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diff --git a/Documentation/cgroup-v2.txt b/Documentation/cgroup-v2.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..ff49cf901148 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/cgroup-v2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1386 @@ + +Control Group v2 + +October, 2015 Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> + +This is the authoritative documentation on the design, interface and +conventions of cgroup v2. It describes all userland-visible aspects +of cgroup including core and specific controller behaviors. All +future changes must be reflected in this document. Documentation for +v1 is available under Documentation/cgroup-v1/. + +CONTENTS + +1. Introduction + 1-1. Terminology + 1-2. What is cgroup? +2. Basic Operations + 2-1. Mounting + 2-2. Organizing Processes + 2-3. [Un]populated Notification + 2-4. Controlling Controllers + 2-4-1. Enabling and Disabling + 2-4-2. Top-down Constraint + 2-4-3. No Internal Process Constraint + 2-5. Delegation + 2-5-1. Model of Delegation + 2-5-2. Delegation Containment + 2-6. Guidelines + 2-6-1. Organize Once and Control + 2-6-2. Avoid Name Collisions +3. Resource Distribution Models + 3-1. Weights + 3-2. Limits + 3-3. Protections + 3-4. Allocations +4. Interface Files + 4-1. Format + 4-2. Conventions + 4-3. Core Interface Files +5. Controllers + 5-1. CPU + 5-1-1. CPU Interface Files + 5-2. Memory + 5-2-1. Memory Interface Files + 5-2-2. Usage Guidelines + 5-2-3. Memory Ownership + 5-3. IO + 5-3-1. IO Interface Files + 5-3-2. Writeback +P. Information on Kernel Programming + P-1. Filesystem Support for Writeback +D. Deprecated v1 Core Features +R. Issues with v1 and Rationales for v2 + R-1. Multiple Hierarchies + R-2. Thread Granularity + R-3. Competition Between Inner Nodes and Threads + R-4. Other Interface Issues + R-5. Controller Issues and Remedies + R-5-1. Memory + + +1. Introduction + +1-1. Terminology + +"cgroup" stands for "control group" and is never capitalized. The +singular form is used to designate the whole feature and also as a +qualifier as in "cgroup controllers". When explicitly referring to +multiple individual control groups, the plural form "cgroups" is used. + + +1-2. What is cgroup? + +cgroup is a mechanism to organize processes hierarchically and +distribute system resources along the hierarchy in a controlled and +configurable manner. + +cgroup is largely composed of two parts - the core and controllers. +cgroup core is primarily responsible for hierarchically organizing +processes. A cgroup controller is usually responsible for +distributing a specific type of system resource along the hierarchy +although there are utility controllers which serve purposes other than +resource distribution. + +cgroups form a tree structure and every process in the system belongs +to one and only one cgroup. All threads of a process belong to the +same cgroup. On creation, all processes are put in the cgroup that +the parent process belongs to at the time. A process can be migrated +to another cgroup. Migration of a process doesn't affect already +existing descendant processes. + +Following certain structural constraints, controllers may be enabled or +disabled selectively on a cgroup. All controller behaviors are +hierarchical - if a controller is enabled on a cgroup, it affects all +processes which belong to the cgroups consisting the inclusive +sub-hierarchy of the cgroup. When a controller is enabled on a nested +cgroup, it always restricts the resource distribution further. The +restrictions set closer to the root in the hierarchy can not be +overridden from further away. + + +2. Basic Operations + +2-1. Mounting + +Unlike v1, cgroup v2 has only single hierarchy. The cgroup v2 +hierarchy can be mounted with the following mount command. + + # mount -t cgroup2 none $MOUNT_POINT + +cgroup2 filesystem has the magic number 0x63677270 ("cgrp"). All +controllers which support v2 and are not bound to a v1 hierarchy are +automatically bound to the v2 hierarchy and show up at the root. +Controllers which are not in active use in the v2 hierarchy can be +bound to other hierarchies. This allows mixing v2 hierarchy with the +legacy v1 multiple hierarchies in a fully backward compatible way. + +A controller can be moved across hierarchies only after the controller +is no longer referenced in its current hierarchy. Because per-cgroup +controller states are destroyed asynchronously and controllers may +have lingering references, a controller may not show up immediately on +the v2 hierarchy after the final umount of the previous hierarchy. +Similarly, a controller should be fully disabled to be moved out of +the unified hierarchy and it may take some time for the disabled +controller to become available for other hierarchies; furthermore, due +to inter-controller dependencies, other controllers may need to be +disabled too. + +While useful for development and manual configurations, moving +controllers dynamically between the v2 and other hierarchies is +strongly discouraged for production use. It is recommended to decide +the hierarchies and controller associations before starting using the +controllers after system boot. + + +2-2. Organizing Processes + +Initially, only the root cgroup exists to which all processes belong. +A child cgroup can be created by creating a sub-directory. + + # mkdir $CGROUP_NAME + +A given cgroup may have multiple child cgroups forming a tree +structure. Each cgroup has a read-writable interface file +"cgroup.procs". When read, it lists the PIDs of all processes which +belong to the cgroup one-per-line. The PIDs are not ordered and the +same PID may show up more than once if the process got moved to +another cgroup and then back or the PID got recycled while reading. + +A process can be migrated into a cgroup by writing its PID to the +target cgroup's "cgroup.procs" file. Only one process can be migrated +on a single write(2) call. If a process is composed of multiple +threads, writing the PID of any thread migrates all threads of the +process. + +When a process forks a child process, the new process is born into the +cgroup that the forking process belongs to at the time of the +operation. After exit, a process stays associated with the cgroup +that it belonged to at the time of exit until it's reaped; however, a +zombie process does not appear in "cgroup.procs" and thus can't be +moved to another cgroup. + +A cgroup which doesn't have any children or live processes can be +destroyed by removing the directory. Note that a cgroup which doesn't +have any children and is associated