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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cma_debugfs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cma_debugfs.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..7367e6294e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/cma_debugfs.rst @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +===================== +CMA Debugfs Interface +===================== + +The CMA debugfs interface is useful to retrieve basic information out of the +different CMA areas and to test allocation/release in each of the areas. + +Each CMA area represents a directory under <debugfs>/cma/, represented by +its CMA name like below: + + <debugfs>/cma/<cma_name> + +The structure of the files created under that directory is as follows: + + - [RO] base_pfn: The base PFN (Page Frame Number) of the zone. + - [RO] count: Amount of memory in the CMA area. + - [RO] order_per_bit: Order of pages represented by one bit. + - [RO] bitmap: The bitmap of page states in the zone. + - [WO] alloc: Allocate N pages from that CMA area. For example:: + + echo 5 > <debugfs>/cma/<cma_name>/alloc + +would try to allocate 5 pages from the 'cma_name' area. + + - [WO] free: Free N pages from that CMA area, similar to the above. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/concepts.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/concepts.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e796b0a7e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/concepts.rst @@ -0,0 +1,220 @@ +================= +Concepts overview +================= + +The memory management in Linux is a complex system that evolved over the +years and included more and more functionality to support a variety of +systems from MMU-less microcontrollers to supercomputers. The memory +management for systems without an MMU is called ``nommu`` and it +definitely deserves a dedicated document, which hopefully will be +eventually written. Yet, although some of the concepts are the same, +here we assume that an MMU is available and a CPU can translate a virtual +address to a physical address. + +.. contents:: :local: + +Virtual Memory Primer +===================== + +The physical memory in a computer system is a limited resource and +even for systems that support memory hotplug there is a hard limit on +the amount of memory that can be installed. The physical memory is not +necessarily contiguous; it might be accessible as a set of distinct +address ranges. Besides, different CPU architectures, and even +different implementations of the same architecture have different views +of how these address ranges are defined. + +All this makes dealing directly with physical memory quite complex and +to avoid this complexity a concept of virtual memory was developed. + +The virtual memory abstracts the details of physical memory from the +application software, allows to keep only needed information in the +physical memory (demand paging) and provides a mechanism for the +protection and controlled sharing of data between processes. + +With virtual memory, each and every memory access uses a virtual +address. When the CPU decodes an instruction that reads (or +writes) from (or to) the system memory, it translates the `virtual` +address encoded in that instruction to a `physical` address that the +memory controller can understand. + +The physical system memory is divided into page frames, or pages. The +size of each page is architecture specific. Some architectures allow +selection of the page size from several supported values; this +selection is performed at the kernel build time by setting an +appropriate kernel configuration option. + +Each physical memory page can be mapped as one or more virtual +pages. These mappings are described by page tables that allow +translation from a virtual address used by programs to the physical +memory address. The page tables are organized hierarchically. + +The tables at the lowest level of the hierarchy contain physical +addresses of actual pages used by the software. The tables at higher +levels contain physical addresses of the pages belonging to the lower +levels. The pointer to the top level page table resides in a +register. When the CPU performs the address translation, it uses this +register to access the top level page table. The high bits of the +virtual address are used to index an entry in the top level page +table. That entry is then used to access the next level in the +hierarchy with the next bits of the virtual address as the index to +that level page table. The lowest bits in the virtual address define +the offset inside the actual page. + +Huge Pages +========== + +The address translation requires several memory accesses and memory +accesses are slow relatively to CPU speed. To avoid spending precious +processor cycles on the address translation, CPUs maintain a cache of +such translations called Translation Lookaside Buffer (or +TLB). Usually TLB is pretty scarce resource and applications with +large memory working set will experience performance hit because of +TLB misses. + +Many modern CPU architectures allow mapping of the memory pages +directly by the higher levels in the page table. For instance, on x86, +it is possible to map 2M and even 1G pages using entries in the second +and the third level page tables. In Linux such pages are called +`huge`. Usage of huge pages significantly reduces pressure on TLB, +improves TLB hit-rate and thus improves overall system performance. + +There are two mechanisms in Linux that enable mapping of the physical +memory with the huge pages. The first one is `HugeTLB filesystem`, or +hugetlbfs. It is a pseudo filesystem that uses RAM as its backing +store. For the files created in this filesystem the data resides in +the memory and mapped using huge pages. The hugetlbfs is described at +Documentation/admin-guide/mm/hugetlbpage.rst. + +Another, more recent, mechanism that enables use of the huge pages is +called `Transparent HugePages`, or THP. Unlike the hugetlbfs that +requires users and/or system administrators to configure what parts of +the system memory should and can be mapped by the huge pages, THP +manages such mappings transparently to the user and hence the +name. See Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst for more details +about THP. + +Zones +===== + +Often hardware poses restrictions on how different physical memory +ranges can be accessed. In some cases, devices cannot perform DMA to +all the addressable memory. In other cases, the size of the physical +memory exceeds the maximal addressable size of virtual memory and +special actions are required to access portions of the memory. Linux +groups memory pages into `zones` according to their possible +usage. For example, ZONE_DMA will contain memory that can be used by +devices for DMA, ZONE_HIGHMEM will contain memory that is not +permanently mapped into kernel's address space and ZONE_NORMAL will +contain normally addressed pages. + +The actual layout of the memory zones is hardware dependent as not all +architectures define all zones, and requirements for DMA are different +for different platforms. + +Nodes +===== + +Many multi-processor machines are NUMA - Non-Uniform Memory Access - +systems. In such systems the memory is arranged into banks that have +different access latency depending on the "distance" from the +processor. Each bank is referred to as a `node` and for each node Linux +constructs an independent memory management subsystem. A node has its +own set of zones, lists of free and used pages and various statistics +counters. You can find more details about NUMA in +Documentation/mm/numa.rst` and in +Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numa_memory_policy.rst. + +Page cache +========== + +The physical memory is volatile and the common case for getting data +into the memory is to read it from files. Whenever a file is read, the +data is put into the `page cache` to avoid expensive disk access on +the subsequent reads. Similarly, when one writes to a file, the data +is placed in the page cache and eventually gets into the backing +storage device. The written pages are marked as `dirty` and when Linux +decides to reuse them for other purposes, it makes sure to synchronize +the file contents on the device with the updated data. + +Anonymous Memory +================ + +The `anonymous memory` or `anonymous mappings` represent memory that +is not backed by a filesystem. Such mappings are implicitly created +for program's stack and heap or by explicit calls to mmap(2) system +call. Usually, the anonymous mappings only define virtual memory areas +that the program is allowed to access. The read accesses will result +in creation of a page table entry that references a special physical +page filled with zeroes. When the program performs a write, a regular +physical page will be allocated to hold the written data. The page +will be marked dirty and if the kernel decides to repurpose it, +the dirty page will be swapped out. + +Reclaim +======= + +Throughout the system lifetime, a physical page can be used for storing +different types of data. It can be kernel internal data structures, +DMA'able buffers for device drivers use, data read from a filesystem, +memory allocated by user space processes etc. + +Depending on the page usage it is treated differently by the Linux +memory management. The pages that can be freed at any time, either +because they cache the data available elsewhere, for instance, on a +hard disk, or because they can be swapped out, again, to the hard +disk, are called `reclaimable`. The most notable categories of the +reclaimable pages are page cache and anonymous memory. + +In most cases, the pages holding internal kernel data and used as DMA +buffers cannot be repurposed, and they remain pinned until freed by +their user. Such pages are called `unreclaimable`. However, in certain +circumstances, even pages occupied with kernel data structures can be +reclaimed. For instance, in-memory caches of filesystem metadata can +be re-read from the storage device and therefore it is possible to +discard them from the main memory when system is under memory +pressure. + +The process of freeing the reclaimable physical memory pages and +repurposing them is called (surprise!) `reclaim`. Linux can reclaim +pages either asynchronously or synchronously, depending on the state +of the system. When the system is not loaded, most of the memory is free +and allocation requests will be satisfied immediately from the free +pages supply. As the load increases, the amount of the free pages goes +down and when it reaches a certain threshold (low watermark), an +allocation request will awaken the ``kswapd`` daemon. It will +asynchronously scan memory pages and either just free them if the data +they contain is available elsewhere, or evict to the backing storage +device (remember those dirty pages?). As memory usage increases even +more and reaches another threshold - min watermark - an allocation +will trigger `direct reclaim`. In this case allocation is stalled +until enough memory pages are reclaimed to satisfy the request. + +Compaction +========== + +As the system runs, tasks allocate and free the memory and it becomes +fragmented. Although with virtual memory it is possible to present +scattered physical pages as virtually contiguous range, sometimes it is +necessary to allocate large physically contiguous memory areas. Such +need may arise, for instance, when a device driver requires a large +buffer for DMA, or when THP allocates a huge page. Memory `compaction` +addresses the fragmentation issue. This mechanism moves occupied pages +from the lower part of a memory zone to free pages in the upper part +of the zone. When a compaction scan is finished free pages are grouped +together at the beginning of the zone and allocations of large +physically contiguous areas become possible. + +Like reclaim, the compaction may happen asynchronously in the ``kcompactd`` +daemon or synchronously as a result of a memory allocation request. + +OOM killer +========== + +It is possible that on a loaded machine memory will be exhausted and the +kernel will be unable to reclaim enough memory to continue to operate. In +order to save the rest of the system, it invokes the `OOM killer`. + +The `OOM killer` selects a task to sacrifice for the sake of the overall +system health. The selected task is killed in a hope that after it exits +enough memory will be freed to continue normal operation. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/index.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..33d37bb2fb --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/index.rst @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +========================== +DAMON: Data Access MONitor +========================== + +:doc:`DAMON </mm/damon/index>` allows light-weight data access monitoring. +Using DAMON, users can analyze the memory access patterns of their systems and +optimize those. + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 2 + + start + usage + reclaim + lru_sort diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/lru_sort.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/lru_sort.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..7b0775d281 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/lru_sort.rst @@ -0,0 +1,294 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +============================= +DAMON-based LRU-lists Sorting +============================= + +DAMON-based LRU-lists Sorting (DAMON_LRU_SORT) is a static kernel module that +aimed to be used for proactive and lightweight data access pattern based +(de)prioritization of pages on their LRU-lists for making LRU-lists a more +trusworthy data access pattern source. + +Where Proactive LRU-lists Sorting is Required? +============================================== + +As page-granularity access checking overhead could be significant on huge +systems, LRU lists are normally not proactively sorted but partially and +reactively sorted for special events including specific user requests, system +calls and memory pressure. As a result, LRU lists are sometimes not so +perfectly prepared to be used as a trustworthy access pattern source for some +situations including reclamation target pages selection under sudden memory +pressure. + +Because DAMON can identify access patterns of best-effort accuracy while +inducing only user-specified range of overhead, proactively running +DAMON_LRU_SORT could be helpful for making LRU lists more trustworthy access +pattern source with low and controlled overhead. + +How It Works? +============= + +DAMON_LRU_SORT finds hot pages (pages of memory regions that showing access +rates that higher than a user-specified threshold) and cold pages (pages of +memory regions that showing no access for a time that longer than a +user-specified threshold) using DAMON, and prioritizes hot pages while +deprioritizing cold pages on their LRU-lists. To avoid it consuming too much +CPU for the prioritizations, a CPU time usage limit can be configured. Under +the limit, it prioritizes and deprioritizes more hot and cold pages first, +respectively. System administrators can also configure under what situation +this scheme should automatically activated and deactivated with three memory +pressure watermarks. + +Its default parameters for hotness/coldness thresholds and CPU quota limit are +conservatively chosen. That is, the module under its default parameters could +be widely used without harm for common situations while providing a level of +benefits for systems having clear hot/cold access patterns under memory +pressure while consuming only a limited small portion of CPU time. + +Interface: Module Parameters +============================ + +To use this feature, you should first ensure your system is running on a kernel +that is built with ``CONFIG_DAMON_LRU_SORT=y``. + +To let sysadmins enable or disable it and tune for the given system, +DAMON_LRU_SORT utilizes module parameters. That is, you can put +``damon_lru_sort.<parameter>=<value>`` on the kernel boot command line or write +proper values to ``/sys/module/damon_lru_sort/parameters/<parameter>`` files. + +Below are the description of each parameter. + +enabled +------- + +Enable or disable DAMON_LRU_SORT. + +You can enable DAMON_LRU_SORT by setting the value of this parameter as ``Y``. +Setting it as ``N`` disables DAMON_LRU_SORT. Note that DAMON_LRU_SORT could do +no real monitoring and LRU-lists sorting due to the watermarks-based activation +condition. Refer to below descriptions for the watermarks parameter for this. + +commit_inputs +------------- + +Make DAMON_LRU_SORT reads the input parameters again, except ``enabled``. + +Input parameters that updated while DAMON_LRU_SORT is running are not applied +by default. Once this parameter is set as ``Y``, DAMON_LRU_SORT reads values +of parametrs except ``enabled`` again. Once the re-reading is done, this +parameter is set as ``N``. If invalid parameters are found while the +re-reading, DAMON_LRU_SORT will be disabled. + +hot_thres_access_freq +--------------------- + +Access frequency threshold for hot memory regions identification in permil. + +If a memory region is accessed in frequency of this or higher, DAMON_LRU_SORT +identifies the region as hot, and mark it as accessed on the LRU list, so that +it could not be reclaimed under memory pressure. 50% by default. + +cold_min_age +------------ + +Time threshold for cold memory regions identification in microseconds. + +If a memory region is not accessed for this or longer time, DAMON_LRU_SORT +identifies the region as cold, and mark it as unaccessed on the LRU list, so +that it could be reclaimed first under memory pressure. 120 seconds by +default. + +quota_ms +-------- + +Limit of time for trying the LRU lists sorting in milliseconds. + +DAMON_LRU_SORT tries to use only up to this time within a time window +(quota_reset_interval_ms) for trying LRU lists sorting. This can be used +for limiting CPU consumption of DAMON_LRU_SORT. If the value is zero, the +limit is disabled. + +10 ms by default. + +quota_reset_interval_ms +----------------------- + +The time quota charge reset interval in milliseconds. + +The charge reset interval for the quota of time (quota_ms). That is, +DAMON_LRU_SORT does not try LRU-lists sorting for more than quota_ms +milliseconds or quota_sz bytes within quota_reset_interval_ms milliseconds. + +1 second by default. + +wmarks_interval +--------------- + +The watermarks check time interval in microseconds. + +Minimal time to wait before checking the watermarks, when DAMON_LRU_SORT is +enabled but inactive due to its watermarks rule. 5 seconds by default. + +wmarks_high +----------- + +Free memory rate (per thousand) for the high watermark. + +If free memory of the system in bytes per thousand bytes is higher than this, +DAMON_LRU_SORT becomes inactive, so it does nothing but periodically checks the +watermarks. 200 (20%) by default. + +wmarks_mid +---------- + +Free memory rate (per thousand) for the middle watermark. + +If free memory of the system in bytes per thousand bytes is between this and +the low watermark, DAMON_LRU_SORT becomes active, so starts the monitoring and +the LRU-lists sorting. 150 (15%) by default. + +wmarks_low +---------- + +Free memory rate (per thousand) for the low watermark. + +If free memory of the system in bytes per thousand bytes is lower than this, +DAMON_LRU_SORT becomes inactive, so it does nothing but periodically checks the +watermarks. 50 (5%) by default. + +sample_interval +--------------- + +Sampling interval for the monitoring in microseconds. + +The sampling interval of DAMON for the cold memory monitoring. Please refer to +the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. 5ms by default. + +aggr_interval +------------- + +Aggregation interval for the monitoring in microseconds. + +The aggregation interval of DAMON for the cold memory monitoring. Please +refer to the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. 100ms by +default. + +min_nr_regions +-------------- + +Minimum number of monitoring regions. + +The minimal number of monitoring regions of DAMON for the cold memory +monitoring. This can be used to set lower-bound of the monitoring quality. +But, setting this too high could result in increased monitoring overhead. +Please refer to the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. 10 by +default. + +max_nr_regions +-------------- + +Maximum number of monitoring regions. + +The maximum number of monitoring regions of DAMON for the cold memory +monitoring. This can be used to set upper-bound of the monitoring overhead. +However, setting this too low could result in bad monitoring quality. Please +refer to the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. 1000 by +defaults. + +monitor_region_start +-------------------- + +Start of target memory region in physical address. + +The start physical address of memory region that DAMON_LRU_SORT will do work +against. By default, biggest System RAM is used as the region. + +monitor_region_end +------------------ + +End of target memory region in physical address. + +The end physical address of memory region that DAMON_LRU_SORT will do work +against. By default, biggest System RAM is used as the region. + +kdamond_pid +----------- + +PID of the DAMON thread. + +If DAMON_LRU_SORT is enabled, this becomes the PID of the worker thread. Else, +-1. + +nr_lru_sort_tried_hot_regions +----------------------------- + +Number of hot memory regions that tried to be LRU-sorted. + +bytes_lru_sort_tried_hot_regions +-------------------------------- + +Total bytes of hot memory regions that tried to be LRU-sorted. + +nr_lru_sorted_hot_regions +------------------------- + +Number of hot memory regions that successfully be LRU-sorted. + +bytes_lru_sorted_hot_regions +---------------------------- + +Total bytes of hot memory regions that successfully be LRU-sorted. + +nr_hot_quota_exceeds +-------------------- + +Number of times that the time quota limit for hot regions have exceeded. + +nr_lru_sort_tried_cold_regions +------------------------------ + +Number of cold memory regions that tried to be LRU-sorted. + +bytes_lru_sort_tried_cold_regions +--------------------------------- + +Total bytes of cold memory regions that tried to be LRU-sorted. + +nr_lru_sorted_cold_regions +-------------------------- + +Number of cold memory regions that successfully be LRU-sorted. + +bytes_lru_sorted_cold_regions +----------------------------- + +Total bytes of cold memory regions that successfully be LRU-sorted. + +nr_cold_quota_exceeds +--------------------- + +Number of times that the time quota limit for cold regions have exceeded. + +Example +======= + +Below runtime example commands make DAMON_LRU_SORT to find memory regions +having >=50% access frequency and LRU-prioritize while LRU-deprioritizing +memory regions that not accessed for 120 seconds. The prioritization and +deprioritization is limited to be done using only up to 1% CPU time to avoid +DAMON_LRU_SORT consuming too much CPU time for the (de)prioritization. It also +asks DAMON_LRU_SORT to do nothing if the system's free memory rate is more than +50%, but start the real works if it becomes lower than 40%. If DAMON_RECLAIM +doesn't make progress and therefore the free memory rate becomes lower than +20%, it asks DAMON_LRU_SORT to do nothing again, so that we can fall back to +the LRU-list based page granularity reclamation. :: + + # cd /sys/module/damon_lru_sort/parameters + # echo 500 > hot_thres_access_freq + # echo 120000000 > cold_min_age + # echo 10 > quota_ms + # echo 1000 > quota_reset_interval_ms + # echo 500 > wmarks_high + # echo 400 > wmarks_mid + # echo 200 > wmarks_low + # echo Y > enabled diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/reclaim.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/reclaim.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..343e25b252 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/reclaim.rst @@ -0,0 +1,274 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +======================= +DAMON-based Reclamation +======================= + +DAMON-based Reclamation (DAMON_RECLAIM) is a static kernel module that aimed to +be used for proactive and lightweight reclamation under light memory pressure. +It doesn't aim to replace the LRU-list based page_granularity reclamation, but +to be selectively used for different level of memory pressure and requirements. + +Where Proactive Reclamation is Required? +======================================== + +On general memory over-committed systems, proactively reclaiming cold pages +helps saving memory and reducing latency spikes that incurred by the direct +reclaim of the process or CPU consumption of kswapd, while incurring only +minimal performance degradation [1]_ [2]_ . + +Free Pages Reporting [3]_ based memory over-commit virtualization systems are +good example of the cases. In such systems, the guest VMs reports their free +memory to host, and the host reallocates the reported memory to other guests. +As a result, the memory of the systems are fully utilized. However, the +guests could be not so memory-frugal, mainly because some kernel subsystems and +user-space applications are designed to use as much memory as available. Then, +guests could report only small amount of memory as free to host, results in +memory utilization drop of the systems. Running the proactive reclamation in +guests could mitigate this problem. + +How It Works? +============= + +DAMON_RECLAIM finds memory regions that didn't accessed for specific time +duration and page out. To avoid it consuming too much CPU for the paging out +operation, a speed limit can be configured. Under the speed limit, it pages +out memory regions that didn't accessed longer time first. System +administrators can also configure under what situation this scheme should +automatically activated and deactivated with three memory pressure watermarks. + +Interface: Module Parameters +============================ + +To use this feature, you should first ensure your system is running on a kernel +that is built with ``CONFIG_DAMON_RECLAIM=y``. + +To let sysadmins enable or disable it and tune for the given system, +DAMON_RECLAIM utilizes module parameters. That is, you can put +``damon_reclaim.<parameter>=<value>`` on the kernel boot command line or write +proper values to ``/sys/module/damon_reclaim/parameters/<parameter>`` files. + +Below are the description of each parameter. + +enabled +------- + +Enable or disable DAMON_RECLAIM. + +You can enable DAMON_RCLAIM by setting the value of this parameter as ``Y``. +Setting it as ``N`` disables DAMON_RECLAIM. Note that DAMON_RECLAIM could do +no real monitoring and reclamation due to the watermarks-based activation +condition. Refer to below descriptions for the watermarks parameter for this. + +commit_inputs +------------- + +Make DAMON_RECLAIM reads the input parameters again, except ``enabled``. + +Input parameters that updated while DAMON_RECLAIM is running are not applied +by default. Once this parameter is set as ``Y``, DAMON_RECLAIM reads values +of parametrs except ``enabled`` again. Once the re-reading is done, this +parameter is set as ``N``. If invalid parameters are found while the +re-reading, DAMON_RECLAIM will be disabled. + +min_age +------- + +Time threshold for cold memory regions identification in microseconds. + +If a memory region is not accessed for this or longer time, DAMON_RECLAIM +identifies the region as cold, and reclaims it. + +120 seconds by default. + +quota_ms +-------- + +Limit of time for the reclamation in milliseconds. + +DAMON_RECLAIM tries to use only up to this time within a time window +(quota_reset_interval_ms) for trying reclamation of cold pages. This can be +used for limiting CPU consumption of DAMON_RECLAIM. If the value is zero, the +limit is disabled. + +10 ms by default. + +quota_sz +-------- + +Limit of size of memory for the reclamation in bytes. + +DAMON_RECLAIM charges amount of memory which it tried to reclaim within a time +window (quota_reset_interval_ms) and makes no more than this limit is tried. +This can be used for limiting consumption of CPU and IO. If this value is +zero, the limit is disabled. + +128 MiB by default. + +quota_reset_interval_ms +----------------------- + +The time/size quota charge reset interval in milliseconds. + +The charget reset interval for the quota of time (quota_ms) and size +(quota_sz). That is, DAMON_RECLAIM does not try reclamation for more than +quota_ms milliseconds or quota_sz bytes within quota_reset_interval_ms +milliseconds. + +1 second by default. + +wmarks_interval +--------------- + +Minimal time to wait before checking the watermarks, when DAMON_RECLAIM is +enabled but inactive due to its watermarks rule. + +wmarks_high +----------- + +Free memory rate (per thousand) for the high watermark. + +If free memory of the system in bytes per thousand bytes is higher than this, +DAMON_RECLAIM becomes inactive, so it does nothing but only periodically checks +the watermarks. + +wmarks_mid +---------- + +Free memory rate (per thousand) for the middle watermark. + +If free memory of the system in bytes per thousand bytes is between this and +the low watermark, DAMON_RECLAIM becomes active, so starts the monitoring and +the reclaiming. + +wmarks_low +---------- + +Free memory rate (per thousand) for the low watermark. + +If free memory of the system in bytes per thousand bytes is lower than this, +DAMON_RECLAIM becomes inactive, so it does nothing but periodically checks the +watermarks. In the case, the system falls back to the LRU-list based page +granularity reclamation logic. + +sample_interval +--------------- + +Sampling interval for the monitoring in microseconds. + +The sampling interval of DAMON for the cold memory monitoring. Please refer to +the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. + +aggr_interval +------------- + +Aggregation interval for the monitoring in microseconds. + +The aggregation interval of DAMON for the cold memory monitoring. Please +refer to the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. + +min_nr_regions +-------------- + +Minimum number of monitoring regions. + +The minimal number of monitoring regions of DAMON for the cold memory +monitoring. This can be used to set lower-bound of the monitoring quality. +But, setting this too high could result in increased monitoring overhead. +Please refer to the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. + +max_nr_regions +-------------- + +Maximum number of monitoring regions. + +The maximum number of monitoring regions of DAMON for the cold memory +monitoring. This can be used to set upper-bound of the monitoring overhead. +However, setting this too low could result in bad monitoring quality. Please +refer to the DAMON documentation (:doc:`usage`) for more detail. + +monitor_region_start +-------------------- + +Start of target memory region in physical address. + +The start physical address of memory region that DAMON_RECLAIM will do work +against. That is, DAMON_RECLAIM will find cold memory regions in this region +and reclaims. By default, biggest System RAM is used as the region. + +monitor_region_end +------------------ + +End of target memory region in physical address. + +The end physical address of memory region that DAMON_RECLAIM will do work +against. That is, DAMON_RECLAIM will find cold memory regions in this region +and reclaims. By default, biggest System RAM is used as the region. + +skip_anon +--------- + +Skip anonymous pages reclamation. + +If this parameter is set as ``Y``, DAMON_RECLAIM does not reclaim anonymous +pages. By default, ``N``. + + +kdamond_pid +----------- + +PID of the DAMON thread. + +If DAMON_RECLAIM is enabled, this becomes the PID of the worker thread. Else, +-1. + +nr_reclaim_tried_regions +------------------------ + +Number of memory regions that tried to be reclaimed by DAMON_RECLAIM. + +bytes_reclaim_tried_regions +--------------------------- + +Total bytes of memory regions that tried to be reclaimed by DAMON_RECLAIM. + +nr_reclaimed_regions +-------------------- + +Number of memory regions that successfully be reclaimed by DAMON_RECLAIM. + +bytes_reclaimed_regions +----------------------- + +Total bytes of memory regions that successfully be reclaimed by DAMON_RECLAIM. + +nr_quota_exceeds +---------------- + +Number of times that the time/space quota limits have exceeded. + +Example +======= + +Below runtime example commands make DAMON_RECLAIM to find memory regions that +not accessed for 30 seconds or more and pages out. The reclamation is limited +to be done only up to 1 GiB per second to avoid DAMON_RECLAIM consuming too +much CPU time for the paging out operation. It also asks DAMON_RECLAIM to do +nothing if the system's free memory rate is more than 50%, but start the real +works if it becomes lower than 40%. If DAMON_RECLAIM doesn't make progress and +therefore the free memory rate becomes lower than 20%, it asks DAMON_RECLAIM to +do nothing again, so that we can fall back to the LRU-list based page +granularity reclamation. :: + + # cd /sys/module/damon_reclaim/parameters + # echo 30000000 > min_age + # echo $((1 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024)) > quota_sz + # echo 1000 > quota_reset_interval_ms + # echo 500 > wmarks_high + # echo 400 > wmarks_mid + # echo 200 > wmarks_low + # echo Y > enabled + +.. [1] https://research.google/pubs/pub48551/ +.. [2] https://lwn.net/Articles/787611/ +.. [3] https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/mm/free_page_reporting.html diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/start.