* [RFC PATCH net-next v1 0/2] net: per-socket opt-out from RFS/aRFS
@ 2026-10-31 11:33 Vitaly Zuevsky
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 1/2] net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 2/2] Documentation: networking: document SO_NO_RFS Vitaly Zuevsky
0 siblings, 2 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Vitaly Zuevsky @ 2026-10-31 11:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: netdev
Cc: David S. Miller, Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni,
Simon Horman, Jonathan Corbet, Shuah Khan, Randy Dunlap,
Richard Henderson, Matt Turner, Magnus Lindholm,
Thomas Bogendoerfer, James E.J. Bottomley, Helge Deller,
Andreas Larsson, Kuniyuki Iwashima, Willem de Bruijn,
Arnd Bergmann, Christian Brauner, Andrew Halaney, Jori Koolstra,
Alexander Mikhalitsyn, Tariq Toukan, Saeed Mahameed, Chuang Wang,
linux-doc, linux-kernel, linux-alpha, linux-mips, linux-parisc,
sparclinux, linux-arch
RFS and accelerated RFS are enabled per host (rps_sock_flow_entries)
and per rx queue (rps_flow_cnt, NETIF_F_NTUPLE). Whether steering a
given flow is worth it is a property of the flow, and a process using
the flows of different traffic patterns cannot express it.
Motivating workload: a CDN edge running nginx with workers and IRQs
pinned, with deliberately more NIC queue -> CPU lanes than workers.
Outbound connections to peers and origins are long-lived and benefit
from aRFS. The larger population of client connections is
short-lived, arrives on an RSS-chosen CPU and is served from there;
steering them gains nothing, yet each is recorded on its first
recvmsg() and pushed into the NIC via ndo_rx_flow_steer(). On mlx5
that is a GFP_ATOMIC allocation and a per-device spinlock in softirq,
a firmware command on a single-threaded workqueue, and an O(rules)
expiry walk under the same lock. Enabling aRFS on such a host more
than doubled softirq CPU and, as traffic grew, ended in softirq
livelock and a forced reboot. Aligning accept() CPUs with RSS through
reuseport does not apply because the queue:worker mapping is
intentionally not 1:1.
This series adds SO_NO_RFS, a boolean socket option. When set,
sock_rps_record_flow() does not record the socket's flow in
rps_sock_flow_table, so get_rps_cpu() finds no match and neither
software RFS nor aRFS acts on the flow; it stays on the CPU chosen by
RSS (plain RPS is per queue and unaffected). The bit lives in sk_flags
and is therefore copied by sk_clone_lock(): set once on a listening
socket, every accept()ed child is excluded, while connect()ed sockets
of the same process keep RFS/aRFS.
Cost on the record path is one sock_flag() test, reached only when
the rfs_needed static key is on and sk_state == TCP_ESTABLISHED;
sk_flags is already read by tcp_recvmsg() so the line is hot.
Status: compile-tested on x86_64 with CONFIG_RPS=y and =n, not yet
runtime-tested. Sent as RFC to get agreement on the interface and
semantics first. The "before" state on the motivating host is a
production outage and cannot be re-run; testing on comparable
workloads by others would be very welcome.
Vitaly Zuevsky (2):
net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS
Documentation: networking: document SO_NO_RFS
Documentation/networking/scaling.rst | 14 ++++++++++++++
arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
include/net/rps.h | 13 +++++++++++++
include/net/sock.h | 1 +
include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h | 2 ++
net/core/sock.c | 8 ++++++++
9 files changed, 46 insertions(+)
base-commit: 734bef548a96e8774d6eef5dfa2026c6edc4e80b
--
2.34.1
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* [RFC PATCH net-next v1 1/2] net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS
2026-10-31 11:33 [RFC PATCH net-next v1 0/2] net: per-socket opt-out from RFS/aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
@ 2026-10-31 11:33 ` Vitaly Zuevsky
2026-10-31 15:15 ` Willem de Bruijn
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 2/2] Documentation: networking: document SO_NO_RFS Vitaly Zuevsky
1 sibling, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Vitaly Zuevsky @ 2026-10-31 11:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: netdev
Cc: David S. Miller, Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni,
Simon Horman, Jonathan Corbet, Shuah Khan, Randy Dunlap,
Richard Henderson, Matt Turner, Magnus Lindholm,
Thomas Bogendoerfer, James E.J. Bottomley, Helge Deller,
Andreas Larsson, Kuniyuki Iwashima, Willem de Bruijn,
Arnd Bergmann, Christian Brauner, Andrew Halaney, Jori Koolstra,
Alexander Mikhalitsyn, Tariq Toukan, Saeed Mahameed, Chuang Wang,
linux-doc, linux-kernel, linux-alpha, linux-mips, linux-parisc,
sparclinux, linux-arch
RFS and accelerated RFS are enabled per host and per rx queue, but
whether steering helps is a property of the flow. A host that carries
a few long-lived flows which benefit from steering alongside a large
churn of short-lived flows has no way to express that today.