only with zombie processes is +considered empty and can be removed. + + # rmdir $CGROUP_NAME + +"/proc/$PID/cgroup" lists a process's cgroup membership. If legacy +cgroup is in use in the system, this file may contain multiple lines, +one for each hierarchy. The entry for cgroup v2 is always in the +format "0::$PATH". + + # cat /proc/842/cgroup + ... + 0::/test-cgroup/test-cgroup-nested + +If the process becomes a zombie and the cgroup it was associated with +is removed subsequently, " (deleted)" is appended to the path. + + # cat /proc/842/cgroup + ... + 0::/test-cgroup/test-cgroup-nested (deleted) + + +2-3. [Un]populated Notification + +Each non-root cgroup has a "cgroup.events" file which contains +"populated" field indicating whether the cgroup's sub-hierarchy has +live processes in it. Its value is 0 if there is no live process in +the cgroup and its descendants; otherwise, 1. poll and [id]notify +events are triggered when the value changes. This can be used, for +example, to start a clean-up operation after all processes of a given +sub-hierarchy have exited. The populated state updates and +notifications are recursive. Consider the following sub-hierarchy +where the numbers in the parentheses represent the numbers of processes +in each cgroup. + + A(4) - B(0) - C(1) + \ D(0) + +A, B and C's "populated" fields would be 1 while D's 0. After the one +process in C exits, B and C's "populated" fields would flip to "0" and +file modified events will be generated on the "cgroup.events" files of +both cgroups. + + +2-4. Controlling Controllers + +2-4-1. Enabling and Disabling + +Each cgroup has a "cgroup.controllers" file which lists all +controllers available for the cgroup to enable. + + # cat cgroup.controllers + cpu io memory + +No controller is enabled by default. Controllers can be enabled and +disabled by writing to the "cgroup.subtree_control" file. + + # echo "+cpu +memory -io" > cgroup.subtree_control + +Only controllers which are listed in "cgroup.controllers" can be +enabled. When multiple operations are specified as above, either they +all succeed or fail. If multiple operations on the same controller +are specified, the last one is effective. + +Enabling a controller in a cgroup indicates that the distribution of +the target resource across its immediate children will be controlled. +Consider the following sub-hierarchy. The enabled controllers are +listed in parentheses. + + A(cpu,memory) - B(memory) - C() + \ D() + +As A has "cpu" and "memory" enabled, A will control the distribution +of CPU cycles and memory to its children, in this case, B. As B has +"memory" enabled but not "CPU", C and D will compete freely on CPU +cycles but their division of memory available to B will be controlled. + +As a controller regulates the distribution of the target resource to +the cgroup's children, enabling it creates the controller's interface +files in the child cgroups. In the above example, enabling "cpu" on B +would create the "cpu." prefixed controller interface files in C and +D. Likewise, disabling "memory" from B would remove the "memory." +prefixed controller interface files from C and D. This means that the +controller interface files - anything which doesn't start with +"cgroup." are owned by the parent rather than the cgroup itself. + + +2-4-2. Top-down Constraint + +Resources are distributed top-down and a cgroup can further distribute +a resource only if the resource has been distributed to it from the +parent. This means that all non-root "cgroup.subtree_control" files +can only contain controllers which are enabled in the parent's +"cgroup.subtree_control" file. A controller can be enabled only if +the parent has the controller enabled and a controller can't be +disabled if one or more children have it enabled. + + +2-4-3. No Internal Process Constraint + +Non-root cgroups can only distribute resources to their children when +they don't have any processes of their own. In other words, only +cgroups which don't contain any processes can have controllers enabled +in their "cgroup.subtree_control" files. + +This guarantees that, when a controller is looking at the part of the +hierarchy which has it enabled, processes are always only on the +leaves. This rules out situations where child cgroups compete against +internal processes of the parent. + +The root cgroup is exempt from this restriction. Root contains +processes and anonymous resource consumption which can't be associated +with any other cgroups and requires special treatment from most +controllers. How resource consumption in the root cgroup is governed +is up to each controller. + +Note that the restriction doesn't get in the way if there is no +enabled controller in the cgroup's "cgroup.subtree_control". This is +important as otherwise it wouldn't be possible to create children of a +populated cgroup. To control resource distribution of a cgroup, the +cgroup must create children and transfer all its processes to the +children before enabling controllers in its "cgroup.subtree_control" +file. + + +2-5. Delegation + +2-5-1. Model of Delegation + +A cgroup can be delegated to a less privileged user by granting write +access of the directory and its "cgroup.procs" file to the user. Note +that resource control interface files in a given directory control the +distribution of the parent's resources and thus must not be delegated +along with the directory. + +Once delegated, the user can build sub-hierarchy under the directory, +organize processes as it sees fit and further distribute the resources +it received from the parent. The limits and other settings of all +resource controllers are hierarchical and regardless of what happens +in the delegated sub-hierarchy, nothing can escape the resource +restrictions imposed by the parent. + +Currently, cgroup doesn't impose any restrictions on the number of +cgroups in or nesting depth of a delegated sub-hierarchy; however, +this may be limited explicitly in the future. + + +2-5-2. Delegation Containment + +A delegated sub-hierarchy is contained in the sense that processes +can't be moved into or out of the sub-hierarchy by the delegatee. For +a process with a non-root euid to migrate a target process into a +cgroup by writing its PID to the "cgroup.procs" file, the following +conditions must be met. + +- The writer's euid must match either uid or suid of the target process. + +- The writer must have write access to the "cgroup.procs" file. + +- The writer must have write access to the "cgroup.procs" file of the + common ancestor of the source and destination cgroups. + +The above three constraints ensure that