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/start.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..7aa0071ff1 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/start.rst @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +=============== +Getting Started +=============== + +This document briefly describes how you can use DAMON by demonstrating its +default user space tool. Please note that this document describes only a part +of its features for brevity. Please refer to the usage `doc +<https://github.com/awslabs/damo/blob/next/USAGE.md>`_ of the tool for more +details. + + +Prerequisites +============= + +Kernel +------ + +You should first ensure your system is running on a kernel built with +``CONFIG_DAMON_*=y``. + + +User Space Tool +--------------- + +For the demonstration, we will use the default user space tool for DAMON, +called DAMON Operator (DAMO). It is available at +https://github.com/awslabs/damo. The examples below assume that ``damo`` is on +your ``$PATH``. It's not mandatory, though. + +Because DAMO is using the sysfs interface (refer to :doc:`usage` for the +detail) of DAMON, you should ensure :doc:`sysfs </filesystems/sysfs>` is +mounted. + + +Recording Data Access Patterns +============================== + +The commands below record the memory access patterns of a program and save the +monitoring results to a file. :: + + $ git clone https://github.com/sjp38/masim + $ cd masim; make; ./masim ./configs/zigzag.cfg & + $ sudo damo record -o damon.data $(pidof masim) + +The first two lines of the commands download an artificial memory access +generator program and run it in the background. The generator will repeatedly +access two 100 MiB sized memory regions one by one. You can substitute this +with your real workload. The last line asks ``damo`` to record the access +pattern in the ``damon.data`` file. + + +Visualizing Recorded Patterns +============================= + +You can visualize the pattern in a heatmap, showing which memory region +(x-axis) got accessed when (y-axis) and how frequently (number).:: + + $ sudo damo report heats --heatmap stdout + 22222222222222222222222222222222222222211111111111111111111111111111111111111100 + 44444444444444444444444444444444444444434444444444444444444444444444444444443200 + 44444444444444444444444444444444444444433444444444444444444444444444444444444200 + 33333333333333333333333333333333333333344555555555555555555555555555555555555200 + 33333333333333333333333333333333333344444444444444444444444444444444444444444200 + 22222222222222222222222222222222222223355555555555555555555555555555555555555200 + 00000000000000000000000000000000000000288888888888888888888888888888888888888400 + 00000000000000000000000000000000000000288888888888888888888888888888888888888400 + 33333333333333333333333333333333333333355555555555555555555555555555555555555200 + 88888888888888888888888888888888888888600000000000000000000000000000000000000000 + 88888888888888888888888888888888888888600000000000000000000000000000000000000000 + 33333333333333333333333333333333333333444444444444444444444444444444444444443200 + 00000000000000000000000000000000000000288888888888888888888888888888888888888400 + [...] + # access_frequency: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 + # x-axis: space (139728247021568-139728453431248: 196.848 MiB) + # y-axis: time (15256597248362-15326899978162: 1 m 10.303 s) + # resolution: 80x40 (2.461 MiB and 1.758 s for each character) + +You can also visualize the distribution of the working set size, sorted by the +size.:: + + $ sudo damo report wss --range 0 101 10 + # <percentile> <wss> + # target_id 18446632103789443072 + # avr: 107.708 MiB + 0 0 B | | + 10 95.328 MiB |**************************** | + 20 95.332 MiB |**************************** | + 30 95.340 MiB |**************************** | + 40 95.387 MiB |**************************** | + 50 95.387 MiB |**************************** | + 60 95.398 MiB |**************************** | + 70 95.398 MiB |**************************** | + 80 95.504 MiB |**************************** | + 90 190.703 MiB |********************************************************* | + 100 196.875 MiB |***********************************************************| + +Using ``--sortby`` option with the above command, you can show how the working +set size has chronologically changed.:: + + $ sudo damo report wss --range 0 101 10 --sortby time + # <percentile> <wss> + # target_id 18446632103789443072 + # avr: 107.708 MiB + 0 3.051 MiB | | + 10 190.703 MiB |***********************************************************| + 20 95.336 MiB |***************************** | + 30 95.328 MiB |***************************** | + 40 95.387 MiB |***************************** | + 50 95.332 MiB |***************************** | + 60 95.320 MiB |***************************** | + 70 95.398 MiB |***************************** | + 80 95.398 MiB |***************************** | + 90 95.340 MiB |***************************** | + 100 95.398 MiB |***************************** | + + +Data Access Pattern Aware Memory Management +=========================================== + +Below command makes every memory region of size >=4K that has not accessed for +>=60 seconds in your workload to be swapped out. :: + + $ sudo damo schemes --damos_access_rate 0 0 --damos_sz_region 4K max \ + --damos_age 60s max --damos_action pageout \ + <pid of your workload> diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/usage.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/usage.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..8da1b72818 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/damon/usage.rst @@ -0,0 +1,812 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +=============== +Detailed Usages +=============== + +DAMON provides below interfaces for different users. + +- *DAMON user space tool.* + `This <https://github.com/awslabs/damo>`_ is for privileged people such as + system administrators who want a just-working human-friendly interface. + Using this, users can use the DAMON’s major features in a human-friendly way. + It may not be highly tuned for special cases, though. For more detail, + please refer to its `usage document + <https://github.com/awslabs/damo/blob/next/USAGE.md>`_. +- *sysfs interface.* + :ref:`This <sysfs_interface>` is for privileged user space programmers who + want more optimized use of DAMON. Using this, users can use DAMON’s major + features by reading from and writing to special sysfs files. Therefore, + you can write and use your personalized DAMON sysfs wrapper programs that + reads/writes the sysfs files instead of you. The `DAMON user space tool + <https://github.com/awslabs/damo>`_ is one example of such programs. +- *debugfs interface. (DEPRECATED!)* + :ref:`This <debugfs_interface>` is almost identical to :ref:`sysfs interface + <sysfs_interface>`. This is deprecated, so users should move to the + :ref:`sysfs interface <sysfs_interface>`. If you depend on this and cannot + move, please report your usecase to damon@lists.linux.dev and + linux-mm@kvack.org. +- *Kernel Space Programming Interface.* + :doc:`This </mm/damon/api>` is for kernel space programmers. Using this, + users can utilize every feature of DAMON most flexibly and efficiently by + writing kernel space DAMON application programs for you. You can even extend + DAMON for various address spaces. For detail, please refer to the interface + :doc:`document </mm/damon/api>`. + +.. _sysfs_interface: + +sysfs Interface +=============== + +DAMON sysfs interface is built when ``CONFIG_DAMON_SYSFS`` is defined. It +creates multiple directories and files under its sysfs directory, +``<sysfs>/kernel/mm/damon/``. You can control DAMON by writing to and reading +from the files under the directory. + +For a short example, users can monitor the virtual address space of a given +workload as below. :: + + # cd /sys/kernel/mm/damon/admin/ + # echo 1 > kdamonds/nr_kdamonds && echo 1 > kdamonds/0/contexts/nr_contexts + # echo vaddr > kdamonds/0/contexts/0/operations + # echo 1 > kdamonds/0/contexts/0/targets/nr_targets + # echo $(pidof <workload>) > kdamonds/0/contexts/0/targets/0/pid_target + # echo on > kdamonds/0/state + +Files Hierarchy +--------------- + +The files hierarchy of DAMON sysfs interface is shown below. In the below +figure, parents-children relations are represented with indentations, each +directory is having ``/`` suffix, and files in each directory are separated by +comma (","). :: + + /sys/kernel/mm/damon/admin + │ kdamonds/nr_kdamonds + │ │ 0/state,pid + │ │ │ contexts/nr_contexts + │ │ │ │ 0/avail_operations,operations + │ │ │ │ │ monitoring_attrs/ + │ │ │ │ │ │ intervals/sample_us,aggr_us,update_us + │ │ │ │ │ │ nr_regions/min,max + │ │ │ │ │ targets/nr_targets + │ │ │ │ │ │ 0/pid_target + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ regions/nr_regions + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 0/start,end + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ... + │ │ │ │ │ │ ... + │ │ │ │ │ schemes/nr_schemes + │ │ │ │ │ │ 0/action + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ access_pattern/ + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ sz/min,max + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ nr_accesses/min,max + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ age/min,max + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ quotas/ms,bytes,reset_interval_ms + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ weights/sz_permil,nr_accesses_permil,age_permil + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ watermarks/metric,interval_us,high,mid,low + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ filters/nr_filters + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 0/type,matching,memcg_id + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ stats/nr_tried,sz_tried,nr_applied,sz_applied,qt_exceeds + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ tried_regions/total_bytes + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 0/start,end,nr_accesses,age + │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ... + │ │ │ │ │ │ ... + │ │ │ │ ... + │ │ ... + +Root +---- + +The root of the DAMON sysfs interface is ``<sysfs>/kernel/mm/damon/``, and it +has one directory named ``admin``. The directory contains the files for +privileged user space programs' control of DAMON. User space tools or daemons +having the root permission could use this directory. + +kdamonds/ +--------- + +The monitoring-related information including request specifications and results +are called DAMON context. DAMON executes each context with a kernel thread +called kdamond, and multiple kdamonds could run in parallel. + +Under the ``admin`` directory, one directory, ``kdamonds``, which has files for +controlling the kdamonds exist. In the beginning, this directory has only one +file, ``nr_kdamonds``. Writing a number (``N``) to the file creates the number +of child directories named ``0`` to ``N-1``. Each directory represents each +kdamond. + +kdamonds/<N>/ +------------- + +In each kdamond directory, two files (``state`` and ``pid``) and one directory +(``contexts``) exist. + +Reading ``state`` returns ``on`` if the kdamond is currently running, or +``off`` if it is not running. Writing ``on`` or ``off`` makes the kdamond be +in the state. Writing ``commit`` to the ``state`` file makes kdamond reads the +user inputs in the sysfs files except ``state`` file again. Writing +``update_schemes_stats`` to ``state`` file updates the contents of stats files +for each DAMON-based operation scheme of the kdamond. For details of the +stats, please refer to :ref:`stats section <sysfs_schemes_stats>`. + +Writing ``update_schemes_tried_regions`` to ``state`` file updates the +DAMON-based operation scheme action tried regions directory for each +DAMON-based operation scheme of the kdamond. Writing +``update_schemes_tried_bytes`` to ``state`` file updates only +``.../tried_regions/total_bytes`` files. Writing +``clear_schemes_tried_regions`` to ``state`` file clears the DAMON-based +operating scheme action tried regions directory for each DAMON-based operation +scheme of the kdamond. For details of the DAMON-based operation scheme action +tried regions directory, please refer to :ref:`tried_regions section +<sysfs_schemes_tried_regions>`. + +If the state is ``on``, reading ``pid`` shows the pid of the kdamond thread. + +``contexts`` directory contains files for controlling the monitoring contexts +that this kdamond will execute. + +kdamonds/<N>/contexts/ +---------------------- + +In the beginning, this directory has only one file, ``nr_contexts``. Writing a +number (``N``) to the file creates the number of child directories named as +``0`` to ``N-1``. Each directory represents each monitoring context. At the +moment, only one context per kdamond is supported, so only ``0`` or ``1`` can +be written to the file. + +.. _sysfs_contexts: + +contexts/<N>/ +------------- + +In each context directory, two files (``avail_operations`` and ``operations``) +and three directories (``monitoring_attrs``, ``targets``, and ``schemes``) +exist. + +DAMON supports multiple types of monitoring operations, including those for +virtual address space and the physical address space. You can get the list of +available monitoring operations set on the currently running kernel by reading +``avail_operations`` file. Based on the kernel configuration, the file will +list some or all of below keywords. + + - vaddr: Monitor virtual address spaces of specific processes + - fvaddr: Monitor fixed virtual address ranges + - paddr: Monitor the physical address space of the system + +Please refer to :ref:`regions sysfs directory <sysfs_regions>` for detailed +differences between the operations sets in terms of the monitoring target +regions. + +You can set and get what type of monitoring operations DAMON will use for the +context by writing one of the keywords listed in ``avail_operations`` file and +reading from the ``operations`` file. + +.. _sysfs_monitoring_attrs: + +contexts/<N>/monitoring_attrs/ +------------------------------ + +Files for specifying attributes of the monitoring including required quality +and efficiency of the monitoring are in ``monitoring_attrs`` directory. +Specifically, two directories, ``intervals`` and ``nr_regions`` exist in this +directory. + +Under ``intervals`` directory, three files for DAMON's sampling interval +(``sample_us``), aggregation interval (``aggr_us``), and update interval +(``update_us``) exist. You can set and get the values in micro-seconds by +writing to and reading from the files. + +Under ``nr_regions`` directory, two files for the lower-bound and upper-bound +of DAMON's monitoring regions (``min`` and ``max``, respectively), which +controls the monitoring overhead, exist. You can set and get the values by +writing to and rading from the files. + +For more details about the intervals and monitoring regions range, please refer +to the Design document (:doc:`/mm/damon/design`). + +contexts/<N>/targets/ +--------------------- + +In the beginning, this directory has only one file, ``nr_targets``. Writing a +number (``N``) to the file creates the number of child directories named ``0`` +to ``N-1``. Each directory represents each monitoring target. + +targets/<N>/ +------------ + +In each target directory, one file (``pid_target``) and one directory +(``regions``) exist. + +If you wrote ``vaddr`` to the ``contexts/<N>/operations``, each target should +be a process. You can specify the process to DAMON by writing the pid of the +process to the ``pid_target`` file. + +.. _sysfs_regions: + +targets/<N>/regions +------------------- + +When ``vaddr`` monitoring operations set is being used (``vaddr`` is written to +the ``contexts/<N>/operations`` file), DAMON automatically sets and updates the +monitoring target regions so that entire memory mappings of target processes +can be covered. However, users could want to set the initial monitoring region +to specific address ranges. + +In contrast, DAMON do not automatically sets and updates the monitoring target +regions when ``fvaddr`` or ``paddr`` monitoring operations sets are being used +(``fvaddr`` or ``paddr`` have written to the ``contexts/<N>/operations``). +Therefore, users should set the monitoring target regions by themselves in the +cases. + +For such cases, users can explicitly set the initial monitoring target regions +as they want, by writing proper values to the files under this directory. + +In the beginning, this directory has only one file, ``nr_regions``. Writing a +number (``N``) to the file creates the number of child directories named ``0`` +to ``N-1``. Each directory represents each initial monitoring target region. + +regions/<N>/ +------------ + +In each region directory, you will find two files (``start`` and ``end``). You +can set and get the start and end addresses of the initial monitoring target +region by writing to and reading from the files, respectively. + +Each region should not overlap with others. ``end`` of directory ``N`` should +be equal or smaller than ``start`` of directory ``N+1``. + +contexts/<N>/schemes/ +--------------------- + +The directory for DAMON-based Operation Schemes (:ref:`DAMOS +<damon_design_damos>`). Users can get and set the schemes by reading from and +writing to files under this directory. + +In the beginning, this directory has only one file, ``nr_schemes``. Writing a +number (``N``) to the file creates the number of child directories named ``0`` +to ``N-1``. Each directory represents each DAMON-based operation scheme. + +schemes/<N>/ +------------ + +In each scheme directory, five directories (``access_pattern``, ``quotas``, +``watermarks``, ``filters``, ``stats``, and ``tried_regions``) and one file +(``action``) exist. + +The ``action`` file is for setting and getting the scheme's :ref:`action +<damon_design_damos_action>`. The keywords that can be written to and read +from the file and their meaning are as below. + +Note that support of each action depends on the running DAMON operations set +:ref:`implementation <sysfs_contexts>`. + + - ``willneed``: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_WILLNEED``. + Supported by ``vaddr`` and ``fvaddr`` operations set. + - ``cold``: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_COLD``. + Supported by ``vaddr`` and ``fvaddr`` operations set. + - ``pageout``: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_PAGEOUT``. + Supported by ``vaddr``, ``fvaddr`` and ``paddr`` operations set. + - ``hugepage``: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_HUGEPAGE``. + Supported by ``vaddr`` and ``fvaddr`` operations set. + - ``nohugepage``: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_NOHUGEPAGE``. + Supported by ``vaddr`` and ``fvaddr`` operations set. + - ``lru_prio``: Prioritize the region on its LRU lists. + Supported by ``paddr`` operations set. + - ``lru_deprio``: Deprioritize the region on its LRU lists. + Supported by ``paddr`` operations set. + - ``stat``: Do nothing but count the statistics. + Supported by all operations sets. + +schemes/<N>/access_pattern/ +--------------------------- + +The directory for the target access :ref:`pattern +<damon_design_damos_access_pattern>` of the given DAMON-based operation scheme. + +Under the ``access_pattern`` directory, three directories (``sz``, +``nr_accesses``, and ``age``) each having two files (``min`` and ``max``) +exist. You can set and get the access pattern for the given scheme by writing +to and reading from the ``min`` and ``max`` files under ``sz``, +``nr_accesses``, and ``age`` directories, respectively. Note that the ``min`` +and the ``max`` form a closed interval. + +schemes/<N>/quotas/ +------------------- + +The directory for the :ref:`quotas <damon_design_damos_quotas>` of the given +DAMON-based operation scheme. + +Under ``quotas`` directory, three files (``ms``, ``bytes``, +``reset_interval_ms``) and one directory (``weights``) having three files +(``sz_permil``, ``nr_accesses_permil``, and ``age_permil``) in it exist. + +You can set the ``time quota`` in milliseconds, ``size quota`` in bytes, and +``reset interval`` in milliseconds by writing the values to the three files, +respectively. Then, DAMON tries to use only up to ``time quota`` milliseconds +for applying the ``action`` to memory regions of the ``access_pattern``, and to +apply the action to only up to ``bytes`` bytes of memory regions within the +``reset_interval_ms``. Setting both ``ms`` and ``bytes`` zero disables the +quota limits. + +You can also set the :ref:`prioritization weights +<damon_design_damos_quotas_prioritization>` for size, access frequency, and age +in per-thousand unit by writing the values to the three files under the +``weights`` directory. + +schemes/<N>/watermarks/ +----------------------- + +The directory for the :ref:`watermarks <damon_design_damos_watermarks>` of the +given DAMON-based operation scheme. + +Under the watermarks directory, five files (``metric``, ``interval_us``, +``high``, ``mid``, and ``low``) for setting the metric, the time interval +between check of the metric, and the three watermarks exist. You can set and +get the five values by writing to the files, respectively. + +Keywords and meanings of those that can be written to the ``metric`` file are +as below. + + - none: Ignore the watermarks + - free_mem_rate: System's free memory rate (per thousand) + +The ``interval`` should written in microseconds unit. + +schemes/<N>/filters/ +-------------------- + +The directory for the :ref:`filters <damon_design_damos_filters>` of the given +DAMON-based operation scheme. + +In the beginning, this directory has only one file, ``nr_filters``. Writing a +number (``N``) to the file creates the number of child directories named ``0`` +to ``N-1``. Each directory represents each filter. The filters are evaluated +in the numeric order. + +Each filter directory contains six files, namely ``type``, ``matcing``, +``memcg_path``, ``addr_start``, ``addr_end``, and ``target_idx``. To ``type`` +file, you can write one of four special keywords: ``anon`` for anonymous pages, +``memcg`` for specific memory cgroup, ``addr`` for specific address range (an +open-ended interval), or ``target`` for specific DAMON monitoring target +filtering. In case of the memory cgroup filtering, you can specify the memory +cgroup of the interest by writing the path of the memory cgroup from the +cgroups mount point to ``memcg_path`` file. In case of the address range +filtering, you can specify the start and end address of the range to +``addr_start`` and ``addr_end`` files, respectively. For the DAMON monitoring +target filtering, you can specify the index of the target between the list of +the DAMON context's monitoring targets list to ``target_idx`` file. You can +write ``Y`` or ``N`` to ``matching`` file to filter out pages that does or does +not match to the type, respectively. Then, the scheme's action will not be +applied to the pages that specified to be filtered out. + +For example, below restricts a DAMOS action to be applied to only non-anonymous +pages of all memory cgroups except ``/having_care_already``.:: + + # echo 2 > nr_filters + # # filter out anonymous pages + echo anon > 0/type + echo Y > 0/matching + # # further filter out all cgroups except one at '/having_care_already' + echo memcg > 1/type + echo /having_care_already > 1/memcg_path + echo N > 1/matching + +Note that ``anon`` and ``memcg`` filters are currently supported only when +``paddr`` `implementation <sysfs_contexts>` is being used. + +Also, memory regions that are filtered out by ``addr`` or ``target`` filters +are not counted as the scheme has tried to those, while regions that filtered +out by other type filters are counted as the scheme has tried to. The +difference is applied to :ref:`stats <damos_stats>` and +:ref:`tried regions <sysfs_schemes_tried_regions>`. + +.. _sysfs_schemes_stats: + +schemes/<N>/stats/ +------------------ + +DAMON counts the total number and bytes of regions that each scheme is tried to +be applied, the two numbers for the regions that each scheme is successfully +applied, and the total number of the quota limit exceeds. This statistics can +be used for online analysis or tuning of the schemes. + +The statistics can be retrieved by reading the files under ``stats`` directory +(``nr_tried``, ``sz_tried``, ``nr_applied``, ``sz_applied``, and +``qt_exceeds``), respectively. The files are not updated in real time, so you +should ask DAMON sysfs interface to update the content of the files for the +stats by writing a special keyword, ``update_schemes_stats`` to the relevant +``kdamonds/<N>/state`` file. + +.. _sysfs_schemes_tried_regions: + +schemes/<N>/tried_regions/ +-------------------------- + +This directory initially has one file, ``total_bytes``. + +When a special keyword, ``update_schemes_tried_regions``, is written to the +relevant ``kdamonds/<N>/state`` file, DAMON updates the ``total_bytes`` file so +that reading it returns the total size of the scheme tried regions, and creates +directories named integer starting from ``0`` under this directory. Each +directory contains files exposing detailed information about each of the memory +region that the corresponding scheme's ``action`` has tried to be applied under +this directory, during next :ref:`aggregation interval +<sysfs_monitoring_attrs>`. The information includes address range, +``nr_accesses``, and ``age`` of the region. + +Writing ``update_schemes_tried_bytes`` to the relevant ``kdamonds/<N>/state`` +file will only update the ``total_bytes`` file, and will not create the +subdirectories. + +The directories will be removed when another special keyword, +``clear_schemes_tried_regions``, is written to the relevant +``kdamonds/<N>/state`` file. + +The expected usage of this directory is investigations of schemes' behaviors, +and query-like efficient data access monitoring results retrievals. For the +latter use case, in particular, users can set the ``action`` as ``stat`` and +set the ``access pattern`` as their interested pattern that they want to query. + +tried_regions/<N>/ +------------------ + +In each region directory, you will find four files (``start``, ``end``, +``nr_accesses``, and ``age``). Reading the files will show the start and end +addresses, ``nr_accesses``, and ``age`` of the region that corresponding +DAMON-based operation scheme ``action`` has tried to be applied. + +Example +~~~~~~~ + +Below commands applies a scheme saying "If a memory region of size in [4KiB, +8KiB] is showing accesses per aggregate interval in [0, 5] for aggregate +interval in [10, 20], page out the region. For the paging out, use only up to +10ms per second, and also don't page out more than 1GiB per second. Under the +limitation, page out memory regions having longer age first. Also, check the +free memory rate of the system every 5 seconds, start the monitoring and paging +out when the free memory rate becomes lower than 50%, but stop it if the free +memory rate becomes larger than 60%, or lower than 30%". :: + + # cd <sysfs>/kernel/mm/damon/admin + # # populate directories + # echo 1 > kdamonds/nr_kdamonds; echo 1 > kdamonds/0/contexts/nr_contexts; + # echo 1 > kdamonds/0/contexts/0/schemes/nr_schemes + # cd kdamonds/0/contexts/0/schemes/0 + # # set the basic access pattern and the action + # echo 4096 > access_pattern/sz/min + # echo 8192 > access_pattern/sz/max + # echo 0 > access_pattern/nr_accesses/min + # echo 5 > access_pattern/nr_accesses/max + # echo 10 > access_pattern/age/min + # echo 20 > access_pattern/age/max + # echo pageout > action + # # set quotas + # echo 10 > quotas/ms + # echo $((1024*1024*1024)) > quotas/bytes + # echo 1000 > quotas/reset_interval_ms + # # set watermark + # echo free_mem_rate > watermarks/metric + # echo 5000000 > watermarks/interval_us + # echo 600 > watermarks/high + # echo 500 > watermarks/mid + # echo 300 > watermarks/low + +Please note that it's highly recommended to use user space tools like `damo +<https://github.com/awslabs/damo>`_ rather than manually reading and writing +the files as above. Above is only for an example. + +.. _debugfs_interface: + +debugfs Interface (DEPRECATED!) +=============================== + +.. note:: + + THIS IS DEPRECATED! + + DAMON debugfs interface is deprecated, so users should move to the + :ref:`sysfs interface <sysfs_interface>`. If you depend on this and cannot + move, please report your usecase to damon@lists.linux.dev and + linux-mm@kvack.org. + +DAMON exports eight files, ``attrs``, ``target_ids``, ``init_regions``, +``schemes``, ``monitor_on``, ``kdamond_pid``, ``mk_contexts`` and +``rm_contexts`` under its debugfs directory, ``<debugfs>/damon/``. + + +Attributes +---------- + +Users can get and set the ``sampling interval``, ``aggregation interval``, +``update interval``, and min/max number of monitoring target regions by +reading from and writing to the ``attrs`` file. To know about the monitoring +attributes in detail, please refer to the :doc:`/mm/damon/design`. For +example, below commands set those values to 5 ms, 100 ms, 1,000 ms, 10 and +1000, and then check it again:: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # echo 5000 100000 1000000 10 1000 > attrs + # cat attrs + 5000 100000 1000000 10 1000 + + +Target IDs +---------- + +Some types of address spaces supports multiple monitoring target. For example, +the virtual memory address spaces monitoring can have multiple processes as the +monitoring targets. Users can set the targets by writing relevant id values of +the targets to, and get the ids of the current targets by reading from the +``target_ids`` file. In case of the virtual address spaces monitoring, the +values should be pids of the monitoring target processes. For example, below +commands set processes having pids 42 and 4242 as the monitoring targets and +check it again:: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # echo 42 4242 > target_ids + # cat target_ids + 42 4242 + +Users can also monitor the physical memory address space of the system by +writing a special keyword, "``paddr\n``" to the file. Because physical address +space monitoring doesn't support multiple targets, reading the file will show a +fake value, ``42``, as below:: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # echo paddr > target_ids + # cat target_ids + 42 + +Note that setting the target ids doesn't start the monitoring. + + +Initial Monitoring Target Regions +--------------------------------- + +In case of the virtual address space monitoring, DAMON automatically sets and +updates the monitoring target regions so that entire memory mappings of target +processes can be covered. However, users can want to limit the monitoring +region to specific address ranges, such as the heap, the stack, or specific +file-mapped area. Or, some users can know the initial access pattern of their +workloads and therefore want to set optimal initial regions for the 'adaptive +regions adjustment'. + +In contrast, DAMON do not automatically sets and updates the monitoring target +regions in case of physical memory monitoring. Therefore, users should set the +monitoring target regions by themselves. + +In such cases, users can explicitly set the initial monitoring target regions +as they want, by writing proper values to the ``init_regions`` file. The input +should be a sequence of three integers separated by white spaces that represent +one region in below