linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH V2] kernel/watchdog: fix spurious hard lockups

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Date:   Fri, 23 Jun 2017 12:29:07 -0400
From:   Don Zickus <dzickus@...hat.com>
To:     Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Cc:     Kan Liang <kan.liang@...el.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        mingo@...nel.org, akpm@...ux-foundation.org, babu.moger@...cle.com,
        atomlin@...hat.com, prarit@...hat.com,
        torvalds@...ux-foundation.org, peterz@...radead.org,
        eranian@...gle.com, acme@...hat.com, ak@...ux.intel.com,
        stable@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH V2] kernel/watchdog: fix spurious hard lockups

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 10:01:55AM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Jun 2017, Don Zickus wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 11:53:57PM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > > On Wed, 21 Jun 2017, kan.liang@...el.com wrote:
> > > > We now have more and more systems where the Turbo range is wide enough
> > > > that the NMI watchdog expires faster than the soft watchdog timer that
> > > > updates the interrupt tick the NMI watchdog relies on.
> > > > 
> > > > This problem was originally added by commit 58687acba592
> > > > ("lockup_detector: Combine nmi_watchdog and softlockup detector").
> > > > Previously the NMI watchdog would always check jiffies, which were
> > > > ticking fast enough. But now the backing is quite slow so the expire
> > > > time becomes more sensitive.
> > > 
> > > And slapping a factor 3 on the NMI period is the wrong answer to the
> > > problem. The simple solution would be to increase the hrtimer frequency,
> > > but that's not really desired either.
> > > 
> > > Find an untested patch below, which should cure the issue.
> > 
> > A simple low pass filter.  It compiles. :-) I don't think I have knowledge
> > to test it.  Kan?
> 
> Yes, and it has an interesting twist. It's only working once we have
> switched to TSC as clocksource.
> 
> As long as jiffies are the clocksource, this will miserably fail because
> when the hrtimer interrupt is not delivered jiffies wont be incremented
> either and the NMI will say: Oh. not enough time elapsed. Lather, rinse and
> repeat.
> 
> One simple way to fix this is with the delta patch below.

Hmm, all this work for a temp fix.  Kan, how much longer until the real fix
of having perf count the right cycles?

Cheers,
Don

> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 	tglx
> 
> 8<--------------------------
> --- a/kernel/watchdog_hld.c
> +++ b/kernel/watchdog_hld.c
> @@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(touch_nmi_watchdog);
>  
>  #ifdef CONFIG_HARDLOCKUP_CHECK_TIMESTAMP
>  static DEFINE_PER_CPU(ktime_t, last_timestamp);
> +static DEFINE_PER_CPU(unsigned int, nmi_rearmed);
>  static ktime_t watchdog_hrtimer_sample_threshold __read_mostly;
>  
>  void watchdog_update_hrtimer_threshold(u64 period)
> @@ -105,8 +106,11 @@ static bool watchdog_check_timestamp(voi
>  	ktime_t delta, now = ktime_get_mono_fast_ns();
>  
>  	delta = now - __this_cpu_read(last_timestamp);
> -	if (delta < watchdog_hrtimer_sample_threshold)
> -		return false;
> +	if (delta < watchdog_hrtimer_sample_threshold) {
> +		if (__this_cpu_inc_return(nmi_rearmed) < 10)
> +			return false;
> +	}
> +	__this_cpu_write(nmi_rearmed, 0);
>  	__this_cpu_write(last_timestamp, now);
>  	return true;
>  }
> 
>