Re: [tip:sched/core] sched: cpuacct: Use bigger percpu counter batch values for stats counters

Anton Blanchard
2009-08-20T05:11:21Z

Hi,

Looks like this issue is still present. I tested on a 32 core box and
the patch improved maximum context switch rate from from 76k/sec to 9.5M/sec.
Thats over 100x faster, or 50x per line of code. That's got to be some sort of
record :)

Any chance we can get a fix in for 2.6.31? Don't make me find an even bigger
box so I can break the 200x mark :)

Anton

> --
>
> When CONFIG_VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING is enabled we can call cpuacct_update_stats
> with values much larger than percpu_counter_batch. This means the
> call to percpu_counter_add will always add to the global count which is
> protected by a spinlock.
>
> Since reading of the CPU accounting cgroup counters is not performance
> critical, we can use a maximum size batch of INT_MAX and use
> percpu_counter_sum on the read side which will add all the percpu
> counters.
>
> With this patch an 8 core POWER6 with CONFIG_VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING and
> CONFIG_CGROUP_CPUACCT shows an improvement in aggregate context switch rate of
> 397k/sec to 3.9M/sec, a 10x improvement.
>
> Signed-off-by: Anton Blanchard <anton@samba.org>
> ---
>
> Index: linux.trees.git/kernel/sched.c
> ===================================================================
> --- linux.trees.git.orig/kernel/sched.c 2009-07-16 10:11:02.000000000 +1000
> +++ linux.trees.git/kernel/sched.c 2009-07-16 10:16:41.000000000 +1000
> @@ -10551,7 +10551,7 @@
> int i;
>
> for (i = 0; i < CPUACCT_STAT_NSTATS; i++) {
> - s64 val = percpu_counter_read(&ca->cpustat[i]);
> + s64 val = percpu_counter_sum(&ca->cpustat[i]);
> val = cputime64_to_clock_t(val);
> cb->fill(cb, cpuacct_stat_desc[i], val);
> }
> @@ -10621,7 +10621,7 @@
> ca = task_ca(tsk);
>
> do {
> - percpu_counter_add(&ca->cpustat[idx], val);
> + __percpu_counter_add(&ca->cpustat[idx], val, INT_MAX);
> ca = ca->parent;
> } while (ca);
> rcu_read_unlock();