form.:: + + <target idx> <start address> <end address> + +The ``target idx`` should be the index of the target in ``target_ids`` file, +starting from ``0``, and the regions should be passed in address order. For +example, below commands will set a couple of address ranges, ``1-100`` and +``100-200`` as the initial monitoring target region of pid 42, which is the +first one (index ``0``) in ``target_ids``, and another couple of address +ranges, ``20-40`` and ``50-100`` as that of pid 4242, which is the second one +(index ``1``) in ``target_ids``.:: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # cat target_ids + 42 4242 + # echo "0 1 100 \ + 0 100 200 \ + 1 20 40 \ + 1 50 100" > init_regions + +Note that this sets the initial monitoring target regions only. In case of +virtual memory monitoring, DAMON will automatically updates the boundary of the +regions after one ``update interval``. Therefore, users should set the +``update interval`` large enough in this case, if they don't want the +update. + + +Schemes +------- + +Users can get and set the DAMON-based operation :ref:`schemes +<damon_design_damos>` by reading from and writing to ``schemes`` debugfs file. +Reading the file also shows the statistics of each scheme. To the file, each +of the schemes should be represented in each line in below form:: + + <target access pattern> <action> <quota> <watermarks> + +You can disable schemes by simply writing an empty string to the file. + +Target Access Pattern +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +The target access :ref:`pattern <damon_design_damos_access_pattern>` of the +scheme. The ``<target access pattern>`` is constructed with three ranges in +below form:: + + min-size max-size min-acc max-acc min-age max-age + +Specifically, bytes for the size of regions (``min-size`` and ``max-size``), +number of monitored accesses per aggregate interval for access frequency +(``min-acc`` and ``max-acc``), number of aggregate intervals for the age of +regions (``min-age`` and ``max-age``) are specified. Note that the ranges are +closed interval. + +Action +~~~~~~ + +The ``<action>`` is a predefined integer for memory management :ref:`actions +<damon_design_damos_action>`. The supported numbers and their meanings are as +below. + + - 0: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_WILLNEED``. Ignored if + ``target`` is ``paddr``. + - 1: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_COLD``. Ignored if + ``target`` is ``paddr``. + - 2: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_PAGEOUT``. + - 3: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_HUGEPAGE``. Ignored if + ``target`` is ``paddr``. + - 4: Call ``madvise()`` for the region with ``MADV_NOHUGEPAGE``. Ignored if + ``target`` is ``paddr``. + - 5: Do nothing but count the statistics + +Quota +~~~~~ + +Users can set the :ref:`quotas <damon_design_damos_quotas>` of the given scheme +via the ``<quota>`` in below form:: + + <ms> <sz> <reset interval> <priority weights> + +This makes DAMON to try to use only up to ``<ms>`` milliseconds for applying +the action to memory regions of the ``target access pattern`` within the +``<reset interval>`` milliseconds, and to apply the action to only up to +``<sz>`` bytes of memory regions within the ``<reset interval>``. Setting both +``<ms>`` and ``<sz>`` zero disables the quota limits. + +For the :ref:`prioritization <damon_design_damos_quotas_prioritization>`, users +can set the weights for the three properties in ``<priority weights>`` in below +form:: + + <size weight> <access frequency weight> <age weight> + +Watermarks +~~~~~~~~~~ + +Users can specify :ref:`watermarks <damon_design_damos_watermarks>` of the +given scheme via ``<watermarks>`` in below form:: + + <metric> <check interval> <high mark> <middle mark> <low mark> + +``<metric>`` is a predefined integer for the metric to be checked. The +supported numbers and their meanings are as below. + + - 0: Ignore the watermarks + - 1: System's free memory rate (per thousand) + +The value of the metric is checked every ``<check interval>`` microseconds. + +If the value is higher than ``<high mark>`` or lower than ``<low mark>``, the +scheme is deactivated. If the value is lower than ``<mid mark>``, the scheme +is activated. + +.. _damos_stats: + +Statistics +~~~~~~~~~~ + +It also counts the total number and bytes of regions that each scheme is tried +to be applied, the two numbers for the regions that each scheme is successfully +applied, and the total number of the quota limit exceeds. This statistics can +be used for online analysis or tuning of the schemes. + +The statistics can be shown by reading the ``schemes`` file. Reading the file +will show each scheme you entered in each line, and the five numbers for the +statistics will be added at the end of each line. + +Example +~~~~~~~ + +Below commands applies a scheme saying "If a memory region of size in [4KiB, +8KiB] is showing accesses per aggregate interval in [0, 5] for aggregate +interval in [10, 20], page out the region. For the paging out, use only up to +10ms per second, and also don't page out more than 1GiB per second. Under the +limitation, page out memory regions having longer age first. Also, check the +free memory rate of the system every 5 seconds, start the monitoring and paging +out when the free memory rate becomes lower than 50%, but stop it if the free +memory rate becomes larger than 60%, or lower than 30%".:: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # scheme="4096 8192 0 5 10 20 2" # target access pattern and action + # scheme+=" 10 $((1024*1024*1024)) 1000" # quotas + # scheme+=" 0 0 100" # prioritization weights + # scheme+=" 1 5000000 600 500 300" # watermarks + # echo "$scheme" > schemes + + +Turning On/Off +-------------- + +Setting the files as described above doesn't incur effect unless you explicitly +start the monitoring. You can start, stop, and check the current status of the +monitoring by writing to and reading from the ``monitor_on`` file. Writing +``on`` to the file starts the monitoring of the targets with the attributes. +Writing ``off`` to the file stops those. DAMON also stops if every target +process is terminated. Below example commands turn on, off, and check the +status of DAMON:: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # echo on > monitor_on + # echo off > monitor_on + # cat monitor_on + off + +Please note that you cannot write to the above-mentioned debugfs files while +the monitoring is turned on. If you write to the files while DAMON is running, +an error code such as ``-EBUSY`` will be returned. + + +Monitoring Thread PID +--------------------- + +DAMON does requested monitoring with a kernel thread called ``kdamond``. You +can get the pid of the thread by reading the ``kdamond_pid`` file. When the +monitoring is turned off, reading the file returns ``none``. :: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # cat monitor_on + off + # cat kdamond_pid + none + # echo on > monitor_on + # cat kdamond_pid + 18594 + + +Using Multiple Monitoring Threads +--------------------------------- + +One ``kdamond`` thread is created for each monitoring context. You can create +and remove monitoring contexts for multiple ``kdamond`` required use case using +the ``mk_contexts`` and ``rm_contexts`` files. + +Writing the name of the new context to the ``mk_contexts`` file creates a +directory of the name on the DAMON debugfs directory. The directory will have +DAMON debugfs files for the context. :: + + # cd <debugfs>/damon + # ls foo + # ls: cannot access 'foo': No such file or directory + # echo foo > mk_contexts + # ls foo + # attrs init_regions kdamond_pid schemes target_ids + +If the context is not needed anymore, you can remove it and the corresponding +directory by putting the name of the context to the ``rm_contexts`` file. :: + + # echo foo > rm_contexts + # ls foo + # ls: cannot access 'foo': No such file or directory + +Note that ``mk_contexts``, ``rm_contexts``, and ``monitor_on`` files are in the +root directory only. + + +.. _tracepoint: + +Tracepoint for Monitoring Results +================================= + +Users can get the monitoring results via the :ref:`tried_regions +<sysfs_schemes_tried_regions>` or a tracepoint, ``damon:damon_aggregated``. +While the tried regions directory is useful for getting a snapshot, the +tracepoint is useful for getting a full record of the results. While the +monitoring is turned on, you could record the tracepoint events and show +results using tracepoint supporting tools like ``perf``. For example:: + + # echo on > monitor_on + # perf record -e damon:damon_aggregated & + # sleep 5 + # kill 9 $(pidof perf) + # echo off > monitor_on + # perf script diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/hugetlbpage.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/hugetlbpage.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e4d4b4a8dc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/hugetlbpage.rst @@ -0,0 +1,473 @@ +============= +HugeTLB Pages +============= + +Overview +======== + +The intent of this file is to give a brief summary of hugetlbpage support in +the Linux kernel. This support is built on top of multiple page size support +that is provided by most modern architectures. For example, x86 CPUs normally +support 4K and 2M (1G if architecturally supported) page sizes, ia64 +architecture supports multiple page sizes 4K, 8K, 64K, 256K, 1M, 4M, 16M, +256M and ppc64 supports 4K and 16M. A TLB is a cache of virtual-to-physical +translations. Typically this is a very scarce resource on processor. +Operating systems try to make best use of limited number of TLB resources. +This optimization is more critical now as bigger and bigger physical memories +(several GBs) are more readily available. + +Users can use the huge page support in Linux kernel by either using the mmap +system call or standard SYSV shared memory system calls (shmget, shmat). + +First the Linux kernel needs to be built with the CONFIG_HUGETLBFS +(present under "File systems") and CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE (selected +automatically when CONFIG_HUGETLBFS is selected) configuration +options. + +The ``/proc/meminfo`` file provides information about the total number of +persistent hugetlb pages in the kernel's huge page pool. It also displays +default huge page size and information about the number of free, reserved +and surplus huge pages in the pool of huge pages of default size. +The huge page size is needed for generating the proper alignment and +size of the arguments to system calls that map huge page regions. + +The output of ``cat /proc/meminfo`` will include lines like:: + + HugePages_Total: uuu + HugePages_Free: vvv + HugePages_Rsvd: www + HugePages_Surp: xxx + Hugepagesize: yyy kB + Hugetlb: zzz kB + +where: + +HugePages_Total + is the size of the pool of huge pages. +HugePages_Free + is the number of huge pages in the pool that are not yet + allocated. +HugePages_Rsvd + is short for "reserved," and is the number of huge pages for + which a commitment to allocate from the pool has been made, + but no allocation has yet been made. Reserved huge pages + guarantee that an application will be able to allocate a + huge page from the pool of huge pages at fault time. +HugePages_Surp + is short for "surplus," and is the number of huge pages in + the pool above the value in ``/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages``. The + maximum number of surplus huge pages is controlled by + ``/proc/sys/vm/nr_overcommit_hugepages``. + Note: When the feature of freeing unused vmemmap pages associated + with each hugetlb page is enabled, the number of surplus huge pages + may be temporarily larger than the maximum number of surplus huge + pages when the system is under memory pressure. +Hugepagesize + is the default hugepage size (in kB). +Hugetlb + is the total amount of memory (in kB), consumed by huge + pages of all sizes. + If huge pages of different sizes are in use, this number + will exceed HugePages_Total \* Hugepagesize. To get more + detailed information, please, refer to + ``/sys/kernel/mm/hugepages`` (described below). + + +``/proc/filesystems`` should also show a filesystem of type "hugetlbfs" +configured in the kernel. + +``/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages`` indicates the current number of "persistent" huge +pages in the kernel's huge page pool. "Persistent" huge pages will be +returned to the huge page pool when freed by a task. A user with root +privileges can dynamically allocate more or free some persistent huge pages +by increasing or decreasing the value of ``nr_hugepages``. + +Note: When the feature of freeing unused vmemmap pages associated with each +hugetlb page is enabled, we can fail to free the huge pages triggered by +the user when the system is under memory pressure. Please try again later. + +Pages that are used as huge pages are reserved inside the kernel and cannot +be used for other purposes. Huge pages cannot be swapped out under +memory pressure. + +Once a number of huge pages have been pre-allocated to the kernel huge page +pool, a user with appropriate privilege can use either the mmap system call +or shared memory system calls to use the huge pages. See the discussion of +:ref:`Using Huge Pages <using_huge_pages>`, below. + +The administrator can allocate persistent huge pages on the kernel boot +command line by specifying the "hugepages=N" parameter, where 'N' = the +number of huge pages requested. This is the most reliable method of +allocating huge pages as memory has not yet become fragmented. + +Some platforms support multiple huge page sizes. To allocate huge pages +of a specific size, one must precede the huge pages boot command parameters +with a huge page size selection parameter "hugepagesz=<size>". <size> must +be specified in bytes with optional scale suffix [kKmMgG]. The default huge +page size may be selected with the "default_hugepagesz=<size>" boot parameter. + +Hugetlb boot command line parameter semantics + +hugepagesz + Specify a huge page size. Used in conjunction with hugepages + parameter to preallocate a number of huge pages of the specified + size. Hence, hugepagesz and hugepages are typically specified in + pairs such as:: + + hugepagesz=2M hugepages=512 + + hugepagesz can only be specified once on the command line for a + specific huge page size. Valid huge page sizes are architecture + dependent. +hugepages + Specify the number of huge pages to preallocate. This typically + follows a valid hugepagesz or default_hugepagesz parameter. However, + if hugepages is the first or only hugetlb command line parameter it + implicitly specifies the number of huge pages of default size to + allocate. If the number of huge pages of default size is implicitly + specified, it can not be overwritten by a hugepagesz,hugepages + parameter pair for the default size. This parameter also has a + node format. The node format specifies the number of huge pages + to allocate on specific nodes. + + For example, on an architecture with 2M default huge page size:: + + hugepages=256 hugepagesz=2M hugepages=512 + + will result in 256 2M huge pages being allocated and a warning message + indicating that the hugepages=512 parameter is ignored. If a hugepages + parameter is preceded by an invalid hugepagesz parameter, it will + be ignored. + + Node format example:: + + hugepagesz=2M hugepages=0:1,1:2 + + It will allocate 1 2M hugepage on node0 and 2 2M hugepages on node1. + If the node number is invalid, the parameter will be ignored. + +default_hugepagesz + Specify the default huge page size. This parameter can + only be specified once on the command line. default_hugepagesz can + optionally be followed by the hugepages parameter to preallocate a + specific number of huge pages of default size. The number of default + sized huge pages to preallocate can also be implicitly specified as + mentioned in the hugepages section above. Therefore, on an + architecture with 2M default huge page size:: + + hugepages=256 + default_hugepagesz=2M hugepages=256 + hugepages=256 default_hugepagesz=2M + + will all result in 256 2M huge pages being allocated. Valid default + huge page size is architecture dependent. +hugetlb_free_vmemmap + When CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE_OPTIMIZE_VMEMMAP is set, this enables HugeTLB + Vmemmap Optimization (HVO). + +When multiple huge page sizes are supported, ``/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages`` +indicates the current number of pre-allocated huge pages of the default size. +Thus, one can use the following command to dynamically allocate/deallocate +default sized persistent huge pages:: + + echo 20 > /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages + +This command will try to adjust the number of default sized huge pages in the +huge page pool to 20, allocating or freeing huge pages, as required. + +On a NUMA platform, the kernel will attempt to distribute the huge page pool +over all the set of allowed nodes specified by the NUMA memory policy of the +task that modifies ``nr_hugepages``. The default for the allowed nodes--when the +task has default memory policy--is all on-line nodes with memory. Allowed +nodes with insufficient available, contiguous memory for a huge page will be +silently skipped when allocating persistent huge pages. See the +:ref:`discussion below <mem_policy_and_hp_alloc>` +of the interaction of task memory policy, cpusets and per node attributes +with the allocation and freeing of persistent huge pages. + +The success or failure of huge page allocation depends on the amount of +physically contiguous memory that is present in system at the time of the +allocation attempt. If the kernel is unable to allocate huge pages from +some nodes in a NUMA system, it will attempt to make up the difference by +allocating extra pages on other nodes with sufficient available contiguous +memory, if any. + +System administrators may want to put this command in one of the local rc +init files. This will enable the kernel to allocate huge pages early in +the boot process when the possibility of getting physical contiguous pages +is still very high. Administrators can verify the number of huge pages +actually allocated by checking the sysctl or meminfo. To check the per node +distribution of huge pages in a NUMA system, use:: + + cat /sys/devices/system/node/node*/meminfo | fgrep Huge + +``/proc/sys/vm/nr_overcommit_hugepages`` specifies how large the pool of +huge pages can grow, if more huge pages than ``/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages`` are +requested by applications. Writing any non-zero value into this file +indicates that the hugetlb subsystem is allowed to try to obtain that +number of "surplus" huge pages from the kernel's normal page pool, when the +persistent huge page pool is exhausted. As these surplus huge pages become +unused, they are freed back to the kernel's normal page pool. + +When increasing the huge page pool size via ``nr_hugepages``, any existing +surplus pages will first be promoted to persistent huge pages. Then, additional +huge pages will be allocated, if necessary and if possible, to fulfill +the new persistent huge page pool size. + +The administrator may shrink the pool of persistent huge pages for +the default huge page size by setting the ``nr_hugepages`` sysctl to a +smaller value. The kernel will attempt to balance the freeing of huge pages +across all nodes in the memory policy of the task modifying ``nr_hugepages``. +Any free huge pages on the selected nodes will be freed back to the kernel's +normal page pool. + +Caveat: Shrinking the persistent huge page pool via ``nr_hugepages`` such that +it becomes less than the number of huge pages in use will convert the balance +of the in-use huge pages to surplus huge pages. This will occur even if +the number of surplus pages would exceed the overcommit value. As long as +this condition holds--that is, until ``nr_hugepages+nr_overcommit_hugepages`` is +increased sufficiently, or the surplus huge pages go out of use and are freed-- +no more surplus huge pages will be allowed to be allocated. + +With support for multiple huge page pools at run-time available, much of +the huge page userspace interface in ``/proc/sys/vm`` has been duplicated in +sysfs. +The ``/proc`` interfaces discussed above have been retained for backwards +compatibility. The root huge page control directory in sysfs is:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages + +For each huge page size supported by the running kernel, a subdirectory +will exist, of the form:: + + hugepages-${size}kB + +Inside each of these directories, the set of files contained in ``/proc`` +will exist. In addition, two additional interfaces for demoting huge +pages may exist:: + + demote + demote_size + nr_hugepages + nr_hugepages_mempolicy + nr_overcommit_hugepages + free_hugepages + resv_hugepages + surplus_hugepages + +The demote interfaces provide the ability to split a huge page into +smaller huge pages. For example, the x86 architecture supports both +1GB and 2MB huge pages sizes. A 1GB huge page can be split into 512 +2MB huge pages. Demote interfaces are not available for the smallest +huge page size. The demote interfaces are: + +demote_size + is the size of demoted pages. When a page is demoted a corresponding + number of huge pages of demote_size will be created. By default, + demote_size is set to the next smaller huge page size. If there are + multiple smaller huge page sizes, demote_size can be set to any of + these smaller sizes. Only huge page sizes less than the current huge + pages size are allowed. + +demote + is used to demote a number of huge pages. A user with root privileges + can write to this file. It may not be possible to demote the + requested number of huge pages. To determine how many pages were + actually demoted, compare the value of nr_hugepages before and after + writing to the demote interface. demote is a write only interface. + +The interfaces which are the same as in ``/proc`` (all except demote and +demote_size) function as described above for the default huge page-sized case. + +.. _mem_policy_and_hp_alloc: + +Interaction of Task Memory Policy with Huge Page Allocation/Freeing +=================================================================== + +Whether huge pages are allocated and freed via the ``/proc`` interface or +the ``/sysfs`` interface using the ``nr_hugepages_mempolicy`` attribute, the +NUMA nodes from which huge pages are allocated or freed are controlled by the +NUMA memory policy of the task that modifies the ``nr_hugepages_mempolicy`` +sysctl or attribute. When the ``nr_hugepages`` attribute is used, mempolicy +is ignored. + +The recommended method to allocate or free huge pages to/from the kernel +huge page pool, using the ``nr_hugepages`` example above, is:: + + numactl --interleave <node-list> echo 20 \ + >/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages_mempolicy + +or, more succinctly:: + + numactl -m <node-list> echo 20 >/proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages_mempolicy + +This will allocate or free ``abs(20 - nr_hugepages)`` to or from the nodes +specified in <node-list>, depending on whether number of persistent huge pages +is initially less than or greater than 20, respectively. No huge pages will be +allocated nor freed on any node not included in the specified <node-list>. + +When adjusting the persistent hugepage count via ``nr_hugepages_mempolicy``, any +memory policy mode--bind, preferred, local or interleave--may be used. The +resulting effect on persistent huge page allocation is as follows: + +#. Regardless of mempolicy mode [see + Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numa_memory_policy.rst], + persistent huge pages will be distributed across the node or nodes + specified in the mempolicy as if "interleave" had been specified. + However, if a node in the policy does not contain sufficient contiguous + memory for a huge page, the allocation will not "fallback" to the nearest + neighbor node with sufficient contiguous memory. To do this would cause + undesirable imbalance in the distribution of the huge page pool, or + possibly, allocation of persistent huge pages on nodes not allowed by + the task's memory policy. + +#. One or more nodes may be specified with the bind or interleave policy. + If more than one node is specified with the preferred policy, only the + lowest numeric id will be used. Local policy will select the node where + the task is running at the time the nodes_allowed mask is constructed. + For local policy to be deterministic, the task must be bound to a cpu or + cpus in a single node. Otherwise, the task could be migrated to some + other node at any time after launch and the resulting node will be + indeterminate. Thus, local policy is not very useful for this purpose. + Any of the other mempolicy modes may be used to specify a single node. + +#. The nodes allowed mask will be derived from any non-default task mempolicy, + whether this policy was set explicitly by the task itself or one of its + ancestors, such as numactl. This means that if the task is invoked from a + shell with non-default policy, that policy will be used. One can specify a + node list of "all" with numactl --interleave or --membind [-m] to achieve + interleaving over all nodes in the system or cpuset. + +#. Any task mempolicy specified--e.g., using numactl--will be constrained by + the resource limits of any cpuset in which the task runs. Thus, there will + be no way for a task with non-default policy running in a cpuset with a + subset of the system nodes to allocate huge pages outside the cpuset + without first moving to a cpuset that contains all of the desired nodes. + +#. Boot-time huge page allocation attempts to distribute the requested number + of huge pages over all on-lines nodes with memory. + +Per Node Hugepages Attributes +============================= + +A subset of the contents of the root huge page control directory in sysfs, +described above, will be replicated under each the system device of each +NUMA node with memory in:: + + /sys/devices/system/node/node[0-9]*/hugepages/ + +Under this directory, the subdirectory for each supported huge page size +contains the following attribute files:: + + nr_hugepages + free_hugepages + surplus_hugepages + +The free\_' and surplus\_' attribute files are read-only. They return the number +of free and surplus [overcommitted] huge pages, respectively, on the parent +node. + +The ``nr_hugepages`` attribute returns the total number of huge pages on the +specified node. When this attribute is written, the number of persistent huge +pages on the parent node will be adjusted to the specified value, if sufficient +resources exist, regardless of the task's mempolicy or cpuset constraints. + +Note that the number of overcommit and reserve pages remain global quantities, +as we don't know until fault time, when the faulting task's mempolicy is +applied, from which node the huge page allocation will be attempted. + +.. _using_huge_pages: + +Using Huge Pages +================ + +If the user applications are going to request huge pages using mmap system +call, then it is required that system administrator mount a file system of +type hugetlbfs:: + + mount -t hugetlbfs \ + -o uid=<value>,gid=<value>,mode=<value>,pagesize=<value>,size=<value>,\ + min_size=<value>,nr_inodes=<value> none /mnt/huge + +This command mounts a (pseudo) filesystem of type hugetlbfs on the directory +``/mnt/huge``. Any file created on ``/mnt/huge`` uses huge pages. + +The ``uid`` and ``gid`` options sets the owner and group of the root of the +file system. By default the ``uid`` and ``gid`` of the current process +are taken. + +The ``mode`` option sets the mode of root of file system to value & 01777. +This value is given in octal. By default the value 0755 is picked. + +If the platform supports multiple huge page sizes, the ``pagesize`` option can +be used to specify the huge page size and associated pool. ``pagesize`` +is specified in bytes. If ``pagesize`` is not specified the platform's +default huge page size and associated pool will be used. + +The ``size`` option sets the maximum value of memory (huge pages) allowed +for that filesystem (``/mnt/huge``). The ``size`` option can be specified +in bytes, or as a percentage of the specified huge page pool (``nr_hugepages``). +The size is rounded down to HPAGE_SIZE boundary. + +The ``min_size`` option sets the minimum value of memory (huge pages) allowed +for the filesystem. ``min_size`` can be specified in the same way as ``size``, +either bytes or a percentage of the huge page pool. +At mount time, the number of huge pages specified by ``min_size`` are reserved +for use by the filesystem. +If there are not enough free huge pages available, the mount will fail. +As huge pages are allocated to the filesystem and freed, the reserve count +is adjusted so that the sum of allocated and reserved huge pages is always +at least ``min_size``. + +The option ``nr_inodes`` sets the maximum number of inodes that ``/mnt/huge`` +can use. + +If the ``size``, ``min_size`` or ``nr_inodes`` option is not provided on +command line then no limits are set. + +For ``pagesize``, ``size``, ``min_size`` and ``nr_inodes`` options, you can +use [G|g]/[M|m]/[K|k] to represent giga/mega/kilo. +For example, size=2K has the same meaning as size=2048. + +While read system calls are supported on files that reside on hugetlb +file systems, write system calls are not. + +Regular chown, chgrp, and chmod commands (with right permissions) could be +used to change the file attributes on hugetlbfs. + +Also, it is important to note that no such mount command is required if +applications are going to use only shmat/shmget system calls or mmap with +MAP_HUGETLB. For an example of how to use mmap with MAP_HUGETLB see +:ref:`map_hugetlb <map_hugetlb>` below. + +Users who wish to use hugetlb memory via shared memory segment should be +members of a supplementary group and system admin needs to configure that gid +into ``/proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group``. It is possible for same or different +applications to use any combination of mmaps and shm* calls, though the mount of +filesystem will be required for using mmap calls without MAP_HUGETLB. + +Syscalls that operate on memory backed by hugetlb pages only have their lengths +aligned to the native page size of the processor; they will normally fail with +errno set to EINVAL or exclude hugetlb pages that extend beyond the length if +not hugepage aligned. For example, munmap(2) will fail if memory is backed by +a hugetlb page and the length is smaller than the hugepage size. + + +Examples +======== + +.. _map_hugetlb: + +``map_hugetlb`` + see tools/testing/selftests/mm/map_hugetlb.c + +``hugepage-shm`` + see tools/testing/selftests/mm/hugepage-shm.c + +``hugepage-mmap`` + see tools/testing/selftests/mm/hugepage-mmap.c + +The `libhugetlbfs`_ library provides a wide range of userspace tools +to help with huge page usability, environment setup, and control. + +.. _libhugetlbfs: https://github.com/libhugetlbfs/libhugetlbfs diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/idle_page_tracking.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/idle_page_tracking.