netdev - Re: [PATCH] virtio-net: parameterize min ring num

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Date:   Thu, 18 Jul 2019 10:42:47 -0400
From:   "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>
To:     Jason Wang <jasowang@...hat.com>
Cc:     ? jiang <jiangkidd@...mail.com>,
        "davem@...emloft.net" <davem@...emloft.net>,
        "ast@...nel.org" <ast@...nel.org>,
        "daniel@...earbox.net" <daniel@...earbox.net>,
        "jakub.kicinski@...ronome.com" <jakub.kicinski@...ronome.com>,
        "hawk@...nel.org" <hawk@...nel.org>,
        "john.fastabend@...il.com" <john.fastabend@...il.com>,
        "kafai@...com" <kafai@...com>,
        "songliubraving@...com" <songliubraving@...com>,
        "yhs@...com" <yhs@...com>,
        "virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org" 
        <virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "xdp-newbies@...r.kernel.org" <xdp-newbies@...r.kernel.org>,
        "bpf@...r.kernel.org" <bpf@...r.kernel.org>,
        "jiangran.jr@...baba-inc.com" <jiangran.jr@...baba-inc.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] virtio-net: parameterize min ring num_free for virtio
 receive

On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 10:01:05PM +0800, Jason Wang wrote:
> 
> On 2019/7/18 下午9:04, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 12:55:50PM +0000, ? jiang wrote:
> > > This change makes ring buffer reclaim threshold num_free configurable
> > > for better performance, while it's hard coded as 1/2 * queue now.
> > > According to our test with qemu + dpdk, packet dropping happens when
> > > the guest is not able to provide free buffer in avail ring timely.
> > > Smaller value of num_free does decrease the number of packet dropping
> > > during our test as it makes virtio_net reclaim buffer earlier.
> > > 
> > > At least, we should leave the value changeable to user while the
> > > default value as 1/2 * queue is kept.
> > > 
> > > Signed-off-by: jiangkidd<jiangkidd@...mail.com>
> > That would be one reason, but I suspect it's not the
> > true one. If you need more buffer due to jitter
> > then just increase the queue size. Would be cleaner.
> > 
> > 
> > However are you sure this is the reason for
> > packet drops? Do you see them dropped by dpdk
> > due to lack of space in the ring? As opposed to
> > by guest?
> > 
> > 
> 
> Besides those, this patch depends on the user to choose a suitable threshold
> which is not good. You need either a good value with demonstrated numbers or
> something smarter.
> 
> Thanks

I do however think that we have a problem right now: try_fill_recv can
take up a long time during which net stack does not run at all. Imagine
a 1K queue - we are talking 512 packets. That's exceessive.  napi poll
weight solves a similar problem, so it might make sense to cap this at
napi_poll_weight.

Which will allow tweaking it through a module parameter as a
side effect :) Maybe just do NAPI_POLL_WEIGHT.

Need to be careful though: queues can also be small and I don't think we
want to exceed queue size / 2, or maybe queue size - napi_poll_weight.
Definitely must not exceed the full queue size.

-- 
MST