Message-ID:
 <PAWPR10MB7270AF8BCFB5B9D766D15A84C08DA@PAWPR10MB7270.EURPRD10.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2023 15:52:05 +0000
From: "Nikolaou Alexandros (SO/PAF1-Mb)" <Alexandros.Nikolaou@...bosch.com>
To: Wen Gu <guwen@...ux.alibaba.com>, Gerd Bayer <gbayer@...ux.ibm.com>, "D .
 Wythe" <alibuda@...ux.alibaba.com>, Tony Lu <tonylu@...ux.alibaba.com>, Nils
 Hoppmann <niho@...ux.ibm.com>
CC: "linux-s390@...r.kernel.org" <linux-s390@...r.kernel.org>, netdev
	<netdev@...r.kernel.org>, Wenjia Zhang <wenjia@...ux.ibm.com>, Jan Karcher
	<jaka@...ux.ibm.com>, Dust Li <dust.li@...ux.alibaba.com>
Subject: Re: SMC-R throughput drops for specific message sizes

Dear Gerd,

Thank you for directing this matter to the most relevant group and 
individuals. Your support is greatly appreciated. We're actively delving deeper into the issue to gain further insights as well.
I'll ensure to keep this thread updated with any new findings as we progress. 
Should you need any additional information, please feel free to reach out.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best regards

Alexandros Nikolaou


Bosch Service Solutions Magdeburg GmbH | Otto-von-Guericke-Str. 13 | 39104 Magdeburg | GERMANY | [www.boschservicesolutions.com]www.boschservicesolutions.com
Alexandros.Nikolaou@...bosch.com


Sitz: Magdeburg, Registergericht: Amtsgericht Stendal, HRB 24039

Geschäftsführung: Robert Mulatz, Daniel Meyer

From: Wen Gu <guwen@...ux.alibaba.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2023 14:38
To: Gerd Bayer <gbayer@...ux.ibm.com>; Nikolaou Alexandros (SO/PAF1-Mb) <Alexandros.Nikolaou@...bosch.com>; D . Wythe <alibuda@...ux.alibaba.com>; Tony Lu <tonylu@...ux.alibaba.com>; Nils Hoppmann <niho@...ux.ibm.com>
Cc: linux-s390@...r.kernel.org <linux-s390@...r.kernel.org>; netdev <netdev@...r.kernel.org>; Wenjia Zhang <wenjia@...ux.ibm.com>; Jan Karcher <jaka@...ux.ibm.com>; Dust Li <dust.li@...ux.alibaba.com>
Subject: Re: SMC-R throughput drops for specific message sizes
 


On 2023/12/13 20:17, Gerd Bayer wrote:
> Hi Nikolaou,
>
> thank you for providing more details about your setup.
>
> On Wed, 2023-12-06 at 15:28 +0000, Nikolaou Alexandros (SO/PAF1-Mb)
> wrote:
>> Dear Wenjia,
>
> while Wenjia is out, I'm writing primarily to getting some more folks'
> attention to this topic. Furthermore, I'm moving the discussion to the
> netdev mailing list where SMC discussions usually take place.
>
>> Thanks for getting back to me. Some further details on the
>> experiments are:
>>  
>> - The tests had been conducted on a one-to-one connection between two
>> Mellanox-powered (mlx5, ConnectX-5) PCs.
>> - Attached you may find the client log of the qperf output. You may
>> notice that for the majority of message size values, the bandwidth is
>> around 3.2GB/s which matches the maximum throughput of the
>> mellanox NICs.
>> According to a periodic regular pattern though, with the first
>> occurring at a message size of 473616 – 522192 (with a step of
>> 12144kB), the 3.2GB/s throughput drops substantially. The
>> corresponding commands for these drops are
>> server: smc_run qperf
>> client: smc_run qperf -v -uu -H worker1 -m 473616 tcp_bw
>> - Our smc version (3E92E1460DA96BE2B2DDC2F, smc-tools-1.2.2) does not
>> provide us with the smcr info, smc_rnics -a and smcr -d
>> stats commands. As an alternative, you may also find attached the
>> output of ibv_devinfo -v.
>> - Buffer size:
>> sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_rmem="4096 1048576 6291456"
>> sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_wmem="4096 1048576 6291456"
>> - MTU size: 9000
>>  
>> Should you require further information, please let me know.
>
> Wenjia and I belong to a group of Linux on Z developers that maintains
> the SMC protocol on s390 mainframe systems. Nils Hoppmann is our expert
> for performance and might be able to shed some light on his experiences
> with throughput drops for particular SMC message sizes. Our experience
> is heavily biased towards IBM Z systems, though - with their distinct
> cache and PCI root-complex hardware designs.
>
> Over the last few years there's a group around D. Wythe, Wen Gu and
> Tony Lu who adopted and extended the SMC protocol for use-cases on x86
> architectures. I address them here explicitly, soliciting feedback on
> their experiences.

Certainly. Our team will take a closer look into this matter as well.
We intend to review the thread thoroughly and conduct an analysis within
our environment. Updates and feedback will be provided in this thread.

>
> All in all there are several moving parts involved here, that could
> play a role:
> - firmware level of your Mellanox/NVidia NICs,
> - platform specific hardware designs re. cache and root-complexes,
> interrupt distribution, ...
> - exact code level of the device drivers and the SMC protocol
>
> This is just a heads-up, that there may be requests to try things with
> newer code levels ;)
>
> Thank you,
> Gerd
>
> --
> Gerd Bayer
> Linux on IBM Z Development - IBM Germany R&D

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