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..16fcf38dac --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/idle_page_tracking.rst @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +================== +Idle Page Tracking +================== + +Motivation +========== + +The idle page tracking feature allows to track which memory pages are being +accessed by a workload and which are idle. This information can be useful for +estimating the workload's working set size, which, in turn, can be taken into +account when configuring the workload parameters, setting memory cgroup limits, +or deciding where to place the workload within a compute cluster. + +It is enabled by CONFIG_IDLE_PAGE_TRACKING=y. + +.. _user_api: + +User API +======== + +The idle page tracking API is located at ``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle``. +Currently, it consists of the only read-write file, +``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle/bitmap``. + +The file implements a bitmap where each bit corresponds to a memory page. The +bitmap is represented by an array of 8-byte integers, and the page at PFN #i is +mapped to bit #i%64 of array element #i/64, byte order is native. When a bit is +set, the corresponding page is idle. + +A page is considered idle if it has not been accessed since it was marked idle +(for more details on what "accessed" actually means see the :ref:`Implementation +Details <impl_details>` section). +To mark a page idle one has to set the bit corresponding to +the page by writing to the file. A value written to the file is OR-ed with the +current bitmap value. + +Only accesses to user memory pages are tracked. These are pages mapped to a +process address space, page cache and buffer pages, swap cache pages. For other +page types (e.g. SLAB pages) an attempt to mark a page idle is silently ignored, +and hence such pages are never reported idle. + +For huge pages the idle flag is set only on the head page, so one has to read +``/proc/kpageflags`` in order to correctly count idle huge pages. + +Reading from or writing to ``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle/bitmap`` will return +-EINVAL if you are not starting the read/write on an 8-byte boundary, or +if the size of the read/write is not a multiple of 8 bytes. Writing to +this file beyond max PFN will return -ENXIO. + +That said, in order to estimate the amount of pages that are not used by a +workload one should: + + 1. Mark all the workload's pages as idle by setting corresponding bits in + ``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle/bitmap``. The pages can be found by reading + ``/proc/pid/pagemap`` if the workload is represented by a process, or by + filtering out alien pages using ``/proc/kpagecgroup`` in case the workload + is placed in a memory cgroup. + + 2. Wait until the workload accesses its working set. + + 3. Read ``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle/bitmap`` and count the number of bits set. + If one wants to ignore certain types of pages, e.g. mlocked pages since they + are not reclaimable, he or she can filter them out using + ``/proc/kpageflags``. + +The page-types tool in the tools/mm directory can be used to assist in this. +If the tool is run initially with the appropriate option, it will mark all the +queried pages as idle. Subsequent runs of the tool can then show which pages have +their idle flag cleared in the interim. + +See Documentation/admin-guide/mm/pagemap.rst for more information about +``/proc/pid/pagemap``, ``/proc/kpageflags``, and ``/proc/kpagecgroup``. + +.. _impl_details: + +Implementation Details +====================== + +The kernel internally keeps track of accesses to user memory pages in order to +reclaim unreferenced pages first on memory shortage conditions. A page is +considered referenced if it has been recently accessed via a process address +space, in which case one or more PTEs it is mapped to will have the Accessed bit +set, or marked accessed explicitly by the kernel (see mark_page_accessed()). The +latter happens when: + + - a userspace process reads or writes a page using a system call (e.g. read(2) + or write(2)) + + - a page that is used for storing filesystem buffers is read or written, + because a process needs filesystem metadata stored in it (e.g. lists a + directory tree) + + - a page is accessed by a device driver using get_user_pages() + +When a dirty page is written to swap or disk as a result of memory reclaim or +exceeding the dirty memory limit, it is not marked referenced. + +The idle memory tracking feature adds a new page flag, the Idle flag. This flag +is set manually, by writing to ``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle/bitmap`` (see the +:ref:`User API <user_api>` +section), and cleared automatically whenever a page is referenced as defined +above. + +When a page is marked idle, the Accessed bit must be cleared in all PTEs it is +mapped to, otherwise we will not be able to detect accesses to the page coming +from a process address space. To avoid interference with the reclaimer, which, +as noted above, uses the Accessed bit to promote actively referenced pages, one +more page flag is introduced, the Young flag. When the PTE Accessed bit is +cleared as a result of setting or updating a page's Idle flag, the Young flag +is set on the page. The reclaimer treats the Young flag as an extra PTE +Accessed bit and therefore will consider such a page as referenced. + +Since the idle memory tracking feature is based on the memory reclaimer logic, +it only works with pages that are on an LRU list, other pages are silently +ignored. That means it will ignore a user memory page if it is isolated, but +since there are usually not many of them, it should not affect the overall +result noticeably. In order not to stall scanning of the idle page bitmap, +locked pages may be skipped too. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..1f883abf3f --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/index.rst @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +================= +Memory Management +================= + +Linux memory management subsystem is responsible, as the name implies, +for managing the memory in the system. This includes implementation of +virtual memory and demand paging, memory allocation both for kernel +internal structures and user space programs, mapping of files into +processes address space and many other cool things. + +Linux memory management is a complex system with many configurable +settings. Most of these settings are available via ``/proc`` +filesystem and can be quired and adjusted using ``sysctl``. These APIs +are described in Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst and in `man 5 proc`_. + +.. _man 5 proc: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/proc.5.html + +Linux memory management has its own jargon and if you are not yet +familiar with it, consider reading Documentation/admin-guide/mm/concepts.rst. + +Here we document in detail how to interact with various mechanisms in +the Linux memory management. + +.. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 1 + + concepts + cma_debugfs + damon/index + hugetlbpage + idle_page_tracking + ksm + memory-hotplug + multigen_lru + nommu-mmap + numa_memory_policy + numaperf + pagemap + shrinker_debugfs + soft-dirty + swap_numa + transhuge + userfaultfd + zswap diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..776f244bda --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/ksm.rst @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ +======================= +Kernel Samepage Merging +======================= + +Overview +======== + +KSM is a memory-saving de-duplication feature, enabled by CONFIG_KSM=y, +added to the Linux kernel in 2.6.32. See ``mm/ksm.c`` for its implementation, +and http://lwn.net/Articles/306704/ and https://lwn.net/Articles/330589/ + +KSM was originally developed for use with KVM (where it was known as +Kernel Shared Memory), to fit more virtual machines into physical memory, +by sharing the data common between them. But it can be useful to any +application which generates many instances of the same data. + +The KSM daemon ksmd periodically scans those areas of user memory +which have been registered with it, looking for pages of identical +content which can be replaced by a single write-protected page (which +is automatically copied if a process later wants to update its +content). The amount of pages that KSM daemon scans in a single pass +and the time between the passes are configured using :ref:`sysfs +interface <ksm_sysfs>` + +KSM only merges anonymous (private) pages, never pagecache (file) pages. +KSM's merged pages were originally locked into kernel memory, but can now +be swapped out just like other user pages (but sharing is broken when they +are swapped back in: ksmd must rediscover their identity and merge again). + +Controlling KSM with madvise +============================ + +KSM only operates on those areas of address space which an application +has advised to be likely candidates for merging, by using the madvise(2) +system call:: + + int madvise(addr, length, MADV_MERGEABLE) + +The app may call + +:: + + int madvise(addr, length, MADV_UNMERGEABLE) + +to cancel that advice and restore unshared pages: whereupon KSM +unmerges whatever it merged in that range. Note: this unmerging call +may suddenly require more memory than is available - possibly failing +with EAGAIN, but more probably arousing the Out-Of-Memory killer. + +If KSM is not configured into the running kernel, madvise MADV_MERGEABLE +and MADV_UNMERGEABLE simply fail with EINVAL. If the running kernel was +built with CONFIG_KSM=y, those calls will normally succeed: even if the +KSM daemon is not currently running, MADV_MERGEABLE still registers +the range for whenever the KSM daemon is started; even if the range +cannot contain any pages which KSM could actually merge; even if +MADV_UNMERGEABLE is applied to a range which was never MADV_MERGEABLE. + +If a region of memory must be split into at least one new MADV_MERGEABLE +or MADV_UNMERGEABLE region, the madvise may return ENOMEM if the process +will exceed ``vm.max_map_count`` (see Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/vm.rst). + +Like other madvise calls, they are intended for use on mapped areas of +the user address space: they will report ENOMEM if the specified range +includes unmapped gaps (though working on the intervening mapped areas), +and might fail with EAGAIN if not enough memory for internal structures. + +Applications should be considerate in their use of MADV_MERGEABLE, +restricting its use to areas likely to benefit. KSM's scans may use a lot +of processing power: some installations will disable KSM for that reason. + +.. _ksm_sysfs: + +KSM daemon sysfs interface +========================== + +The KSM daemon is controlled by sysfs files in ``/sys/kernel/mm/ksm/``, +readable by all but writable only by root: + +pages_to_scan + how many pages to scan before ksmd goes to sleep + e.g. ``echo 100 > /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/pages_to_scan``. + + Default: 100 (chosen for demonstration purposes) + +sleep_millisecs + how many milliseconds ksmd should sleep before next scan + e.g. ``echo 20 > /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/sleep_millisecs`` + + Default: 20 (chosen for demonstration purposes) + +merge_across_nodes + specifies if pages from different NUMA nodes can be merged. + When set to 0, ksm merges only pages which physically reside + in the memory area of same NUMA node. That brings lower + latency to access of shared pages. Systems with more nodes, at + significant NUMA distances, are likely to benefit from the + lower latency of setting 0. Smaller systems, which need to + minimize memory usage, are likely to benefit from the greater + sharing of setting 1 (default). You may wish to compare how + your system performs under each setting, before deciding on + which to use. ``merge_across_nodes`` setting can be changed only + when there are no ksm shared pages in the system: set run 2 to + unmerge pages first, then to 1 after changing + ``merge_across_nodes``, to remerge according to the new setting. + + Default: 1 (merging across nodes as in earlier releases) + +run + * set to 0 to stop ksmd from running but keep merged pages, + * set to 1 to run ksmd e.g. ``echo 1 > /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/run``, + * set to 2 to stop ksmd and unmerge all pages currently merged, but + leave mergeable areas registered for next run. + + Default: 0 (must be changed to 1 to activate KSM, except if + CONFIG_SYSFS is disabled) + +use_zero_pages + specifies whether empty pages (i.e. allocated pages that only + contain zeroes) should be treated specially. When set to 1, + empty pages are merged with the kernel zero page(s) instead of + with each other as it would happen normally. This can improve + the performance on architectures with coloured zero pages, + depending on the workload. Care should be taken when enabling + this setting, as it can potentially degrade the performance of + KSM for some workloads, for example if the checksums of pages + candidate for merging match the checksum of an empty + page. This setting can be changed at any time, it is only + effective for pages merged after the change. + + Default: 0 (normal KSM behaviour as in earlier releases) + +max_page_sharing + Maximum sharing allowed for each KSM page. This enforces a + deduplication limit to avoid high latency for virtual memory + operations that involve traversal of the virtual mappings that + share the KSM page. The minimum value is 2 as a newly created + KSM page will have at least two sharers. The higher this value + the faster KSM will merge the memory and the higher the + deduplication factor will be, but the slower the worst case + virtual mappings traversal could be for any given KSM + page. Slowing down this traversal means there will be higher + latency for certain virtual memory operations happening during + swapping, compaction, NUMA balancing and page migration, in + turn decreasing responsiveness for the caller of those virtual + memory operations. The scheduler latency of other tasks not + involved with the VM operations doing the virtual mappings + traversal is not affected by this parameter as these + traversals are always schedule friendly themselves. + +stable_node_chains_prune_millisecs + specifies how frequently KSM checks the metadata of the pages + that hit the deduplication limit for stale information. + Smaller milllisecs values will free up the KSM metadata with + lower latency, but they will make ksmd use more CPU during the + scan. It's a noop if not a single KSM page hit the + ``max_page_sharing`` yet. + +The effectiveness of KSM and MADV_MERGEABLE is shown in ``/sys/kernel/mm/ksm/``: + +general_profit + how effective is KSM. The calculation is explained below. +pages_scanned + how many pages are being scanned for ksm +pages_shared + how many shared pages are being used +pages_sharing + how many more sites are sharing them i.e. how much saved +pages_unshared + how many pages unique but repeatedly checked for merging +pages_volatile + how many pages changing too fast to be placed in a tree +full_scans + how many times all mergeable areas have been scanned +stable_node_chains + the number of KSM pages that hit the ``max_page_sharing`` limit +stable_node_dups + number of duplicated KSM pages +ksm_zero_pages + how many zero pages that are still mapped into processes were mapped by + KSM when deduplicating. + +When ``use_zero_pages`` is/was enabled, the sum of ``pages_sharing`` + +``ksm_zero_pages`` represents the actual number of pages saved by KSM. +if ``use_zero_pages`` has never been enabled, ``ksm_zero_pages`` is 0. + +A high ratio of ``pages_sharing`` to ``pages_shared`` indicates good +sharing, but a high ratio of ``pages_unshared`` to ``pages_sharing`` +indicates wasted effort. ``pages_volatile`` embraces several +different kinds of activity, but a high proportion there would also +indicate poor use of madvise MADV_MERGEABLE. + +The maximum possible ``pages_sharing/pages_shared`` ratio is limited by the +``max_page_sharing`` tunable. To increase the ratio ``max_page_sharing`` must +be increased accordingly. + +Monitoring KSM profit +===================== + +KSM can save memory by merging identical pages, but also can consume +additional memory, because it needs to generate a number of rmap_items to +save each scanned page's brief rmap information. Some of these pages may +be merged, but some may not be abled to be merged after being checked +several times, which are unprofitable memory consumed. + +1) How to determine whether KSM save memory or consume memory in system-wide + range? Here is a simple approximate calculation for reference:: + + general_profit =~ ksm_saved_pages * sizeof(page) - (all_rmap_items) * + sizeof(rmap_item); + + where ksm_saved_pages equals to the sum of ``pages_sharing`` + + ``ksm_zero_pages`` of the system, and all_rmap_items can be easily + obtained by summing ``pages_sharing``, ``pages_shared``, ``pages_unshared`` + and ``pages_volatile``. + +2) The KSM profit inner a single process can be similarly obtained by the + following approximate calculation:: + + process_profit =~ ksm_saved_pages * sizeof(page) - + ksm_rmap_items * sizeof(rmap_item). + + where ksm_saved_pages equals to the sum of ``ksm_merging_pages`` and + ``ksm_zero_pages``, both of which are shown under the directory + ``/proc/<pid>/ksm_stat``, and ksm_rmap_items is also shown in + ``/proc/<pid>/ksm_stat``. The process profit is also shown in + ``/proc/<pid>/ksm_stat`` as ksm_process_profit. + +From the perspective of application, a high ratio of ``ksm_rmap_items`` to +``ksm_merging_pages`` means a bad madvise-applied policy, so developers or +administrators have to rethink how to change madvise policy. Giving an example +for reference, a page's size is usually 4K, and the rmap_item's size is +separately 32B on 32-bit CPU architecture and 64B on 64-bit CPU architecture. +so if the ``ksm_rmap_items/ksm_merging_pages`` ratio exceeds 64 on 64-bit CPU +or exceeds 128 on 32-bit CPU, then the app's madvise policy should be dropped, +because the ksm profit is approximately zero or negative. + +Monitoring KSM events +===================== + +There are some counters in /proc/vmstat that may be used to monitor KSM events. +KSM might help save memory, it's a tradeoff by may suffering delay on KSM COW +or on swapping in copy. Those events could help users evaluate whether or how +to use KSM. For example, if cow_ksm increases too fast, user may decrease the +range of madvise(, , MADV_MERGEABLE). + +cow_ksm + is incremented every time a KSM page triggers copy on write (COW) + when users try to write to a KSM page, we have to make a copy. + +ksm_swpin_copy + is incremented every time a KSM page is copied when swapping in + note that KSM page might be copied when swapping in because do_swap_page() + cannot do all the locking needed to reconstitute a cross-anon_vma KSM page. + +-- +Izik Eidus, +Hugh Dickins, 17 Nov 2009 diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/memory-hotplug.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/memory-hotplug.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..cfe034cf1e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/memory-hotplug.rst @@ -0,0 +1,695 @@ +================== +Memory Hot(Un)Plug +================== + +This document describes generic Linux support for memory hot(un)plug with +a focus on System RAM, including ZONE_MOVABLE support. + +.. contents:: :local: + +Introduction +============ + +Memory hot(un)plug allows for increasing and decreasing the size of physical +memory available to a machine at runtime. In the simplest case, it consists of +physically plugging or unplugging a DIMM at runtime, coordinated with the +operating system. + +Memory hot(un)plug is used for various purposes: + +- The physical memory available to a machine can be adjusted at runtime, up- or + downgrading the memory capacity. This dynamic memory resizing, sometimes + referred to as "capacity on demand", is frequently used with virtual machines + and logical partitions. + +- Replacing hardware, such as DIMMs or whole NUMA nodes, without downtime. One + example is replacing failing memory modules. + +- Reducing energy consumption either by physically unplugging memory modules or + by logically unplugging (parts of) memory modules from Linux. + +Further, the basic memory hot(un)plug infrastructure in Linux is nowadays also +used to expose persistent memory, other performance-differentiated memory and +reserved memory regions as ordinary system RAM to Linux. + +Linux only supports memory hot(un)plug on selected 64 bit architectures, such as +x86_64, arm64, ppc64, s390x and ia64. + +Memory Hot(Un)Plug Granularity +------------------------------ + +Memory hot(un)plug in Linux uses the SPARSEMEM memory model, which divides the +physical memory address space into chunks of the same size: memory sections. The +size of a memory section is architecture dependent. For example, x86_64 uses +128 MiB and ppc64 uses 16 MiB. + +Memory sections are combined into chunks referred to as "memory blocks". The +size of a memory block is architecture dependent and corresponds to the smallest +granularity that can be hot(un)plugged. The default size of a memory block is +the same as memory section size, unless an architecture specifies otherwise. + +All memory blocks have the same size. + +Phases of Memory Hotplug +------------------------ + +Memory hotplug consists of two phases: + +(1) Adding the memory to Linux +(2) Onlining memory blocks + +In the first phase, metadata, such as the memory map ("memmap") and page tables +for the direct mapping, is allocated and initialized, and memory blocks are +created; the latter also creates sysfs files for managing newly created memory +blocks. + +In the second phase, added memory is exposed to the page allocator. After this +phase, the memory is visible in memory statistics, such as free and total +memory, of the system. + +Phases of Memory Hotunplug +-------------------------- + +Memory hotunplug consists of two phases: + +(1) Offlining memory blocks +(2) Removing the memory from Linux + +In the fist phase, memory is "hidden" from the page allocator again, for +example, by migrating busy memory to other memory locations and removing all +relevant free pages from the page allocator After this phase, the memory is no +longer visible in memory statistics of the system. + +In the second phase, the memory blocks are removed and metadata is freed. + +Memory Hotplug Notifications +============================ + +There are various ways how Linux is notified about memory hotplug events such +that it can start adding hotplugged memory. This description is limited to +systems that support ACPI; mechanisms specific to other firmware interfaces or +virtual machines are not described. + +ACPI Notifications +------------------ + +Platforms that support ACPI, such as x86_64, can support memory hotplug +notifications via ACPI. + +In general, a firmware supporting memory hotplug defines a memory class object +HID "PNP0C80". When notified about hotplug of a new memory device, the ACPI +driver will hotplug the memory to Linux. + +If the firmware supports hotplug of NUMA nodes, it defines an object _HID +"ACPI0004", "PNP0A05", or "PNP0A06". When notified about an hotplug event, all +assigned memory devices are added to Linux by the ACPI driver. + +Similarly, Linux can be notified about requests to hotunplug a memory device or +a NUMA node via ACPI. The ACPI driver will try offlining all relevant memory +blocks, and, if successful, hotunplug the memory from Linux. + +Manual Probing +-------------- + +On some architectures, the firmware may not be able to notify the operating +system about a memory hotplug event. Instead, the memory has to be manually +probed from user space. + +The probe interface is located at:: + + /sys/devices/system/memory/probe + +Only complete memory blocks can be probed. Individual memory blocks are probed +by providing the physical start address of the memory block:: + + % echo addr > /sys/devices/system/memory/probe + +Which results in a memory block for the range [addr, addr + memory_block_size) +being created. + +.. note:: + + Using the probe interface is discouraged as it is easy to crash the kernel, + because Linux cannot validate user input; this interface might be removed in + the future. + +Onlining and Offlining Memory Blocks +==================================== + +After a memory block has been created, Linux has to be instructed to actually +make use of that memory: the memory block has to be "online". + +Before a memory block can be removed, Linux has to stop using any memory part of +the memory block: the memory block has to be "offlined". + +The Linux kernel can be configured to automatically online added memory blocks +and drivers automatically trigger offlining of memory blocks when trying +hotunplug of memory. Memory blocks can only be removed once offlining succeeded +and drivers may trigger offlining of memory blocks when attempting hotunplug of +memory. + +Onlining Memory Blocks Manually +------------------------------- + +If auto-onlining of memory blocks isn't enabled, user-space has to manually +trigger onlining of memory blocks. Often, udev rules are used to automate this +task in user space. + +Onlining of a memory block can be triggered via:: + + % echo online > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +Or alternatively:: + + % echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/online + +The kernel will select the target zone automatically, depending on the +configured ``online_policy``. + +One can explicitly request to associate an offline memory block with +ZONE_MOVABLE by:: + + % echo online_movable > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +Or one can explicitly request a kernel zone (usually ZONE_NORMAL) by:: + + % echo online_kernel > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +In any case, if onlining succeeds, the state of the memory block is changed to +be "online". If it fails, the state of the memory block will remain unchanged +and the above commands will fail. + +Onlining Memory Blocks Automatically +------------------------------------ + +The kernel can be configured to try auto-onlining of newly added memory blocks. +If this feature is disabled, the memory blocks will stay offline until +explicitly onlined from user space. + +The configured auto-online behavior can be observed via:: + + % cat /sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks + +Auto-onlining can be enabled by writing ``online``, ``online_kernel`` or +``online_movable`` to that file, like:: + + % echo online > /sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks + +Similarly to manual onlining, with ``online`` the kernel will select the +target zone automatically, depending on the configured ``online_policy``. + +Modifying the auto-online behavior will only affect all subsequently added +memory blocks only. + +.. note:: + + In corner cases, auto-onlining can fail. The kernel won't retry. Note that + auto-onlining is not expected to fail in default configurations. + +.. note:: + + DLPAR on ppc64 ignores the ``offline`` setting and will still online added + memory blocks; if onlining fails, memory blocks are removed again. + +Offlining Memory Blocks +----------------------- + +In the current implementation, Linux's memory offlining will try migrating all +movable pages off the affected memory block. As most kernel allocations, such as +page tables, are unmovable, page migration can fail and, therefore, inhibit +memory offlining from succeeding. + +Having the memory provided by memory block managed by ZONE_MOVABLE significantly +increases memory offlining reliability; still, memory offlining can fail in +some corner cases. + +Further, memory offlining might retry for a long time (or even forever), until +aborted by the user. + +Offlining of a memory block can be triggered via:: + + % echo offline > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +Or alternatively:: + + % echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/online + +If offlining succeeds, the state of the memory block is changed to be "offline". +If it fails, the state of the memory block will remain unchanged and the above +commands will fail, for example, via:: + + bash: echo: write error: Device or resource busy + +or via:: + + bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument + +Observing the State of Memory Blocks +------------------------------------ + +The state (online/offline/going-offline) of a memory block can be observed +either via:: + + % cat /sys/device/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +Or alternatively (1/0) via:: + + % cat /sys/device/system/memory/memoryXXX/online + +For an online memory block, the managing zone can be observed via:: + + % cat /sys/device/system/memory/memoryXXX/valid_zones + +Configuring Memory Hot(Un)Plug +============================== + +There are various ways how system administrators can configure memory +hot(un)plug and interact with memory blocks, especially, to online them. + +Memory Hot(Un)Plug Configuration via Sysfs +------------------------------------------ + +Some memory hot(un)plug properties can be configured or inspected via sysfs in:: + + /sys/devices/system/memory/ + +The following files are currently defined: + +====================== ========================================================= +``auto_online_blocks`` read-write: set or get the default state of new memory + blocks; configure auto-onlining. + + The default value depends on the + CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG_DEFAULT_ONLINE kernel configuration + option. + + See the ``state`` property of memory blocks for details. +``block_size_bytes`` read-only: the size in bytes of a memory block. +``probe`` write-only: add (probe) selected memory blocks manually + from user space by supplying the physical start address. + + Availability depends on the CONFIG_ARCH_MEMORY_PROBE + kernel configuration option. +``uevent`` read-write: generic udev file for device subsystems. +``crash_hotplug`` read-only: when changes to the system memory map + occur due to hot un/plug of memory, this file contains + '1' if the kernel updates the kdump capture kernel memory + map itself (via elfcorehdr), or '0' if userspace must update + the kdump capture kernel memory map. + + Availability depends on the CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG kernel + configuration option. +====================== ========================================================= + +.. note:: + + When the CONFIG_MEMORY_FAILURE kernel configuration option is enabled, two + additional files ``hard_offline_page`` and ``soft_offline_page`` are available + to trigger hwpoisoning of pages, for example, for testing purposes. Note that + this functionality is not really related to memory hot(un)plug or actual + offlining of memory blocks. + +Memory Block Configuration via Sysfs +------------------------------------ + +Each memory block is represented as a memory block device that can be +onlined or offlined. All memory blocks have their device information located in +sysfs. Each present memory block is listed under +``/sys/devices/system/memory`` as:: + + /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX + +where XXX is the memory block id; the number of digits is variable. + +A present memory block indicates that some memory in the range is present; +however, a memory block might span memory holes. A memory block spanning memory +holes cannot be offlined. + +For example, assume 1 GiB memory block size. A device for a memory starting at +0x100000000 is ``/sys/device/system/memory/memory4``:: + + (0x100000000 / 1Gib = 4) + +This device covers address range [0x100000000 ... 0x140000000) + +The following files are currently defined: + +=================== ============================================================ +``online`` read-write: simplified interface to trigger onlining / + offlining and to observe the state of a memory block. + When onlining, the zone is selected automatically. +``phys_device`` read-only: legacy interface only ever used on s390x to + expose the covered storage increment. +``phys_index`` read-only: the memory block id (XXX). +``removable`` read-only: legacy interface that indicated whether a memory + block was likely to be offlineable or not. Nowadays, the + kernel return ``1`` if and only if it supports memory + offlining. +``state`` read-write: advanced interface to trigger onlining / + offlining and to observe the state of a memory block. + + When writing, ``online``, ``offline``, ``online_kernel`` and + ``online_movable`` are supported. + + ``online_movable`` specifies onlining to ZONE_MOVABLE. + ``online_kernel`` specifies onlining to the default kernel + zone for the memory block, such as ZONE_NORMAL. + ``online`` let's the kernel select the zone automatically. + + When reading, ``online``, ``offline`` and ``going-offline`` + may be returned. +``uevent`` read-write: generic uevent file for devices. +``valid_zones`` read-only: when a block is online, shows the zone it + belongs to; when a block is offline, shows what zone will + manage it when the block will be onlined. + + For online memory blocks, ``DMA``, ``DMA32``, ``Normal``, + ``Movable`` and ``none`` may be returned. ``none`` indicates + that memory provided by a memory block is managed by + multiple zones or spans multiple nodes; such memory blocks + cannot be offlined. ``Movable`` indicates ZONE_MOVABLE. + Other values indicate a kernel zone. + + For offline memory blocks, the first column shows the + zone the kernel would select when onlining the memory block + right now without further specifying a zone. + + Availability depends on the CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTREMOVE + kernel configuration option. +=================== ============================================================ + +.. note:: + + If the CONFIG_NUMA kernel configuration option is enabled, the memoryXXX/ + directories can also be accessed via symbolic links located in the + ``/sys/devices/system/node/node*`` directories. + + For example:: + + /sys/devices/system/node/node0/memory9 -> ../../memory/memory9 + + A backlink will also be created:: + + /sys/devices/system/memory/memory9/node0 -> ../../node/node0 + +Command Line Parameters +----------------------- + +Some command line parameters affect memory hot(un)plug handling. The following +command line parameters are relevant: + +======================== ======================================================= +``memhp_default_state`` configure auto-onlining by essentially setting + ``/sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks``. +``movable_node`` configure automatic zone selection in the kernel when + using the ``contig-zones`` online policy. When + set, the kernel will default to ZONE_MOVABLE when + onlining a memory block, unless other zones can be kept + contiguous. +======================== ======================================================= + +See Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt for a more generic +description of these command line parameters. + +Module Parameters +------------------ + +Instead of additional command line parameters or sysfs files, the +``memory_hotplug`` subsystem now provides a dedicated namespace for module +parameters. Module parameters can be set via the command line by predicating +them with ``memory_hotplug.