while a delegatee may migrate +processes around freely in the delegated sub-hierarchy it can't pull +in from or push out to outside the sub-hierarchy. + +For an example, let's assume cgroups C0 and C1 have been delegated to +user U0 who created C00, C01 under C0 and C10 under C1 as follows and +all processes under C0 and C1 belong to U0. + + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - C0 - C00 + ~ cgroup ~ \ C01 + ~ hierarchy ~ + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - C1 - C10 + +Let's also say U0 wants to write the PID of a process which is +currently in C10 into "C00/cgroup.procs". U0 has write access to the +file and uid match on the process; however, the common ancestor of the +source cgroup C10 and the destination cgroup C00 is above the points +of delegation and U0 would not have write access to its "cgroup.procs" +files and thus the write will be denied with -EACCES. + + +2-6. Guidelines + +2-6-1. Organize Once and Control + +Migrating a process across cgroups is a relatively expensive operation +and stateful resources such as memory are not moved together with the +process. This is an explicit design decision as there often exist +inherent trade-offs between migration and various hot paths in terms +of synchronization cost. + +As such, migrating processes across cgroups frequently as a means to +apply different resource restrictions is discouraged. A workload +should be assigned to a cgroup according to the system's logical and +resource structure once on start-up. Dynamic adjustments to resource +distribution can be made by changing controller configuration through +the interface files. + + +2-6-2. Avoid Name Collisions + +Interface files for a cgroup and its children cgroups occupy the same +directory and it is possible to create children cgroups which collide +with interface files. + +All cgroup core interface files are prefixed with "cgroup." and each +controller's interface files are prefixed with the controller name and +a dot. A controller's name is composed of lower case alphabets and +'_'s but never begins with an '_' so it can be used as the prefix +character for collision avoidance. Also, interface file names won't +start or end with terms which are often used in categorizing workloads +such as job, service, slice, unit or workload. + +cgroup doesn't do anything to prevent name collisions and it's the +user's responsibility to avoid them. + + +3. Resource Distribution Models + +cgroup controllers implement several resource distribution schemes +depending on the resource type and expected use cases. This section +describes major schemes in use along with their expected behaviors. + + +3-1. Weights + +A parent's resource is distributed by adding up the weights of all +active children and giving each the fraction matching the ratio of its +weight against the sum. As only children which can make use of the +resource at the moment participate in the distribution, this is +work-conserving. Due to the dynamic nature, this model is usually +used for stateless resources. + +All weights are in the range [1, 10000] with the default at 100. This +allows symmetric multiplicative biases in both directions at fine +enough granularity while staying in the intuitive range. + +As long as the weight is in range, all configuration combinations are +valid and there is no reason to reject configuration changes or +process migrations. + +"cpu.weight" proportionally distributes CPU cycles to active children +and is an example of this type. + + +3-2. Limits + +A child can only consume upto the configured amount of the resource. +Limits can be over-committed - the sum of the limits of children can +exceed the amount of resource available to the parent. + +Limits are in the range [0, max] and defaults to "max", which is noop. + +As limits can be over-committed, all configuration combinations are +valid and there is no reason to reject configuration changes or +process migrations. + +"io.max" limits the maximum BPS and/or IOPS that a cgroup can consume +on an IO device and is an example of this type. + + +3-3. Protections + +A cgroup is protected to be allocated upto the configured amount of +the resource if the usages of all its ancestors are under their +protected levels. Protections can be hard guarantees or best effort +soft boundaries. Protections can also be over-committed in which case +only upto the amount available to the parent is protected among +children. + +Protections are in the range [0, max] and defaults to 0, which is +noop. + +As protections can be over-committed, all configuration combinations +are valid and there is no reason to reject configuration changes or +process migrations. + +"memory.low" implements best-effort memory protection and is an +example of this type. + + +3-4. Allocations + +A cgroup is exclusively allocated a certain amount of a finite +resource. Allocations can't be over-committed - the sum of the +allocations of children can not exceed the amount of resource +available to the parent. + +Allocations are in the range [0, max] and defaults to 0, which is no +resource. + +As allocations can't be over-committed, some configuration +combinations are invalid and should be rejected. Also, if the +resource is mandatory for execution of processes, process migrations +may be rejected. + +"cpu.rt.max" hard-allocates realtime slices and is an example of this +type. + + +4. Interface Files + +4-1. Format + +All interface files should be in one of the following formats whenever +possible. + + New-line separated values + (when only one value can be written at once) + + VAL0\n + VAL1\n + ... + + Space separated values + (when read-only or multiple values can be written at once) + + VAL0 VAL1 ...