Re: [RFC PATCH 0/3] Memory Controller eBPF support

Michal Hocko
2025-11-25T12:13:01Z

On Fri 21-11-25 02:46:31, hui.zhu@linux.dev wrote:
> 2025年11月21日 03:20, "Michal Hocko" <mhocko@suse.com mailto:mhocko@suse.com?to=%22Michal%20Hocko%22%20%3Cmhocko%40suse.com%3E > 写到:
>
>
> >
> > On Thu 20-11-25 09:29:52, hui.zhu@linux.dev wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > >
> > > I generally agree with an idea to use BPF for various memcg-related
> > > policies, but I'm not sure how specific callbacks can be used in
> > > practice.
> > >
> > > Hi Roman,
> > >
> > > Following are some ideas that can use ebpf memcg:
> > >
> > > Priority‑Based Reclaim and Limits in Multi‑Tenant Environments:
> > > On a single machine with multiple tenants / namespaces / containers,
> > > under memory pressure it’s hard to decide “who should be squeezed first”
> > > with static policies baked into the kernel.
> > > Assign a BPF profile to each tenant’s memcg:
> > > Under high global pressure, BPF can decide:
> > > Which memcgs’ memory.high should be raised (delaying reclaim),
> > > Which memcgs should be scanned and reclaimed more aggressively.
> > >
> > > Online Profiling / Diagnosing Memory Hotspots:
> > > A cgroup’s memory keeps growing, but without patching the kernel it’s
> > > difficult to obtain fine‑grained information.
> > > Attach BPF to the memcg charge/uncharge path:
> > > Record large allocations (greater than N KB) with call stacks and
> > > owning file/module, and send them to user space via a BPF ring buffer.
> > > Based on sampled data, generate:
> > > “Top N memory allocation stacks in this container over the last 10 minutes,”
> > > Reports of which objects / call paths are growing fastest.
> > > This makes it possible to pinpoint the root cause of host memory
> > > anomalies without changing application code, which is very useful
> > > in operations/ops scenarios.
> > >
> > > SLO‑Driven Auto Throttling / Scale‑In/Out Signals:
> > > Use eBPF to observe memory usage slope, frequent reclaim,
> > > or near‑OOM behavior within a memcg.
> > > When it decides “OOM is imminent,” instead of just killing/raising
> > > limits, it can emit a signal to a control‑plane component.
> > > For example, send an event to a user‑space agent to trigger
> > > automatic scaling, QPS adjustment, or throttling.
> > >
> > > Prevent a cgroup from launching a large‑scale fork+malloc attack:
> > > BPF checks per‑uid or per‑cgroup allocation behavior over the
> > > last few seconds during memcg charge.
> > >
> > AFAIU, these are just very high level ideas rather than anything you are
> > trying to target with this patch series, right?
> >
> > All I can see is that you add a reclaim hook but it is not really clear
> > to me how feasible it is to actually implement a real memory reclaim
> > strategy this way.
> >
> > In prinicipal I am not really opposed but the memory reclaim process is
> > rather involved process and I would really like to see there is
> > something real to be done without exporting all the MM code to BPF for
> > any practical use. Is there any POC out there?
>
> Hi Michal,
>
> I apologize for not delivering a more substantial POC.
>
> I was hesitant to add extensive eBPF support to memcg
> because I wasn't certain it aligned with the community's
> vision—and such support would require introducing many
> eBPF hooks into memcg.
>
> I will add more eBPF hook to memcg and provide a more
> meaningful POC in the next version.

Just to make sure we are on the same page. I am not suggesting we need
more of those hooks. I just want to see how many do we really need in
order to have a sensible eBPF driven reclaim policy which seems to be
the main usecase you want to puruse, right?
--
Michal Hocko
SUSE Labs