5 cgroup subsys "blkio" implements the block io controller. There seems to be
6 a need of various kinds of IO control policies (like proportional BW, max BW)
7 both at leaf nodes as well as at intermediate nodes in a storage hierarchy.
8 Plan is to use the same cgroup based management interface for blkio controller
9 and based on user options switch IO policies in the background.
11 Currently two IO control policies are implemented. First one is proportional
12 weight time based division of disk policy. It is implemented in CFQ. Hence
13 this policy takes effect only on leaf nodes when CFQ is being used. The second
14 one is throttling policy which can be used to specify upper IO rate limits
15 on devices. This policy is implemented in generic block layer and can be
16 used on leaf nodes as well as higher level logical devices like device mapper.
20 Proportional Weight division of bandwidth
21 -----------------------------------------
22 You can do a very simple testing of running two dd threads in two different
23 cgroups. Here is what you can do.
25 - Enable Block IO controller
28 - Enable group scheduling in CFQ
29 CONFIG_CFQ_GROUP_IOSCHED=y
31 - Compile and boot into kernel and mount IO controller (blkio); see
32 cgroups.txt, Why are cgroups needed?.
34 mount -t tmpfs cgroup_root /sys/fs/cgroup
35 mkdir /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio
36 mount -t cgroup -o blkio none /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio
39 mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test1/ /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test2
41 - Set weights of group test1 and test2
42 echo 1000 > /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test1/blkio.weight
43 echo 500 > /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test2/blkio.weight
45 - Create two same size files (say 512MB each) on same disk (file1, file2) and
46 launch two dd threads in different cgroup to read those files.
49 echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
51 dd if=/mnt/sdb/zerofile1 of=/dev/null &
52 echo $! > /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test1/tasks
53 cat /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test1/tasks
55 dd if=/mnt/sdb/zerofile2 of=/dev/null &
56 echo $! > /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test2/tasks
57 cat /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/test2/tasks
59 - At macro level, first dd should finish first. To get more precise data, keep
60 on looking at (with the help of script), at blkio.disk_time and
61 blkio.disk_sectors files of both test1 and test2 groups. This will tell how
62 much disk time (in milliseconds), each group got and how many sectors each
63 group dispatched to the disk. We provide fairness in terms of disk time, so
64 ideally io.disk_time of cgroups should be in proportion to the weight.
66 Throttling/Upper Limit policy
67 -----------------------------
68 - Enable Block IO controller
71 - Enable throttling in block layer
72 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_THROTTLING=y
74 - Mount blkio controller (see cgroups.txt, Why are cgroups needed?)
75 mount -t cgroup -o blkio none /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio
77 - Specify a bandwidth rate on particular device for root group. The format
78 for policy is "<major>:<minor> <bytes_per_second>".
80 echo "8:16 1048576" > /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio/blkio.throttle.read_bps_device
82 Above will put a limit of 1MB/second on reads happening for root group
83 on device having major/minor number 8:16.
85 - Run dd to read a file and see if rate is throttled to 1MB/s or not.
87 # dd if=/mnt/common/zerofile of=/dev/null bs=4K count=1024
91 4194304 bytes (4.2 MB) copied, 4.0001 s, 1.0 MB/s
93 Limits for writes can be put using blkio.throttle.write_bps_device file.
98 Both CFQ and throttling implement hierarchy support; however,
99 throttling's hierarchy support is enabled iff "sane_behavior" is
100 enabled from cgroup side, which currently is a development option and
101 not publicly available.
103 If somebody created a hierarchy like as follows.
111 CFQ by default and throttling with "sane_behavior" will handle the
112 hierarchy correctly. For details on CFQ hierarchy support, refer to
113 Documentation/block/cfq-iosched.txt. For throttling, all limits apply
114 to the whole subtree while all statistics are local to the IOs
115 directly generated by tasks in that cgroup.
117 Throttling without "sane_behavior" enabled from cgroup side will
118 practically treat all groups at same level as if it looks like the
123 root test1 test2 test3
125 Various user visible config options
126 ===================================
128 - Block IO controller.
130 CONFIG_DEBUG_BLK_CGROUP
131 - Debug help. Right now some additional stats file show up in cgroup
132 if this option is enabled.