\n + + Flat keyed + + KEY0 VAL0\n + KEY1 VAL1\n + ... + + Nested keyed + + KEY0 SUB_KEY0=VAL00 SUB_KEY1=VAL01... + KEY1 SUB_KEY0=VAL10 SUB_KEY1=VAL11... + ... + +For a writable file, the format for writing should generally match +reading; however, controllers may allow omitting later fields or +implement restricted shortcuts for most common use cases. + +For both flat and nested keyed files, only the values for a single key +can be written at a time. For nested keyed files, the sub key pairs +may be specified in any order and not all pairs have to be specified. + + +4-2. Conventions + +- Settings for a single feature should be contained in a single file. + +- The root cgroup should be exempt from resource control and thus + shouldn't have resource control interface files. Also, + informational files on the root cgroup which end up showing global + information available elsewhere shouldn't exist. + +- If a controller implements weight based resource distribution, its + interface file should be named "weight" and have the range [1, + 10000] with 100 as the default. The values are chosen to allow + enough and symmetric bias in both directions while keeping it + intuitive (the default is 100%). + +- If a controller implements an absolute resource guarantee and/or + limit, the interface files should be named "min" and "max" + respectively. If a controller implements best effort resource + guarantee and/or limit, the interface files should be named "low" + and "high" respectively. + + In the above four control files, the special token "max" should be + used to represent upward infinity for both reading and writing. + +- If a setting has a configurable default value and keyed specific + overrides, the default entry should be keyed with "default" and + appear as the first entry in the file. + + The default value can be updated by writing either "default $VAL" or + "$VAL". + + When writing to update a specific override, "default" can be used as + the value to indicate removal of the override. Override entries + with "default" as the value must not appear when read. + + For example, a setting which is keyed by major:minor device numbers + with integer values may look like the following. + + # cat cgroup-example-interface-file + default 150 + 8:0 300 + + The default value can be updated by + + # echo 125 > cgroup-example-interface-file + + or + + # echo "default 125" > cgroup-example-interface-file + + An override can be set by + + # echo "8:16 170" > cgroup-example-interface-file + + and cleared by + + # echo "8:0 default" > cgroup-example-interface-file + # cat cgroup-example-interface-file + default 125 + 8:16 170 + +- For events which are not very high frequency, an interface file + "events" should be created which lists event key value pairs. + Whenever a notifiable event happens, file modified event should be + generated on the file. + + +4-3. Core Interface Files + +All cgroup core files are prefixed with "cgroup." + + cgroup.procs + + A read-write new-line separated values file which exists on + all cgroups. + + When read, it lists the PIDs of all processes which belong to + the cgroup one-per-line. The PIDs are not ordered and the + same PID may show up more than once if the process got moved + to another cgroup and then back or the PID got recycled while + reading. + + A PID can be written to migrate the process associated with + the PID to the cgroup. The writer should match all of the + following conditions. + + - Its euid is either root or must match either uid or suid of + the target process. + + - It must have write access to the "cgroup.procs" file. + + - It must have write access to the "cgroup.procs" file of the + common ancestor of the source and destination cgroups. + + When delegating a sub-hierarchy, write access to this file + should be granted along with the containing directory. + + cgroup.controllers + + A read-only space separated values file which exists on all + cgroups. + + It shows space separated list of all controllers available to + the cgroup. The controllers are not ordered. + + cgroup.subtree_control + + A read-write space separated values file which exists on all + cgroups. Starts out empty. + + When read, it shows space separated list of the controllers + which are enabled to control resource distribution from the + cgroup to its children. + + Space separated list of controllers prefixed with '+' or '-' + can be written to enable or disable controllers. A controller + name prefixed with '+' enables the controller and '-' + disables. If a controller appears more than once on the list, + the last one is effective. When multiple enable and disable + operations are specified, either all succeed or all fail. + + cgroup.events + + A read-only flat-keyed file which exists on non-root cgroups. + The following entries are defined. Unless specified + otherwise, a value change in this file generates a file + modified event. + + populated + + 1 if the cgroup or its descendants contains any live + processes; otherwise, 0. + + +5. Controllers + +5-1. CPU + +[NOTE: The interface for the cpu controller hasn't been merged yet] + +The "cpu" controllers regulates distribution of CPU cycles. This +controller implements weight and absolute bandwidth limit models for +normal scheduling policy and absolute bandwidth allocation model for +realtime scheduling policy. + + +5-1-1. CPU Interface Files + +All time durations are in microseconds. + + cpu.stat + + A read-only flat-keyed file which exists on non-root cgroups. + + It reports the following six stats. + + usage_usec + user_usec + system_usec + nr_periods + nr_throttled + throttled_usec + + cpu.weight + + A read-write single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. The default is "100". + + The weight in the range [1, 10000]. + + cpu.max + + A read-write two value file which exists on non-root cgroups. + The default is "max 100000". + + The maximum bandwidth limit. It's in the following format. + + $MAX $PERIOD + + which indicates that the group may consume upto $MAX in each + $PERIOD duration. "max" for $MAX indicates no limit. If only + one number is written, $MAX is updated. + + cpu.rt.max + + [NOTE: The semantics of this file is still under discussion and the + interface hasn't been merged yet] + + A read-write two value file which exists on all cgroups. + The default is "0 100000". + + The maximum realtime runtime allocation. Over-committing + configurations are disallowed and process migrations are + rejected if not enough bandwidth is available. It's in the + following format. + + $MAX $PERIOD + + which indicates that the group may consume upto $MAX in each + $PERIOD duration. If only one number is written, $MAX is + updated. + + +5-2. Memory + +The "memory" controller regulates distribution of memory. Memory is +stateful and implements both limit and protection models. Due to the +intertwining between memory usage and reclaim pressure and the +stateful nature of memory, the distribution model is relatively +complex. + +While not completely water-tight, all major memory usages by a given +cgroup are tracked so that the total memory consumption can be +accounted and controlled to a reasonable extent. Currently, the +following types of memory usages are tracked. + +- Userland memory - page cache and anonymous memory. + +- Kernel data structures such as dentries and inodes. + +- TCP socket buffers. + +The above list may expand in the future for better coverage. + + +5-2-1. Memory Interface Files + +All memory amounts are in bytes. If a value