Mailing List Archive

If we schedule, and the current vCPU continues to run, its statistical
load is not properly updated, resulting in something like this, even if
all the 8 vCPUs are 100% busy:

(XEN) Runqueue 0:
(XEN) [...]
(XEN) aveload = 2097152 (~800%)
(XEN) [...]
(XEN) Domain: 0 w 256 c 0 v 8
(XEN) 1: [0.0] flags=2 cpu=4 credit=9996885 [w=256] load=35 (~0%)
(XEN) 2: [0.1] flags=2 cpu=2 credit=9993725 [w=256] load=796 (~0%)
(XEN) 3: [0.2] flags=2 cpu=1 credit=9995885 [w=256] load=883 (~0%)
(XEN) 4: [0.3] flags=2 cpu=5 credit=9998833 [w=256] load=487 (~0%)
(XEN) 5: [0.4] flags=2 cpu=6 credit=9998942 [w=256] load=1595 (~0%)
(XEN) 6: [0.5] flags=2 cpu=0 credit=9994669 [w=256] load=22 (~0%)
(XEN) 7: [0.6] flags=2 cpu=7 credit=9997706 [w=256] load=0 (~0%)
(XEN) 8: [0.7] flags=2 cpu=3 credit=9992440 [w=256] load=0 (~0%)

As we can see, the average load of the runqueue as a whole is, instead,
computed properly.

This issue would, in theory, potentially affect Credit2 load balancing
logic. In practice, however, the problem only manifests (at least with
these characteristics) when there is only 1 runqueue active in the
cpupool, which also means there is no need to do any load-balancing.

Hence its real impact is pretty much limited to wrong per-vCPU load
percentages, when looking at the output of the 'r' debug-key.

With this patch, the load is updated and displayed correctly:

(XEN) Runqueue 0:
(XEN) [...]
(XEN) aveload = 2097152 (~800%)
(XEN) [...]
(XEN) Domain info:
(XEN) Domain: 0 w 256 c 0 v 8
(XEN) 1: [0.0] flags=2 cpu=4 credit=9995584 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)
(XEN) 2: [0.1] flags=2 cpu=6 credit=9992992 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)
(XEN) 3: [0.2] flags=2 cpu=3 credit=9998918 [w=256] load=262118 (~99%)
(XEN) 4: [0.3] flags=2 cpu=5 credit=9996867 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)
(XEN) 5: [0.4] flags=2 cpu=1 credit=9998912 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)
(XEN) 6: [0.5] flags=2 cpu=2 credit=9997842 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)
(XEN) 7: [0.6] flags=2 cpu=7 credit=9994623 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)
(XEN) 8: [0.7] flags=2 cpu=0 credit=9991815 [w=256] load=262144 (~100%)

Signed-off-by: Dario Faggioli <dfaggioli@suse.com>
---
Cc: George Dunlap <george.dunlap@citrix.com>
Cc: Ian Jackson <iwj@xenproject.org>
---
Despite the limited effect, it's a bug. So:
- it should be backported;
- I think it should be included in 4.15. The risk is pretty low, for
the same reasons already explained when describing its limited impact.
---
xen/common/sched/credit2.c | 2 ++
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/xen/common/sched/credit2.c b/xen/common/sched/credit2.c
index eb5e5a78c5..b3b5de94cf 100644
--- a/xen/common/sched/credit2.c
+++ b/xen/common/sched/credit2.c
@@ -3646,6 +3646,8 @@ static void csched2_schedule(
runq_remove(snext);
__set_bit(__CSFLAG_scheduled, &snext->flags);
}
+ else
+ update_load(ops, rqd, snext, 0, now);

/* Clear the idle mask if necessary */
if ( cpumask_test_cpu(sched_cpu, &rqd->idle) )