workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Dan Aloni]

Hello,

Is there currently a workaround available for handling large MTU 
(larger than 1 page, even 2-order) in the Linux network stack?

The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to 
fail.

I'm interested in patches for both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.

Thanks,

-- 
Dan Aloni
da-x@monatomic.org, da-x@colinux.org, da-x@gmx.net

Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Francois Romieu]

Dan Aloni <da-x@monatomic.org> :
[...]
> The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
> the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to 
> fail.

If the issue hits the Rx path, it is probably the responsibility of
the device driver. Which kind of hardware do you use ?

--
Ueimor

Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Dan Aloni]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 01:08:22AM +0200, Francois Romieu wrote:
> Dan Aloni <da-x@monatomic.org> :
> [...]
> > The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
> > the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to 
> > fail.
> 
> If the issue hits the Rx path, it is probably the responsibility of
> the device driver. Which kind of hardware do you use ?

We are using a SuperMicro board and the network driver is e1000. The
revision of the chipset is 82546GB-copper (maps to e1000_82546_rev_3).

This particular chipset does not support packet splitting, so we
are looking for a hack on the skb layer.

-- 
Dan Aloni
da-x@monatomic.org, da-x@colinux.org, da-x@gmx.net

Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Ganesh Venkatesan]

82546GB supports an incoming Rx packet to be received in multiple rx
buffers. A driver that enables this feature is under test currently.
What version of the e1000 are you using?

ganesh.

On 9/19/05, Dan Aloni <da-x@monatomic.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 01:08:22AM +0200, Francois Romieu wrote:
> > Dan Aloni <da-x@monatomic.org> :
> > [...]
> > > The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
> > > the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to
> > > fail.
> >
> > If the issue hits the Rx path, it is probably the responsibility of
> > the device driver. Which kind of hardware do you use ?
> 
> We are using a SuperMicro board and the network driver is e1000. The
> revision of the chipset is 82546GB-copper (maps to e1000_82546_rev_3).
> 
> This particular chipset does not support packet splitting, so we
> are looking for a hack on the skb layer.
> 
> --
> Dan Aloni
> da-x@monatomic.org, da-x@colinux.org, da-x@gmx.net
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Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Dan Aloni]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 10:25:29AM -0700, Ganesh Venkatesan wrote:
> 82546GB supports an incoming Rx packet to be received in multiple rx
> buffers. A driver that enables this feature is under test currently.
> What version of the e1000 are you using?

We are currently using the lastest version of the driver from the 2.6 
tree backported to the 2.4 tree. I wasn't aware that 82546GB supports 
this - I inferred differently from the comments in the driver's source.

Is the version of the driver you mention available from CVS somewhere?

-- 
Dan Aloni
da-x@monatomic.org, da-x@colinux.org, da-x@gmx.net

Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Nick Piggin]

On Sun, 2005-09-18 at 17:35 +0300, Dan Aloni wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Is there currently a workaround available for handling large MTU 
> (larger than 1 page, even 2-order) in the Linux network stack?
> 
> The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
> the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to 
> fail.
> 
> I'm interested in patches for both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.
> 

Yes there is currently a workaround. That is to keep increasing
/proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes until your allocation failures stop.

Nick

-- 
SUSE Labs, Novell Inc.



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Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Al Boldi]

Nick Piggin wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-09-18 at 17:35 +0300, Dan Aloni wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Is there currently a workaround available for handling large MTU
> > (larger than 1 page, even 2-order) in the Linux network stack?
> >
> > The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
> > the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to
> > fail.
> >
> > I'm interested in patches for both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.
>
> Yes there is currently a workaround. That is to keep increasing
> /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes until your allocation failures stop.

How do you do it in 2.4?

--
Al

Re: workaround large MTU and N-order allocation failures

[Dan Aloni]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 04:31:02PM +1000, Nick Piggin wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-09-18 at 17:35 +0300, Dan Aloni wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Is there currently a workaround available for handling large MTU 
> > (larger than 1 page, even 2-order) in the Linux network stack?
> > 
> > The problem with large MTU is external memory fragmentation in
> > the buddy system following high workload, causing alloc_skb() to 
> > fail.
> > 
> > I'm interested in patches for both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.
> > 
> 
> Yes there is currently a workaround. That is to keep increasing
> /proc/sys/vm/min_free_kbytes until your allocation failures stop.

We have developed a much more reliable workaround which works on both
the 2.4 and 2.6 trees. 

Our development is called 'Pre-allocated Big Buffers', basically prebb 
provides fixed-sized pools of fixed-size blocks that are allocated during
boot time using the bootmem allocator (thus are disconnected from the 
slab cache completely). block size need not to be page aligned. It is 
possible to allocate these blocks at O(1) efficiency at any context.

Each pool has a minimum and maximum object size (where allocations 
should strive to be the maximum for memory usage efficiency). Currently 
we use prebb to ensure no fragmentation and fine-tuned memory usage.

(Of course a few changes inside net/core/skbuff.c were needed for 
skb buffers to allocate from prebb instead of slab).

-- 
Dan Aloni
da-x@monatomic.org, da-x@colinux.org, da-x@gmx.net