which is not aligned to +PAGE_SIZE is written, the value may be rounded up to the closest +PAGE_SIZE multiple when read back. + + memory.current + + A read-only single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. + + The total amount of memory currently being used by the cgroup + and its descendants. + + memory.low + + A read-write single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. The default is "0". + + Best-effort memory protection. If the memory usages of a + cgroup and all its ancestors are below their low boundaries, + the cgroup's memory won't be reclaimed unless memory can be + reclaimed from unprotected cgroups. + + Putting more memory than generally available under this + protection is discouraged. + + memory.high + + A read-write single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. The default is "max". + + Memory usage throttle limit. This is the main mechanism to + control memory usage of a cgroup. If a cgroup's usage goes + over the high boundary, the processes of the cgroup are + throttled and put under heavy reclaim pressure. + + Going over the high limit never invokes the OOM killer and + under extreme conditions the limit may be breached. + + memory.max + + A read-write single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. The default is "max". + + Memory usage hard limit. This is the final protection + mechanism. If a cgroup's memory usage reaches this limit and + can't be reduced, the OOM killer is invoked in the cgroup. + Under certain circumstances, the usage may go over the limit + temporarily. + + This is the ultimate protection mechanism. As long as the + high limit is used and monitored properly, this limit's + utility is limited to providing the final safety net. + + memory.events + + A read-only flat-keyed file which exists on non-root cgroups. + The following entries are defined. Unless specified + otherwise, a value change in this file generates a file + modified event. + + low + + The number of times the cgroup is reclaimed due to + high memory pressure even though its usage is under + the low boundary. This usually indicates that the low + boundary is over-committed. + + high + + The number of times processes of the cgroup are + throttled and routed to perform direct memory reclaim + because the high memory boundary was exceeded. For a + cgroup whose memory usage is capped by the high limit + rather than global memory pressure, this event's + occurrences are expected. + + max + + The number of times the cgroup's memory usage was + about to go over the max boundary. If direct reclaim + fails to bring it down, the OOM killer is invoked. + + oom + + The number of times the OOM killer has been invoked in + the cgroup. This may not exactly match the number of + processes killed but should generally be close. + + memory.stat + + A read-only flat-keyed file which exists on non-root cgroups. + + This breaks down the cgroup's memory footprint into different + types of memory, type-specific details, and other information + on the state and past events of the memory management system. + + All memory amounts are in bytes. + + The entries are ordered to be human readable, and new entries + can show up in the middle. Don't rely on items remaining in a + fixed position; use the keys to look up specific values! + + anon + + Amount of memory used in anonymous mappings such as + brk(), sbrk(), and mmap(MAP_ANONYMOUS) + + file + + Amount of memory used to cache filesystem data, + including tmpfs and shared memory. + + sock + + Amount of memory used in network transmission buffers + + file_mapped + + Amount of cached filesystem data mapped with mmap() + + file_dirty + + Amount of cached filesystem data that was modified but + not yet written back to disk + + file_writeback + + Amount of cached filesystem data that was modified and + is currently being written back to disk + + inactive_anon + active_anon + inactive_file + active_file + unevictable + + Amount of memory, swap-backed and filesystem-backed, + on the internal memory management lists used by the + page reclaim algorithm + + pgfault + + Total number of page faults incurred + + pgmajfault + + Number of major page faults incurred + + memory.swap.current + + A read-only single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. + + The total amount of swap currently being used by the cgroup + and its descendants. + + memory.swap.max + + A read-write single value file which exists on non-root + cgroups. The default is "max". + + Swap usage hard limit. If a cgroup's swap usage reaches this + limit, anonymous meomry of the cgroup will not be swapped out. + + +5-2-2. General Usage + +"memory.high" is the main mechanism to control memory usage. +Over-committing on high limit (sum of high limits > available memory) +and letting global memory pressure to distribute memory according to +usage is a viable strategy. + +Because breach of the high limit doesn't trigger the OOM killer but +throttles the offending cgroup, a management agent has ample +opportunities to monitor and take appropriate actions such as granting +more memory or terminating the workload. + +Determining whether a cgroup has enough memory is not trivial as +memory usage doesn't indicate whether the workload can benefit from +more memory. For example, a workload which writes data received from +network to a file can use all available memory but can also operate as +performant with a small amount of memory. A measure of memory +pressure - how much the workload is being impacted due to lack of +memory - is necessary to determine whether a workload needs more +memory; unfortunately, memory pressure monitoring mechanism isn't +implemented yet. + + +5-2-3. Memory Ownership + +A memory area is charged to the cgroup which instantiated it and stays +charged to the cgroup until the area is released. Migrating a process +to a different cgroup doesn't move the memory usages that it +instantiated while in the previous cgroup to the new cgroup. + +A memory area may be used by processes belonging to different cgroups. +To which cgroup the area will be charged is in-deterministic; however, +over time, the memory area is likely to end up in a cgroup which has +enough memory allowance to avoid high reclaim pressure. + +If a cgroup sweeps a considerable amount of memory which is expected +to be accessed repeatedly by other cgroups, it may make sense to use +POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED to relinquish the ownership of memory areas +belonging to the affected files to ensure correct memory ownership. + + +5-3. IO + +The "io" controller regulates the distribution