Re: [PATCH v11 1/8] mm/demotion: Add support for explicit memory tiers

Huang, Ying
2022-08-04T00:59:30Z

Aneesh Kumar K V <aneesh.kumar@linux.ibm.com> writes:

> On 8/2/22 12:27 PM, Huang, Ying wrote:
>> Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> writes:
>>
>>> Huang, Ying wrote:
>>>> Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Aneesh Kumar K.V wrote:
>>>>>> In the current kernel, memory tiers are defined implicitly via a demotion path
>>>>>> relationship between NUMA nodes, which is created during the kernel
>>>>>> initialization and updated when a NUMA node is hot-added or hot-removed. The
>>>>>> current implementation puts all nodes with CPU into the highest tier, and builds
>>>>>> the tier hierarchy tier-by-tier by establishing the per-node demotion targets
>>>>>> based on the distances between nodes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This current memory tier kernel implementation needs to be improved for several
>>>>>> important use cases,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The current tier initialization code always initializes each memory-only NUMA
>>>>>> node into a lower tier. But a memory-only NUMA node may have a high performance
>>>>>> memory device (e.g. a DRAM-backed memory-only node on a virtual machine) that
>>>>>> should be put into a higher tier.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The current tier hierarchy always puts CPU nodes into the top tier. But on a
>>>>>> system with HBM or GPU devices, the memory-only NUMA nodes mapping these devices
>>>>>> should be in the top tier, and DRAM nodes with CPUs are better to be placed into
>>>>>> the next lower tier.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> With current kernel higher tier node can only be demoted to nodes with shortest
>>>>>> distance on the next lower tier as defined by the demotion path, not any other
>>>>>> node from any lower tier. This strict, demotion order does not work in all use
>>>>>> cases (e.g. some use cases may want to allow cross-socket demotion to another
>>>>>> node in the same demotion tier as a fallback when the preferred demotion node is
>>>>>> out of space), This demotion order is also inconsistent with the page allocation
>>>>>> fallback order when all the nodes in a higher tier are out of space: The page
>>>>>> allocation can fall back to any node from any lower tier, whereas the demotion
>>>>>> order doesn't allow that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This patch series address the above by defining memory tiers explicitly.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Linux kernel presents memory devices as NUMA nodes and each memory device is of
>>>>>> a specific type. The memory type of a device is represented by its abstract
>>>>>> distance. A memory tier corresponds to a range of abstract distance. This allows
>>>>>> for classifying memory devices with a specific performance range into a memory
>>>>>> tier.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This patch configures the range/chunk size to be 128. The default DRAM
>>>>>> abstract distance is 512. We can have 4 memory tiers below the default DRAM
>>>>>> abstract distance which cover the range 0 - 127, 127 - 255, 256- 383, 384 - 511.
>>>>>> Slower memory devices like persistent memory will have abstract distance below
>>>>>> the default DRAM level and hence will be placed in these 4 lower tiers.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A kernel parameter is provided to override the default memory tier.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/CAAPL-u9Wv+nH1VOZTj=9p9S70Y3Qz3+63EkqncRDdHfubsrjfw@mail.gmail.com
>>>>>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/7b72ccf4-f4ae-cb4e-f411-74d055482026@linux.ibm.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Jagdish Gediya <jvgediya@linux.ibm.com>
>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@linux.ibm.com>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>> include/linux/memory-tiers.h | 17 ++++++
>>>>>> mm/Makefile | 1 +
>>>>>> mm/memory-tiers.c | 102 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>>>>> 3 files changed, 120 insertions(+)
>>>>>> create mode 100644 include/linux/memory-tiers.h
