linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/4] block: add scalable completion tracking of requests

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Date:   Sat, 5 Nov 2016 07:13:54 +0800
From:   Ming Lei <tom.leiming@...il.com>
To:     Jens Axboe <axboe@...com>
Cc:     Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-block <linux-block@...r.kernel.org>,
        Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4] block: add scalable completion tracking of requests

On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 12:55 AM, Jens Axboe <axboe@...com> wrote:
> On 11/03/2016 08:57 AM, Ming Lei wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 3, 2016 at 9:38 PM, Jens Axboe <axboe@...com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 11/03/2016 05:17 AM, Ming Lei wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> diff --git a/block/blk-core.c b/block/blk-core.c
>>>>> index 0bfaa54d3e9f..ca77c725b4e5 100644
>>>>> --- a/block/blk-core.c
>>>>> +++ b/block/blk-core.c
>>>>> @@ -2462,6 +2462,8 @@ void blk_start_request(struct request *req)
>>>>>  {
>>>>>         blk_dequeue_request(req);
>>>>>
>>>>> +       blk_stat_set_issue_time(&req->issue_stat);
>>>>> +
>>>>>         /*
>>>>>          * We are now handing the request to the hardware, initialize
>>>>>          * resid_len to full count and add the timeout handler.
>>>>> @@ -2529,6 +2531,8 @@ bool blk_update_request(struct request *req, int
>>>>> error, unsigned int nr_bytes)
>>>>>
>>>>>         trace_block_rq_complete(req->q, req, nr_bytes);
>>>>>
>>>>> +       blk_stat_add(&req->q->rq_stats[rq_data_dir(req)], req);
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> blk_update_request() is often called lockless, so it isn't good to
>>>> do it here.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> It's not really a concern, not for the legacy path here nor the mq one
>>> where it is per sw context. The collisions are rare enough that it'll
>>
>>
>> How do you get the conclusion that the collisions are rare enough
>> when the counting becomes completely lockless?
>
>
> Of all the races I can spot, it basically boils down to accounting one
> IO to little or too many.
>
>> Even though it is true, the statistics still may become a mess with rare
>> collisons.
>
>
> How so? Not saying we could not improve it, but we're trading off
> precision for scalability. My claim is that the existing code is good
> enough. I've run a TON of testing on it, since I've used it for multiple
> projects, and it's been solid.

+static void blk_stat_flush_batch(struct blk_rq_stat *stat)
+{
+       if (!stat->nr_batch)
+               return;
+       if (!stat->nr_samples)
+               stat->mean = div64_s64(stat->batch, stat->nr_batch);

For example, two reqs(A & B) are completed at the same time, and
A is on CPU0, and B is on CPU1.

If the two last writting in the function is reordered observed from CPU1,
for B, CPU1 runs the above branch when it just sees stat->batch is set as zero,
but nr_samples isn't updated yet, then div_zero is triggered.


+       else {
+               stat->mean = div64_s64((stat->mean * stat->nr_samples) +
+                                       stat->batch,
+                                       stat->nr_samples + stat->nr_batch);
+       }

BTW, the above 'if else' can be removed, and 'stat->mean' can be computed
in the 2nd way.

+
+       stat->nr_samples += stat->nr_batch;

one addition of stat->nr_batch can be overrideed, and it may not
be accounted into stat->mean at all.

+       stat->nr_batch = stat->batch = 0;
+}

>
>>> skew the latencies a bit for that short window, but then go away again.
>>> I'd much rather take that, than adding locking for this part.
>>
>>
>> For legacy case, blk_stat_add() can be moved into blk_finish_request()
>> for avoiding the collision.
>
>
> Yes, that might be a good idea, since it doesn't cost us anything. For
> the mq case, I'm hard pressed to think of areas where we could complete
> IO in parallel on the same software queue. You'll never have a software
> queue mapped to multiple hardware queues. So we should essentially be
> serialized.

For blk-mq, blk_mq_stat_add() is called in __blk_mq_complete_request()
which is often run from interrupt handler, and the CPU serving the interrupt
can be different with the submitting CPU for rq->mq_ctx. And there can be
several CPUs handling the interrupts originating from same sw queue.

BTW, I don't object to this patch actually, but maybe we should add
comment about this kind of race. Cause in the future someone might find
the statistics becomes not accurate, and they may understand or
try to improve.


Thanks,
Ming Lei