of IO resources. This +controller implements both weight based and absolute bandwidth or IOPS +limit distribution; however, weight based distribution is available +only if cfq-iosched is in use and neither scheme is available for +blk-mq devices. + + +5-3-1. IO Interface Files + + io.stat + + A read-only nested-keyed file which exists on non-root + cgroups. + + Lines are keyed by $MAJ:$MIN device numbers and not ordered. + The following nested keys are defined. + + rbytes Bytes read + wbytes Bytes written + rios Number of read IOs + wios Number of write IOs + + An example read output follows. + + 8:16 rbytes=1459200 wbytes=314773504 rios=192 wios=353 + 8:0 rbytes=90430464 wbytes=299008000 rios=8950 wios=1252 + + io.weight + + A read-write flat-keyed file which exists on non-root cgroups. + The default is "default 100". + + The first line is the default weight applied to devices + without specific override. The rest are overrides keyed by + $MAJ:$MIN device numbers and not ordered. The weights are in + the range [1, 10000] and specifies the relative amount IO time + the cgroup can use in relation to its siblings. + + The default weight can be updated by writing either "default + $WEIGHT" or simply "$WEIGHT". Overrides can be set by writing + "$MAJ:$MIN $WEIGHT" and unset by writing "$MAJ:$MIN default". + + An example read output follows. + + default 100 + 8:16 200 + 8:0 50 + + io.max + + A read-write nested-keyed file which exists on non-root + cgroups. + + BPS and IOPS based IO limit. Lines are keyed by $MAJ:$MIN + device numbers and not ordered. The following nested keys are + defined. + + rbps Max read bytes per second + wbps Max write bytes per second + riops Max read IO operations per second + wiops Max write IO operations per second + + When writing, any number of nested key-value pairs can be + specified in any order. "max" can be specified as the value + to remove a specific limit. If the same key is specified + multiple times, the outcome is undefined. + + BPS and IOPS are measured in each IO direction and IOs are + delayed if limit is reached. Temporary bursts are allowed. + + Setting read limit at 2M BPS and write at 120 IOPS for 8:16. + + echo "8:16 rbps=2097152 wiops=120" > io.max + + Reading returns the following. + + 8:16 rbps=2097152 wbps=max riops=max wiops=120 + + Write IOPS limit can be removed by writing the following. + + echo "8:16 wiops=max" > io.max + + Reading now returns the following. + + 8:16 rbps=2097152 wbps=max riops=max wiops=max + + +5-3-2. Writeback + +Page cache is dirtied through buffered writes and shared mmaps and +written asynchronously to the backing filesystem by the writeback +mechanism. Writeback sits between the memory and IO domains and +regulates the proportion of dirty memory by balancing dirtying and +write IOs. + +The io controller, in conjunction with the memory controller, +implements control of page cache writeback IOs. The memory controller +defines the memory domain that dirty memory ratio is calculated and +maintained for and the io controller defines the io domain which +writes out dirty pages for the memory domain. Both system-wide and +per-cgroup dirty memory states are examined and the more restrictive +of the two is enforced. + +cgroup writeback requires explicit support from the underlying +filesystem. Currently, cgroup writeback is implemented on ext2, ext4 +and btrfs. On other filesystems, all writeback IOs are attributed to +the root cgroup. + +There are inherent differences in memory and writeback management +which affects how cgroup ownership is tracked. Memory is tracked per +page while writeback per inode. For the purpose of writeback, an +inode is assigned to a cgroup and all IO requests to write dirty pages +from the inode are attributed to that cgroup. + +As cgroup ownership for memory is tracked per page, there can be pages +which are associated with different cgroups than the one the inode is +associated with. These are called foreign pages. The writeback +constantly keeps track of foreign pages and, if a particular foreign +cgroup becomes the majority over a certain period of time, switches +the ownership of the inode to that cgroup. + +While this model is enough for most use cases where a given inode is +mostly dirtied by a single cgroup even when the main writing cgroup +changes over time, use cases where multiple cgroups write to a single +inode simultaneously are not supported well. In such circumstances, a +significant portion of IOs are likely to be attributed incorrectly. +As memory controller assigns page ownership on the first use and +doesn't update it until the page is released, even if writeback +strictly follows page ownership, multiple cgroups dirtying overlapping +areas wouldn't work as expected. It's recommended to avoid such usage +patterns. + +The sysctl knobs which affect writeback behavior are applied to cgroup +writeback as follows. + + vm.dirty_background_ratio + vm.dirty_ratio + + These ratios apply the same to cgroup writeback with the + amount of available memory capped by limits imposed by the + memory controller and system-wide clean memory. + + vm.dirty_background_bytes + vm.dirty_bytes + + For cgroup writeback, this is calculated into ratio against + total available memory and applied the same way as + vm.dirty[_background]_ratio. + + +P. Information on Kernel Programming + +This section contains kernel programming information in the areas +where interacting with cgroup is necessary. cgroup core and +controllers are not covered. + + +P-1. Filesystem Support for Writeback + +A filesystem can support cgroup writeback by updating +address_space_operations->writepage[s]() to annotate bio's using the +following two functions. + + wbc_init_bio(@wbc, @bio) + + Should be called for each bio carrying writeback data and + associates the bio with the inode's owner cgroup. Can be + called anytime between bio allocation and submission. + + wbc_account_io(@wbc, @page, @bytes) + + Should be called for each data segment being written out. + While this function doesn't care exactly when it's called + during the writeback session, it's the easiest and most + natural to call it as data segments are added to a bio. + +With writeback bio's annotated, cgroup support can be enabled per +super_block by setting SB_I_CGROUPWB in ->s_iflags. This allows for +selective disabling of cgroup writeback support which is helpful when +certain filesystem features, e.g. journaled data mode, are +incompatible. + +wbc_init_bio() binds the specified bio to its cgroup. Depending on +the configuration, the bio may be executed at a lower priority and if +the writeback