diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt | 399 |
1 files changed, 399 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt b/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..e1501964df1e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/cgroups/memory.txt @@ -0,0 +1,399 @@ +Memory Resource Controller + +NOTE: The Memory Resource Controller has been generically been referred +to as the memory controller in this document. Do not confuse memory controller +used here with the memory controller that is used in hardware. + +Salient features + +a. Enable control of both RSS (mapped) and Page Cache (unmapped) pages +b. The infrastructure allows easy addition of other types of memory to control +c. Provides *zero overhead* for non memory controller users +d. Provides a double LRU: global memory pressure causes reclaim from the + global LRU; a cgroup on hitting a limit, reclaims from the per + cgroup LRU + +NOTE: Swap Cache (unmapped) is not accounted now. + +Benefits and Purpose of the memory controller + +The memory controller isolates the memory behaviour of a group of tasks +from the rest of the system. The article on LWN [12] mentions some probable +uses of the memory controller. The memory controller can be used to + +a. Isolate an application or a group of applications + Memory hungry applications can be isolated and limited to a smaller + amount of memory. +b. Create a cgroup with limited amount of memory, this can be used + as a good alternative to booting with mem=XXXX. +c. Virtualization solutions can control the amount of memory they want + to assign to a virtual machine instance. +d. A CD/DVD burner could control the amount of memory used by the + rest of the system to ensure that burning does not fail due to lack + of available memory. +e. There are several other use cases, find one or use the controller just + for fun (to learn and hack on the VM subsystem). + +1. History + +The memory controller has a long history. A request for comments for the memory +controller was posted by Balbir Singh [1]. At the time the RFC was posted +there were several implementations for memory control. The goal of the +RFC was to build consensus and agreement for the minimal features required +for memory control. The first RSS controller was posted by Balbir Singh[2] +in Feb 2007. Pavel Emelianov [3][4][5] has since posted three versions of the +RSS controller. At OLS, at the resource management BoF, everyone suggested +that we handle both page cache and RSS together. Another request was raised +to allow user space handling of OOM. The current memory controller is +at version 6; it combines both mapped (RSS) and unmapped Page +Cache Control [11]. + +2. Memory Control + +Memory is a unique resource in the sense that it is present in a limited +amount. If a task requires a lot of CPU processing, the task can spread +its processing over a period of hours, days, months or years, but with +memory, the same physical memory needs to be reused to accomplish the task. + +The memory controller implementation has been divided into phases. These +are: + +1. Memory controller +2. mlock(2) controller +3. Kernel user memory accounting and slab control +4. user mappings length controller + +The memory controller is the first controller developed. + +2.1. Design + +The core of the design is a counter called the res_counter. The res_counter +tracks the current memory usage and limit of the group of processes associated +with the controller. Each cgroup has a memory controller specific data +structure (mem_cgroup) associated with it. + +2.2. Accounting + + +--------------------+ + | mem_cgroup | + | (res_counter) | + +--------------------+ + / ^ \ + / | \ + +---------------+ | +---------------+ + | mm_struct | |.... | mm_struct | + | | | | | + +---------------+ | +---------------+ + | + + --------------+ + | + +---------------+ +------+--------+ + | page +----------> page_cgroup| + | | | | + +---------------+ +---------------+ + + (Figure 1: Hierarchy of Accounting) + + +Figure 1 shows the important aspects of the controller + +1. Accounting happens per cgroup +2. Each mm_struct knows about which cgroup it belongs to +3. Each page has a pointer to the page_cgroup, which in turn knows the + cgroup it belongs to + +The accounting is done as follows: mem_cgroup_charge() is invoked to setup +the necessary data structures and check if the cgroup that is being charged +is over its limit. If it is then reclaim is invoked on the cgroup. +More details can be found in the reclaim section of this document. +If everything goes well, a page meta-data-structure called page_cgroup is +allocated and associated with the page. This routine also adds the page to +the per cgroup LRU. + +2.2.1 Accounting details + +All mapped anon pages (RSS) and cache pages (Page Cache) are accounted. +(some pages which never be reclaimable and will not be on global LRU + are not accounted. we just accounts pages under usual vm management.) + +RSS pages are accounted at page_fault unless they've already been accounted +for earlier. A file page will be accounted for as Page Cache when it's +inserted into inode (radix-tree). While it's mapped into the page tables of +processes, duplicate