Add a boolean socket option, SO_NO_RFS. When set, sock_rps_record_flow()
does not record the socket in rps_sock_flow_table, so get_rps_cpu()
finds no match and neither software RFS nor ndo_rx_flow_steer() acts
on the flow; it stays on the CPU chosen by RSS or RPS.
The option is kept in sk_flags so that sk_clone_lock() copies it to
accepted children: setting it on a listening socket excludes every
connection accepted from it, while sockets the same process connects
itself remain eligible.
sock_rps_delete_flow() is skipped as well, because a socket that never
recorded itself must not clear a table slot that may belong to another
flow.
The test sits after the TCP_ESTABLISHED check and inside the
rfs_needed static branch, so hosts without RFS pay nothing and hosts
with RFS pay one test_bit() on a cache line tcp_recvmsg() already
touches.
Signed-off-by: Vitaly Zuevsky <vitaly.zuevsky@gcore.com>
---
arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
include/net/rps.h | 13 +++++++++++++
include/net/sock.h | 1 +
include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h | 2 ++
net/core/sock.c | 8 ++++++++
8 files changed, 32 insertions(+)
diff --git a/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h b/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
index 5d3524c26b2b..256d37f5b9b0 100644
--- a/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
+++ b/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
@@ -161,6 +161,8 @@
#define SO_PEERPIDFD_THREAD 87
+#define SO_NO_RFS 88
+
#if !defined(__KERNEL__)
#if __BITS_PER_LONG == 64
diff --git a/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h b/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
index 245a43f52fb1..5b477de463a3 100644
--- a/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
+++ b/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
@@ -172,6 +172,8 @@
#define SO_PEERPIDFD_THREAD 87
+#define SO_NO_RFS 88
+
#if !defined(__KERNEL__)
#if __BITS_PER_LONG == 64
diff --git a/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h b/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
index f23710e1c671..b3a4cc2cbc50 100644
--- a/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
+++ b/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
@@ -153,6 +153,8 @@
#define SO_PEERPIDFD_THREAD 0x4055
+#define SO_NO_RFS 0x4056
+
#if !defined(__KERNEL__)
#if __BITS_PER_LONG == 64
diff --git a/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h b/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
index b35b25bdefc2..ba5ed7942570 100644
--- a/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
+++ b/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h
@@ -154,6 +154,8 @@
#define SO_PEERPIDFD_THREAD 0x0060
+#define SO_NO_RFS 0x0061
+
#if !defined(__KERNEL__)
diff --git a/include/net/rps.h b/include/net/rps.h
index e33c6a2fa8bb..5afa48868236 100644
--- a/include/net/rps.h
+++ b/include/net/rps.h
@@ -98,6 +98,13 @@ static inline void _sock_rps_record_flow(const struct sock *sk)
* [1] : sk_state and sk_prot are in the same cache line.
*/
if (sk->sk_state == TCP_ESTABLISHED) {
+ /* SO_NO_RFS: application asked us to never steer this flow.
+ * Tested after sk_state so the common case stays on one
+ * cache line.
+ */
+ if (unlikely(sock_flag(sk, SOCK_NO_RFS)))
+ return;
+
/* This READ_ONCE() is paired with the WRITE_ONCE()
* from sock_rps_save_rxhash() and sock_rps_reset_rxhash().
*/
@@ -111,6 +118,12 @@ static inline void _sock_rps_delete_flow(const struct sock *sk)
rps_tag_ptr tag_ptr;
u32 hash, index;
+ /* Never recorded, so never clear a slot that may belong to
+ * another flow.