session is holding shared resources, e.g. a journal +entry, may lead to priority inversion. There is no one easy solution +for the problem. Filesystems can try to work around specific problem +cases by skipping wbc_init_bio() or using bio_associate_blkcg() +directly. + + +D. Deprecated v1 Core Features + +- Multiple hierarchies including named ones are not supported. + +- All mount options and remounting are not supported. + +- The "tasks" file is removed and "cgroup.procs" is not sorted. + +- "cgroup.clone_children" is removed. + +- /proc/cgroups is meaningless for v2. Use "cgroup.controllers" file + at the root instead. + + +R. Issues with v1 and Rationales for v2 + +R-1. Multiple Hierarchies + +cgroup v1 allowed an arbitrary number of hierarchies and each +hierarchy could host any number of controllers. While this seemed to +provide a high level of flexibility, it wasn't useful in practice. + +For example, as there is only one instance of each controller, utility +type controllers such as freezer which can be useful in all +hierarchies could only be used in one. The issue is exacerbated by +the fact that controllers couldn't be moved to another hierarchy once +hierarchies were populated. Another issue was that all controllers +bound to a hierarchy were forced to have exactly the same view of the +hierarchy. It wasn't possible to vary the granularity depending on +the specific controller. + +In practice, these issues heavily limited which controllers could be +put on the same hierarchy and most configurations resorted to putting +each controller on its own hierarchy. Only closely related ones, such +as the cpu and cpuacct controllers, made sense to be put on the same +hierarchy. This often meant that userland ended up managing multiple +similar hierarchies repeating the same steps on each hierarchy +whenever a hierarchy management operation was necessary. + +Furthermore, support for multiple hierarchies came at a steep cost. +It greatly complicated cgroup core implementation but more importantly +the support for multiple hierarchies restricted how cgroup could be +used in general and what controllers was able to do. + +There was no limit on how many hierarchies there might be, which meant +that a thread's cgroup membership couldn't be described in finite +length. The key might contain any number of entries and was unlimited +in length, which made it highly awkward to manipulate and led to +addition of controllers which existed only to identify membership, +which in turn exacerbated the original problem of proliferating number +of hierarchies. + +Also, as a controller couldn't have any expectation regarding the +topologies of hierarchies other controllers might be on, each +controller had to assume that all other controllers were attached to +completely orthogonal hierarchies. This made it impossible, or at +least very cumbersome, for controllers to cooperate with each other. + +In most use cases, putting controllers on hierarchies which are +completely orthogonal to each other isn't necessary. What usually is +called for is the ability to have differing levels of granularity +depending on the specific controller. In other words, hierarchy may +be collapsed from leaf towards root when viewed from specific +controllers. For example, a given configuration might not care about +how memory is distributed beyond a certain level while still wanting +to control how CPU cycles are distributed. + + +R-2. Thread Granularity + +cgroup v1 allowed threads of a process to belong to different cgroups. +This didn't make sense for some controllers and those controllers +ended up implementing different ways to ignore such situations but +much more importantly it blurred the line between API exposed to +individual applications and system management interface. + +Generally, in-process knowledge is available only to the process +itself; thus, unlike service-level organization of processes, +categorizing threads of a process requires active participation from +the application which owns the target process. + +cgroup v1 had an ambiguously defined delegation model which got abused +in combination with thread granularity. cgroups were delegated to +individual applications so that they can create and manage their own +sub-hierarchies and control resource distributions along them. This +effectively raised cgroup to the status of a syscall-like API exposed +to lay programs. + +First of all, cgroup has a fundamentally inadequate interface to be +exposed this way. For a process to access its own knobs, it has to +extract the path on the target hierarchy from /proc/self/cgroup, +construct the path by appending the name of the knob to the path, open +and then read and/or write to it. This is not only extremely clunky +and unusual but also inherently racy. There is no conventional way to +define transaction across the required steps and nothing can guarantee +that the process would actually be operating on its own sub-hierarchy. + +cgroup controllers implemented a number of knobs which would never be +accepted as public APIs because they were just adding control knobs to +system-management pseudo filesystem. cgroup ended up with interface +knobs which were not properly abstracted or refined and directly +revealed kernel internal details. These knobs got exposed to +individual applications through the ill-defined delegation mechanism +effectively abusing cgroup as a shortcut to implementing public APIs +without going through the required scrutiny. + +This was painful for both userland and kernel. Userland ended up with +misbehaving and poorly abstracted interfaces and kernel exposing and +locked into constructs inadvertently. + + +R-3. Competition Between Inner Nodes and Threads + +cgroup v1 allowed threads to be in any cgroups which created an +interesting problem where threads belonging to a parent cgroup and its +children cgroups competed for resources. This was nasty as two +different types of entities competed and there was no obvious way to +settle it. Different controllers did different things. + +The cpu controller considered threads and cgroups as equivalents and +mapped nice levels to cgroup weights. This worked for some cases but +fell flat when children wanted to be allocated specific ratios of CPU +cycles and the number of internal threads fluctuated - the ratios +constantly changed as the number of competing entities fluctuated. +There also were other issues. The mapping from nice level to weight +wasn't obvious or universal, and there were various other knobs which +simply weren't available for threads. + +The io controller implicitly created