Re: [patch 4/8] memcg: rework soft limit reclaim

[Ying Han <yinghan@google.com>]

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 11:25 PM, Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org> wrote:
> Currently, soft limit reclaim is entered from kswapd, where it selects
> the memcg with the biggest soft limit excess in absolute bytes, and
> reclaims pages from it with maximum aggressiveness (priority 0).
>
> This has the following disadvantages:
>
>    1. because of the aggressiveness, kswapd can be stalled on a memcg
>    that is hard to reclaim from for a long time, sending the rest of
>    the allocators into direct reclaim in the meantime.
>
>    2. it only considers the biggest offender (in absolute bytes, no
>    less, so very unhandy for setups with different-sized memcgs) and
>    does not apply any pressure at all on other memcgs in excess.
>
>    3. because it is only invoked from kswapd, the soft limit is
>    meaningful during global memory pressure, but it is not taken into
>    account during hierarchical target reclaim where it could allow
>    prioritizing memcgs as well.  So while it does hierarchical
>    reclaim once triggered, it is not a truly hierarchical mechanism.
>
> Here is a different approach.  Instead of having a soft limit reclaim
> cycle separate from the rest of reclaim, this patch ensures that each
> time a group of memcgs is reclaimed - be it because of global memory
> pressure or because of a hard limit - memcgs that exceed their soft
> limit, or contribute to the soft limit excess of one their parents,
> are reclaimed from at a higher priority than their siblings.
>
> This results in the following:
>
>    1. all relevant memcgs are scanned with increasing priority during
>    memory pressure.  The primary goal is to free pages, not to punish
>    soft limit offenders.
>
>    2. increased pressure is applied to all memcgs in excess of their
>    soft limit, not only the biggest offender.
>
>    3. the soft limit becomes meaningful for target reclaim as well,
>    where it allows prioritizing children of a hierarchy when the
>    parent hits its limit.
>
>    4. direct reclaim now also applies increased soft limit pressure,
>    not just kswapd anymore.
>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
> ---
>  include/linux/memcontrol.h |    7 +++++++
>  mm/memcontrol.c            |   26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  mm/vmscan.c                |    8 ++++++--
>  3 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/include/linux/memcontrol.h b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
> index 8f402b9..7d99e87 100644
> --- a/include/linux/memcontrol.h
> +++ b/include/linux/memcontrol.h
> @@ -104,6 +104,7 @@ extern void mem_cgroup_end_migration(struct mem_cgroup *mem,
>  struct mem_cgroup *mem_cgroup_hierarchy_walk(struct mem_cgroup *,
>                                             struct mem_cgroup *);
>  void mem_cgroup_stop_hierarchy_walk(struct mem_cgroup *, struct mem_cgroup *);
> +bool mem_cgroup_soft_limit_exceeded(struct mem_cgroup *, struct mem_cgroup *);
>
>  /*
>  * For memory reclaim.
> @@ -345,6 +346,12 @@ static inline void mem_cgroup_stop_hierarchy_walk(struct mem_cgroup *r,
>  {
>  }
>
> +static inline bool mem_cgroup_soft_limit_exceeded(struct mem_cgroup *root,
> +                                                 struct mem_cgroup *mem)
> +{
> +       return false;
> +}
> +
>  static inline void
>  mem_cgroup_print_oom_info(struct mem_cgroup *memcg, struct task_struct *p)
>  {
> diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c
> index 983efe4..94f77cc3 100644
> --- a/mm/memcontrol.c
> +++ b/mm/memcontrol.c
> @@ -1460,6 +1460,32 @@ void mem_cgroup_stop_hierarchy_walk(struct mem_cgroup *root,
>                css_put(&mem->css);
>  }
>
> +/**
> + * mem_cgroup_soft_limit_exceeded - check if a memcg (hierarchically)
> + *                                  exceeds a soft limit
> + * @root: highest ancestor of @mem to consider
> + * @mem: memcg to check for excess
> + *
> + * The function indicates whether @mem has exceeded its own soft
> + * limit, or contributes to the soft limit excess of one of its
> + * parents in the hierarchy below @root.
> + */
> +bool mem_cgroup_soft_limit_exceeded(struct mem_cgroup *root,
> +                                   struct mem_cgroup *mem)
> +{
> +       for (;;) {
> +               if (mem == root_mem_cgroup)
> +                       return false;
> +               if (res_counter_soft_limit_excess(&mem->res))
> +                       return true;
> +               if (mem == root)
> +                       return false;
> +               mem = parent_mem_cgroup(mem);
> +               if (!mem)
> +                       return false;
> +       }
> +}
> +
>  static unsigned long mem_cgroup_reclaim(struct mem_cgroup *mem,
>                                        gfp_t gfp_mask,
>                                        unsigned long flags)
> diff --git a/mm/vmscan.c b/mm/vmscan.c
> index c7d4b44..0163840 100644
> --- a/mm/vmscan.c
> +++ b/mm/vmscan.c
> @@ -1988,9 +1988,13 @@ static void shrink_zone(int priority, struct zone *zone,
>                unsigned long reclaimed = sc->nr_reclaimed;
>                unsigned long scanned = sc->nr_scanned;
>                unsigned long nr_reclaimed;
> +               int epriority = priority;
> +
> +               if (mem_cgroup_soft_limit_exceeded(root, mem))
> +                       epriority -= 1;

Here we grant the ability to shrink from all the memcgs, but only
higher the priority for those exceed the soft_limit. That is a design
change
for the "soft_limit" which giving a hint to which memcgs to reclaim
from first under global memory pressure.

--Ying


>
>                sc->mem_cgroup = mem;
> -               do_shrink_zone(priority, zone, sc);
> +               do_shrink_zone(epriority, zone, sc);
>                mem_cgroup_count_reclaim(mem, current_is_kswapd(),
>                                         mem != root, /* limit or hierarchy? */
>                                         sc->nr_scanned - scanned,
> @@ -2480,7 +2484,7 @@ loop_again:
>                         * Call soft limit reclaim before calling shrink_zone.
>                         * For now we ignore the return value
>                         */
> -                       mem_cgroup_soft_limit_reclaim(zone, order, sc.gfp_mask);
> +                       //mem_cgroup_soft_limit_reclaim(zone, order, sc.gfp_mask);
>
>                        /*
>                         * We put equal pressure on every zone, unless
> --
> 1.7.5.2
>
>

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