`` such as:: + + memory_hotplug.memmap_on_memory=1 + +and they can be observed (and some even modified at runtime) via:: + + /sys/module/memory_hotplug/parameters/ + +The following module parameters are currently defined: + +================================ =============================================== +``memmap_on_memory`` read-write: Allocate memory for the memmap from + the added memory block itself. Even if enabled, + actual support depends on various other system + properties and should only be regarded as a + hint whether the behavior would be desired. + + While allocating the memmap from the memory + block itself makes memory hotplug less likely + to fail and keeps the memmap on the same NUMA + node in any case, it can fragment physical + memory in a way that huge pages in bigger + granularity cannot be formed on hotplugged + memory. + + With value "force" it could result in memory + wastage due to memmap size limitations. For + example, if the memmap for a memory block + requires 1 MiB, but the pageblock size is 2 + MiB, 1 MiB of hotplugged memory will be wasted. + Note that there are still cases where the + feature cannot be enforced: for example, if the + memmap is smaller than a single page, or if the + architecture does not support the forced mode + in all configurations. + +``online_policy`` read-write: Set the basic policy used for + automatic zone selection when onlining memory + blocks without specifying a target zone. + ``contig-zones`` has been the kernel default + before this parameter was added. After an + online policy was configured and memory was + online, the policy should not be changed + anymore. + + When set to ``contig-zones``, the kernel will + try keeping zones contiguous. If a memory block + intersects multiple zones or no zone, the + behavior depends on the ``movable_node`` kernel + command line parameter: default to ZONE_MOVABLE + if set, default to the applicable kernel zone + (usually ZONE_NORMAL) if not set. + + When set to ``auto-movable``, the kernel will + try onlining memory blocks to ZONE_MOVABLE if + possible according to the configuration and + memory device details. With this policy, one + can avoid zone imbalances when eventually + hotplugging a lot of memory later and still + wanting to be able to hotunplug as much as + possible reliably, very desirable in + virtualized environments. This policy ignores + the ``movable_node`` kernel command line + parameter and isn't really applicable in + environments that require it (e.g., bare metal + with hotunpluggable nodes) where hotplugged + memory might be exposed via the + firmware-provided memory map early during boot + to the system instead of getting detected, + added and onlined later during boot (such as + done by virtio-mem or by some hypervisors + implementing emulated DIMMs). As one example, a + hotplugged DIMM will be onlined either + completely to ZONE_MOVABLE or completely to + ZONE_NORMAL, not a mixture. + As another example, as many memory blocks + belonging to a virtio-mem device will be + onlined to ZONE_MOVABLE as possible, + special-casing units of memory blocks that can + only get hotunplugged together. *This policy + does not protect from setups that are + problematic with ZONE_MOVABLE and does not + change the zone of memory blocks dynamically + after they were onlined.* +``auto_movable_ratio`` read-write: Set the maximum MOVABLE:KERNEL + memory ratio in % for the ``auto-movable`` + online policy. Whether the ratio applies only + for the system across all NUMA nodes or also + per NUMA nodes depends on the + ``auto_movable_numa_aware`` configuration. + + All accounting is based on present memory pages + in the zones combined with accounting per + memory device. Memory dedicated to the CMA + allocator is accounted as MOVABLE, although + residing on one of the kernel zones. The + possible ratio depends on the actual workload. + The kernel default is "301" %, for example, + allowing for hotplugging 24 GiB to a 8 GiB VM + and automatically onlining all hotplugged + memory to ZONE_MOVABLE in many setups. The + additional 1% deals with some pages being not + present, for example, because of some firmware + allocations. + + Note that ZONE_NORMAL memory provided by one + memory device does not allow for more + ZONE_MOVABLE memory for a different memory + device. As one example, onlining memory of a + hotplugged DIMM to ZONE_NORMAL will not allow + for another hotplugged DIMM to get onlined to + ZONE_MOVABLE automatically. In contrast, memory + hotplugged by a virtio-mem device that got + onlined to ZONE_NORMAL will allow for more + ZONE_MOVABLE memory within *the same* + virtio-mem device. +``auto_movable_numa_aware`` read-write: Configure whether the + ``auto_movable_ratio`` in the ``auto-movable`` + online policy also applies per NUMA + node in addition to the whole system across all + NUMA nodes. The kernel default is "Y". + + Disabling NUMA awareness can be helpful when + dealing with NUMA nodes that should be + completely hotunpluggable, onlining the memory + completely to ZONE_MOVABLE automatically if + possible. + + Parameter availability depends on CONFIG_NUMA. +================================ =============================================== + +ZONE_MOVABLE +============ + +ZONE_MOVABLE is an important mechanism for more reliable memory offlining. +Further, having system RAM managed by ZONE_MOVABLE instead of one of the +kernel zones can increase the number of possible transparent huge pages and +dynamically allocated huge pages. + +Most kernel allocations are unmovable. Important examples include the memory +map (usually 1/64ths of memory), page tables, and kmalloc(). Such allocations +can only be served from the kernel zones. + +Most user space pages, such as anonymous memory, and page cache pages are +movable. Such allocations can be served from ZONE_MOVABLE and the kernel zones. + +Only movable allocations are served from ZONE_MOVABLE, resulting in unmovable +allocations being limited to the kernel zones. Without ZONE_MOVABLE, there is +absolutely no guarantee whether a memory block can be offlined successfully. + +Zone Imbalances +--------------- + +Having too much system RAM managed by ZONE_MOVABLE is called a zone imbalance, +which can harm the system or degrade performance. As one example, the kernel +might crash because it runs out of free memory for unmovable allocations, +although there is still plenty of free memory left in ZONE_MOVABLE. + +Usually, MOVABLE:KERNEL ratios of up to 3:1 or even 4:1 are fine. Ratios of 63:1 +are definitely impossible due to the overhead for the memory map. + +Actual safe zone ratios depend on the workload. Extreme cases, like excessive +long-term pinning of pages, might not be able to deal with ZONE_MOVABLE at all. + +.. note:: + + CMA memory part of a kernel zone essentially behaves like memory in + ZONE_MOVABLE and similar considerations apply, especially when combining + CMA with ZONE_MOVABLE. + +ZONE_MOVABLE Sizing Considerations +---------------------------------- + +We usually expect that a large portion of available system RAM will actually +be consumed by user space, either directly or indirectly via the page cache. In +the normal case, ZONE_MOVABLE can be used when allocating such pages just fine. + +With that in mind, it makes sense that we can have a big portion of system RAM +managed by ZONE_MOVABLE. However, there are some things to consider when using +ZONE_MOVABLE, especially when fine-tuning zone ratios: + +- Having a lot of offline memory blocks. Even offline memory blocks consume + memory for metadata and page tables in the direct map; having a lot of offline + memory blocks is not a typical case, though. + +- Memory ballooning without balloon compaction is incompatible with + ZONE_MOVABLE. Only some implementations, such as virtio-balloon and + pseries CMM, fully support balloon compaction. + + Further, the CONFIG_BALLOON_COMPACTION kernel configuration option might be + disabled. In that case, balloon inflation will only perform unmovable + allocations and silently create a zone imbalance, usually triggered by + inflation requests from the hypervisor. + +- Gigantic pages are unmovable, resulting in user space consuming a + lot of unmovable memory. + +- Huge pages are unmovable when an architectures does not support huge + page migration, resulting in a similar issue as with gigantic pages. + +- Page tables are unmovable. Excessive swapping, mapping extremely large + files or ZONE_DEVICE memory can be problematic, although only really relevant + in corner cases. When we manage a lot of user space memory that has been + swapped out or is served from a file/persistent memory/... we still need a lot + of page tables to manage that memory once user space accessed that memory. + +- In certain DAX configurations the memory map for the device memory will be + allocated from the kernel zones. + +- KASAN can have a significant memory overhead, for example, consuming 1/8th of + the total system memory size as (unmovable) tracking metadata. + +- Long-term pinning of pages. Techniques that rely on long-term pinnings + (especially, RDMA and vfio/mdev) are fundamentally problematic with + ZONE_MOVABLE, and therefore, memory offlining. Pinned pages cannot reside + on ZONE_MOVABLE as that would turn these pages unmovable. Therefore, they + have to be migrated off that zone while pinning. Pinning a page can fail + even if there is plenty of free memory in ZONE_MOVABLE. + + In addition, using ZONE_MOVABLE might make page pinning more expensive, + because of the page migration overhead. + +By default, all the memory configured at boot time is managed by the kernel +zones and ZONE_MOVABLE is not used. + +To enable ZONE_MOVABLE to include the memory present at boot and to control the +ratio between movable and kernel zones there are two command line options: +``kernelcore=`` and ``movablecore=``. See +Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst for their description. + +Memory Offlining and ZONE_MOVABLE +--------------------------------- + +Even with ZONE_MOVABLE, there are some corner cases where offlining a memory +block might fail: + +- Memory blocks with memory holes; this applies to memory blocks present during + boot and can apply to memory blocks hotplugged via the XEN balloon and the + Hyper-V balloon. + +- Mixed NUMA nodes and mixed zones within a single memory block prevent memory + offlining; this applies to memory blocks present during boot only. + +- Special memory blocks prevented by the system from getting offlined. Examples + include any memory available during boot on arm64 or memory blocks spanning + the crashkernel area on s390x; this usually applies to memory blocks present + during boot only. + +- Memory blocks overlapping with CMA areas cannot be offlined, this applies to + memory blocks present during boot only. + +- Concurrent activity that operates on the same physical memory area, such as + allocating gigantic pages, can result in temporary offlining failures. + +- Out of memory when dissolving huge pages, especially when HugeTLB Vmemmap + Optimization (HVO) is enabled. + + Offlining code may be able to migrate huge page contents, but may not be able + to dissolve the source huge page because it fails allocating (unmovable) pages + for the vmemmap, because the system might not have free memory in the kernel + zones left. + + Users that depend on memory offlining to succeed for movable zones should + carefully consider whether the memory savings gained from this feature are + worth the risk of possibly not being able to offline memory in certain + situations. + +Further, when running into out of memory situations while migrating pages, or +when still encountering permanently unmovable pages within ZONE_MOVABLE +(-> BUG), memory offlining will keep retrying until it eventually succeeds. + +When offlining is triggered from user space, the offlining context can be +terminated by sending a signal. A timeout based offlining can easily be +implemented via:: + + % timeout $TIMEOUT offline_block | failure_handling diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/multigen_lru.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/multigen_lru.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..33e0688304 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/multigen_lru.rst @@ -0,0 +1,162 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +============= +Multi-Gen LRU +============= +The multi-gen LRU is an alternative LRU implementation that optimizes +page reclaim and improves performance under memory pressure. Page +reclaim decides the kernel's caching policy and ability to overcommit +memory. It directly impacts the kswapd CPU usage and RAM efficiency. + +Quick start +=========== +Build the kernel with the following configurations. + +* ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN=y`` +* ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_ENABLED=y`` + +All set! + +Runtime options +=============== +``/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/`` contains stable ABIs described in the +following subsections. + +Kill switch +----------- +``enabled`` accepts different values to enable or disable the +following components. Its default value depends on +``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_ENABLED``. All the components should be enabled +unless some of them have unforeseen side effects. Writing to +``enabled`` has no effect when a component is not supported by the +hardware, and valid values will be accepted even when the main switch +is off. + +====== =============================================================== +Values Components +====== =============================================================== +0x0001 The main switch for the multi-gen LRU. +0x0002 Clearing the accessed bit in leaf page table entries in large + batches, when MMU sets it (e.g., on x86). This behavior can + theoretically worsen lock contention (mmap_lock). If it is + disabled, the multi-gen LRU will suffer a minor performance + degradation for workloads that contiguously map hot pages, + whose accessed bits can be otherwise cleared by fewer larger + batches. +0x0004 Clearing the accessed bit in non-leaf page table entries as + well, when MMU sets it (e.g., on x86). This behavior was not + verified on x86 varieties other than Intel and AMD. If it is + disabled, the multi-gen LRU will suffer a negligible + performance degradation. +[yYnN] Apply to all the components above. +====== =============================================================== + +E.g., +:: + + echo y >/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled + cat /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled + 0x0007 + echo 5 >/sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled + cat /sys/kernel/mm/lru_gen/enabled + 0x0005 + +Thrashing prevention +-------------------- +Personal computers are more sensitive to thrashing because it can +cause janks (lags when rendering UI) and negatively impact user +experience. The multi-gen LRU offers thrashing prevention to the +majority of laptop and desktop users who do not have ``oomd``. + +Users can write ``N`` to ``min_ttl_ms`` to prevent the working set of +``N`` milliseconds from getting evicted. The OOM killer is triggered +if this working set cannot be kept in memory. In other words, this +option works as an adjustable pressure relief valve, and when open, it +terminates applications that are hopefully not being used. + +Based on the average human detectable lag (~100ms), ``N=1000`` usually +eliminates intolerable janks due to thrashing. Larger values like +``N=3000`` make janks less noticeable at the risk of premature OOM +kills. + +The default value ``0`` means disabled. + +Experimental features +===================== +``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen`` accepts commands described in the +following subsections. Multiple command lines are supported, so does +concatenation with delimiters ``,`` and ``;``. + +``/sys/kernel/debug/lru_gen_full`` provides additional stats for +debugging. ``CONFIG_LRU_GEN_STATS=y`` keeps historical stats from +evicted generations in this file. + +Working set estimation +---------------------- +Working set estimation measures how much memory an application needs +in a given time interval, and it is usually done with little impact on +the performance of the application. E.g., data centers want to +optimize job scheduling (bin packing) to improve memory utilizations. +When a new job comes in, the job scheduler needs to find out whether +each server it manages can allocate a certain amount of memory for +this new job before it can pick a candidate. To do so, the job +scheduler needs to estimate the working sets of the existing jobs. + +When it is read, ``lru_gen`` returns a histogram of numbers of pages +accessed over different time intervals for each memcg and node. +``MAX_NR_GENS`` decides the number of bins for each histogram. The +histograms are noncumulative. +:: + + memcg memcg_id memcg_path + node node_id + min_gen_nr age_in_ms nr_anon_pages nr_file_pages + ... + max_gen_nr age_in_ms nr_anon_pages nr_file_pages + +Each bin contains an estimated number of pages that have been accessed +within ``age_in_ms``. E.g., ``min_gen_nr`` contains the coldest pages +and ``max_gen_nr`` contains the hottest pages, since ``age_in_ms`` of +the former is the largest and that of the latter is the smallest. + +Users can write the following command to ``lru_gen`` to create a new +generation ``max_gen_nr+1``: + + ``+ memcg_id node_id max_gen_nr [can_swap [force_scan]]`` + +``can_swap`` defaults to the swap setting and, if it is set to ``1``, +it forces the scan of anon pages when swap is off, and vice versa. +``force_scan`` defaults to ``1`` and, if it is set to ``0``, it +employs heuristics to reduce the overhead, which is likely to reduce +the coverage as well. + +A typical use case is that a job scheduler runs this command at a +certain time interval to create new generations, and it ranks the +servers it manages based on the sizes of their cold pages defined by +this time interval. + +Proactive reclaim +----------------- +Proactive reclaim induces page reclaim when there is no memory +pressure. It usually targets cold pages only. E.g., when a new job +comes in, the job scheduler wants to proactively reclaim cold pages on +the server it selected, to improve the chance of successfully landing +this new job. + +Users can write the following command to ``lru_gen`` to evict +generations less than or equal to ``min_gen_nr``. + + ``- memcg_id node_id min_gen_nr [swappiness [nr_to_reclaim]]`` + +``min_gen_nr`` should be less than ``max_gen_nr-1``, since +``max_gen_nr`` and ``max_gen_nr-1`` are not fully aged (equivalent to +the active list) and therefore cannot be evicted. ``swappiness`` +overrides the default value in ``/proc/sys/vm/swappiness``. +``nr_to_reclaim`` limits the number of pages to evict. + +A typical use case is that a job scheduler runs this command before it +tries to land a new job on a server. If it fails to materialize enough +cold pages because of the overestimation, it retries on the next +server according to the ranking result obtained from the working set +estimation step. This less forceful approach limits the impacts on the +existing jobs. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/nommu-mmap.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/nommu-mmap.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..530fed08de --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/nommu-mmap.rst @@ -0,0 +1,283 @@ +============================= +No-MMU memory mapping support +============================= + +The kernel has limited support for memory mapping under no-MMU conditions, such +as are used in uClinux environments. From the userspace point of view, memory +mapping is made use of in conjunction with the mmap() system call, the shmat() +call and the execve() system call. From the kernel's point of view, execve() +mapping is actually performed by the binfmt drivers, which call back into the +mmap() routines to do the actual work. + +Memory mapping behaviour also involves the way fork(), vfork(), clone() and +ptrace() work. Under uClinux there is no fork(), and clone() must be supplied +the CLONE_VM flag. + +The behaviour is similar between the MMU and no-MMU cases, but not identical; +and it's also much more restricted in the latter case: + + (#) Anonymous mapping, MAP_PRIVATE + + In the MMU case: VM regions backed by arbitrary pages; copy-on-write + across fork. + + In the no-MMU case: VM regions backed by arbitrary contiguous runs of + pages. + + (#) Anonymous mapping, MAP_SHARED + + These behave very much like private mappings, except that they're + shared across fork() or clone() without CLONE_VM in the MMU case. Since + the no-MMU case doesn't support these, behaviour is identical to + MAP_PRIVATE there. + + (#) File, MAP_PRIVATE, PROT_READ / PROT_EXEC, !PROT_WRITE + + In the MMU case: VM regions backed by pages read from file; changes to + the underlying file are reflected in the mapping; copied across fork. + + In the no-MMU case: + + - If one exists, the kernel will re-use an existing mapping to the + same segment of the same file if that has compatible permissions, + even if this was created by another process. + + - If possible, the file mapping will be directly on the backing device + if the backing device has the NOMMU_MAP_DIRECT capability and + appropriate mapping protection capabilities. Ramfs, romfs, cramfs + and mtd might all permit this. + + - If the backing device can't or won't permit direct sharing, + but does have the NOMMU_MAP_COPY capability, then a copy of the + appropriate bit of the file will be read into a contiguous bit of + memory and any extraneous space beyond the EOF will be cleared + + - Writes to the file do not affect the mapping; writes to the mapping + are visible in other processes (no MMU protection), but should not + happen. + + (#) File, MAP_PRIVATE, PROT_READ / PROT_EXEC, PROT_WRITE + + In the MMU case: like the non-PROT_WRITE case, except that the pages in + question get copied before the write actually happens. From that point + on writes to the file underneath that page no longer get reflected into + the mapping's backing pages. The page is then backed by swap instead. + + In the no-MMU case: works much like the non-PROT_WRITE case, except + that a copy is always taken and never shared. + + (#) Regular file / blockdev, MAP_SHARED, PROT_READ / PROT_EXEC / PROT_WRITE + + In the MMU case: VM regions backed by pages read from file; changes to + pages written back to file; writes to file reflected into pages backing + mapping; shared across fork. + + In the no-MMU case: not supported. + + (#) Memory backed regular file, MAP_SHARED, PROT_READ / PROT_EXEC / PROT_WRITE + + In the MMU case: As for ordinary regular files. + + In the no-MMU case: The filesystem providing the memory-backed file + (such as ramfs or tmpfs) may choose to honour an open, truncate, mmap + sequence by providing a contiguous sequence of pages to map. In that + case, a shared-writable memory mapping will be possible. It will work + as for the MMU case. If the filesystem does not provide any such + support, then the mapping request will be denied. + + (#) Memory backed blockdev, MAP_SHARED, PROT_READ / PROT_EXEC / PROT_WRITE + + In the MMU case: As for ordinary regular files. + + In the no-MMU case: As for memory backed regular files, but the + blockdev must be able to provide a contiguous run of pages without + truncate being called. The ramdisk driver could do this if it allocated + all its memory as a contiguous array upfront. + + (#) Memory backed chardev, MAP_SHARED, PROT_READ / PROT_EXEC / PROT_WRITE + + In the MMU case: As for ordinary regular files. + + In the no-MMU case: The character device driver may choose to honour + the mmap() by providing direct access to the underlying device if it + provides memory or quasi-memory that can be accessed directly. Examples + of such are frame buffers and flash devices. If the driver does not + provide any such support, then the mapping request will be denied. + + +Further notes on no-MMU MMAP +============================ + + (#) A request for a private mapping of a file may return a buffer that is not + page-aligned. This is because XIP may take place, and the data may not be + paged aligned in the backing store. + + (#) A request for an anonymous mapping will always be page aligned. If + possible the size of the request should be a power of two otherwise some + of the space may be wasted as the kernel must allocate a power-of-2 + granule but will only discard the excess if appropriately configured as + this has an effect on fragmentation. + + (#) The memory allocated by a request for an anonymous mapping will normally + be cleared by the kernel before being returned in accordance with the + Linux man pages (ver 2.22 or later). + + In the MMU case this can be achieved with reasonable performance as + regions are backed by virtual pages, with the contents only being mapped + to cleared physical pages when a write happens on that specific page + (prior to which, the pages are effectively mapped to the global zero page + from which reads can take place). This spreads out the time it takes to + initialize the contents of a page - depending on the write-usage of the + mapping. + + In the no-MMU case, however, anonymous mappings are backed by physical + pages, and the entire map is cleared at allocation time. This can cause + significant delays during a userspace malloc() as the C library does an + anonymous mapping and the kernel then does a memset for the entire map. + + However, for memory that isn't required to be precleared - such as that + returned by malloc() - mmap() can take a MAP_UNINITIALIZED flag to + indicate to the kernel that it shouldn't bother clearing the memory before + returning it. Note that CONFIG_MMAP_ALLOW_UNINITIALIZED must be enabled + to permit this, otherwise the flag will be ignored. + + uClibc uses this to speed up malloc(), and the ELF-FDPIC binfmt uses this + to allocate the brk and stack region. + + (#) A list of all the private copy and anonymous mappings on the system is + visible through /proc/maps in no-MMU mode. + + (#) A list of all the mappings in use by a process is visible through + /proc/<pid>/maps in no-MMU mode. + + (#) Supplying MAP_FIXED or a requesting a particular mapping address will + result in an error. + + (#) Files mapped privately usually have to have a read method provided by the + driver or filesystem so that the contents can be read into the memory + allocated if mmap() chooses not to map the backing device directly. An + error will result if they don't. This is most likely to be encountered + with character device files, pipes, fifos and sockets. + + +Interprocess shared memory +========================== + +Both SYSV IPC SHM shared memory and POSIX shared memory is supported in NOMMU +mode. The former through the usual mechanism, the latter through files created +on ramfs or tmpfs mounts. + + +Futexes +======= + +Futexes are supported in NOMMU mode if the arch supports them. An error will +be given if an address passed to the futex system call lies outside the +mappings made by a process or if the mapping in which the address lies does not +support futexes (such as an I/O chardev mapping). + + +No-MMU mremap +============= + +The mremap() function is partially supported. It may change the size of a +mapping, and may move it [#]_ if MREMAP_MAYMOVE is specified and if the new size +of the mapping exceeds the size of the slab object currently occupied by the +memory to which the mapping refers, or if a smaller slab object could be used. + +MREMAP_FIXED is not supported, though it is ignored if there's no change of +address and the object does not need to be moved. + +Shared mappings may not be moved. Shareable mappings may not be moved either, +even if they are not currently shared. + +The mremap() function must be given an exact match for base address and size of +a previously mapped object. It may not be used to create holes in existing +mappings, move parts of existing mappings or resize parts of mappings. It must +act on a complete mapping. + +.. [#] Not currently supported. + + +Providing shareable character device support +============================================ + +To provide shareable character device support, a driver must provide a +file->f_op->get_unmapped_area() operation. The mmap() routines will call this +to get a proposed address for the mapping. This may return an error if it +doesn't wish to honour the mapping because it's too long, at a weird offset, +under some unsupported combination of flags or whatever. + +The driver should also provide backing device information with capabilities set +to indicate the permitted types of mapping on such devices. The default is +assumed to be readable and writable, not executable, and only shareable +directly (can't be copied). + +The file->f_op->mmap() operation will be called to actually inaugurate the +mapping. It can be rejected at that point. Returning the ENOSYS error will +cause the mapping to be copied instead if NOMMU_MAP_COPY is specified. + +The vm_ops->close() routine will be invoked when the last mapping on a chardev +is removed. An existing mapping will be shared, partially or not, if possible +without notifying the driver. + +It is permitted also for the file->f_op->get_unmapped_area() operation to +return -ENOSYS. This will be taken to mean that this operation just doesn't +want to handle it, despite the fact it's got an operation. For instance, it +might try directing the call to a secondary driver which turns out not to +implement it. Such is the case for the framebuffer driver which attempts to +direct the call to the device-specific driver. Under such circumstances, the +mapping request will be rejected if NOMMU_MAP_COPY is not specified, and a +copy mapped otherwise. + +.. important:: + + Some types of device may present a different appearance to anyone + looking at them in certain modes. Flash chips can be like this; for + instance if they're in programming or erase mode, you might see the + status reflected in the mapping, instead of the data. + + In such a case, care must be taken lest userspace see a shared or a + private mapping showing such information when the driver is busy + controlling the device. Remember especially: private executable + mappings may still be mapped directly off the device under some + circumstances! + + +Providing shareable memory-backed file support +============================================== + +Provision of shared mappings on memory backed files is similar to the provision +of support for shared mapped character devices. The main difference is that the +filesystem providing the service will probably allocate a contiguous collection +of pages and permit mappings to be made on that. + +It is recommended that a truncate operation applied to such a file that +increases the file size, if that file is empty, be taken as a request to gather +enough pages to honour a mapping. This is required to support POSIX shared +memory. + +Memory backed devices are indicated by the mapping's backing device info having +the memory_backed flag set. + + +Providing shareable block device support +======================================== + +Provision of shared mappings on block device files is exactly the same as for +character devices. If there isn't a real device underneath, then the driver +should allocate sufficient contiguous memory to honour any supported mapping. + + +Adjusting page trimming behaviour +================================= + +NOMMU mmap automatically rounds up to the nearest power-of-2 number of pages +when performing an allocation. This can have adverse effects on memory +fragmentation, and as such, is left configurable. The default behaviour is to +aggressively trim allocations and discard any excess pages back in to the page +allocator. In order to retain finer-grained control over fragmentation, this +behaviour can either be disabled completely, or bumped up to a higher page +watermark where trimming begins. + +Page trimming behaviour is configurable via the sysctl ``vm.nr_trim_pages``. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numa_memory_policy.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numa_memory_policy.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..eca38fa81e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numa_memory_policy.rst @@ -0,0 +1,514 @@ +================== +NUMA Memory Policy +================== + +What is NUMA Memory Policy? +============================ + +In the Linux kernel, "memory policy" determines from which node the kernel will +allocate memory in a NUMA system or in an emulated NUMA system. Linux has +supported platforms with Non-Uniform Memory Access architectures since 2.4.?. +The current memory policy support was added to Linux 2.6 around May 2004. This +document attempts to describe the concepts and APIs of the 2.6 memory policy +support. + +Memory policies should not be confused with cpusets +(``Documentation/admin-guide/cgroup-v1/cpusets.rst``) +which is an administrative mechanism for restricting the nodes from which +memory may be allocated by a set of processes. Memory policies are a +programming interface that a NUMA-aware application can take advantage of. When +both cpusets and policies are applied to a task, the restrictions of the cpuset +takes priority. See :ref:`Memory Policies and cpusets <mem_pol_and_cpusets>` +below for more details. + +Memory Policy Concepts +====================== + +Scope of Memory Policies +------------------------ + +The Linux kernel supports _scopes_ of memory policy, described here from +most general to most specific: + +System Default Policy + this policy is "hard coded" into the kernel. It is the policy + that governs all page allocations that aren't controlled by + one of the more specific policy scopes discussed below. When + the system is "up and running", the system default policy will + use "local allocation" described below. However, during boot + up, the system default policy will be set to interleave + allocations across all nodes with "sufficient" memory, so as + not to overload the initial boot node with boot-time + allocations. + +Task/Process Policy + this is an optional, per-task policy. When defined for a + specific task, this policy controls all page allocations made + by or on behalf of the task that aren't controlled by a more + specific scope. If a task does not define a task policy, then + all page allocations that would have been controlled by the + task policy "fall back" to the System Default Policy. + + The task policy applies to the entire address space of a task. Thus, + it is inheritable, and indeed is inherited, across both fork() + [clone() w/o the CLONE_VM flag] and exec*(). This allows a parent task + to establish the task policy for a child task exec()'d from an + executable image that has no awareness of memory policy. See the + :ref:`Memory Policy APIs <memory_policy_apis>` section, + below, for an overview of the system call + that a task may use to set/change its task/process policy. + + In a multi-threaded task, task policies apply only to the thread + [Linux kernel task] that installs the policy and any threads + subsequently created by that thread. Any sibling threads existing + at the time a new task policy is installed retain their current + policy. + + A task policy applies only to pages allocated after the policy is + installed. Any pages already faulted in by the task when the task + changes its task policy remain where they were allocated based on + the policy at the time they were allocated. + +.. _vma_policy: + +VMA Policy + A "VMA" or "Virtual Memory Area" refers to a range of a task's + virtual address space. A task may define a specific policy for a range + of its virtual address space. See the + :ref:`Memory Policy APIs <memory_policy_apis>` section, + below, for an overview of the mbind() system call used to set a VMA + policy. + + A VMA policy will govern the allocation of pages that back + this region of the address space. Any regions of the task's + address space that don't have an explicit VMA policy will fall + back to the task policy, which may itself fall back to the + System Default Policy. + + VMA policies have a few complicating details: + + * VMA policy applies ONLY to anonymous pages. These include + pages allocated for anonymous segments, such as the task + stack and heap, and any regions of the address space + mmap()ed with the MAP_ANONYMOUS flag. If a VMA policy is + applied to a file mapping, it will be ignored if the mapping + used the MAP_SHARED flag. If the file mapping used the + MAP_PRIVATE flag, the VMA policy will only be applied when + an anonymous page is allocated on an attempt to write to the + mapping-- i.e., at Copy-On-Write. + + * VMA policies are shared between all tasks that share a + virtual address space--a.k.a. threads--independent of when + the policy is installed; and they are inherited across + fork(). However, because VMA policies refer to a specific + region of a task's address space, and because the address + space is discarded and recreated on exec*(), VMA policies + are NOT inheritable across exec(). Thus, only NUMA-aware + applications may use VMA policies. + + * A task may install a new VMA policy on a sub-range of a + previously mmap()ed region. When this happens, Linux splits + the existing virtual memory area into 2 or 3 VMAs, each with + its own policy. + + * By default, VMA policy applies only to pages allocated after + the policy is installed. Any pages already faulted into the + VMA range remain where they were allocated based on the + policy at the time they were allocated. However, since + 2.6.16, Linux supports page migration via the mbind() system + call, so that page contents can be moved to match a newly + installed policy. + +Shared Policy + Conceptually, shared policies apply to "memory objects" mapped + shared into one or more tasks' distinct address spaces. An + application installs shared policies the same way as VMA + policies--using the mbind() system call specifying a range of + virtual addresses that map the shared object. However, unlike + VMA policies, which can be considered to be an attribute of a + range of a task's address space, shared policies apply + directly to the shared object. Thus, all tasks that attach to + the object share the policy, and all pages allocated for the + shared object, by any task, will obey the shared policy. + + As of 2.6.22, only shared memory segments, created by shmget() or + mmap(MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_SHARED), support shared policy. When shared + policy support was added to Linux, the associated data structures were + added to hugetlbfs shmem segments. At the time, hugetlbfs did not + support allocation at fault time--a.k.a lazy allocation--so hugetlbfs + shmem segments were never "hooked up" to the shared policy support. + Although hugetlbfs segments now support lazy allocation, their support + for shared policy has not been completed. + + As mentioned above in :ref:`VMA policies <vma_policy>` section, + allocations of page cache pages for regular files mmap()ed + with MAP_SHARED ignore any VMA policy installed on the virtual + address range backed by the shared file mapping. Rather, + shared page cache pages, including pages backing private + mappings that have not yet been written by the task, follow + task policy, if any, else System Default Policy. + + The shared policy infrastructure supports different policies on subset + ranges of the shared object. However, Linux still splits the VMA of + the task that installs the policy for each range of distinct policy. + Thus, different tasks that attach to a shared memory segment can have + different VMA configurations mapping that one shared object. This + can be seen by examining the /proc/<pid>/numa_maps of tasks sharing + a shared memory region, when one task has installed shared policy on + one or more ranges of the region. + +Components of Memory Policies +----------------------------- + +A NUMA memory policy consists of a "mode", optional mode flags, and +an optional set of nodes. The mode determines the behavior of the +policy, the optional mode flags determine the behavior of the mode, +and the optional set of nodes can be viewed as the arguments to the +policy behavior. + +Internally, memory policies are implemented by a reference counted +structure, struct mempolicy. Details of this structure will be +discussed in context, below, as required to explain the behavior. + +NUMA memory policy supports the following 4 behavioral modes: + +Default Mode--MPOL_DEFAULT + This mode is only used in the memory policy APIs. Internally, + MPOL_DEFAULT is converted to the NULL memory policy in all + policy scopes. Any existing non-default policy will simply be + removed when MPOL_DEFAULT is specified. As a result, + MPOL_DEFAULT means "fall back to the next most specific policy + scope." + + For example, a NULL or default task policy will fall back to the + system default policy. A NULL or default vma policy will fall + back to the task policy. + + When specified in one of the memory policy APIs, the Default mode + does not use the optional set of nodes. + + It is an error for the set of nodes specified for this policy to + be non-empty. + +MPOL_BIND + This mode specifies that memory must come from the set of + nodes specified by the policy. Memory will be allocated from + the node in the set with sufficient free memory that is + closest to the node where the allocation takes place. + +MPOL_PREFERRED + This mode specifies that the allocation should be attempted + from the single node specified in the policy. If that + allocation fails, the kernel will search other nodes, in order + of increasing distance from the preferred node based on + information provided by the platform firmware. + + Internally, the Preferred policy uses a single node--the + preferred_node member of struct mempolicy. When the internal + mode flag MPOL_F_LOCAL is set, the preferred_node is ignored + and the policy is interpreted as local allocation. "Local" + allocation policy can be viewed as a Preferred policy that + starts at the node containing the cpu where the allocation + takes place. + + It is possible for the user to specify that local allocation + is always preferred by passing an empty nodemask with this + mode. If an empty nodemask is passed, the policy cannot use + the MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES or MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES flags + described below. + +MPOL_INTERLEAVED + This mode specifies that page allocations be interleaved, on a + page granularity, across the nodes specified in the policy. + This mode also behaves slightly differently, based on the + context where it is used: + + For allocation of anonymous pages and shared memory pages, + Interleave mode indexes the set of nodes specified by the + policy using the page offset of the faulting address into the + segment [VMA] containing the address modulo the number of + nodes specified by the policy. It then attempts to allocate a + page, starting at the selected node, as if the node had been + specified by a Preferred policy or had been selected by a + local allocation. That is, allocation will follow the per + node zonelist. + + For allocation of page cache pages, Interleave mode indexes + the set of nodes specified by the policy using a node counter + maintained per task. This counter wraps around to the lowest + specified node after it reaches the highest specified node. + This will tend to spread the pages out over the nodes + specified by the policy based on the order in which they are + allocated, rather than based on any page offset into an + address range or file. During system boot up, the temporary + interleaved system default policy works in this mode. + +MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY + This mode specifies that the allocation should be preferably + satisfied from the nodemask specified in the policy. If there is + a memory pressure on all nodes in the nodemask, the allocation + can fall back to all existing numa nodes. This is effectively + MPOL_PREFERRED allowed for a mask rather than a single node. + +NUMA memory policy supports the following optional mode flags: + +MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES + This flag specifies that the nodemask passed by + the user should not be remapped if the task or VMA's set of allowed + nodes changes after the memory policy has been defined. + + Without this flag, any time a mempolicy is rebound because of a + change in the set of allowed nodes, the preferred nodemask (Preferred + Many), preferred node (Preferred) or nodemask (Bind, Interleave) is + remapped to the new set of allowed nodes. This may result in nodes + being used that were previously undesired. + + With this flag, if the user-specified nodes overlap with the + nodes allowed by the task's cpuset, then the memory policy is + applied to their intersection. If the two sets of nodes do not + overlap, the Default policy is used. + + For example, consider a task that is attached to a cpuset with + mems 1-3 that sets an Interleave policy over the same set. If + the cpuset's mems change to 3-5, the Interleave will now occur + over nodes 3, 4, and 5. With this flag, however, since only node + 3 is allowed from the user's nodemask, the "interleave" only + occurs over that node. If no nodes from the user's nodemask are + now allowed, the Default behavior is used. + + MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES cannot be combined with the + MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES flag. It also cannot be used for + MPOL_PREFERRED policies that were created with an empty nodemask + (local allocation). + +MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES + This flag specifies that the nodemask passed + by the user will be mapped relative to the set of the task or VMA's + set of allowed nodes. The kernel stores the user-passed nodemask, + and if the allowed nodes changes, then that original nodemask will + be remapped relative to the new set of allowed nodes. + + Without this flag (and without MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES), anytime a + mempolicy is rebound because of a change in the set of allowed + nodes, the node (Preferred) or nodemask (Bind, Interleave) is + remapped to the new set of allowed nodes. That remap may not + preserve the relative nature of the user's passed nodemask to its + set of allowed nodes upon successive rebinds: a nodemask of + 1,3,5 may be remapped to 7-9 and then to 1-3 if the set of + allowed nodes is restored to its original state. + + With this flag, the remap is done so that the node numbers from + the user's passed nodemask are relative to the set of allowed + nodes. In other words, if nodes 0, 2, and 4 are set in the user's + nodemask, the policy will be effected over the first (and in the + Bind or Interleave case, the third and fifth) nodes in the set of + allowed nodes. The nodemask passed by the user represents nodes + relative to task or VMA's set of allowed nodes. + + If the user's nodemask includes nodes that are outside the range + of the new set of allowed nodes (for example, node 5 is set in + the user's nodemask when the set of allowed nodes is only 0-3), + then the remap wraps around to the beginning of the nodemask and, + if not already set, sets the node in the mempolicy nodemask. + + For example, consider a task that is attached to a cpuset with + mems 2-5 that sets an Interleave policy over the same set with + MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES. If the cpuset's mems change to 3-7, the + interleave now occurs over nodes 3,5-7. If the cpuset's mems + then change to 0,2-3,5, then the interleave occurs over nodes + 0,2-3,5. + + Thanks to the consistent remapping, applications preparing + nodemasks to specify memory policies using this flag should + disregard their current, actual cpuset imposed memory placement + and prepare the nodemask as if they were always located on + memory nodes 0 to N-1, where N is the number of memory nodes the + policy is intended to manage. Let the kernel then remap to the + set of memory nodes allowed by the task's cpuset, as that may + change over time. + + MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES cannot be combined with the + MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES flag. It also cannot be used for + MPOL_PREFERRED policies that were created with an empty nodemask + (local allocation). + +Memory Policy Reference Counting +================================ + +To resolve use/free races, struct mempolicy contains an atomic reference +count field. Internal interfaces, mpol_get()/mpol_put() increment and +decrement this reference count, respectively. mpol_put() will only free +the structure back to the mempolicy kmem cache when the reference count +goes to zero. + +When a new memory policy is allocated, its reference count is initialized +to '1', representing the reference held by the task that is installing the +new policy. When a pointer to a memory policy structure is stored in another +structure, another reference is added, as the task's reference will be dropped +on completion of the policy installation. + +During run-time "usage" of the policy, we attempt to minimize atomic operations +on the reference count, as this can lead to cache lines bouncing between cpus +and NUMA nodes. "Usage" here means one of the following: + +1) querying of the policy, either by the task itself [using the get_mempolicy() + API discussed below] or by another task using the /proc/<pid>/numa_maps + interface. + +2) examination of the policy to determine the policy mode and associated node + or node lists, if any, for page allocation. This is considered a "hot + path". Note that for MPOL_BIND, the "usage" extends across the entire + allocation process, which may sleep during page reclamation, because the + BIND policy nodemask is used, by reference, to filter ineligible nodes. + +We can avoid taking an extra reference during the usages listed above as +follows: + +1) we never need to get/free the system default policy as this is never + changed nor freed, once the system is up and running. + +2) for querying the policy, we do not need to take an extra reference on the + target task's task policy nor vma policies because we always acquire the + task's mm's mmap_lock for read during the query. The set_mempolicy() and + mbind() APIs [see below] always acquire the mmap_lock for write when + installing or replacing task or vma policies. Thus, there is no possibility + of a task or thread freeing a policy while another task or thread is + querying it. + +3) Page allocation usage of task or vma policy occurs in the fault path where + we hold them mmap_lock for read. Again, because replacing the task or vma + policy requires that the mmap_lock be held for write, the policy can't be + freed out from under us while we're using it for page allocation. + +4) Shared policies require special consideration. One task can replace a + shared memory policy while another task, with a distinct mmap_lock, is + querying or allocating a page based on the policy. To resolve this + potential race, the shared policy infrastructure adds an extra reference + to the shared policy during lookup while holding a spin lock on the shared + policy management structure. This requires that we drop this extra + reference when we're finished "using" the policy. We must drop the + extra reference on shared policies in the same query/allocation paths + used for non-shared policies. For this reason, shared policies are marked + as such, and the extra reference is dropped "conditionally"--i.e., only + for shared policies. + + Because of this extra reference counting, and because we must lookup + shared policies in a tree structure under spinlock, shared policies are + more expensive to use in the page allocation path. This is especially + true for shared policies on shared memory regions shared by tasks running + on different NUMA nodes. This extra overhead can be avoided by always + falling back to task or system default policy for shared memory regions, + or by prefaulting the entire shared memory region into memory and locking + it down. However, this might not be appropriate for all applications. + +.. _memory_policy_apis: + +Memory Policy APIs +================== + +Linux supports 4 system calls for controlling memory policy. These APIS +always affect only the calling task, the calling task's address space, or +some shared object mapped into the calling task's address space. + +.. note:: + the headers that define these APIs and the parameter data types for + user space applications reside in a package that is not part of the + Linux kernel. The kernel system call interfaces, with the 'sys\_' + prefix, are defined in <linux/syscalls.h>; the mode and flag + definitions are defined in <linux/mempolicy.h>. + +Set [Task] Memory Policy:: + + long set_mempolicy(int mode, const unsigned long *nmask, + unsigned long maxnode); + +Set's the calling task's "task/process memory policy" to mode +specified by the 'mode' argument and the set of nodes defined by +'nmask'. 'nmask' points to a bit mask of node ids containing at least +'maxnode' ids. Optional mode flags may be passed by combining the +'mode' argument with the flag (for example: MPOL_INTERLEAVE | +MPOL_F_STATIC_NODES). + +See the set_mempolicy(2) man page for more details + + +Get [Task] Memory Policy or Related Information:: + + long get_mempolicy(int *mode, + const unsigned long *nmask, unsigned long maxnode, + void *addr, int flags); + +Queries the "task/process memory policy" of the calling task, or the +policy or location of a specified virtual address, depending on the +'flags' argument. + +See the get_mempolicy(2) man page for more details + + +Install VMA/Shared Policy for a Range of Task's Address Space:: + + long mbind(void *start, unsigned long len, int mode, + const unsigned long *nmask, unsigned long maxnode, + unsigned flags); + +mbind() installs the policy specified by (mode, nmask, maxnodes) as a +VMA policy for the range of the calling task's address space specified +by the 'start' and 'len' arguments. Additional actions may be +requested via the 'flags' argument. + +See the mbind(2) man page for more details. + +Set home node for a Range of Task's Address Spacec:: + + long sys_set_mempolicy_home_node(unsigned long start, unsigned long len, + unsigned long home_node, + unsigned long flags); + +sys_set_mempolicy_home_node set the home node for a VMA policy present in the +task's address range. The system call updates the home node only for the existing +mempolicy range. Other address ranges are ignored. A home node is the NUMA node +closest to which page allocation will come from. Specifying the home node override +the default allocation policy to allocate memory close to the local node for an +executing CPU. + + +Memory Policy Command Line Interface +==================================== + +Although not strictly part of the Linux implementation of memory policy, +a command line tool, numactl(8), exists that allows one to: + ++ set the task policy for a specified program via set_mempolicy(2), fork(2) and + exec(2) + ++ set the shared policy for a shared memory segment via mbind(2) + +The numactl(8) tool is packaged with the run-time version of the library +containing the memory policy system call wrappers. Some distributions +package the headers and compile-time libraries in a separate development +package. + +.. _mem_pol_and_cpusets: + +Memory Policies and cpusets +=========================== + +Memory policies work within cpusets as described above. For memory policies +that require a node or set of nodes, the nodes are restricted to the set of +nodes whose memories are allowed by the cpuset constraints. If the nodemask +specified for the policy contains nodes that are not allowed by the cpuset and +MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES is not used, the intersection of the set of nodes +specified for the policy and the set of nodes with memory is used. If the +result is the empty set, the policy is considered invalid and cannot be +installed. If MPOL_F_RELATIVE_NODES is used, the policy's nodes are mapped +onto and folded into the task's set of allowed nodes as previously described. + +The interaction of memory policies and cpusets can be problematic when tasks +in two cpusets share access to a memory region, such as shared memory segments +created by shmget() of mmap() with the MAP_ANONYMOUS and MAP_SHARED flags, and +any of the tasks install shared policy on the region, only nodes whose +memories are allowed in both cpusets may be used in the policies. Obtaining +this information requires "stepping outside" the memory policy APIs to use the +cpuset information and requires that one know in what cpusets other task might +be attaching to the shared region. Furthermore, if the cpusets' allowed +memory sets are disjoint, "local" allocation is the only valid policy. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numaperf.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numaperf.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..90a12b6a8b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numaperf.rst @@ -0,0 +1,176 @@ +======================= +NUMA Memory Performance +======================= + +NUMA Locality +============= + +Some platforms may have multiple types of memory attached to a compute +node. These disparate memory ranges may share some characteristics, such +as CPU cache coherence, but may have different performance. For example, +different media types and buses affect bandwidth and latency. + +A system supports such heterogeneous memory by grouping each memory type +under different domains, or "nodes", based on locality and performance +characteristics. Some memory may share the same node as a CPU, and others +are provided as memory only nodes. While memory only nodes do not provide +CPUs, they may still be local to one or more compute nodes relative to +other nodes. The following diagram shows one such example of two compute +nodes with local memory and a memory only node for each of compute node:: + + +------------------+ +------------------+ + | Compute Node 0 +-----+ Compute Node 1 | + | Local Node0 Mem | | Local Node1 Mem | + +--------+---------+ +--------+---------+ + | | + +--------+---------+ +--------+---------+ + | Slower Node2 Mem | | Slower Node3 Mem | + +------------------+ +--------+---------+ + +A "memory initiator" is a node containing one or more devices such as +CPUs or separate memory I/O devices that can initiate memory requests. +A "memory target" is a node containing one or more physical address +ranges accessible from one or more memory initiators. + +When multiple memory initiators exist, they may not all have the same +performance when accessing a given memory target. Each initiator-target +pair may be organized into different ranked access classes to represent +this relationship. The highest performing initiator to a given target +is considered to be one of that target's local initiators, and given +the highest access class, 0. Any given target may have one or more +local initiators, and any given initiator may have multiple local +memory targets. + +To aid applications matching memory targets with their initiators, the +kernel provides symlinks to each other. The following example lists the +relationship for the access class "0" memory initiators and targets:: + + # symlinks -v /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/access0/targets/ + relative: /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/access0/targets/nodeY -> ../../nodeY + + # symlinks -v /sys/devices/system/node/nodeY/access0/initiators/ + relative: /sys/devices/system/node/nodeY/access0/initiators/nodeX -> ../../nodeX + +A memory initiator may have multiple memory targets in the same access +class. The target memory's initiators in a given class indicate the +nodes' access characteristics share the same performance relative to other +linked initiator nodes. Each target within an initiator's access class, +though, do not necessarily perform the same as each other. + +The access class "1" is used to allow differentiation between initiators +that are CPUs and hence suitable for generic task scheduling, and +IO initiators such as GPUs and NICs. Unlike access class 0, only +nodes containing CPUs are considered. + +NUMA Performance +================ + +Applications may wish to consider which node they want their memory to +be allocated from based on the node's performance characteristics. If +the system provides these attributes, the kernel exports them under the +node sysfs hierarchy by appending the attributes directory under the +memory node's access class 0 initiators as follows:: + + /sys/devices/system/node/nodeY/access0/initiators/ + +These attributes apply only when accessed from nodes that have the +are linked under the this access's initiators. + +The performance characteristics the kernel provides for the local initiators +are exported are as follows:: + + # tree -P "read*|write*" /sys/devices/system/node/nodeY/access0/initiators/ + /sys/devices/system/node/nodeY/access0/initiators/ + |-- read_bandwidth + |-- read_latency + |-- write_bandwidth + `-- write_latency + +The bandwidth attributes are provided in MiB/second. + +The latency attributes are provided in nanoseconds. + +The values reported here correspond to the rated latency and bandwidth +for the platform. + +Access class 1 takes the same form but only includes values for CPU to +memory activity. + +NUMA Cache +========== + +System memory may be constructed in a hierarchy of elements with various +performance characteristics in order to provide large address space of +slower performing memory cached by a smaller higher performing memory. The +system physical addresses memory initiators are aware of are provided +by the last memory level in the hierarchy. The system meanwhile uses +higher performing memory to transparently cache access to progressively +slower levels. + +The term "far memory" is used to denote the last level memory in the +hierarchy. Each increasing cache level provides higher performing +initiator access, and the term "near memory" represents the fastest +cache provided by the system. + +This numbering is different than CPU caches where the cache level (ex: +L1, L2, L3) uses the CPU-side view where each increased level is lower +performing. In contrast, the memory cache level is centric to the last +level memory, so the higher numbered cache level corresponds to memory +nearer to the CPU, and further from far memory. + +The memory-side caches are not directly addressable by software. When +software accesses a system address, the system will return it from the +near memory cache if it is present. If it is not present, the system +accesses the next level of memory until there is either a hit in that +cache level, or it reaches far memory. + +An application does not need to know about caching attributes in order +to use the system. Software may optionally query the memory cache +attributes in order to maximize the performance out of such a setup. +If the system provides a way for the kernel to discover this information, +for example with ACPI HMAT (Heterogeneous Memory Attribute Table), +the kernel will append these attributes to the NUMA node memory target. + +When the kernel first registers a memory cache with a node, the kernel +will create the following directory:: + + /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/memory_side_cache/ + +If that directory is not present, the system either does not provide +a memory-side cache, or that information is not accessible to the kernel. + +The attributes for each level of cache is provided under its cache +level index:: + + /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/memory_side_cache/indexA/ + /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/memory_side_cache/indexB/ + /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/memory_side_cache/indexC/ + +Each cache level's directory provides its attributes. For example, the +following shows a single cache level and the attributes available for +software to query:: + + # tree /sys/devices/system/node/node0/memory_side_cache/ + /sys/devices/system/node/node0/memory_side_cache/ + |-- index1 + | |-- indexing + | |-- line_size + | |-- size + | `-- write_policy + +The "indexing" will be 0 if it is a direct-mapped cache, and non-zero +for any other indexed based, multi-way associativity. + +The "line_size" is the number of bytes accessed from the next cache +level on a miss. + +The "size" is the number of bytes provided by this cache level. + +The "write_policy" will be 0 for write-back, and non-zero for +write-through caching. + +See Also +======== + +[1] https://www.uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/ACPI_6_2.pdf +- Section 5.2.27 diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/pagemap.