[PATCH v4 2/2] watchdog: add watchdog_exclude sysctl to assist nohz

cmetcalf
2015-04-03T16:09:51Z

From: Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@ezchip.com>

Change the default behavior of watchdog so it only runs on the
housekeeping cores when nohz_full is enabled at build and boot time.

Allow modifying the set of cores the watchdog is currently running
on with a new kernel.watchdog_exclude sysctl.

Signed-off-by: Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@ezchip.com>
---
Don, I think this will merge pretty well with the restructuring changes
you passed to Andrew. In particular it benefits from that code moving
the mutex out to file scope already, and I don't think it conflicts
with any of the proposed sysctl renaming or file refactoring.

I changed your suggested kernel.watchdog_cpumask to
kernel.watchdog_exclude (i.e. the inverse set) since I thought that
was clearer in the context of smp_hotplug_thread where cores might
potentially go online or offline and the important invariant was that
the nohz_full cpuset be respected.

What do you think of using my proposed new smp_hotplug_thread
exclude_mask to simply prevent unwanted watchdog threads from existing
at all? It's cleaner than the "do_exit(0)" strategy, and I think also
better than leaving the watchdog threads hanging around - the most
common case for nohz_full is likely that "n - 1" cpus would otherwise
have kthreads created and never used, and just clutter ps and
potentially confuse people trying to understand possible sources of
interference to the nohz_full userspace tasks.

Documentation/lockup-watchdogs.txt | 6 ++++++
Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt | 9 +++++++++
include/linux/nmi.h | 3 +++
kernel/sysctl.c | 7 +++++++
kernel/watchdog.c | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
5 files changed, 60 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/lockup-watchdogs.txt b/Documentation/lockup-watchdogs.txt
index ab0baa692c13..4f86aec1d69d 100644
--- a/Documentation/lockup-watchdogs.txt
+++ b/Documentation/lockup-watchdogs.txt
@@ -61,3 +61,9 @@ As explained above, a kernel knob is provided that allows
administrators to configure the period of the hrtimer and the perf
event. The right value for a particular environment is a trade-off
between fast response to lockups and detection overhead.
+
+By default, the watchdog runs on all online cores. However, on a
+kernel configured with NO_HZ_FULL, by default the watchdog runs only
+on the housekeeping cores, not the cores specified in the "nohz_full"
+boot argument. In either case, the set of cores excluded from running
+the watchdog may be adjusted via the kernel.watchdog_exclude sysctl.
diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
index 83ab25660fc9..aad9f9ba347c 100644
--- a/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
+++ b/Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
@@ -858,6 +858,15 @@ example. If a system hangs up, try pressing the NMI switch.

==============================================================

+watchdog_exclude:
+
+This value can be used to control on which cpus the watchdog is
+prohibited from running. The default exclude mask is empty, but if
+NO_HZ_FULL is enabled in the kernel config, and cores are specified
+with the nohz_full= boot argument, those cores are excluded by default.
+
+==============================================================
+
watchdog_thresh:

This value can be used to control the frequency of hrtimer and NMI
diff --git a/include/linux/nmi.h b/include/linux/nmi.h
index 9b2022ab4d85..1703829c5812 100644
--- a/include/linux/nmi.h
+++ b/include/linux/nmi.h
@@ -70,10 +70,13 @@ int hw_nmi_is_cpu_stuck(struct pt_regs *);
u64 hw_nmi_get_sample_period(int watchdog_thresh);
extern int watchdog_user_enabled;
extern int watchdog_thresh;
+extern unsigned long *watchdog_exclude_mask_bits;
extern int sysctl_softlockup_all_cpu_backtrace;
struct ctl_table;
extern int proc_dowatchdog(struct ctl_table *, int ,
void __user *, size_t *, loff_t *);
+extern int proc_dowatchdog_exclude(struct ctl_table *, int,
+ void __user *, size_t *, loff_t *);
#endif

#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_ACPI_APEI_NMI
diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
index 88ea2d6e0031..f2c544181f4f 100644
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c
+++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -860,6 +860,13 @@ static struct ctl_table kern_table[] = {
.extra2 = &sixty,
},
{
+ .procname = "watchdog_exclude",
+ .data = &watchdog_exclude_mask_bits,
+ .maxlen = NR_CPUS,
+ .mode = 0644,
+ .proc_handler = proc_dowatchdog_exclude,
+ },
+ {
.procname = "softlockup_panic",
.data = &softlockup_panic,
.maxlen = sizeof(int),
diff --git a/kernel/watchdog.c b/kernel/watchdog.c
index 3174bf8e3538..66bfc80854d1 100644
--- a/kernel/watchdog.c
+++ b/kernel/watchdog.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
#include <linux/sysctl.h>
#include <linux/smpboot.h>
#include <linux/sched/rt.h>
+#include <linux/tick.h>

#include <asm/irq_regs.h>
#include <linux/kvm_para.h>
@@ -31,6 +32,8 @@ int __read_mostly sysctl_softlockup_all_cpu_backtrace;
#else
#define sysctl_softlockup_all_cpu_backtrace 0
#endif
+static cpumask_var_t watchdog_exclude_mask;
+unsigned long *watchdog_exclude_mask_bits;

static int __read_mostly watchdog_running;
static u64 __read_mostly sample_period;
@@ -581,6 +584,7 @@ static struct smp_hotplug_thread watchdog_threads = {
.cleanup = watchdog_cleanup,
.park = watchdog_disable,
.unpark = watchdog_enable,
+ .exclude_mask = watchdog_exclude_mask,
};

static void restart_watchdog_hrtimer(void *info)
@@ -653,6 +657,8 @@ static void watchdog_disable_all_cpus(void)
}
}

+static DEFINE_MUTEX(watchdog_proc_mutex);
+
/*
* proc handler for /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog,watchdog_thresh
*/
@@ -662,7 +668,6 @@ int proc_dowatchdog(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
{
int err, old_thresh, old_enabled;
bool old_hardlockup;
- static DEFINE_MUTEX(watchdog_proc_mutex);

mutex_lock(&watchdog_proc_mutex);
old_thresh = ACCESS_ONCE(watchdog_thresh);
@@ -700,12 +705,41 @@ out:
mutex_unlock(&watchdog_proc_mutex);
return err;
}
+
+int proc_dowatchdog_exclude(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
+ void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos)
+{
+ int err;
+
+ mutex_lock(&watchdog_proc_mutex);
+ err = proc_do_large_bitmap(table, write, buffer, lenp, ppos);
+ if (!err && write && watchdog_user_enabled) {
+ watchdog_disable_all_cpus();
+ watchdog_enable_all_cpus(false);
+ }
+ mutex_unlock(&watchdog_proc_mutex);
+ return err;
+}
+
#endif /* CONFIG_SYSCTL */

void __init lockup_detector_init(void)
{
set_sample_period();

+ alloc_bootmem_cpumask_var(&watchdog_exclude_mask);
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL
+ if (!cpumask_empty(tick_nohz_full_mask))
+ pr_info("Disabling watchdog on nohz_full cores by default\n");
+ cpumask_copy(watchdog_exclude_mask, tick_nohz_full_mask);
+#else
+ cpumask_clear(watchdog_exclude_mask);
+#endif
+
+ /* The sysctl API requires a variable holding a pointer to the mask. */
+ watchdog_exclude_mask_bits = cpumask_bits(watchdog_exclude_mask);
+
if (watchdog_user_enabled)
watchdog_enable_all_cpus(false);
}
--
2.1.2