linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH RFC 3/5] blk-mq: Facilitate a shared tags per tagset

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Date:   Fri, 15 Nov 2019 10:46:53 +0000
From:   John Garry <john.garry@...wei.com>
To:     Hannes Reinecke <hare@...e.de>,
        "axboe@...nel.dk" <axboe@...nel.dk>,
        "jejb@...ux.ibm.com" <jejb@...ux.ibm.com>,
        "martin.petersen@...cle.com" <martin.petersen@...cle.com>
CC:     "linux-block@...r.kernel.org" <linux-block@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org" <linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org>,
        "ming.lei@...hat.com" <ming.lei@...hat.com>,
        "hare@...e.com" <hare@...e.com>,
        "bvanassche@....org" <bvanassche@....org>,
        "chenxiang (M)" <chenxiang66@...ilicon.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC 3/5] blk-mq: Facilitate a shared tags per tagset

On 15/11/2019 07:26, Hannes Reinecke wrote:
> On 11/14/19 10:41 AM, John Garry wrote:
>> On 13/11/2019 18:38, Hannes Reinecke wrote:
>>>> Hi Hannes,
>>>>
>>>>> Oh, my. Indeed, that's correct.
>>>>
>>>> The tags could be kept in sync like this:
>>>>
>>>> shared_tag = blk_mq_get_tag(shared_tagset);
>>>> if (shared_tag != -1)
>>>>       sbitmap_set(hctx->tags, shared_tag);
>>>>
>>>> But that's obviously not ideal.
>>>>
>>> Actually, I _do_ prefer keeping both in sync.
>>> We might want to check if the 'normal' tag is set (typically it would
>>> not, but then, who knows ...)
>>> The beauty here is that both 'shared' and 'normal' tag are in sync, so
>>> if a driver would be wanting to use the tag as index into a command
>>> array it can do so without any surprises.
>>>
>>> Why do you think it's not ideal?
>>
>> A few points:
>> - Getting a bit from one tagset and then setting it in another tagset is
>> a bit clunky.
> Yes, that's true.
> But painstakingly trying to find a free bit in a bitmask when we already
> know which to pick is also a bit daft.

Yeah, but it's not all good - there would still be a certain overhead in 
the atomic set and unset bit on the hctx sbitmap. However it still 
should be faster as it excludes the search.

> 
>> - There may be an atomicity of the getting the shared tag bit and
>> setting the hctx tag bit - I don't think that there is.
> 
> That was precisely what I've alluded to in 'We might want to check if
> the normal tag is set'.
> Typically the 'normal' tag would be free (as the shared tag set out of
> necessity needs to be the combination of all hctx tag sets).

Right

> Any difference here _is_ a programming error, and should be flagged as
> such (sbitmap_test_and_set() anyone?)

Eh, I hope that we wouldn't need this.

> We might have ordering issues on release, as we really should drop the
> hctx tag before the shared tag; but when we observe that we should be fine.
> 
>> - Consider that sometimes we may want to check if there is space on a hw
>> queue - checking the hctx tags is not really proper any longer, as
>> typically there would always be space on hctx, but not always the shared
>> tags. We did delete blk_mq_can_queue() yesterday, which would be an
>> example of that. Need to check if there are others.
>>
> Clearly, this needs an audit of all functions accessing the hctx tag
> space; maybe it's worth having a pre-requisite patchset differentiating
> between hctx tags and global, shared tags. Hmm.
> 
>> Having said all that, the obvious advantage is performance gain, can
>> still use request.tag and so maybe less intrusive changes.
>>
>> I'll have a look at the implementation. The devil is mostly in the
>> detail...
>>
> True.
> And, incidentally, if we run with shared tage we can skip the scheduling
> section in blk_mq_get_tag(); if we're out of tags, we're out of tags,

Right, but don't we need to then "kick all hw queues", instead of just 
that for the current hctx in blk_mq_get_tag() when free tags are exhausted?

> and no rescheduling will help as we don't _have_ other tagsets to look at.
> 
> But overall I like this approach.
> 

Yeah, to me it seems sensible. Again, a neat implementation is the 
challenge.

I'll post an RFC v2 for this one.

I am also requesting some performance figures also internally.

Thanks,
John