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/pagemap.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..c8f380271c --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/pagemap.rst @@ -0,0 +1,229 @@ +============================= +Examining Process Page Tables +============================= + +pagemap is a new (as of 2.6.25) set of interfaces in the kernel that allow +userspace programs to examine the page tables and related information by +reading files in ``/proc``. + +There are four components to pagemap: + + * ``/proc/pid/pagemap``. This file lets a userspace process find out which + physical frame each virtual page is mapped to. It contains one 64-bit + value for each virtual page, containing the following data (from + ``fs/proc/task_mmu.c``, above pagemap_read): + + * Bits 0-54 page frame number (PFN) if present + * Bits 0-4 swap type if swapped + * Bits 5-54 swap offset if swapped + * Bit 55 pte is soft-dirty (see + Documentation/admin-guide/mm/soft-dirty.rst) + * Bit 56 page exclusively mapped (since 4.2) + * Bit 57 pte is uffd-wp write-protected (since 5.13) (see + Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst) + * Bits 58-60 zero + * Bit 61 page is file-page or shared-anon (since 3.5) + * Bit 62 page swapped + * Bit 63 page present + + Since Linux 4.0 only users with the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability can get PFNs. + In 4.0 and 4.1 opens by unprivileged fail with -EPERM. Starting from + 4.2 the PFN field is zeroed if the user does not have CAP_SYS_ADMIN. + Reason: information about PFNs helps in exploiting Rowhammer vulnerability. + + If the page is not present but in swap, then the PFN contains an + encoding of the swap file number and the page's offset into the + swap. Unmapped pages return a null PFN. This allows determining + precisely which pages are mapped (or in swap) and comparing mapped + pages between processes. + + Efficient users of this interface will use ``/proc/pid/maps`` to + determine which areas of memory are actually mapped and llseek to + skip over unmapped regions. + + * ``/proc/kpagecount``. This file contains a 64-bit count of the number of + times each page is mapped, indexed by PFN. + +The page-types tool in the tools/mm directory can be used to query the +number of times a page is mapped. + + * ``/proc/kpageflags``. This file contains a 64-bit set of flags for each + page, indexed by PFN. + + The flags are (from ``fs/proc/page.c``, above kpageflags_read): + + 0. LOCKED + 1. ERROR + 2. REFERENCED + 3. UPTODATE + 4. DIRTY + 5. LRU + 6. ACTIVE + 7. SLAB + 8. WRITEBACK + 9. RECLAIM + 10. BUDDY + 11. MMAP + 12. ANON + 13. SWAPCACHE + 14. SWAPBACKED + 15. COMPOUND_HEAD + 16. COMPOUND_TAIL + 17. HUGE + 18. UNEVICTABLE + 19. HWPOISON + 20. NOPAGE + 21. KSM + 22. THP + 23. OFFLINE + 24. ZERO_PAGE + 25. IDLE + 26. PGTABLE + + * ``/proc/kpagecgroup``. This file contains a 64-bit inode number of the + memory cgroup each page is charged to, indexed by PFN. Only available when + CONFIG_MEMCG is set. + +Short descriptions to the page flags +==================================== + +0 - LOCKED + The page is being locked for exclusive access, e.g. by undergoing read/write + IO. +7 - SLAB + The page is managed by the SLAB/SLUB kernel memory allocator. + When compound page is used, either will only set this flag on the head + page. +10 - BUDDY + A free memory block managed by the buddy system allocator. + The buddy system organizes free memory in blocks of various orders. + An order N block has 2^N physically contiguous pages, with the BUDDY flag + set for and _only_ for the first page. +15 - COMPOUND_HEAD + A compound page with order N consists of 2^N physically contiguous pages. + A compound page with order 2 takes the form of "HTTT", where H donates its + head page and T donates its tail page(s). The major consumers of compound + pages are hugeTLB pages (Documentation/admin-guide/mm/hugetlbpage.rst), + the SLUB etc. memory allocators and various device drivers. + However in this interface, only huge/giga pages are made visible + to end users. +16 - COMPOUND_TAIL + A compound page tail (see description above). +17 - HUGE + This is an integral part of a HugeTLB page. +19 - HWPOISON + Hardware detected memory corruption on this page: don't touch the data! +20 - NOPAGE + No page frame exists at the requested address. +21 - KSM + Identical memory pages dynamically shared between one or more processes. +22 - THP + Contiguous pages which construct transparent hugepages. +23 - OFFLINE + The page is logically offline. +24 - ZERO_PAGE + Zero page for pfn_zero or huge_zero page. +25 - IDLE + The page has not been accessed since it was marked idle (see + Documentation/admin-guide/mm/idle_page_tracking.rst). + Note that this flag may be stale in case the page was accessed via + a PTE. To make sure the flag is up-to-date one has to read + ``/sys/kernel/mm/page_idle/bitmap`` first. +26 - PGTABLE + The page is in use as a page table. + +IO related page flags +--------------------- + +1 - ERROR + IO error occurred. +3 - UPTODATE + The page has up-to-date data. + ie. for file backed page: (in-memory data revision >= on-disk one) +4 - DIRTY + The page has been written to, hence contains new data. + i.e. for file backed page: (in-memory data revision > on-disk one) +8 - WRITEBACK + The page is being synced to disk. + +LRU related page flags +---------------------- + +5 - LRU + The page is in one of the LRU lists. +6 - ACTIVE + The page is in the active LRU list. +18 - UNEVICTABLE + The page is in the unevictable (non-)LRU list It is somehow pinned and + not a candidate for LRU page reclaims, e.g. ramfs pages, + shmctl(SHM_LOCK) and mlock() memory segments. +2 - REFERENCED + The page has been referenced since last LRU list enqueue/requeue. +9 - RECLAIM + The page will be reclaimed soon after its pageout IO completed. +11 - MMAP + A memory mapped page. +12 - ANON + A memory mapped page that is not part of a file. +13 - SWAPCACHE + The page is mapped to swap space, i.e. has an associated swap entry. +14 - SWAPBACKED + The page is backed by swap/RAM. + +The page-types tool in the tools/mm directory can be used to query the +above flags. + +Using pagemap to do something useful +==================================== + +The general procedure for using pagemap to find out about a process' memory +usage goes like this: + + 1. Read ``/proc/pid/maps`` to determine which parts of the memory space are + mapped to what. + 2. Select the maps you are interested in -- all of them, or a particular + library, or the stack or the heap, etc. + 3. Open ``/proc/pid/pagemap`` and seek to the pages you would like to examine. + 4. Read a u64 for each page from pagemap. + 5. Open ``/proc/kpagecount`` and/or ``/proc/kpageflags``. For each PFN you + just read, seek to that entry in the file, and read the data you want. + +For example, to find the "unique set size" (USS), which is the amount of +memory that a process is using that is not shared with any other process, +you can go through every map in the process, find the PFNs, look those up +in kpagecount, and tally up the number of pages that are only referenced +once. + +Exceptions for Shared Memory +============================ + +Page table entries for shared pages are cleared when the pages are zapped or +swapped out. This makes swapped out pages indistinguishable from never-allocated +ones. + +In kernel space, the swap location can still be retrieved from the page cache. +However, values stored only on the normal PTE get lost irretrievably when the +page is swapped out (i.e. SOFT_DIRTY). + +In user space, whether the page is present, swapped or none can be deduced with +the help of lseek and/or mincore system calls. + +lseek() can differentiate between accessed pages (present or swapped out) and +holes (none/non-allocated) by specifying the SEEK_DATA flag on the file where +the pages are backed. For anonymous shared pages, the file can be found in +``/proc/pid/map_files/``. + +mincore() can differentiate between pages in memory (present, including swap +cache) and out of memory (swapped out or none/non-allocated). + +Other notes +=========== + +Reading from any of the files will return -EINVAL if you are not starting +the read on an 8-byte boundary (e.g., if you sought an odd number of bytes +into the file), or if the size of the read is not a multiple of 8 bytes. + +Before Linux 3.11 pagemap bits 55-60 were used for "page-shift" (which is +always 12 at most architectures). Since Linux 3.11 their meaning changes +after first clear of soft-dirty bits. Since Linux 4.2 they are used for +flags unconditionally. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/shrinker_debugfs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/shrinker_debugfs.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..c582033bd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/shrinker_debugfs.rst @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +========================== +Shrinker Debugfs Interface +========================== + +Shrinker debugfs interface provides a visibility into the kernel memory +shrinkers subsystem and allows to get information about individual shrinkers +and interact with them. + +For each shrinker registered in the system a directory in **<debugfs>/shrinker/** +is created. The directory's name is composed from the shrinker's name and an +unique id: e.g. *kfree_rcu-0* or *sb-xfs:vda1-36*. + +Each shrinker directory contains **count** and **scan** files, which allow to +trigger *count_objects()* and *scan_objects()* callbacks for each memcg and +numa node (if applicable). + +Usage: +------ + +1. *List registered shrinkers* + + :: + + $ cd /sys/kernel/debug/shrinker/ + $ ls + dquota-cache-16 sb-devpts-28 sb-proc-47 sb-tmpfs-42 + mm-shadow-18 sb-devtmpfs-5 sb-proc-48 sb-tmpfs-43 + mm-zspool:zram0-34 sb-hugetlbfs-17 sb-pstore-31 sb-tmpfs-44 + rcu-kfree-0 sb-hugetlbfs-33 sb-rootfs-2 sb-tmpfs-49 + sb-aio-20 sb-iomem-12 sb-securityfs-6 sb-tracefs-13 + sb-anon_inodefs-15 sb-mqueue-21 sb-selinuxfs-22 sb-xfs:vda1-36 + sb-bdev-3 sb-nsfs-4 sb-sockfs-8 sb-zsmalloc-19 + sb-bpf-32 sb-pipefs-14 sb-sysfs-26 thp-deferred_split-10 + sb-btrfs:vda2-24 sb-proc-25 sb-tmpfs-1 thp-zero-9 + sb-cgroup2-30 sb-proc-39 sb-tmpfs-27 xfs-buf:vda1-37 + sb-configfs-23 sb-proc-41 sb-tmpfs-29 xfs-inodegc:vda1-38 + sb-dax-11 sb-proc-45 sb-tmpfs-35 + sb-debugfs-7 sb-proc-46 sb-tmpfs-40 + +2. *Get information about a specific shrinker* + + :: + + $ cd sb-btrfs\:vda2-24/ + $ ls + count scan + +3. *Count objects* + + Each line in the output has the following format:: + + <cgroup inode id> <nr of objects on node 0> <nr of objects on node 1> ... + <cgroup inode id> <nr of objects on node 0> <nr of objects on node 1> ... + ... + + If there are no objects on all numa nodes, a line is omitted. If there + are no objects at all, the output might be empty. + + If the shrinker is not memcg-aware or CONFIG_MEMCG is off, 0 is printed + as cgroup inode id. If the shrinker is not numa-aware, 0's are printed + for all nodes except the first one. + :: + + $ cat count + 1 224 2 + 21 98 0 + 55 818 10 + 2367 2 0 + 2401 30 0 + 225 13 0 + 599 35 0 + 939 124 0 + 1041 3 0 + 1075 1 0 + 1109 1 0 + 1279 60 0 + 1313 7 0 + 1347 39 0 + 1381 3 0 + 1449 14 0 + 1483 63 0 + 1517 53 0 + 1551 6 0 + 1585 1 0 + 1619 6 0 + 1653 40 0 + 1687 11 0 + 1721 8 0 + 1755 4 0 + 1789 52 0 + 1823 888 0 + 1857 1 0 + 1925 2 0 + 1959 32 0 + 2027 22 0 + 2061 9 0 + 2469 799 0 + 2537 861 0 + 2639 1 0 + 2707 70 0 + 2775 4 0 + 2877 84 0 + 293 1 0 + 735 8 0 + +4. *Scan objects* + + The expected input format:: + + <cgroup inode id> <numa id> <number of objects to scan> + + For a non-memcg-aware shrinker or on a system with no memory + cgrups **0** should be passed as cgroup id. + :: + + $ cd /sys/kernel/debug/shrinker/ + $ cd sb-btrfs\:vda2-24/ + + $ cat count | head -n 5 + 1 212 0 + 21 97 0 + 55 802 5 + 2367 2 0 + 225 13 0 + + $ echo "55 0 200" > scan + + $ cat count | head -n 5 + 1 212 0 + 21 96 0 + 55 752 5 + 2367 2 0 + 225 13 0 diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/soft-dirty.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/soft-dirty.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..aeea936caa --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/soft-dirty.rst @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +=============== +Soft-Dirty PTEs +=============== + +The soft-dirty is a bit on a PTE which helps to track which pages a task +writes to. In order to do this tracking one should + + 1. Clear soft-dirty bits from the task's PTEs. + + This is done by writing "4" into the ``/proc/PID/clear_refs`` file of the + task in question. + + 2. Wait some time. + + 3. Read soft-dirty bits from the PTEs. + + This is done by reading from the ``/proc/PID/pagemap``. The bit 55 of the + 64-bit qword is the soft-dirty one. If set, the respective PTE was + written to since step 1. + + +Internally, to do this tracking, the writable bit is cleared from PTEs +when the soft-dirty bit is cleared. So, after this, when the task tries to +modify a page at some virtual address the #PF occurs and the kernel sets +the soft-dirty bit on the respective PTE. + +Note, that although all the task's address space is marked as r/o after the +soft-dirty bits clear, the #PF-s that occur after that are processed fast. +This is so, since the pages are still mapped to physical memory, and thus all +the kernel does is finds this fact out and puts both writable and soft-dirty +bits on the PTE. + +While in most cases tracking memory changes by #PF-s is more than enough +there is still a scenario when we can lose soft dirty bits -- a task +unmaps a previously mapped memory region and then maps a new one at exactly +the same place. When unmap is called, the kernel internally clears PTE values +including soft dirty bits. To notify user space application about such +memory region renewal the kernel always marks new memory regions (and +expanded regions) as soft dirty. + +This feature is actively used by the checkpoint-restore project. You +can find more details about it on http://criu.org + + +-- Pavel Emelyanov, Apr 9, 2013 diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/swap_numa.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/swap_numa.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..2e630627bc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/swap_numa.rst @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +=========================================== +Automatically bind swap device to numa node +=========================================== + +If the system has more than one swap device and swap device has the node +information, we can make use of this information to decide which swap +device to use in get_swap_pages() to get better performance. + + +How to use this feature +======================= + +Swap device has priority and that decides the order of it to be used. To make +use of automatically binding, there is no need to manipulate priority settings +for swap devices. e.g. on a 2 node machine, assume 2 swap devices swapA and +swapB, with swapA attached to node 0 and swapB attached to node 1, are going +to be swapped on. Simply swapping them on by doing:: + + # swapon /dev/swapA + # swapon /dev/swapB + +Then node 0 will use the two swap devices in the order of swapA then swapB and +node 1 will use the two swap devices in the order of swapB then swapA. Note +that the order of them being swapped on doesn't matter. + +A more complex example on a 4 node machine. Assume 6 swap devices are going to +be swapped on: swapA and swapB are attached to node 0, swapC is attached to +node 1, swapD and swapE are attached to node 2 and swapF is attached to node3. +The way to swap them on is the same as above:: + + # swapon /dev/swapA + # swapon /dev/swapB + # swapon /dev/swapC + # swapon /dev/swapD + # swapon /dev/swapE + # swapon /dev/swapF + +Then node 0 will use them in the order of:: + + swapA/swapB -> swapC -> swapD -> swapE -> swapF + +swapA and swapB will be used in a round robin mode before any other swap device. + +node 1 will use them in the order of:: + + swapC -> swapA -> swapB -> swapD -> swapE -> swapF + +node 2 will use them in the order of:: + + swapD/swapE -> swapA -> swapB -> swapC -> swapF + +Similaly, swapD and swapE will be used in a round robin mode before any +other swap devices. + +node 3 will use them in the order of:: + + swapF -> swapA -> swapB -> swapC -> swapD -> swapE + + +Implementation details +====================== + +The current code uses a priority based list, swap_avail_list, to decide +which swap device to use and if multiple swap devices share the same +priority, they are used round robin. This change here replaces the single +global swap_avail_list with a per-numa-node list, i.e. for each numa node, +it sees its own priority based list of available swap devices. Swap +device's priority can be promoted on its matching node's swap_avail_list. + +The current swap device's priority is set as: user can set a >=0 value, +or the system will pick one starting from -1 then downwards. The priority +value in the swap_avail_list is the negated value of the swap device's +due to plist being sorted from low to high. The new policy doesn't change +the semantics for priority >=0 cases, the previous starting from -1 then +downwards now becomes starting from -2 then downwards and -1 is reserved +as the promoted value. So if multiple swap devices are attached to the same +node, they will all be promoted to priority -1 on that node's plist and will +be used round robin before any other swap devices. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..b0cc8243e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/transhuge.rst @@ -0,0 +1,427 @@ +============================ +Transparent Hugepage Support +============================ + +Objective +========= + +Performance critical computing applications dealing with large memory +working sets are already running on top of libhugetlbfs and in turn +hugetlbfs. Transparent HugePage Support (THP) is an alternative mean of +using huge pages for the backing of virtual memory with huge pages +that supports the automatic promotion and demotion of page sizes and +without the shortcomings of hugetlbfs. + +Currently THP only works for anonymous memory mappings and tmpfs/shmem. +But in the future it can expand to other filesystems. + +.. note:: + in the examples below we presume that the basic page size is 4K and + the huge page size is 2M, although the actual numbers may vary + depending on the CPU architecture. + +The reason applications are running faster is because of two +factors. The first factor is almost completely irrelevant and it's not +of significant interest because it'll also have the downside of +requiring larger clear-page copy-page in page faults which is a +potentially negative effect. The first factor consists in taking a +single page fault for each 2M virtual region touched by userland (so +reducing the enter/exit kernel frequency by a 512 times factor). This +only matters the first time the memory is accessed for the lifetime of +a memory mapping. The second long lasting and much more important +factor will affect all subsequent accesses to the memory for the whole +runtime of the application. The second factor consist of two +components: + +1) the TLB miss will run faster (especially with virtualization using + nested pagetables but almost always also on bare metal without + virtualization) + +2) a single TLB entry will be mapping a much larger amount of virtual + memory in turn reducing the number of TLB misses. With + virtualization and nested pagetables the TLB can be mapped of + larger size only if both KVM and the Linux guest are using + hugepages but a significant speedup already happens if only one of + the two is using hugepages just because of the fact the TLB miss is + going to run faster. + +THP can be enabled system wide or restricted to certain tasks or even +memory ranges inside task's address space. Unless THP is completely +disabled, there is ``khugepaged`` daemon that scans memory and +collapses sequences of basic pages into huge pages. + +The THP behaviour is controlled via :ref:`sysfs <thp_sysfs>` +interface and using madvise(2) and prctl(2) system calls. + +Transparent Hugepage Support maximizes the usefulness of free memory +if compared to the reservation approach of hugetlbfs by allowing all +unused memory to be used as cache or other movable (or even unmovable +entities). It doesn't require reservation to prevent hugepage +allocation failures to be noticeable from userland. It allows paging +and all other advanced VM features to be available on the +hugepages. It requires no modifications for applications to take +advantage of it. + +Applications however can be further optimized to take advantage of +this feature, like for example they've been optimized before to avoid +a flood of mmap system calls for every malloc(4k). Optimizing userland +is by far not mandatory and khugepaged already can take care of long +lived page allocations even for hugepage unaware applications that +deals with large amounts of memory. + +In certain cases when hugepages are enabled system wide, application +may end up allocating more memory resources. An application may mmap a +large region but only touch 1 byte of it, in that case a 2M page might +be allocated instead of a 4k page for no good. This is why it's +possible to disable hugepages system-wide and to only have them inside +MADV_HUGEPAGE madvise regions. + +Embedded systems should enable hugepages only inside madvise regions +to eliminate any risk of wasting any precious byte of memory and to +only run faster. + +Applications that gets a lot of benefit from hugepages and that don't +risk to lose memory by using hugepages, should use +madvise(MADV_HUGEPAGE) on their critical mmapped regions. + +.. _thp_sysfs: + +sysfs +===== + +Global THP controls +------------------- + +Transparent Hugepage Support for anonymous memory can be entirely disabled +(mostly for debugging purposes) or only enabled inside MADV_HUGEPAGE +regions (to avoid the risk of consuming more memory resources) or enabled +system wide. This can be achieved with one of:: + + echo always >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled + echo madvise >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled + echo never >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled + +It's also possible to limit defrag efforts in the VM to generate +anonymous hugepages in case they're not immediately free to madvise +regions or to never try to defrag memory and simply fallback to regular +pages unless hugepages are immediately available. Clearly if we spend CPU +time to defrag memory, we would expect to gain even more by the fact we +use hugepages later instead of regular pages. This isn't always +guaranteed, but it may be more likely in case the allocation is for a +MADV_HUGEPAGE region. + +:: + + echo always >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag + echo defer >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag + echo defer+madvise >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag + echo madvise >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag + echo never >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag + +always + means that an application requesting THP will stall on + allocation failure and directly reclaim pages and compact + memory in an effort to allocate a THP immediately. This may be + desirable for virtual machines that benefit heavily from THP + use and are willing to delay the VM start to utilise them. + +defer + means that an application will wake kswapd in the background + to reclaim pages and wake kcompactd to compact memory so that + THP is available in the near future. It's the responsibility + of khugepaged to then install the THP pages later. + +defer+madvise + will enter direct reclaim and compaction like ``always``, but + only for regions that have used madvise(MADV_HUGEPAGE); all + other regions will wake kswapd in the background to reclaim + pages and wake kcompactd to compact memory so that THP is + available in the near future. + +madvise + will enter direct reclaim like ``always`` but only for regions + that are have used madvise(MADV_HUGEPAGE). This is the default + behaviour. + +never + should be self-explanatory. + +By default kernel tries to use huge zero page on read page fault to +anonymous mapping. It's possible to disable huge zero page by writing 0 +or enable it back by writing 1:: + + echo 0 >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/use_zero_page + echo 1 >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/use_zero_page + +Some userspace (such as a test program, or an optimized memory allocation +library) may want to know the size (in bytes) of a transparent hugepage:: + + cat /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/hpage_pmd_size + +khugepaged will be automatically started when +transparent_hugepage/enabled is set to "always" or "madvise, and it'll +be automatically shutdown if it's set to "never". + +Khugepaged controls +------------------- + +khugepaged runs usually at low frequency so while one may not want to +invoke defrag algorithms synchronously during the page faults, it +should be worth invoking defrag at least in khugepaged. However it's +also possible to disable defrag in khugepaged by writing 0 or enable +defrag in khugepaged by writing 1:: + + echo 0 >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/defrag + echo 1 >/sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/defrag + +You can also control how many pages khugepaged should scan at each +pass:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/pages_to_scan + +and how many milliseconds to wait in khugepaged between each pass (you +can set this to 0 to run khugepaged at 100% utilization of one core):: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/scan_sleep_millisecs + +and how many milliseconds to wait in khugepaged if there's an hugepage +allocation failure to throttle the next allocation attempt:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/alloc_sleep_millisecs + +The khugepaged progress can be seen in the number of pages collapsed (note +that this counter may not be an exact count of the number of pages +collapsed, since "collapsed" could mean multiple things: (1) A PTE mapping +being replaced by a PMD mapping, or (2) All 4K physical pages replaced by +one 2M hugepage. Each may happen independently, or together, depending on +the type of memory and the failures that occur. As such, this value should +be interpreted roughly as a sign of progress, and counters in /proc/vmstat +consulted for more accurate accounting):: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/pages_collapsed + +for each pass:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/full_scans + +``max_ptes_none`` specifies how many extra small pages (that are +not already mapped) can be allocated when collapsing a group +of small pages into one large page:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/max_ptes_none + +A higher value leads to use additional memory for programs. +A lower value leads to gain less thp performance. Value of +max_ptes_none can waste cpu time very little, you can +ignore it. + +``max_ptes_swap`` specifies how many pages can be brought in from +swap when collapsing a group of pages into a transparent huge page:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/max_ptes_swap + +A higher value can cause excessive swap IO and waste +memory. A lower value can prevent THPs from being +collapsed, resulting fewer pages being collapsed into +THPs, and lower memory access performance. + +``max_ptes_shared`` specifies how many pages can be shared across multiple +processes. Exceeding the number would block the collapse:: + + /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/khugepaged/max_ptes_shared + +A higher value may increase memory footprint for some workloads. + +Boot parameter +============== + +You can change the sysfs boot time defaults of Transparent Hugepage +Support by passing the parameter ``transparent_hugepage=always`` or +``transparent_hugepage=madvise`` or ``transparent_hugepage=never`` +to the kernel command line. + +Hugepages in tmpfs/shmem +======================== + +You can control hugepage allocation policy in tmpfs with mount option +``huge=``. It can have following values: + +always + Attempt to allocate huge pages every time we need a new page; + +never + Do not allocate huge pages; + +within_size + Only allocate huge page if it will be fully within i_size. + Also respect fadvise()/madvise() hints; + +advise + Only allocate huge pages if requested with fadvise()/madvise(); + +The default policy is ``never``. + +``mount -o remount,huge= /mountpoint`` works fine after mount: remounting +``huge=never`` will not attempt to break up huge pages at all, just stop more +from being allocated. + +There's also sysfs knob to control hugepage allocation policy for internal +shmem mount: /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/shmem_enabled. The mount +is used for SysV SHM, memfds, shared anonymous mmaps (of /dev/zero or +MAP_ANONYMOUS), GPU drivers' DRM objects, Ashmem. + +In addition to policies listed above, shmem_enabled allows two further +values: + +deny + For use in emergencies, to force the huge option off from + all mounts; +force + Force the huge option on for all - very useful for testing; + +Need of application restart +=========================== + +The transparent_hugepage/enabled values and tmpfs mount option only affect +future behavior. So to make them effective you need to restart any +application that could have been using hugepages. This also applies to the +regions registered in khugepaged. + +Monitoring usage +================ + +The number of anonymous transparent huge pages currently used by the +system is available by reading the AnonHugePages field in ``/proc/meminfo``. +To identify what applications are using anonymous transparent huge pages, +it is necessary to read ``/proc/PID/smaps`` and count the AnonHugePages fields +for each mapping. + +The number of file transparent huge pages mapped to userspace is available +by reading ShmemPmdMapped and ShmemHugePages fields in ``/proc/meminfo``. +To identify what applications are mapping file transparent huge pages, it +is necessary to read ``/proc/PID/smaps`` and count the FileHugeMapped fields +for each mapping. + +Note that reading the smaps file is expensive and reading it +frequently will incur overhead. + +There are a number of counters in ``/proc/vmstat`` that may be used to +monitor how successfully the system is providing huge pages for use. + +thp_fault_alloc + is incremented every time a huge page is successfully + allocated to handle a page fault. + +thp_collapse_alloc + is incremented by khugepaged when it has found + a range of pages to collapse into one huge page and has + successfully allocated a new huge page to store the data. + +thp_fault_fallback + is incremented if a page fault fails to allocate + a huge page and instead falls back to using small pages. + +thp_fault_fallback_charge + is incremented if a page fault fails to charge a huge page and + instead falls back to using small pages even though the + allocation was successful. + +thp_collapse_alloc_failed + is incremented if khugepaged found a range + of pages that should be collapsed into one huge page but failed + the allocation. + +thp_file_alloc + is incremented every time a file huge page is successfully + allocated. + +thp_file_fallback + is incremented if a file huge page is attempted to be allocated + but fails and instead falls back to using small pages. + +thp_file_fallback_charge + is incremented if a file huge page cannot be charged and instead + falls back to using small pages even though the allocation was + successful. + +thp_file_mapped + is incremented every time a file huge page is mapped into + user address space. + +thp_split_page + is incremented every time a huge page is split into base + pages. This can happen for a variety of reasons but a common + reason is that a huge page is old and is being reclaimed. + This action implies splitting all PMD the page mapped with. + +thp_split_page_failed + is incremented if kernel fails to split huge + page. This can happen if the page was pinned by somebody. + +thp_deferred_split_page + is incremented when a huge page is put onto split + queue. This happens when a huge page is partially unmapped and + splitting it would free up some memory. Pages on split queue are + going to be split under memory pressure. + +thp_split_pmd + is incremented every time a PMD split into table of PTEs. + This can happen, for instance, when application calls mprotect() or + munmap() on part of huge page. It doesn't split huge page, only + page table entry. + +thp_zero_page_alloc + is incremented every time a huge zero page used for thp is + successfully allocated. Note, it doesn't count every map of + the huge zero page, only its allocation. + +thp_zero_page_alloc_failed + is incremented if kernel fails to allocate + huge zero page and falls back to using small pages. + +thp_swpout + is incremented every time a huge page is swapout in one + piece without splitting. + +thp_swpout_fallback + is incremented if a huge page has to be split before swapout. + Usually because failed to allocate some continuous swap space + for the huge page. + +As the system ages, allocating huge pages may be expensive as the +system uses memory compaction to copy data around memory to free a +huge page for use. There are some counters in ``/proc/vmstat`` to help +monitor this overhead. + +compact_stall + is incremented every time a process stalls to run + memory compaction so that a huge page is free for use. + +compact_success + is incremented if the system compacted memory and + freed a huge page for use. + +compact_fail + is incremented if the system tries to compact memory + but failed. + +It is possible to establish how long the stalls were using the function +tracer to record how long was spent in __alloc_pages() and +using the mm_page_alloc tracepoint to identify which allocations were +for huge pages. + +Optimizing the applications +=========================== + +To be guaranteed that the kernel will map a 2M page immediately in any +memory region, the mmap region has to be hugepage naturally +aligned. posix_memalign() can provide that guarantee. + +Hugetlbfs +========= + +You can use hugetlbfs on a kernel that has transparent hugepage +support enabled just fine as always. No difference can be noted in +hugetlbfs other than there will be less overall fragmentation. All +usual features belonging to hugetlbfs are preserved and +unaffected. libhugetlbfs will also work fine as usual. