Re: [RESEND PATCH v13 0/9] timers: Exclude isolated cpus from timer migration

Frederic Weisbecker
2025-10-30T17:10:38Z

Le Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 12:37:08PM -0400, Waiman Long a écrit :
> On 10/30/25 12:09 PM, Gabriele Monaco wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 2025-10-30 at 11:37 -0400, Waiman Long wrote:
> > > On 10/30/25 10:12 AM, Frederic Weisbecker wrote:
> > > > Hi Waiman,
> > > >
> > > > Le Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 10:56:06PM -0400, Waiman Long a écrit :
> > > > > On 10/20/25 7:27 AM, Gabriele Monaco wrote:
> > > > > > The timer migration mechanism allows active CPUs to pull timers from
> > > > > > idle ones to improve the overall idle time. This is however undesired
> > > > > > when CPU intensive workloads run on isolated cores, as the algorithm
> > > > > > would move the timers from housekeeping to isolated cores, negatively
> > > > > > affecting the isolation.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Exclude isolated cores from the timer migration algorithm, extend the
> > > > > > concept of unavailable cores, currently used for offline ones, to
> > > > > > isolated ones:
> > > > > > * A core is unavailable if isolated or offline;
> > > > > > * A core is available if non isolated and online;
> > > > > >
> > > > > > A core is considered unavailable as isolated if it belongs to:
> > > > > > * the isolcpus (domain) list
> > > > > > * an isolated cpuset
> > > > > > Except if it is:
> > > > > > * in the nohz_full list (already idle for the hierarchy)
> > > > > > * the nohz timekeeper core (must be available to handle global timers)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > CPUs are added to the hierarchy during late boot, excluding isolated
> > > > > > ones, the hierarchy is also adapted when the cpuset isolation changes.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Due to how the timer migration algorithm works, any CPU part of the
> > > > > > hierarchy can have their global timers pulled by remote CPUs and have to
> > > > > > pull remote timers, only skipping pulling remote timers would break the
> > > > > > logic.
> > > > > > For this reason, prevent isolated CPUs from pulling remote global
> > > > > > timers, but also the other way around: any global timer started on an
> > > > > > isolated CPU will run there. This does not break the concept of
> > > > > > isolation (global timers don't come from outside the CPU) and, if
> > > > > > considered inappropriate, can usually be mitigated with other isolation
> > > > > > techniques (e.g. IRQ pinning).
> > > > > >
> > > > > > This effect was noticed on a 128 cores machine running oslat on the
> > > > > > isolated cores (1-31,33-63,65-95,97-127). The tool monopolises CPUs,
> > > > > > and the CPU with lowest count in a timer migration hierarchy (here 1
> > > > > > and 65) appears as always active and continuously pulls global timers,
> > > > > > from the housekeeping CPUs. This ends up moving driver work (e.g.
> > > > > > delayed work) to isolated CPUs and causes latency spikes:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > before the change:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >   # oslat -c 1-31,33-63,65-95,97-127 -D 62s
> > > > > >   ...
> > > > > >    Maximum: 1203 10 3 4 ... 5 (us)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > after the change:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >   # oslat -c 1-31,33-63,65-95,97-127 -D 62s
> > > > > >   ...
> > > > > >    Maximum: 10 4 3 4 3 ... 5 (us)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The same behaviour was observed on a machine with as few as 20 cores /
> > > > > > 40 threads with isocpus set to: 1-9,11-39 with rtla-osnoise-top.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The first 5 patches are preparatory work to change the concept of
> > > > > > online/offline to available/unavailable, keep track of those in a
> > > > > > separate cpumask cleanup the setting/clearing functions and change a
> > > > > > function name in cpuset code.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Patch 6 and 7 adapt isolation and cpuset to prevent domain isolated and
> > > > > > nohz_full from covering all CPUs not leaving any housekeeping one. This
> > > > > > can lead to problems with the changes introduced in this series because
> > > > > > no CPU would remain to handle global timers.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Patch 9 extends the unavailable status to domain isolated CPUs, which
> > > > > > is the main contribution of the series.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > This series is equivalent to v13 but rebased on v6.18-rc2.
> > > > > Thomas,
> > > > >
> > > > > This patch series have undergone multiple round of reviews. Do you think
> > > > > it
> > > > > is good enough to be merged into tip?
> > > > >
> > > > > It does contain some cpuset code, but most of the changes are in the timer
> > > > > code. So I think it is better to go through the tip tree. It does have
> > > > > some
> > > > > minor conflicts with the current for-6.19 branch of the cgroup tree, but
> > > > > it
> > > > > can be easily resolved during merge.
> > > > >
> > > > > What do you think?
> > > > Just wait a little, I realize I made a buggy suggestion to Gabriele and
> > > > a detail needs to be fixed.
> > > >
> > > > My bad...
> > > OK, I thought you were OK with the timer changes. I guess Gabriele will have
> > > to send out a new version to address your finding.
> > Sure, I'm going to have a look at this next week and send a V14.
>
> I am going to extract out your 2 cpuset patches and send them to the cgroup
> mailing list separately. So you don't need to include them in your next
> version.

I'm not sure this will help if you apply those to an external tree if the
plan is to apply the whole to the timer tree. Or we'll create a dependency
issue...

> Cheers,
> Longman
>

--
Frederic Weisbecker
SUSE Labs