>>>>>> create mode 100644 mm/memory-tiers.c
>>>>>>
>>>>>> diff --git a/include/linux/memory-tiers.h b/include/linux/memory-tiers.h
>>>>>> new file mode 100644
>>>>>> index 000000000000..8d7884b7a3f0
>>>>>> --- /dev/null
>>>>>> +++ b/include/linux/memory-tiers.h
>>>>>> @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
>>>>>> +/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
>>>>>> +#ifndef _LINUX_MEMORY_TIERS_H
>>>>>> +#define _LINUX_MEMORY_TIERS_H
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +/*
>>>>>> + * Each tier cover a abstrace distance chunk size of 128
>>>>>> + */
>>>>>> +#define MEMTIER_CHUNK_BITS 7
>>>>>> +#define MEMTIER_CHUNK_SIZE (1 << MEMTIER_CHUNK_BITS)
>>>>>> +/*
>>>>>> + * For now let's have 4 memory tier below default DRAM tier.
>>>>>> + */
>>>>>> +#define MEMTIER_ADISTANCE_DRAM (1 << (MEMTIER_CHUNK_BITS + 2))
>>>>>> +/* leave one tier below this slow pmem */
>>>>>> +#define MEMTIER_ADISTANCE_PMEM (1 << MEMTIER_CHUNK_BITS)
>>>>>
>>>>> Why is memory type encoded in these values? There is no reason to
>>>>> believe that PMEM is of a lower performance tier than DRAM. Consider
>>>>> high performance energy backed DRAM that makes it "PMEM", consider CXL
>>>>> attached DRAM over a switch topology and constrained links that makes it
>>>>> a lower performance tier than locally attached DRAM. The names should be
>>>>> associated with tiers that indicate their usage. Something like HOT,
>>>>> GENERAL, and COLD. Where, for example, HOT is low capacity high
>>>>> performance compared to the general purpose pool, and COLD is high
>>>>> capacity low performance intended to offload the general purpose tier.
>>>>>
>>>>> It does not need to be exactly that ontology, but please try to not
>>>>> encode policy meaning behind memory types. There has been explicit
>>>>> effort to avoid that to date because types are fraught for declaring
>>>>> relative performance characteristics, and the relative performance
>>>>> changes based on what memory types are assembled in a given system.
>>>>
>>>> Yes. MEMTIER_ADISTANCE_PMEM is something over simplified. That is only
>>>> used in this very first version to make it as simple as possible.
>>>
>>> I am failing to see the simplicity of using names that convey a
>>> performance contract that are invalid depending on the system.
>>>
>>>> I think we can come up with something better in the later version.
>>>> For example, identify the abstract distance of a PMEM device based on
>>>> HMAT, etc.
>>>
>>> Memory tiering has nothing to do with persistence why is PMEM in the
>>> name at all?
>>>
>>>> And even in this first version, we should put MEMTIER_ADISTANCE_PMEM
>>>> in dax/kmem.c. Because it's just for that specific type of memory
>>>> used now, not for all PMEM.
>>>
>>> dax/kmem.c also handles HBM and "soft reserved" memory in general. There
>>> is also nothing PMEM specific about the device-dax subsystem.
>>
>> Ah... I see the issue here. For the systems in our hand, dax/kmem.c is
>> used to online PMEM only. Even the "soft reserved" memory is used for
>> PMEM or simulating PMEM too. So to make the code as simple as possible,
>> we treat all memory devices onlined by dax/kmem as PMEM in the first
>> version. And plan to support more memory types in the future versions.
>>
>> But from your above words, our assumption are wrong here. dax/kmem.c
>> can online HBM and other memory devices already. If so, how do we
>> distinguish between them and how to get the performance character of
>> these devices? We can start with SLIT?
>>
>
> We would let low level driver register memory_dev_types for the NUMA nodes
> that will be mapped to these devices. ie, a papr_scm, ACPI NFIT or CXL
> can register different memory_dev_type based on device tree, HMAT or CDAT.

I didn't find ACPI NFIT can provide any performance information, just
whether it's non-volatile. HMAT or CDAT should help here, but it's not
available always. For now, what we have is just SLIT at least for quite
some machines.

I prefer to create memory_dev_type in high level driver like dax/kmem.
And it may query low level driver like SLIT, HMAT, CDAT, etc for more
information based on availability etc.

Best Regards,
Huang, Ying