Re: [PATCH] slab: avoid IPIs when creating kmem caches

From: David Rientjes
Date: Mon Apr 17 2017 - 18:26:13 EST


On Sun, 16 Apr 2017, Greg Thelen wrote:

> Each slab kmem cache has per cpu array caches. The array caches are
> created when the kmem_cache is created, either via kmem_cache_create()
> or lazily when the first object is allocated in context of a kmem
> enabled memcg. Array caches are replaced by writing to /proc/slabinfo.
>
> Array caches are protected by holding slab_mutex or disabling
> interrupts. Array cache allocation and replacement is done by
> __do_tune_cpucache() which holds slab_mutex and calls
> kick_all_cpus_sync() to interrupt all remote processors which confirms
> there are no references to the old array caches.
>
> IPIs are needed when replacing array caches. But when creating a new
> array cache, there's no need to send IPIs because there cannot be any
> references to the new cache. Outside of memcg kmem accounting these
> IPIs occur at boot time, so they're not a problem. But with memcg kmem
> accounting each container can create kmem caches, so the IPIs are
> wasteful.
>
> Avoid unnecessary IPIs when creating array caches.
>
> Test which reports the IPI count of allocating slab in 10000 memcg:
> import os
>
> def ipi_count():
> with open("/proc/interrupts") as f:
> for l in f:
> if 'Function call interrupts' in l:
> return int(l.split()[1])
>
> def echo(val, path):
> with open(path, "w") as f:
> f.write(val)
>
> n = 10000
> os.chdir("/mnt/cgroup/memory")
> pid = str(os.getpid())
> a = ipi_count()
> for i in range(n):
> os.mkdir(str(i))
> echo("1G\n", "%d/memory.limit_in_bytes" % i)
> echo("1G\n", "%d/memory.kmem.limit_in_bytes" % i)
> echo(pid, "%d/cgroup.procs" % i)
> open("/tmp/x", "w").close()
> os.unlink("/tmp/x")
> b = ipi_count()
> print "%d loops: %d => %d (+%d ipis)" % (n, a, b, b-a)
> echo(pid, "cgroup.procs")
> for i in range(n):
> os.rmdir(str(i))
>
> patched: 10000 loops: 1069 => 1170 (+101 ipis)
> unpatched: 10000 loops: 1192 => 48933 (+47741 ipis)
>
> Signed-off-by: Greg Thelen <gthelen@xxxxxxxxxx>

Acked-by: David Rientjes <rientjes@xxxxxxxxxx>