134 CONFIG_CFQ_GROUP_IOSCHED
135 - Enables group scheduling in CFQ. Currently only 1 level of group
138 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_THROTTLING
139 - Enable block device throttling support in block layer.
141 Details of cgroup files
142 =======================
143 Proportional weight policy files
144 --------------------------------
146 - Specifies per cgroup weight. This is default weight of the group
147 on all the devices until and unless overridden by per device rule.
148 (See blkio.weight_device).
149 Currently allowed range of weights is from 10 to 1000.
151 - blkio.weight_device
152 - One can specify per cgroup per device rules using this interface.
153 These rules override the default value of group weight as specified
156 Following is the format.
158 # echo dev_maj:dev_minor weight > blkio.weight_device
159 Configure weight=300 on /dev/sdb (8:16) in this cgroup
160 # echo 8:16 300 > blkio.weight_device
161 # cat blkio.weight_device
165 Configure weight=500 on /dev/sda (8:0) in this cgroup
166 # echo 8:0 500 > blkio.weight_device
167 # cat blkio.weight_device
172 Remove specific weight for /dev/sda in this cgroup
173 # echo 8:0 0 > blkio.weight_device
174 # cat blkio.weight_device
178 - blkio.leaf_weight[_device]
179 - Equivalents of blkio.weight[_device] for the purpose of
180 deciding how much weight tasks in the given cgroup has while
181 competing with the cgroup's child cgroups. For details,
182 please refer to Documentation/block/cfq-iosched.txt.
185 - disk time allocated to cgroup per device in milliseconds. First
186 two fields specify the major and minor number of the device and
187 third field specifies the disk time allocated to group in
191 - number of sectors transferred to/from disk by the group. First
192 two fields specify the major and minor number of the device and
193 third field specifies the number of sectors transferred by the
194 group to/from the device.
196 - blkio.io_service_bytes
197 - Number of bytes transferred to/from the disk by the group. These
198 are further divided by the type of operation - read or write, sync
199 or async. First two fields specify the major and minor number of the
200 device, third field specifies the operation type and the fourth field
201 specifies the number of bytes.
204 - Number of IOs (bio) issued to the disk by the group. These
205 are further divided by the type of operation - read or write, sync
206 or async. First two fields specify the major and minor number of the
207 device, third field specifies the operation type and the fourth field
208 specifies the number of IOs.
210 - blkio.io_service_time
211 - Total amount of time between request dispatch and request completion
212 for the IOs done by this cgroup. This is in nanoseconds to make it
213 meaningful for flash devices too. For devices with queue depth of 1,
214 this time represents the actual service time. When queue_depth > 1,
215 that is no longer true as requests may be served out of order. This
216 may cause the service time for a given IO to include the service time
217 of multiple IOs when served out of order which may result in total
218 io_service_time > actual time elapsed. This time is further divided by
219 the type of operation - read or write, sync or async. First two fields
220 specify the major and minor number of the device, third field
221 specifies the operation type and the fourth field specifies the
222 io_service_time in ns.
225 - Total amount of time the IOs for this cgroup spent waiting in the
226 scheduler queues for service. This can be greater than the total time
227 elapsed since it is cumulative io_wait_time for all IOs. It is not a
228 measure of total time the cgroup spent waiting but rather a measure of
229 the wait_time for its individual IOs. For devices with queue_depth > 1
230 this metric does not include the time spent waiting for service once
231 the IO is dispatched to the device but till it actually gets serviced
232 (there might be a time lag here due to re-ordering of requests by the
233 device). This is in nanoseconds to make it meaningful for flash
234 devices too. This time is further divided by the type of operation -
235 read or write, sync or async. First two fields specify the major and
236 minor number of the device, third field specifies the operation type
237 and the fourth field specifies the io_wait_time in ns.
240 - Total number of bios/requests merged into requests belonging to this
241 cgroup. This is further divided by the type of operation - read or
242 write, sync or async.
245 - Total number of requests queued up at any given instant for this
246 cgroup. This is further divided by the type of operation - read or
247 write, sync or async.
249 - blkio.avg_queue_size
250 - Debugging aid only enabled if CONFIG_DEBUG_BLK_CGROUP=y.