+ */
+ if (sock_flag(sk, SOCK_NO_RFS))
+ return;
+
hash = READ_ONCE(sk->sk_rxhash);
if (!hash)
return;
diff --git a/include/net/sock.h b/include/net/sock.h
index 173b37b2b8bb..4472dc4ed28e 100644
--- a/include/net/sock.h
+++ b/include/net/sock.h
@@ -1024,6 +1024,7 @@ enum sock_flags {
SOCK_RCVMARK, /* Receive SO_MARK ancillary data with packet */
SOCK_RCVPRIORITY, /* Receive SO_PRIORITY ancillary data with packet */
SOCK_TIMESTAMPING_ANY, /* Copy of sk_tsflags & TSFLAGS_ANY */
+ SOCK_NO_RFS, /* SO_NO_RFS: never record this flow for RFS/aRFS */
};
#define SK_FLAGS_TIMESTAMP ((1UL << SOCK_TIMESTAMP) | (1UL << SOCK_TIMESTAMPING_RX_SOFTWARE))
diff --git a/include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h b/include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h
index 56fed7ab27ab..9bf415b0d470 100644
--- a/include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h
+++ b/include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h
@@ -156,6 +156,8 @@
#define SO_PEERPIDFD_THREAD 87
+#define SO_NO_RFS 88
+
#if !defined(__KERNEL__)
#if __BITS_PER_LONG == 64 || (defined(__x86_64__) && defined(__ILP32__))
diff --git a/net/core/sock.c b/net/core/sock.c
index e7405be8941f..02b8cc4bc1c4 100644
--- a/net/core/sock.c
+++ b/net/core/sock.c
@@ -1597,6 +1597,10 @@ int sk_setsockopt(struct sock *sk, int level, int optname,
reuseport_update_incoming_cpu(sk, val);
break;
+ case SO_NO_RFS:
+ sock_valbool_flag(sk, SOCK_NO_RFS, valbool);
+ break;
+
case SO_CNX_ADVICE:
if (val == 1)
dst_negative_advice(sk);
@@ -2118,6 +2122,10 @@ int sk_getsockopt(struct sock *sk, int level, int optname,
v.val = READ_ONCE(sk->sk_incoming_cpu);
break;
+ case SO_NO_RFS:
+ v.val = sock_flag(sk, SOCK_NO_RFS);
+ break;
+
case SO_MEMINFO:
{
u32 meminfo[SK_MEMINFO_VARS];
base-commit: 734bef548a96e8774d6eef5dfa2026c6edc4e80b
--
2.34.1
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* [RFC PATCH net-next v1 2/2] Documentation: networking: document SO_NO_RFS
2026-10-31 11:33 [RFC PATCH net-next v1 0/2] net: per-socket opt-out from RFS/aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 1/2] net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
@ 2026-10-31 11:33 ` Vitaly Zuevsky
1 sibling, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Vitaly Zuevsky @ 2026-10-31 11:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: netdev
Cc: David S. Miller, Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni,
Simon Horman, Jonathan Corbet, Shuah Khan, Randy Dunlap,
Richard Henderson, Matt Turner, Magnus Lindholm,
Thomas Bogendoerfer, James E.J. Bottomley, Helge Deller,
Andreas Larsson, Kuniyuki Iwashima, Willem de Bruijn,
Arnd Bergmann, Christian Brauner, Andrew Halaney, Jori Koolstra,
Alexander Mikhalitsyn, Tariq Toukan, Saeed Mahameed, Chuang Wang,
linux-doc, linux-kernel, linux-alpha, linux-mips, linux-parisc,
sparclinux, linux-arch
Describe the new per-socket opt-out next to the RFS configuration
knobs it complements.
Signed-off-by: Vitaly Zuevsky <vitaly.zuevsky@gcore.com>
---
Documentation/networking/scaling.rst | 14 ++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/scaling.rst b/Documentation/networking/scaling.rst
index 6c9836000a8d..54c7a72da563 100644
--- a/Documentation/networking/scaling.rst
+++ b/Documentation/networking/scaling.rst
@@ -428,6 +428,20 @@ queues. So for instance, if rps_sock_flow_entries is set to 131072 and there
are 16 configured receive queues, rps_flow_cnt for each queue might be
configured as 8192.
+Excluding individual sockets
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+RFS (and therefore accelerated RFS, see below) can be switched off for
+a single socket with the SO_NO_RFS socket option. Flows of such
+sockets are never recorded in rps_sock_flow_table and stay on the CPU
+selected by RSS or RPS. The setting is inherited by sockets returned
+from accept(), so applying it to a listening socket excludes all
+connections accepted from it while connections the same process
+initiates with connect() continue to be steered. This is useful when
+one host handles both a small set of long-lived flows that benefit
+from steering and a large churn of short-lived flows for which the
+cost of programming the NIC exceeds the benefit.
