[PATCH v3 1/3] block/diskstats: more accurate approximation of io_ticks for slow disks

Konstantin Khlebnikov
2020-03-24T06:39:48Z

Currently io_ticks is approximated by adding one at each start and end of
requests if jiffies counter has changed. This works perfectly for requests
shorter than a jiffy or if one of requests starts/ends at each jiffy.

If disk executes just one request at a time and they are longer than two
jiffies then only first and last jiffies will be accounted.

Fix is simple: at the end of request add up into io_ticks jiffies passed
since last update rather than just one jiffy.

Example: common HDD executes random read 4k requests around 12ms.

fio --name=test --filename=/dev/sdb --rw=randread --direct=1 --runtime=30 &
iostat -x 10 sdb

Note changes of iostat's "%util" 8,43% -> 99,99% before/after patch:

Before:

Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rkB/s wkB/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz await r_await w_await svctm %util
sdb 0,00 0,00 82,60 0,00 330,40 0,00 8,00 0,96 12,09 12,09 0,00 1,02 8,43

After:

Device: rrqm/s wrqm/s r/s w/s rkB/s wkB/s avgrq-sz avgqu-sz await r_await w_await svctm %util
sdb 0,00 0,00 82,50 0,00 330,00 0,00 8,00 1,00 12,10 12,10 0,00 12,12 99,99

For load estimation "%util" is not as useful as average queue length,
but it clearly shows how often disk queue is completely empty.

Fixes: 5b18b5a73760 ("block: delete part_round_stats and switch to less precise counting")
Signed-off-by: Konstantin Khlebnikov <khlebnikov@yandex-team.ru>
---
Documentation/admin-guide/iostats.rst | 5 ++++-
block/bio.c | 8 ++++----
block/blk-core.c | 4 ++--
include/linux/genhd.h | 2 +-
4 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/iostats.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/iostats.rst
index df5b8345c41d..9b14b0c2c9c4 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/iostats.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/iostats.rst
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ Field 10 -- # of milliseconds spent doing I/Os (unsigned int)

Since 5.0 this field counts jiffies when at least one request was
started or completed. If request runs more than 2 jiffies then some
- I/O time will not be accounted unless there are other requests.
+ I/O time might be not accounted in case of concurrent requests.

Field 11 -- weighted # of milliseconds spent doing I/Os (unsigned int)
This field is incremented at each I/O start, I/O completion, I/O
@@ -143,6 +143,9 @@ are summed (possibly overflowing the unsigned long variable they are
summed to) and the result given to the user. There is no convenient
user interface for accessing the per-CPU counters themselves.

+Since 4.19 request times are measured with nanoseconds precision and
+truncated to milliseconds before showing in this interface.
+
Disks vs Partitions
-------------------

diff --git a/block/bio.c b/block/bio.c
index 0985f3422556..b1053eb7af37 100644
--- a/block/bio.c
+++ b/block/bio.c
@@ -1762,14 +1762,14 @@ void bio_check_pages_dirty(struct bio *bio)
schedule_work(&bio_dirty_work);
}

-void update_io_ticks(struct hd_struct *part, unsigned long now)
+void update_io_ticks(struct hd_struct *part, unsigned long now, bool end)
{
unsigned long stamp;
again:
stamp = READ_ONCE(part->stamp);
if (unlikely(stamp != now)) {
if (likely(cmpxchg(&part->stamp, stamp, now) == stamp)) {
- __part_stat_add(part, io_ticks, 1);
+ __part_stat_add(part, io_ticks, end ? now - stamp : 1);
}
}
if (part->partno) {
@@ -1785,7 +1785,7 @@ void generic_start_io_acct(struct request_queue *q, int op,

part_stat_lock();

- update_io_ticks(part, jiffies);
+ update_io_ticks(part, jiffies, false);
part_stat_inc(part, ios[sgrp]);
part_stat_add(part, sectors[sgrp], sectors);
part_inc_in_flight(q, part, op_is_write(op));
@@ -1803,7 +1803,7 @@ void generic_end_io_acct(struct request_queue *q, int req_op,

part_stat_lock();

- update_io_ticks(part, now);
+ update_io_ticks(part, now, true);
part_stat_add(part, nsecs[sgrp], jiffies_to_nsecs(duration));
part_stat_add(part, time_in_queue, duration);
part_dec_in_flight(q, part, op_is_write(req_op));
diff --git a/block/blk-core.c b/block/blk-core.c
index abfdcf81a228..4401b30a1751 100644
--- a/block/blk-core.c
+++ b/block/blk-core.c
@@ -1337,7 +1337,7 @@ void blk_account_io_done(struct request *req, u64 now)
part_stat_lock();
part = req->part;

- update_io_ticks(part, jiffies);
+ update_io_ticks(part, jiffies, true);
part_stat_inc(part, ios[sgrp]);
part_stat_add(part, nsecs[sgrp], now - req->start_time_ns);
part_stat_add(part, time_in_queue, nsecs_to_jiffies64(now - req->start_time_ns));
@@ -1379,7 +1379,7 @@ void blk_account_io_start(struct request *rq, bool new_io)
rq->part = part;
}

- update_io_ticks(part, jiffies);
+ update_io_ticks(part, jiffies, false);

part_stat_unlock();
}
diff --git a/include/linux/genhd.h b/include/linux/genhd.h
index d5c75df64bba..f1066f10b062 100644
--- a/include/linux/genhd.h
+++ b/include/linux/genhd.h
@@ -467,7 +467,7 @@ static inline void free_part_info(struct hd_struct *part)
kfree(part->info);
}

-void update_io_ticks(struct hd_struct *part, unsigned long now);
+void update_io_ticks(struct hd_struct *part, unsigned long now, bool end);

/* block/genhd.c */
extern void device_add_disk(struct device *parent, struct gendisk *disk,