Re: [PATCH] swap: Add percpu cluster_next to reduce lock contention on swap cache

["Huang\, Ying" <ying.huang@intel.com>]

Hi, Andrew,

Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> writes:

> On Thu, 14 May 2020 15:04:24 +0800 Huang Ying <ying.huang@intel.com> wrote:
>> diff --git a/mm/swapfile.c b/mm/swapfile.c
>> index 35be7a7271f4..9f1343b066c1 100644
>> --- a/mm/swapfile.c
>> +++ b/mm/swapfile.c
>> @@ -746,7 +746,16 @@ static int scan_swap_map_slots(struct swap_info_struct *si,
>>  	 */
>>  
>>  	si->flags += SWP_SCANNING;
>> -	scan_base = offset = si->cluster_next;
>> +	/*
>> +	 * Use percpu scan base for SSD to reduce lock contention on
>> +	 * cluster and swap cache.  For HDD, sequential access is more
>> +	 * important.
>> +	 */
>> +	if (si->flags & SWP_SOLIDSTATE)
>> +		scan_base = this_cpu_read(*si->cluster_next_cpu);
>> +	else
>> +		scan_base = si->cluster_next;
>> +	offset = scan_base;
>
> Do we need to make SSD differ from spinning here?  Do bad things happen
> if !SWP_SOLIDSTATE devices use the per-cpu cache?

I think the swapout throughput may be affected.  Because HDD seek is
necessary to swapout for multiple CPUs, if per-cpu cluster_next is used.
But I just realized that per-cpu swap slots cache will cause seek too.
If we really care about the performance to use HDD as swap, maybe we
should disable per-cpu swap slots cache for HDD too?

>>  	/* SSD algorithm */
>>  	if (si->cluster_info) {
>> @@ -835,7 +844,10 @@ static int scan_swap_map_slots(struct swap_info_struct *si,
>>  	unlock_cluster(ci);
>>  
>>  	swap_range_alloc(si, offset, 1);
>> -	si->cluster_next = offset + 1;
>> +	if (si->flags & SWP_SOLIDSTATE)
>> +		this_cpu_write(*si->cluster_next_cpu, offset + 1);
>> +	else
>> +		si->cluster_next = offset + 1;
>>  	slots[n_ret++] = swp_entry(si->type, offset);
>>  
>>  	/* got enough slots or reach max slots? */
>> @@ -2828,6 +2840,11 @@ static struct swap_info_struct *alloc_swap_info(void)
>>  	p = kvzalloc(struct_size(p, avail_lists, nr_node_ids), GFP_KERNEL);
>>  	if (!p)
>>  		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
>> +	p->cluster_next_cpu = alloc_percpu(unsigned int);
>> +	if (!p->cluster_next_cpu) {
>> +		kvfree(p);
>> +		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
>> +	}
>>  
>>  	spin_lock(&swap_lock);
>>  	for (type = 0; type < nr_swapfiles; type++) {
>> @@ -2962,6 +2979,8 @@ static unsigned long read_swap_header(struct swap_info_struct *p,
>>  
>>  	p->lowest_bit  = 1;
>>  	p->cluster_next = 1;
>> +	for_each_possible_cpu(i)
>> +		per_cpu(*p->cluster_next_cpu, i) = 1;
>>  	p->cluster_nr = 0;
>>  
>>  	maxpages = max_swapfile_size();
>> @@ -3204,6 +3223,10 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(swapon, const char __user *, specialfile, int, swap_flags)
>>  		 * SSD
>>  		 */
>>  		p->cluster_next = 1 + prandom_u32_max(p->highest_bit);
>
> We shouldn't need to do this now?

Yes.  Thanks for pointing this out.  Will delete this in the future
version.

>> +		for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
>> +			per_cpu(*p->cluster_next_cpu, cpu) =
>> +				1 + prandom_u32_max(p->highest_bit);
>> +		}
>
> Would there be any benefit in spreading these out evenly?  Intervals of
> (p->highest_bit/num_possible_cpus())?  That would reduce collisions,
> but not for very long I guess.

These may be spread more evenly with
(p->highest_bit/num_possible_cpus()).  I just worry about the possible
situation that num_possible_cpus() >> num_online_cpus().  Where current
method works better?

> Speaking of which, I wonder if there are failure modes in which all the
> CPUs end up getting into sync.
>
> And is it the case that if two or more CPUs have the same (or similar)
> per_cpu(*p->cluster_next_cpu, cpu), they'll each end up pointlessly
> scanning slots which another CPU has just scanned, thus rather
> defeating the purpose of having the cluster_next cache?
>
> IOW, should there be some additional collision avoidance scheme to
> prevent a CPU from pointing its cluster_ext into a 64MB trunk which
> another CPU is already using?

Yes.  That sounds reasonable.  How about something as below,

When per-cpu cluster_next is assigned, if the new value is in a
different 64MB (or larger) trunk of the old value, we will assign a
random value between p->lowest_bit and p->highest_bit to per-cpu
cluster_next.

This can reduce the possibility of collision to be almost 0 if there's
enough free swap slots.  And this is easy to be implemented, especially
considering the following situation,

  (p->highest_bit - p->lowest_bit) / 64MB < num_online_cpus()

> And should it really be a per-cpu thing?  That's rather arbitrary. 
> Perhaps we would get better swap locality by making swap_cluster_next a
> per-process (per-mm_struct) thing?

I think per-cpu is enough.  Because this is a scalability issue, as long
as we work on different 64MB trunks on different CPUs, the scalability
will be good.  I don't find there's any value to use differnt 64MB
trunks on a single CPU.

Best Regards,
Huang, Ying