linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] x86/xen: Add "xen_timer

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Message-ID: <52bfeae7c256faec444b69efe58d363ad60c3fc5.camel@suse.com>
Date:   Sat, 23 Mar 2019 03:58:16 +0100
From:   Dario Faggioli <dfaggioli@...e.com>
To:     Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com>, thibodux@...il.com,
        xen-devel@...ts.xenproject.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     oleksandr_andrushchenko@...m.com, tglx@...utronix.de,
        jgross@...e.com, ryan.thibodeaux@...rlab.io,
        luca abeni <luca.abeni@...tannapisa.it>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86/xen: Add "xen_timer_slop" command line option

On Fri, 2019-03-22 at 18:10 -0400, Boris Ostrovsky wrote:
> On 3/22/19 2:29 PM, thibodux@...il.com wrote:
> > From: Ryan Thibodeaux <ryan.thibodeaux@...rlab.io>
> > 
> > The original timer slop value has not changed since the
> > introduction
> > of the Xen-aware Linux kernel code. This commit provides users an
> > opportunity to tune timer performance given the refinements to
> > hardware and the Xen event channel processing. It also mirrors
> > a feature in the Xen hypervisor - the "timer_slop" Xen command line
> > option.
> 
> Is there any data that shows effects of using this new parameter?
> 
Yes, I've done some research and experiments on this. I did it together
with a friend, which I'm Cc-ing, as I'm not sure we're ready/capable to
share the results, yet (Luca?).

What I think I can anticipate is that having such a high value for
timer slop in the kernel, for the Xen clockevent device is (together
with the also quite high default value of timer_slop in Xen itself)
responsible for really high vcpu wakeup latencies.

Lowering those two values, reduces such latencies dramatically.

Regards,
Dario
-- 
<<This happens because I choose it to happen!>> (Raistlin Majere)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dario Faggioli, Ph.D, http://about.me/dario.faggioli
Software Engineer @ SUSE https://www.suse.com/

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