accounting is carefully avoided. + +A RSS page is unaccounted when it's fully unmapped. A PageCache page is +unaccounted when it's removed from radix-tree. + +At page migration, accounting information is kept. + +Note: we just account pages-on-lru because our purpose is to control amount +of used pages. not-on-lru pages are tend to be out-of-control from vm view. + +2.3 Shared Page Accounting + +Shared pages are accounted on the basis of the first touch approach. The +cgroup that first touches a page is accounted for the page. The principle +behind this approach is that a cgroup that aggressively uses a shared +page will eventually get charged for it (once it is uncharged from +the cgroup that brought it in -- this will happen on memory pressure). + +Exception: If CONFIG_CGROUP_CGROUP_MEM_RES_CTLR_SWAP is not used.. +When you do swapoff and make swapped-out pages of shmem(tmpfs) to +be backed into memory in force, charges for pages are accounted against the +caller of swapoff rather than the users of shmem. + + +2.4 Swap Extension (CONFIG_CGROUP_MEM_RES_CTLR_SWAP) +Swap Extension allows you to record charge for swap. A swapped-in page is +charged back to original page allocator if possible. + +When swap is accounted, following files are added. + - memory.memsw.usage_in_bytes. + - memory.memsw.limit_in_bytes. + +usage of mem+swap is limited by memsw.limit_in_bytes. + +Note: why 'mem+swap' rather than swap. +The global LRU(kswapd) can swap out arbitrary pages. Swap-out means +to move account from memory to swap...there is no change in usage of +mem+swap. + +In other words, when we want to limit the usage of swap without affecting +global LRU, mem+swap limit is better than just limiting swap from OS point +of view. + +2.5 Reclaim + +Each cgroup maintains a per cgroup LRU that consists of an active +and inactive list. When a cgroup goes over its limit, we first try +to reclaim memory from the cgroup so as to make space for the new +pages that the cgroup has touched. If the reclaim is unsuccessful, +an OOM routine is invoked to select and kill the bulkiest task in the +cgroup. + +The reclaim algorithm has not been modified for cgroups, except that +pages that are selected for reclaiming come from the per cgroup LRU +list. + +2. Locking + +The memory controller uses the following hierarchy + +1. zone->lru_lock is used for selecting pages to be isolated +2. mem->per_zone->lru_lock protects the per cgroup LRU (per zone) +3. lock_page_cgroup() is used to protect page->page_cgroup + +3. User Interface + +0. Configuration + +a. Enable CONFIG_CGROUPS +b. Enable CONFIG_RESOURCE_COUNTERS +c. Enable CONFIG_CGROUP_MEM_RES_CTLR + +1. Prepare the cgroups +# mkdir -p /cgroups +# mount -t cgroup none /cgroups -o memory + +2. Make the new group and move bash into it +# mkdir /cgroups/0 +# echo $$ > /cgroups/0/tasks + +Since now we're in the 0 cgroup, +We can alter the memory limit: +# echo 4M > /cgroups/0/memory.limit_in_bytes + +NOTE: We can use a suffix (k, K, m, M, g or G) to indicate values in kilo, +mega or gigabytes. + +# cat /cgroups/0/memory.limit_in_bytes +4194304 + +NOTE: The interface has now changed to display the usage in bytes +instead of pages + +We can check the usage: +# cat /cgroups/0/memory.usage_in_bytes +1216512 + +A successful write to this file does not guarantee a successful set of +this limit to the value written into the file. This can be due to a +number of factors, such as rounding up to page boundaries or the total +availability of memory on the system. The user is required to re-read +this file after a write to guarantee the value committed by the kernel. + +# echo 1 > memory.limit_in_bytes +# cat memory.limit_in_bytes +4096 + +The memory.failcnt field gives the number of times that the cgroup limit was +exceeded. + +The memory.stat file gives accounting information. Now, the number of +caches, RSS and Active pages/Inactive pages are shown. + +4. Testing + +Balbir posted lmbench, AIM9, LTP and vmmstress results [10] and [11]. +Apart from that v6 has been tested with several applications and regular +daily use. The controller has also been tested on the PPC64, x86_64 and +UML platforms. + +4.1 Troubleshooting + +Sometimes a user might find that the application under a cgroup is +terminated. There are several causes for this: + +1. The cgroup limit is too low (just too low to do anything useful) +2. The user is using anonymous memory and swap is turned off or too low + +A sync followed by echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches will help get rid of +some of the pages cached in the cgroup (page cache pages). + +4.2 Task migration + +When a task migrates from one cgroup to another, it's charge is not +carried forward. The pages allocated from the original cgroup still +remain charged to it, the charge is dropped when the page is freed or +reclaimed. + +4.3 Removing a cgroup + +A cgroup can be removed by rmdir, but as discussed in sections 4.1 and 4.2, a +cgroup might have some charge associated with it, even though all +tasks have migrated away from it. +Such charges are freed(at default) or moved to its parent. When moved, +both of RSS and CACHES are moved to parent. +If both of them are busy, rmdir() returns -EBUSY. See 5.1 Also. + +Charges recorded in swap information is not updated at removal of cgroup. +Recorded information is discarded and a cgroup which uses swap (swapcache) +will be charged as a new owner of it. + + +5. Misc. interfaces. + +5.1 force_empty + memory.force_empty interface is provided to make cgroup's memory usage empty. + You can use this interface only when the cgroup has no tasks. + When writing anything to this + + # echo 0 > memory.force_empty + + Almost all pages tracked by this memcg will be unmapped and freed. Some of + pages cannot be freed because it's locked or in-use. Such pages are moved + to parent and this cgroup will be empty. But this may return -EBUSY in + some too busy case. + + Typical use case of this interface is that calling this before rmdir(). + Because rmdir() moves all pages to parent, some out-of-use page caches can be + moved to the parent. If you want to avoid that, force_empty will be useful. + +5.2 stat file + memory.stat file includes following statistics (now) + cache - # of pages from page-cache and shmem. + rss - # of pages from anonymous memory. + pgpgin - # of event of charging + pgpgout - # of event of uncharging + active_anon - # of pages on active lru of anon, shmem. + inactive_anon - # of pages on active lru of anon, shmem + active_file - # of pages on active lru of file-cache + inactive_file - # of pages on inactive lru of file cache + unevictable - # of pages cannot be reclaimed.(mlocked etc) + + Below is depend on CONFIG_DEBUG_VM. + inactive_ratio - VM inernal parameter. (see mm/page_alloc.c) + recent_rotated_anon - VM internal parameter. (see mm/vmscan.c) + recent_rotated_file - VM internal parameter. (see mm/vmscan.c) + recent_scanned_anon - VM internal parameter. (see mm/vmscan.c) + recent_scanned_file - VM internal parameter. (see mm/vmscan.c) + + Memo: + recent_rotated means recent frequency of lru rotation. + recent_scanned means recent # of scans to lru. + showing for better debug please see the code for meanings. + + +5.3 swappiness + Similar to /proc/sys/vm/swappiness, but affecting a hierarchy of groups only. + + Following cgroup's swapiness can't be changed. + - root cgroup (uses /proc/sys/vm/swappiness). + - a cgroup which uses hierarchy and it has child cgroup. + - a cgroup which uses hierarchy and not the root of hierarchy. + + +6. Hierarchy support + +The memory controller supports a deep hierarchy and hierarchical accounting. +The hierarchy is created by creating the appropriate cgroups in the +cgroup filesystem. Consider for example, the following cgroup filesystem +hierarchy + + root + / | \ + / | \ + a b c + | \ + | \ + d e + +In the diagram above, with hierarchical accounting enabled, all memory +usage of e, is accounted to its ancestors up until the root (i.e, c and root), +that has memory.use_hierarchy enabled. If one of the ancestors goes over its +limit, the reclaim algorithm reclaims from the tasks in the ancestor and the +children of the ancestor. + +6.1 Enabling hierarchical accounting and reclaim + +The memory controller by default disables the hierarchy feature. Support +can be enabled by writing 1 to memory.use_hierarchy file of the root cgroup + +# echo 1 > memory.use_hierarchy + +The feature can be disabled by + +# echo 0 > memory.use_hierarchy + +NOTE1: Enabling/disabling will fail if the cgroup already has other +cgroups created below it. + +NOTE2: This feature can be enabled/disabled per subtree. + +7. TODO + +1. Add support for accounting huge pages (as a separate controller) +2. Make per-cgroup scanner reclaim not-shared pages first +3. Teach controller to account for shared-pages +4. Start reclamation in the background when the limit is + not yet hit but the usage is getting closer + +Summary + +Overall, the memory controller has been a stable controller and has been +commented and discussed quite extensively in the community. + +References + +1. Singh, Balbir. RFC: Memory Controller, http://lwn.net/Articles/206697/ +2. Singh, Balbir. Memory Controller (RSS Control), + http://lwn.net/Articles/222762/ +3. Emelianov, Pavel. Resource controllers based on process cgroups + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/3/6/198 +4. Emelianov, Pavel. RSS controller based on process cgroups (v2) + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/4/9/78 +5. Emelianov, Pavel. RSS controller based on process cgroups (v3) + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/5/30/244 +6. Menage, Paul. Control Groups v10, http://lwn.net/Articles/236032/ +7. Vaidyanathan, Srinivasan, Control Groups: Pagecache accounting and control + subsystem (v3), http://lwn.net/Articles/235534/ +8. Singh, Balbir. RSS controller v2 test results (lmbench), + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/5/17/232 +9. Singh, Balbir. RSS controller v2 AIM9 results + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/5/18/1 +10. Singh, Balbir. Memory controller v6 test results, + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/8/19/36 +11. Singh, Balbir. Memory controller introduction (v6), + http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/8/17/69 +12. Corbet, Jonathan, Controlling memory use in cgroups, + http://lwn.net/Articles/243795/ |