Date:	Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:17:43 +0800
From:	Gui Jianfeng <guijianfeng@...fujitsu.com>
To:	Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@...hat.com>
CC:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, jens.axboe@...cle.com,
	nauman@...gle.com, lizf@...fujitsu.com, ryov@...inux.co.jp,
	fernando@....ntt.co.jp, taka@...inux.co.jp, jmoyer@...hat.com,
	m-ikeda@...jp.nec.com, czoccolo@...il.com, Alan.Brunelle@...com
Subject: Re: [RFC] CFQ group scheduling structure organization

Vivek Goyal wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> With some basic group scheduling support in CFQ, there are few questions
> regarding how group structure should look like in CFQ.
> 
> Currently, grouping looks as follows. A, and B are two cgroups created by
> user.
> 
> Proposal 1:
> =========
> 			grp-service-tree
> 			/      |     \
> 		    root       A     B
> 
> One issue with this structure is that RT tasks are not system wide. So an
> RT tasks inside root group has RT priority only with-in root group. So a
> BE task inside A will get it fair share despite the fact that root has got
> RT tasks.
> 
> 
> Proposal 2:
> ==========
> One proposal to solve this issue is that make RT and IDLE tasks system
> wide and provide weight based service differentiation only for BE class
> tasks. So RT or IDLE tasks running in any of the groups will automatically
> move to one global RT group maintained by CFQ internally. Same is true for
> IDLE tasks. But BE class tasks will honor the cgroup limitations and will
> get differentiated service according to weight.
> 
> Internal structure will look as follows.
> 
>      grp-RT-service-tree  grp-BE-service-tree   grp-IDLE-service-tree 
>              |		      /  \                      |
> 	all_RT_task_group    A   B               all_idle_tasks_grp
> 		
> 
> Here A and B are two cgroups and some BE tasks might be running inside 
> those groups. systemwide RT tasks will move under all_RT_task_group and
> all idle tasks will move under all_idle_tasks_grp.
> 
> So one will notice service differentiation only for BE tasks.

Hi Vivek,

I still think that we need to give choices for users. When an user want to give
RT Tasks service differentiation, we shouldn't treat all RT tasks as systemwide.
But if a user want better latency for RT tasks, we treat them systemwide. CFQ can
rely on sysfs tunable to achieve this.

Thanks
Gui

> 
> 
> Proposal 3:
> ===========
> 
> One can argue that we need group service differentiation for RT class
> tasks also and don't move tasks automatically across groups. That means
> we need to support "group class" type also. Probably we can support
> three classes of cgroups RT, BE and IDLE and CFQ will use that data to
> put cgroups in respective tree. 
> 
> Things should look as follows.
> 
>      grp-RT-service-tree  grp-BE-service-tree   grp-IDLE-service-tree 
>              / \		      /  \             /   \  
> 	    C  D                     A   B            E    F
> 
> 
> Here A and B are BE type groups created by user.
> C and D are RT type cgroups created by user.
> E and F are IDLE type cgroups created by user.
> 
> Now in this scheme of things, by default root will be of type BE. Any task
> RT task under "root" group will not be system wide RT task. It will be RT
> only with-in root group. To make it system wide idle, admin shall have to
> create a new cgroup, say C, of type RT and move task in that cgroup.
> Because RT group C is system wide, now that task becomes system wide RT.
> 
> So this scheme might throw some surprise to existing users. They might
> create a new group and not realize that their RT tasks are no more system
> wide RT tasks and they need to specifically create one RT cgroup and move
> all RT tasks in that cgroup.
> 
> Practically I am not sure how many people are looking for group service
> differentiation for RT and IDLE class tasks also.
> 
> Proposal 4:
> ==========
> Treat task and group at same level. Currently groups are at top level and
> at second level are tasks. View the whole hierarchy as follows.
> 
> 
> 			service-tree
> 			/   |  \  \
> 		       T1   T2  G1 G2
> 
> Here T1 and T2 are two tasks in root group and G1 and G2 are two cgroups
> created under root.
> 
> In this kind of scheme, any RT task in root group will still be system
> wide RT even if we create groups G1 and G2.
> 
> So what are the issues?
> 
> - I talked to few folks and everybody found this scheme not so intutive.
>   Their argument was that once I create a cgroup, say A,  under root, then
>   bandwidth should be divided between "root" and "A" proportionate to
>   the weight.
> 
>   It is not very intutive that group is competing with all the tasks 
>   running in root group. And disk share of newly created group will change
>   if more tasks fork in root group. So it is highly dynamic and not
>   static hence un-intutive.
> 
>   To emulate the behavior of previous proposals, root shall have to create
>   a new group and move all root tasks there. But admin shall have to still 
>   keep RT tasks in root group so that they still remain system-wide.
> 
> 			service-tree
> 			/   |    \  \
> 		       T1  root  G1 G2
> 			    |
> 			    T2
> 
>   Now admin has specifically created a group "root" along side G1 and G2
>   and moved T2 under root. T1 is still left in top level group as it might
>   be an RT task and we want it to remain RT task systemwide.
> 
>   So to some people this scheme is un-intutive and requires more work in
>   user space to achive desired behavior. I am kind of 50:50 between two
>   kind of arrangements.
> 
> 
> I am looking for some feedback on what makes most sense.
> 
> For the time being, I am little inclined towards proposal 2 and I have
> implemented a proof of concept version on top of for-2.6.33 branch in block
> tree.  These patches are compile and boot tested only and I have yet to do
> testing.
> 
> Thanks
> Vivek
> 
> 
> 

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