocated, so long as it remains allocated, even if the
+cpusets memory placement policy 'mems' subsequently changes.
+If the cpuset flag file 'memory_migrate' is set true, then when
+tasks are attached to that cpuset, any pages that task had
+allocated to it on nodes in its previous cpuset are migrated
+to the tasks new cpuset. The relative placement of the page within
+the cpuset is preserved during these migration operations if possible.
+For example if the page was on the second valid node of the prior cpuset
+then the page will be placed on the second valid node of the new cpuset.
+
+Also if 'memory_migrate' is set true, then if that cpusets
+'mems' file is modified, pages allocated to tasks in that
+cpuset, that were on nodes in the previous setting of 'mems',
+will be moved to nodes in the new setting of 'mems.'
+Pages that were not in the tasks prior cpuset, or in the cpusets
+prior 'mems' setting, will not be moved.
+
There is an exception to the above. If hotplug functionality is used
to remove all the CPUs that are currently assigned to a cpuset,
-then the kernel will automatically update the cpus_allowed of all
-tasks attached to CPUs in that cpuset to allow all CPUs. When memory
-hotplug functionality for removing Memory Nodes is available, a
-similar exception is expected to apply there as well. In general,
-the kernel prefers to violate cpuset placement, over starving a task
-that has had all its allowed CPUs or Memory Nodes taken offline. User
-code should reconfigure cpusets to only refer to online CPUs and Memory
-Nodes when using hotplug to add or remove such resources.
+then all the tasks in that cpuset will be moved to the nearest ancestor
+with non-empty cpus. But the moving of some (or all) tasks might fail if
+cpuset is bound with another cgroup subsystem which has some restrictions
+on task attaching. In this failing case, those tasks will stay
+in the original cpuset, and the kernel will automatically update
+their cpus_allowed to allow all online CPUs. When memory hotplug
+functionality for removing Memory Nodes is available, a similar exception
+is expected to apply there as well. In general, the kernel prefers to
+violate cpuset placement, over starving a task that has had all
+its allowed CPUs or Memory Nodes taken offline.
There is a second exception to the above. GFP_ATOMIC requests are
kernel internal allocations that must be satisfied, immediately.
To start a new job that is to be contained within a cpuset, the steps are:
1) mkdir /dev/cpuset
- 2) mount -t cpuset none /dev/cpuset
+ 2) mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
3) Create the new cpuset by doing mkdir's and write's (or echo's) in
the /dev/cpuset virtual file system.
4) Start a task that will be the "founding father" of the new job.
named "Charlie", containing just CPUs 2 and 3, and Memory Node 1,
and then start a subshell 'sh' in that cpuset:
- mount -t cpuset none /dev/cpuset
+ mount -t cgroup -ocpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
cd /dev/cpuset
mkdir Charlie
cd Charlie
# The next line should display '/Charlie'
cat /proc/self/cpuset
-In the case that a change of cpuset includes wanting to move already
-allocated memory pages, consider further the work of IWAMOTO
-Toshihiro <iwamoto@valinux.co.jp> for page remapping and memory
-hotremoval, which can be found at:
-
- http://people.valinux.co.jp/~iwamoto/mh.html
-
-The integration of cpusets with such memory migration is not yet
-available.
-
In the future, a C library interface to cpusets will likely be
available. For now, the only way to query or modify cpusets is
via the cpuset file system, using the various cd, mkdir, echo, cat,
virtual filesystem.
To mount it, type:
-# mount -t cpuset none /dev/cpuset
+# mount -t cgroup -o cpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
Then under /dev/cpuset you can find a tree that corresponds to the
tree of the cpusets in the system. For instance, /dev/cpuset
In this directory you can find several files:
# ls
-cpus cpu_exclusive mems mem_exclusive tasks
+cpu_exclusive memory_migrate mems tasks
+cpus memory_pressure notify_on_release
+mem_exclusive memory_spread_page sched_load_balance
+mem_hardwall memory_spread_slab sched_relax_domain_level
Reading them will give you information about the state of this cpuset:
the CPUs and Memory Nodes it can use, the processes that are using
Add some cpus:
# /bin/echo 0-7 > cpus
+Add some mems:
+# /bin/echo 0-7 > mems
+
Now attach your shell to this cpuset:
# /bin/echo $$ > tasks
This will fail if the cpuset is in use (has cpusets inside, or has
processes attached).
+Note that for legacy reasons, the "cpuset" filesystem exists as a
+wrapper around the cgroup filesystem.
+
+The command
+
+mount -t cpuset X /dev/cpuset
+
+is equivalent to
+
+mount -t cgroup -ocpuset X /dev/cpuset
+echo "/sbin/cpuset_release_agent" > /dev/cpuset/release_agent
+
2.2 Adding/removing cpus
------------------------
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