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..4349a8c2b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/userfaultfd.rst @@ -0,0 +1,392 @@ +=========== +Userfaultfd +=========== + +Objective +========= + +Userfaults allow the implementation of on-demand paging from userland +and more generally they allow userland to take control of various +memory page faults, something otherwise only the kernel code could do. + +For example userfaults allows a proper and more optimal implementation +of the ``PROT_NONE+SIGSEGV`` trick. + +Design +====== + +Userspace creates a new userfaultfd, initializes it, and registers one or more +regions of virtual memory with it. Then, any page faults which occur within the +region(s) result in a message being delivered to the userfaultfd, notifying +userspace of the fault. + +The ``userfaultfd`` (aside from registering and unregistering virtual +memory ranges) provides two primary functionalities: + +1) ``read/POLLIN`` protocol to notify a userland thread of the faults + happening + +2) various ``UFFDIO_*`` ioctls that can manage the virtual memory regions + registered in the ``userfaultfd`` that allows userland to efficiently + resolve the userfaults it receives via 1) or to manage the virtual + memory in the background + +The real advantage of userfaults if compared to regular virtual memory +management of mremap/mprotect is that the userfaults in all their +operations never involve heavyweight structures like vmas (in fact the +``userfaultfd`` runtime load never takes the mmap_lock for writing). +Vmas are not suitable for page- (or hugepage) granular fault tracking +when dealing with virtual address spaces that could span +Terabytes. Too many vmas would be needed for that. + +The ``userfaultfd``, once created, can also be +passed using unix domain sockets to a manager process, so the same +manager process could handle the userfaults of a multitude of +different processes without them being aware about what is going on +(well of course unless they later try to use the ``userfaultfd`` +themselves on the same region the manager is already tracking, which +is a corner case that would currently return ``-EBUSY``). + +API +=== + +Creating a userfaultfd +---------------------- + +There are two ways to create a new userfaultfd, each of which provide ways to +restrict access to this functionality (since historically userfaultfds which +handle kernel page faults have been a useful tool for exploiting the kernel). + +The first way, supported since userfaultfd was introduced, is the +userfaultfd(2) syscall. Access to this is controlled in several ways: + +- Any user can always create a userfaultfd which traps userspace page faults + only. Such a userfaultfd can be created using the userfaultfd(2) syscall + with the flag UFFD_USER_MODE_ONLY. + +- In order to also trap kernel page faults for the address space, either the + process needs the CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability, or the system must have + vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd set to 1. By default, vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd + is set to 0. + +The second way, added to the kernel more recently, is by opening +/dev/userfaultfd and issuing a USERFAULTFD_IOC_NEW ioctl to it. This method +yields equivalent userfaultfds to the userfaultfd(2) syscall. + +Unlike userfaultfd(2), access to /dev/userfaultfd is controlled via normal +filesystem permissions (user/group/mode), which gives fine grained access to +userfaultfd specifically, without also granting other unrelated privileges at +the same time (as e.g. granting CAP_SYS_PTRACE would do). Users who have access +to /dev/userfaultfd can always create userfaultfds that trap kernel page faults; +vm.unprivileged_userfaultfd is not considered. + +Initializing a userfaultfd +-------------------------- + +When first opened the ``userfaultfd`` must be enabled invoking the +``UFFDIO_API`` ioctl specifying a ``uffdio_api.api`` value set to ``UFFD_API`` (or +a later API version) which will specify the ``read/POLLIN`` protocol +userland intends to speak on the ``UFFD`` and the ``uffdio_api.features`` +userland requires. The ``UFFDIO_API`` ioctl if successful (i.e. if the +requested ``uffdio_api.api`` is spoken also by the running kernel and the +requested features are going to be enabled) will return into +``uffdio_api.features`` and ``uffdio_api.ioctls`` two 64bit bitmasks of +respectively all the available features of the read(2) protocol and +the generic ioctl available. + +The ``uffdio_api.features`` bitmask returned by the ``UFFDIO_API`` ioctl +defines what memory types are supported by the ``userfaultfd`` and what +events, except page fault notifications, may be generated: + +- The ``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_*`` flags indicate that various other events + other than page faults are supported. These events are described in more + detail below in the `Non-cooperative userfaultfd`_ section. + +- ``UFFD_FEATURE_MISSING_HUGETLBFS`` and ``UFFD_FEATURE_MISSING_SHMEM`` + indicate that the kernel supports ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MISSING`` + registrations for hugetlbfs and shared memory (covering all shmem APIs, + i.e. tmpfs, ``IPCSHM``, ``/dev/zero``, ``MAP_SHARED``, ``memfd_create``, + etc) virtual memory areas, respectively. + +- ``UFFD_FEATURE_MINOR_HUGETLBFS`` indicates that the kernel supports + ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MINOR`` registration for hugetlbfs virtual memory + areas. ``UFFD_FEATURE_MINOR_SHMEM`` is the analogous feature indicating + support for shmem virtual memory areas. + +The userland application should set the feature flags it intends to use +when invoking the ``UFFDIO_API`` ioctl, to request that those features be +enabled if supported. + +Once the ``userfaultfd`` API has been enabled the ``UFFDIO_REGISTER`` +ioctl should be invoked (if present in the returned ``uffdio_api.ioctls`` +bitmask) to register a memory range in the ``userfaultfd`` by setting the +uffdio_register structure accordingly. The ``uffdio_register.mode`` +bitmask will specify to the kernel which kind of faults to track for +the range. The ``UFFDIO_REGISTER`` ioctl will return the +``uffdio_register.ioctls`` bitmask of ioctls that are suitable to resolve +userfaults on the range registered. Not all ioctls will necessarily be +supported for all memory types (e.g. anonymous memory vs. shmem vs. +hugetlbfs), or all types of intercepted faults. + +Userland can use the ``uffdio_register.ioctls`` to manage the virtual +address space in the background (to add or potentially also remove +memory from the ``userfaultfd`` registered range). This means a userfault +could be triggering just before userland maps in the background the +user-faulted page. + +Resolving Userfaults +-------------------- + +There are three basic ways to resolve userfaults: + +- ``UFFDIO_COPY`` atomically copies some existing page contents from + userspace. + +- ``UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE`` atomically zeros the new page. + +- ``UFFDIO_CONTINUE`` maps an existing, previously-populated page. + +These operations are atomic in the sense that they guarantee nothing can +see a half-populated page, since readers will keep userfaulting until the +operation has finished. + +By default, these wake up userfaults blocked on the range in question. +They support a ``UFFDIO_*_MODE_DONTWAKE`` ``mode`` flag, which indicates +that waking will be done separately at some later time. + +Which ioctl to choose depends on the kind of page fault, and what we'd +like to do to resolve it: + +- For ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MISSING`` faults, the fault needs to be + resolved by either providing a new page (``UFFDIO_COPY``), or mapping + the zero page (``UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE``). By default, the kernel would map + the zero page for a missing fault. With userfaultfd, userspace can + decide what content to provide before the faulting thread continues. + +- For ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MINOR`` faults, there is an existing page (in + the page cache). Userspace has the option of modifying the page's + contents before resolving the fault. Once the contents are correct + (modified or not), userspace asks the kernel to map the page and let the + faulting thread continue with ``UFFDIO_CONTINUE``. + +Notes: + +- You can tell which kind of fault occurred by examining + ``pagefault.flags`` within the ``uffd_msg``, checking for the + ``UFFD_PAGEFAULT_FLAG_*`` flags. + +- None of the page-delivering ioctls default to the range that you + registered with. You must fill in all fields for the appropriate + ioctl struct including the range. + +- You get the address of the access that triggered the missing page + event out of a struct uffd_msg that you read in the thread from the + uffd. You can supply as many pages as you want with these IOCTLs. + Keep in mind that unless you used DONTWAKE then the first of any of + those IOCTLs wakes up the faulting thread. + +- Be sure to test for all errors including + (``pollfd[0].revents & POLLERR``). This can happen, e.g. when ranges + supplied were incorrect. + +Write Protect Notifications +--------------------------- + +This is equivalent to (but faster than) using mprotect and a SIGSEGV +signal handler. + +Firstly you need to register a range with ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_WP``. +Instead of using mprotect(2) you use +``ioctl(uffd, UFFDIO_WRITEPROTECT, struct *uffdio_writeprotect)`` +while ``mode = UFFDIO_WRITEPROTECT_MODE_WP`` +in the struct passed in. The range does not default to and does not +have to be identical to the range you registered with. You can write +protect as many ranges as you like (inside the registered range). +Then, in the thread reading from uffd the struct will have +``msg.arg.pagefault.flags & UFFD_PAGEFAULT_FLAG_WP`` set. Now you send +``ioctl(uffd, UFFDIO_WRITEPROTECT, struct *uffdio_writeprotect)`` +again while ``pagefault.mode`` does not have ``UFFDIO_WRITEPROTECT_MODE_WP`` +set. This wakes up the thread which will continue to run with writes. This +allows you to do the bookkeeping about the write in the uffd reading +thread before the ioctl. + +If you registered with both ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MISSING`` and +``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_WP`` then you need to think about the sequence in +which you supply a page and undo write protect. Note that there is a +difference between writes into a WP area and into a !WP area. The +former will have ``UFFD_PAGEFAULT_FLAG_WP`` set, the latter +``UFFD_PAGEFAULT_FLAG_WRITE``. The latter did not fail on protection but +you still need to supply a page when ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MISSING`` was +used. + +Userfaultfd write-protect mode currently behave differently on none ptes +(when e.g. page is missing) over different types of memories. + +For anonymous memory, ``ioctl(UFFDIO_WRITEPROTECT)`` will ignore none ptes +(e.g. when pages are missing and not populated). For file-backed memories +like shmem and hugetlbfs, none ptes will be write protected just like a +present pte. In other words, there will be a userfaultfd write fault +message generated when writing to a missing page on file typed memories, +as long as the page range was write-protected before. Such a message will +not be generated on anonymous memories by default. + +If the application wants to be able to write protect none ptes on anonymous +memory, one can pre-populate the memory with e.g. MADV_POPULATE_READ. On +newer kernels, one can also detect the feature UFFD_FEATURE_WP_UNPOPULATED +and set the feature bit in advance to make sure none ptes will also be +write protected even upon anonymous memory. + +When using ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_WP`` in combination with either +``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MISSING`` or ``UFFDIO_REGISTER_MODE_MINOR``, when +resolving missing / minor faults with ``UFFDIO_COPY`` or ``UFFDIO_CONTINUE`` +respectively, it may be desirable for the new page / mapping to be +write-protected (so future writes will also result in a WP fault). These ioctls +support a mode flag (``UFFDIO_COPY_MODE_WP`` or ``UFFDIO_CONTINUE_MODE_WP`` +respectively) to configure the mapping this way. + +Memory Poisioning Emulation +--------------------------- + +In response to a fault (either missing or minor), an action userspace can +take to "resolve" it is to issue a ``UFFDIO_POISON``. This will cause any +future faulters to either get a SIGBUS, or in KVM's case the guest will +receive an MCE as if there were hardware memory poisoning. + +This is used to emulate hardware memory poisoning. Imagine a VM running on a +machine which experiences a real hardware memory error. Later, we live migrate +the VM to another physical machine. Since we want the migration to be +transparent to the guest, we want that same address range to act as if it was +still poisoned, even though it's on a new physical host which ostensibly +doesn't have a memory error in the exact same spot. + +QEMU/KVM +======== + +QEMU/KVM is using the ``userfaultfd`` syscall to implement postcopy live +migration. Postcopy live migration is one form of memory +externalization consisting of a virtual machine running with part or +all of its memory residing on a different node in the cloud. The +``userfaultfd`` abstraction is generic enough that not a single line of +KVM kernel code had to be modified in order to add postcopy live +migration to QEMU. + +Guest async page faults, ``FOLL_NOWAIT`` and all other ``GUP*`` features work +just fine in combination with userfaults. Userfaults trigger async +page faults in the guest scheduler so those guest processes that +aren't waiting for userfaults (i.e. network bound) can keep running in +the guest vcpus. + +It is generally beneficial to run one pass of precopy live migration +just before starting postcopy live migration, in order to avoid +generating userfaults for readonly guest regions. + +The implementation of postcopy live migration currently uses one +single bidirectional socket but in the future two different sockets +will be used (to reduce the latency of the userfaults to the minimum +possible without having to decrease ``/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_wmem``). + +The QEMU in the source node writes all pages that it knows are missing +in the destination node, into the socket, and the migration thread of +the QEMU running in the destination node runs ``UFFDIO_COPY|ZEROPAGE`` +ioctls on the ``userfaultfd`` in order to map the received pages into the +guest (``UFFDIO_ZEROCOPY`` is used if the source page was a zero page). + +A different postcopy thread in the destination node listens with +poll() to the ``userfaultfd`` in parallel. When a ``POLLIN`` event is +generated after a userfault triggers, the postcopy thread read() from +the ``userfaultfd`` and receives the fault address (or ``-EAGAIN`` in case the +userfault was already resolved and waken by a ``UFFDIO_COPY|ZEROPAGE`` run +by the parallel QEMU migration thread). + +After the QEMU postcopy thread (running in the destination node) gets +the userfault address it writes the information about the missing page +into the socket. The QEMU source node receives the information and +roughly "seeks" to that page address and continues sending all +remaining missing pages from that new page offset. Soon after that +(just the time to flush the tcp_wmem queue through the network) the +migration thread in the QEMU running in the destination node will +receive the page that triggered the userfault and it'll map it as +usual with the ``UFFDIO_COPY|ZEROPAGE`` (without actually knowing if it +was spontaneously sent by the source or if it was an urgent page +requested through a userfault). + +By the time the userfaults start, the QEMU in the destination node +doesn't need to keep any per-page state bitmap relative to the live +migration around and a single per-page bitmap has to be maintained in +the QEMU running in the source node to know which pages are still +missing in the destination node. The bitmap in the source node is +checked to find which missing pages to send in round robin and we seek +over it when receiving incoming userfaults. After sending each page of +course the bitmap is updated accordingly. It's also useful to avoid +sending the same page twice (in case the userfault is read by the +postcopy thread just before ``UFFDIO_COPY|ZEROPAGE`` runs in the migration +thread). + +Non-cooperative userfaultfd +=========================== + +When the ``userfaultfd`` is monitored by an external manager, the manager +must be able to track changes in the process virtual memory +layout. Userfaultfd can notify the manager about such changes using +the same read(2) protocol as for the page fault notifications. The +manager has to explicitly enable these events by setting appropriate +bits in ``uffdio_api.features`` passed to ``UFFDIO_API`` ioctl: + +``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_FORK`` + enable ``userfaultfd`` hooks for fork(). When this feature is + enabled, the ``userfaultfd`` context of the parent process is + duplicated into the newly created process. The manager + receives ``UFFD_EVENT_FORK`` with file descriptor of the new + ``userfaultfd`` context in the ``uffd_msg.fork``. + +``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_REMAP`` + enable notifications about mremap() calls. When the + non-cooperative process moves a virtual memory area to a + different location, the manager will receive + ``UFFD_EVENT_REMAP``. The ``uffd_msg.remap`` will contain the old and + new addresses of the area and its original length. + +``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_REMOVE`` + enable notifications about madvise(MADV_REMOVE) and + madvise(MADV_DONTNEED) calls. The event ``UFFD_EVENT_REMOVE`` will + be generated upon these calls to madvise(). The ``uffd_msg.remove`` + will contain start and end addresses of the removed area. + +``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_UNMAP`` + enable notifications about memory unmapping. The manager will + get ``UFFD_EVENT_UNMAP`` with ``uffd_msg.remove`` containing start and + end addresses of the unmapped area. + +Although the ``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_REMOVE`` and ``UFFD_FEATURE_EVENT_UNMAP`` +are pretty similar, they quite differ in the action expected from the +``userfaultfd`` manager. In the former case, the virtual memory is +removed, but the area is not, the area remains monitored by the +``userfaultfd``, and if a page fault occurs in that area it will be +delivered to the manager. The proper resolution for such page fault is +to zeromap the faulting address. However, in the latter case, when an +area is unmapped, either explicitly (with munmap() system call), or +implicitly (e.g. during mremap()), the area is removed and in turn the +``userfaultfd`` context for such area disappears too and the manager will +not get further userland page faults from the removed area. Still, the +notification is required in order to prevent manager from using +``UFFDIO_COPY`` on the unmapped area. + +Unlike userland page faults which have to be synchronous and require +explicit or implicit wakeup, all the events are delivered +asynchronously and the non-cooperative process resumes execution as +soon as manager executes read(). The ``userfaultfd`` manager should +carefully synchronize calls to ``UFFDIO_COPY`` with the events +processing. To aid the synchronization, the ``UFFDIO_COPY`` ioctl will +return ``-ENOSPC`` when the monitored process exits at the time of +``UFFDIO_COPY``, and ``-ENOENT``, when the non-cooperative process has changed +its virtual memory layout simultaneously with outstanding ``UFFDIO_COPY`` +operation. + +The current asynchronous model of the event delivery is optimal for +single threaded non-cooperative ``userfaultfd`` manager implementations. A +synchronous event delivery model can be added later as a new +``userfaultfd`` feature to facilitate multithreading enhancements of the +non cooperative manager, for example to allow ``UFFDIO_COPY`` ioctls to +run in parallel to the event reception. Single threaded +implementations should continue to use the current async event +delivery model instead. diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/zswap.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/zswap.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..45b98390e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/zswap.rst @@ -0,0 +1,158 @@ +===== +zswap +===== + +Overview +======== + +Zswap is a lightweight compressed cache for swap pages. It takes pages that are +in the process of being swapped out and attempts to compress them into a +dynamically allocated RAM-based memory pool. zswap basically trades CPU cycles +for potentially reduced swap I/O. This trade-off can also result in a +significant performance improvement if reads from the compressed cache are +faster than reads from a swap device. + +Some potential benefits: + +* Desktop/laptop users with limited RAM capacities can mitigate the + performance impact of swapping. +* Overcommitted guests that share a common I/O resource can + dramatically reduce their swap I/O pressure, avoiding heavy handed I/O + throttling by the hypervisor. This allows more work to get done with less + impact to the guest workload and guests sharing the I/O subsystem +* Users with SSDs as swap devices can extend the life of the device by + drastically reducing life-shortening writes. + +Zswap evicts pages from compressed cache on an LRU basis to the backing swap +device when the compressed pool reaches its size limit. This requirement had +been identified in prior community discussions. + +Whether Zswap is enabled at the boot time depends on whether +the ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_DEFAULT_ON`` Kconfig option is enabled or not. +This setting can then be overridden by providing the kernel command line +``zswap.enabled=`` option, for example ``zswap.enabled=0``. +Zswap can also be enabled and disabled at runtime using the sysfs interface. +An example command to enable zswap at runtime, assuming sysfs is mounted +at ``/sys``, is:: + + echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/enabled + +When zswap is disabled at runtime it will stop storing pages that are +being swapped out. However, it will _not_ immediately write out or fault +back into memory all of the pages stored in the compressed pool. The +pages stored in zswap will remain in the compressed pool until they are +either invalidated or faulted back into memory. In order to force all +pages out of the compressed pool, a swapoff on the swap device(s) will +fault back into memory all swapped out pages, including those in the +compressed pool. + +Design +====== + +Zswap receives pages for compression from the swap subsystem and is able to +evict pages from its own compressed pool on an LRU basis and write them back to +the backing swap device in the case that the compressed pool is full. + +Zswap makes use of zpool for the managing the compressed memory pool. Each +allocation in zpool is not directly accessible by address. Rather, a handle is +returned by the allocation routine and that handle must be mapped before being +accessed. The compressed memory pool grows on demand and shrinks as compressed +pages are freed. The pool is not preallocated. By default, a zpool +of type selected in ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_ZPOOL_DEFAULT`` Kconfig option is created, +but it can be overridden at boot time by setting the ``zpool`` attribute, +e.g. ``zswap.zpool=zbud``. It can also be changed at runtime using the sysfs +``zpool`` attribute, e.g.:: + + echo zbud > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/zpool + +The zbud type zpool allocates exactly 1 page to store 2 compressed pages, which +means the compression ratio will always be 2:1 or worse (because of half-full +zbud pages). The zsmalloc type zpool has a more complex compressed page +storage method, and it can achieve greater storage densities. + +When a swap page is passed from swapout to zswap, zswap maintains a mapping +of the swap entry, a combination of the swap type and swap offset, to the zpool +handle that references that compressed swap page. This mapping is achieved +with a red-black tree per swap type. The swap offset is the search key for the +tree nodes. + +During a page fault on a PTE that is a swap entry, the swapin code calls the +zswap load function to decompress the page into the page allocated by the page +fault handler. + +Once there are no PTEs referencing a swap page stored in zswap (i.e. the count +in the swap_map goes to 0) the swap code calls the zswap invalidate function +to free the compressed entry. + +Zswap seeks to be simple in its policies. Sysfs attributes allow for one user +controlled policy: + +* max_pool_percent - The maximum percentage of memory that the compressed + pool can occupy. + +The default compressor is selected in ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_COMPRESSOR_DEFAULT`` +Kconfig option, but it can be overridden at boot time by setting the +``compressor`` attribute, e.g. ``zswap.compressor=lzo``. +It can also be changed at runtime using the sysfs "compressor" +attribute, e.g.:: + + echo lzo > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/compressor + +When the zpool and/or compressor parameter is changed at runtime, any existing +compressed pages are not modified; they are left in their own zpool. When a +request is made for a page in an old zpool, it is uncompressed using its +original compressor. Once all pages are removed from an old zpool, the zpool +and its compressor are freed. + +Some of the pages in zswap are same-value filled pages (i.e. contents of the +page have same value or repetitive pattern). These pages include zero-filled +pages and they are handled differently. During store operation, a page is +checked if it is a same-value filled page before compressing it. If true, the +compressed length of the page is set to zero and the pattern or same-filled +value is stored. + +Same-value filled pages identification feature is enabled by default and can be +disabled at boot time by setting the ``same_filled_pages_enabled`` attribute +to 0, e.g. ``zswap.same_filled_pages_enabled=0``. It can also be enabled and +disabled at runtime using the sysfs ``same_filled_pages_enabled`` +attribute, e.g.:: + + echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/same_filled_pages_enabled + +When zswap same-filled page identification is disabled at runtime, it will stop +checking for the same-value filled pages during store operation. +In other words, every page will be then considered non-same-value filled. +However, the existing pages which are marked as same-value filled pages remain +stored unchanged in zswap until they are either loaded or invalidated. + +In some circumstances it might be advantageous to make use of just the zswap +ability to efficiently store same-filled pages without enabling the whole +compressed page storage. +In this case the handling of non-same-value pages by zswap (enabled by default) +can be disabled by setting the ``non_same_filled_pages_enabled`` attribute +to 0, e.g. ``zswap.non_same_filled_pages_enabled=0``. +It can also be enabled and disabled at runtime using the sysfs +``non_same_filled_pages_enabled`` attribute, e.g.:: + + echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/non_same_filled_pages_enabled + +Disabling both ``zswap.same_filled_pages_enabled`` and +``zswap.non_same_filled_pages_enabled`` effectively disables accepting any new +pages by zswap. + +To prevent zswap from shrinking pool when zswap is full and there's a high +pressure on swap (this will result in flipping pages in and out zswap pool +without any real benefit but with a performance drop for the system), a +special parameter has been introduced to implement a sort of hysteresis to +refuse taking pages into zswap pool until it has sufficient space if the limit +has been hit. To set the threshold at which zswap would start accepting pages +again after it became full, use the sysfs ``accept_threshold_percent`` +attribute, e. g.:: + + echo 80 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/accept_threshold_percent + +Setting this parameter to 100 will disable the hysteresis. + +A debugfs interface is provided for various statistic about pool size, number +of pages stored, same-value filled pages and various counters for the reasons +pages are rejected. |