From f0c0b2b808f232741eadac272bd4bc51f18df0f4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:38:01 -0700 Subject: change zonelist order: zonelist order selection logic Make zonelist creation policy selectable from sysctl/boot option v6. This patch makes NUMA's zonelist (of pgdat) order selectable. Available order are Default(automatic)/ Node-based / Zone-based. [Default Order] The kernel selects Node-based or Zone-based order automatically. [Node-based Order] This policy treats the locality of memory as the most important parameter. Zonelist order is created by each zone's locality. This means lower zones (ex. ZONE_DMA) can be used before higher zone (ex. ZONE_NORMAL) exhausion. IOW. ZONE_DMA will be in the middle of zonelist. current 2.6.21 kernel uses this. Pros. * A user can expect local memory as much as possible. Cons. * lower zone will be exhansted before higher zone. This may cause OOM_KILL. Maybe suitable if ZONE_DMA is relatively big and you never see OOM_KILL because of ZONE_DMA exhaution and you need the best locality. (example) assume 2 node NUMA. node(0) has ZONE_DMA/ZONE_NORMAL, node(1) has ZONE_NORMAL. *node(0)'s memory allocation order: node(0)'s NORMAL -> node(0)'s DMA -> node(1)'s NORMAL. *node(1)'s memory allocation order: node(1)'s NORMAL -> node(0)'s NORMAL -> node(0)'s DMA. [Zone-based order] This policy treats the zone type as the most important parameter. Zonelist order is created by zone-type order. This means lower zone never be used bofere higher zone exhaustion. IOW. ZONE_DMA will be always at the tail of zonelist. Pros. * OOM_KILL(bacause of lower zone) occurs only if the whole zones are exhausted. Cons. * memory locality may not be best. (example) assume 2 node NUMA. node(0) has ZONE_DMA/ZONE_NORMAL, node(1) has ZONE_NORMAL. *node(0)'s memory allocation order: node(0)'s NORMAL -> node(1)'s NORMAL -> node(0)'s DMA. *node(1)'s memory allocation order: node(1)'s NORMAL -> node(0)'s NORMAL -> node(0)'s DMA. bootoption "numa_zonelist_order=" and proc/sysctl is supporetd. command: %echo N > /proc/sys/vm/numa_zonelist_order Will rebuild zonelist in Node-based order. command: %echo Z > /proc/sys/vm/numa_zonelist_order Will rebuild zonelist in Zone-based order. Thanks to Lee Schermerhorn, he gives me much help and codes. [Lee.Schermerhorn@hp.com: add check_highest_zone to build_zonelists_in_zone_order] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: build fix] Signed-off-by: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki Cc: Lee Schermerhorn Cc: Christoph Lameter Cc: Andi Kleen Cc: "jesse.barnes@intel.com" Signed-off-by: Lee Schermerhorn Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+) (limited to 'Documentation/sysctl') diff --git a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt index 8cfca173d4bc..df3ff2095f9d 100644 --- a/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt +++ b/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt @@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ Currently, these files are in /proc/sys/vm: - min_slab_ratio - panic_on_oom - mmap_min_address +- numa_zonelist_order ============================================================== @@ -231,3 +232,47 @@ security module. Setting this value to something like 64k will allow the vast majority of applications to work correctly and provide defense in depth against future potential kernel bugs. +============================================================== + +numa_zonelist_order + +This sysctl is only for NUMA. +'where the memory is allocated from' is controlled by zonelists. +(This documentation ignores ZONE_HIGHMEM/ZONE_DMA32 for simple explanation. + you may be able to read ZONE_DMA as ZONE_DMA32...) + +In non-NUMA case, a zonelist for GFP_KERNEL is ordered as following. +ZONE_NORMAL -> ZONE_DMA +This means that a memory allocation request for GFP_KERNEL will +get memory from ZONE_DMA only when ZONE_NORMAL is not available. + +In NUMA case, you can think of following 2 types of order. +Assume 2 node NUMA and below is zonelist of Node(0)'s GFP_KERNEL + +(A) Node(0) ZONE_NORMAL -> Node(0) ZONE_DMA -> Node(1) ZONE_NORMAL +(B) Node(0) ZONE_NORMAL -> Node(1) ZONE_NORMAL -> Node(0) ZONE_DMA. + +Type(A) offers the best locality for processes on Node(0), but ZONE_DMA +will be used before ZONE_NORMAL exhaustion. This increases possibility of +out-of-memory(OOM) of ZONE_DMA because ZONE_DMA is tend to be small. + +Type(B) cannot offer the best locality but is more robust against OOM of +the DMA zone. + +Type(A) is called as "Node" order. Type (B) is "Zone" order. + +"Node order" orders the zonelists by node, then by zone within each node. +Specify "[Nn]ode" for zone order + +"Zone Order" orders the zonelists by zone type, then by node within each +zone. Specify "[Zz]one"for zode order. + +Specify "[Dd]efault" to request automatic configuration. Autoconfiguration +will select "node" order in following case. +(1) if the DMA zone does not exist or +(2) if the DMA zone comprises greater than 50% of the available memory or +(3) if any node's DMA zone comprises greater than 60% of its local memory and + the amount of local memory is big enough. + +Otherwise, "zone" order will be selected. Default order is recommended unless +this is causing problems for your system/application. -- cgit v1.2.3-59-g8ed1b