Lockup in wait_transaction_locked under memory pressure

[Nikolay Borisov <kernel@kyup.com>]

Hello,

On a fairly busy server, running LXC I'm observing that sometimes
the processes for a particular container lock up by going into D
(uninterruptible sleep) state. Obtaining backtraces for those
processes one thing which stands out is that they are all
blocked in wait_transaction_locked (part of JBD2).
This occurs sporadically when the particular container
is under memory pressure and a process is selected by
OOM for killing. I'm running kernel 4.0.0 and
oom_kill_allocating_task is enabled.

Here are backtraces from multiple such processes:


alxc9 kernel: nginx           D ffff8820a90b39a8 11496  9331  30627
0x00000004
alxc9 kernel: ffff8820a90b39a8 ffff881ff284f010 ffff88396c6d1e90
0000000000000282
alxc9 kernel: ffff8820a90b0010 ffff883ff12f3870 ffff883ff12f3800
0000000000027df1
alxc9 kernel: ffff880413c08000 ffff8820a90b39c8 ffffffff815ab76e
ffff883ff12f3870
alxc9 kernel: Call Trace:
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815ab76e>] schedule+0x3e/0x90
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81264265>] wait_transaction_locked+0x85/0xc0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810910d0>] ? woken_wake_function+0x20/0x20
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815ab18a>] ? __schedule+0x39a/0x870
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81264540>] add_transaction_credits+0xf0/0x250
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815ab76e>] ? schedule+0x3e/0x90
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815ae5e5>] ? schedule_timeout+0x165/0x1f0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81264824>] start_this_handle+0x184/0x420
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810e0880>] ? __delayacct_blkio_end+0x30/0x50
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8117a48e>] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0xee/0x1c0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81265220>] jbd2__journal_start+0x100/0x200
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8121da5c>] ? ext4_dirty_inode+0x3c/0x80
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8124bb49>] __ext4_journal_start_sb+0x79/0x100
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8121da5c>] ext4_dirty_inode+0x3c/0x80
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811be5c3>] __mark_inode_dirty+0x173/0x400
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811ae9c5>] generic_update_time+0x85/0xd0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81120f5a>] ? filemap_map_pages+0x1ca/0x210
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811ae632>] file_update_time+0xb2/0x110
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811226c2>] __generic_file_write_iter+0x172/0x3a0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81214814>] ext4_file_write_iter+0x134/0x460
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810ad910>] ? update_rmtp+0x80/0x80
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81194047>] new_sync_write+0x97/0xc0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8119445e>] vfs_write+0xce/0x180
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81194bda>] SyS_write+0x5a/0xd0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815afa89>] system_call_fastpath+0x12/0x17

alxc9 kernel: mysqld          D ffff8821352638d8 11936  5176  30627
0x00000006
alxc9 kernel: ffff8821352638d8 ffff881ff2848000 ffff8812d3d28a30
0000000000000286
alxc9 kernel: ffff882135260010 ffff883ff12f3870 ffff883ff12f3800
0000000000027df1
alxc9 kernel: ffff880413c08000 ffff8821352638f8 ffffffff815ab76e
ffff883ff12f3870
alxc9 kernel: Call Trace:
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815ab76e>] schedule+0x3e/0x90
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81264265>] wait_transaction_locked+0x85/0xc0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810910d0>] ? woken_wake_function+0x20/0x20
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81264540>] add_transaction_credits+0xf0/0x250
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81264824>] start_this_handle+0x184/0x420
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8117a48e>] ? kmem_cache_alloc+0xee/0x1c0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81265220>] jbd2__journal_start+0x100/0x200
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8121fa70>] ? ext4_evict_inode+0x190/0x490
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8124bb49>] __ext4_journal_start_sb+0x79/0x100
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8121fa70>] ext4_evict_inode+0x190/0x490
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811af6d8>] evict+0xb8/0x1a0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811af8b6>] iput_final+0xf6/0x190
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811b0230>] iput+0xa0/0xe0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811ab068>] dentry_iput+0xa8/0xf0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811ac1c5>] __dentry_kill+0x85/0x130
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811ac42c>] dput+0x1bc/0x220
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff811966b4>] __fput+0x144/0x200
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8119681e>] ____fput+0xe/0x10
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff8106dc85>] task_work_run+0xd5/0x120
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810537d9>] do_exit+0x1b9/0x560
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810aebc2>] ? hrtimer_cancel+0x22/0x30
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81053bd6>] do_group_exit+0x56/0x100
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81061787>] get_signal+0x237/0x530
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81002d45>] do_signal+0x25/0x130
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810a57d9>] ? rcu_eqs_exit+0x79/0xb0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff810a5823>] ? rcu_user_exit+0x13/0x20
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff81002ec8>] do_notify_resume+0x78/0xb0
alxc9 kernel: [<ffffffff815afce3>] int_signal+0x12/0x17

My hypotheses is that the OOM is killing a process while its performing
a write to a transaction without it having a chance to complete it which
leaves all other processes waiting to be woken up, which naturally never
happens. I wonder whether such a failure scenario is even possible? If
not then what could possibly force a transaction to stall for hours?

Regards,
Nikolay