a hidden leaf node for each +cgroup to host the threads. The hidden leaf had its own copies of all +the knobs with "leaf_" prefixed. While this allowed equivalent +control over internal threads, it was with serious drawbacks. It +always added an extra layer of nesting which wouldn't be necessary +otherwise, made the interface messy and significantly complicated the +implementation. + +The memory controller didn't have a way to control what happened +between internal tasks and child cgroups and the behavior was not +clearly defined. There were attempts to add ad-hoc behaviors and +knobs to tailor the behavior to specific workloads which would have +led to problems extremely difficult to resolve in the long term. + +Multiple controllers struggled with internal tasks and came up with +different ways to deal with it; unfortunately, all the approaches were +severely flawed and, furthermore, the widely different behaviors +made cgroup as a whole highly inconsistent. + +This clearly is a problem which needs to be addressed from cgroup core +in a uniform way. + + +R-4. Other Interface Issues + +cgroup v1 grew without oversight and developed a large number of +idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies. One issue on the cgroup core side +was how an empty cgroup was notified - a userland helper binary was +forked and executed for each event. The event delivery wasn't +recursive or delegatable. The limitations of the mechanism also led +to in-kernel event delivery filtering mechanism further complicating +the interface. + +Controller interfaces were problematic too. An extreme example is +controllers completely ignoring hierarchical organization and treating +all cgroups as if they were all located directly under the root +cgroup. Some controllers exposed a large amount of inconsistent +implementation details to userland. + +There also was no consistency across controllers. When a new cgroup +was created, some controllers defaulted to not imposing extra +restrictions while others disallowed any resource usage until +explicitly configured. Configuration knobs for the same type of +control used widely differing naming schemes and formats. Statistics +and information knobs were named arbitrarily and used different +formats and units even in the same controller. + +cgroup v2 establishes common conventions where appropriate and updates +controllers so that they expose minimal and consistent interfaces. + + +R-5. Controller Issues and Remedies + +R-5-1. Memory + +The original lower boundary, the soft limit, is defined as a limit +that is per default unset. As a result, the set of cgroups that +global reclaim prefers is opt-in, rather than opt-out. The costs for +optimizing these mostly negative lookups are so high that the +implementation, despite its enormous size, does not even provide the +basic desirable behavior. First off, the soft limit has no +hierarchical meaning. All configured groups are organized in a global +rbtree and treated like equal peers, regardless where they are located +in the hierarchy. This makes subtree delegation impossible. Second, +the soft limit reclaim pass is so aggressive that it not just +introduces high allocation latencies into the system, but also impacts +system performance due to overreclaim, to the point where the feature +becomes self-defeating. + +The memory.low boundary on the other hand is a top-down allocated +reserve. A cgroup enjoys reclaim protection when it and all its +ancestors are below their low boundaries, which makes delegation of +subtrees possible. Secondly, new cgroups have no reserve per default +and in the common case most cgroups are eligible for the preferred +reclaim pass. This allows the new low boundary to be efficiently +implemented with just a minor addition to the generic reclaim code, +without the need for out-of-band data structures and reclaim passes. +Because the generic reclaim code considers all cgroups except for the +ones running low in the preferred first reclaim pass, overreclaim of +individual groups is eliminated as well, resulting in much better +overall workload performance. + +The original high boundary, the hard limit, is defined as a strict +limit that can not budge, even if the OOM killer has to be called. +But this generally goes against the goal of making the most out of the +available memory. The memory consumption of workloads varies during +runtime, and that requires users to overcommit. But doing that with a +strict upper limit requires either a fairly accurate prediction of the +working set size or adding slack to the limit. Since working set size +estimation is hard and error prone, and getting it wrong results in +OOM kills, most users tend to err on the side of a looser limit and +end up wasting precious resources. + +The memory.high boundary on the other hand can be set much more +conservatively. When hit, it throttles allocations by forcing them +into direct reclaim to work off the excess, but it never invokes the +OOM killer. As a result, a high boundary that is chosen too +aggressively will not terminate the processes, but instead it will +lead to gradual performance degradation. The user can monitor this +and make corrections until the minimal memory footprint that still +gives acceptable performance is found. + +In extreme cases, with many concurrent allocations and a complete +breakdown of reclaim progress within the group, the high boundary can +be exceeded. But even then it's mostly better to satisfy the +allocation from the slack available in other groups or the rest of the +system than killing the group. Otherwise, memory.max is there to +limit this type of spillover and ultimately contain buggy or even +malicious applications. + +The combined memory+swap accounting and limiting is replaced by real +control over swap space. + +The main argument for a combined memory+swap facility in the original +cgroup design was that global or parental pressure would always be +able to swap all anonymous memory of a child group, regardless of the +child's own (possibly untrusted) configuration. However, untrusted +groups can sabotage swapping by other means - such as referencing its +anonymous memory in a tight loop - and an admin can not assume full +swappability when overcommitting untrusted jobs. + +For trusted jobs, on the other hand, a combined counter is not an +intuitive userspace interface, and it flies in the face of the idea +that cgroup controllers should account and limit specific physical +resources. Swap space is a resource like all others in the system, +and that's why unified hierarchy allows distributing it separately. |