+
Accelerated RFS
===============
--
2.34.1
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* Re: [RFC PATCH net-next v1 1/2] net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 1/2] net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
@ 2026-10-31 15:15 ` Willem de Bruijn
0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Willem de Bruijn @ 2026-10-31 15:15 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Vitaly Zuevsky, netdev
Cc: David S. Miller, Eric Dumazet, Jakub Kicinski, Paolo Abeni,
Simon Horman, Jonathan Corbet, Shuah Khan, Randy Dunlap,
Richard Henderson, Matt Turner, Magnus Lindholm,
Thomas Bogendoerfer, James E.J. Bottomley, Helge Deller,
Andreas Larsson, Kuniyuki Iwashima, Willem de Bruijn,
Arnd Bergmann, Christian Brauner, Andrew Halaney, Jori Koolstra,
Alexander Mikhalitsyn, Tariq Toukan, Saeed Mahameed, Chuang Wang,
linux-doc, linux-kernel, linux-alpha, linux-mips, linux-parisc,
sparclinux, linux-arch
Vitaly Zuevsky wrote:
> RFS and accelerated RFS are enabled per host and per rx queue, but
> whether steering helps is a property of the flow. A host that carries
> a few long-lived flows which benefit from steering alongside a large
> churn of short-lived flows has no way to express that today.
>
> Add a boolean socket option, SO_NO_RFS. When set, sock_rps_record_flow()
> does not record the socket in rps_sock_flow_table, so get_rps_cpu()
> finds no match and neither software RFS nor ndo_rx_flow_steer() acts
> on the flow; it stays on the CPU chosen by RSS or RPS.
>
> The option is kept in sk_flags so that sk_clone_lock() copies it to
> accepted children: setting it on a listening socket excludes every
> connection accepted from it, while sockets the same process connects
> itself remain eligible.
>
> sock_rps_delete_flow() is skipped as well, because a socket that never
> recorded itself must not clear a table slot that may belong to another
> flow.
>
> The test sits after the TCP_ESTABLISHED check and inside the
> rfs_needed static branch, so hosts without RFS pay nothing and hosts
> with RFS pay one test_bit() on a cache line tcp_recvmsg() already
> touches.
>
> Signed-off-by: Vitaly Zuevsky <vitaly.zuevsky@gcore.com>
The Documentation change can/should be included in the main patch.
> ---
> arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
> arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
> arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
> arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/socket.h | 2 ++
> include/net/rps.h | 13 +++++++++++++
> include/net/sock.h | 1 +
> include/uapi/asm-generic/socket.h | 2 ++
> net/core/sock.c | 8 ++++++++
> 8 files changed, 32 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/include/net/rps.h b/include/net/rps.h
> index e33c6a2fa8bb..5afa48868236 100644
> --- a/include/net/rps.h
> +++ b/include/net/rps.h
> @@ -98,6 +98,13 @@ static inline void _sock_rps_record_flow(const struct sock *sk)
> * [1] : sk_state and sk_prot are in the same cache line.
> */
> if (sk->sk_state == TCP_ESTABLISHED) {
> + /* SO_NO_RFS: application asked us to never steer this flow.
> + * Tested after sk_state so the common case stays on one
> + * cache line.
> + */
Avoid verbose comments. Bots comment a lot more than kernel style.
Also arguably incorrect as TCP_ESTABLISHED is the common case.
> + if (unlikely(sock_flag(sk, SOCK_NO_RFS)))
> + return;
> +
> /* This READ_ONCE() is paired with the WRITE_ONCE()
> * from sock_rps_save_rxhash() and sock_rps_reset_rxhash().
> */
> @@ -111,6 +118,12 @@ static inline void _sock_rps_delete_flow(const struct sock *sk)
> rps_tag_ptr tag_ptr;
> u32 hash, index;
>
> + /* Never recorded, so never clear a slot that may belong to
> + * another flow.
Never is too strong here: can be set during socket lifetime.
Even if it had been correct, still another example of unnecessary
verbosity.
> + */
> + if (sock_flag(sk, SOCK_NO_RFS))
> + return;
> +
Both here and _sock_rfs_record_flow: probably should be in their
callers, like the other precondition check rfs_is_needed.
> hash = READ_ONCE(sk->sk_rxhash);
Optionally maybe also skip writing sk_rxhash if this is the only user.
> if (!hash)
> return;
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2026-10-31 15:15 UTC | newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
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2026-10-31 11:33 [RFC PATCH net-next v1 0/2] net: per-socket opt-out from RFS/aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 1/2] net: add SO_NO_RFS to exclude a socket from RFS and aRFS Vitaly Zuevsky
2026-10-31 15:15 ` Willem de Bruijn
2026-10-31 11:33 ` [RFC PATCH net-next v1 2/2] Documentation: networking: document SO_NO_RFS Vitaly Zuevsky
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