251 The average queue size for this cgroup over the entire time of this
252 cgroup's existence. Queue size samples are taken each time one of the
253 queues of this cgroup gets a timeslice.
255 - blkio.group_wait_time
256 - Debugging aid only enabled if CONFIG_DEBUG_BLK_CGROUP=y.
257 This is the amount of time the cgroup had to wait since it became busy
258 (i.e., went from 0 to 1 request queued) to get a timeslice for one of
259 its queues. This is different from the io_wait_time which is the
260 cumulative total of the amount of time spent by each IO in that cgroup
261 waiting in the scheduler queue. This is in nanoseconds. If this is
262 read when the cgroup is in a waiting (for timeslice) state, the stat
263 will only report the group_wait_time accumulated till the last time it
264 got a timeslice and will not include the current delta.
267 - Debugging aid only enabled if CONFIG_DEBUG_BLK_CGROUP=y.
268 This is the amount of time a cgroup spends without any pending
269 requests when not being served, i.e., it does not include any time
270 spent idling for one of the queues of the cgroup. This is in
271 nanoseconds. If this is read when the cgroup is in an empty state,
272 the stat will only report the empty_time accumulated till the last
273 time it had a pending request and will not include the current delta.
276 - Debugging aid only enabled if CONFIG_DEBUG_BLK_CGROUP=y.
277 This is the amount of time spent by the IO scheduler idling for a
278 given cgroup in anticipation of a better request than the existing ones
279 from other queues/cgroups. This is in nanoseconds. If this is read
280 when the cgroup is in an idling state, the stat will only report the
281 idle_time accumulated till the last idle period and will not include
285 - Debugging aid only enabled if CONFIG_DEBUG_BLK_CGROUP=y. This
286 gives the statistics about how many a times a group was dequeued
287 from service tree of the device. First two fields specify the major
288 and minor number of the device and third field specifies the number
289 of times a group was dequeued from a particular device.
292 - Recursive version of various stats. These files show the
293 same information as their non-recursive counterparts but
294 include stats from all the descendant cgroups.
296 Throttling/Upper limit policy files
297 -----------------------------------
298 - blkio.throttle.read_bps_device
299 - Specifies upper limit on READ rate from the device. IO rate is
300 specified in bytes per second. Rules are per device. Following is
303 echo "<major>:<minor> <rate_bytes_per_second>" > /cgrp/blkio.throttle.read_bps_device
305 - blkio.throttle.write_bps_device
306 - Specifies upper limit on WRITE rate to the device. IO rate is
307 specified in bytes per second. Rules are per device. Following is
310 echo "<major>:<minor> <rate_bytes_per_second>" > /cgrp/blkio.throttle.write_bps_device
312 - blkio.throttle.read_iops_device
313 - Specifies upper limit on READ rate from the device. IO rate is
314 specified in IO per second. Rules are per device. Following is
317 echo "<major>:<minor> <rate_io_per_second>" > /cgrp/blkio.throttle.read_iops_device
319 - blkio.throttle.write_iops_device
320 - Specifies upper limit on WRITE rate to the device. IO rate is
321 specified in io per second. Rules are per device. Following is
324 echo "<major>:<minor> <rate_io_per_second>" > /cgrp/blkio.throttle.write_iops_device
326 Note: If both BW and IOPS rules are specified for a device, then IO is
327 subjected to both the constraints.
329 - blkio.throttle.io_serviced
330 - Number of IOs (bio) issued to the disk by the group. These
331 are further divided by the type of operation - read or write, sync
332 or async. First two fields specify the major and minor number of the
333 device, third field specifies the operation type and the fourth field
334 specifies the number of IOs.
336 - blkio.throttle.io_service_bytes
337 - Number of bytes transferred to/from the disk by the group. These
338 are further divided by the type of operation - read or write, sync
339 or async. First two fields specify the major and minor number of the
340 device, third field specifies the operation type and the fourth field
341 specifies the number of bytes.
343 Common files among various policies
344 -----------------------------------
346 - Writing an int to this file will result in resetting all the stats
351 /sys/block/<disk>/queue/iosched/slice_idle
352 ------------------------------------------
353 On a faster hardware CFQ can be slow, especially with sequential workload.
354 This happens because CFQ idles on a single queue and single queue might not
355 drive deeper request queue depths to keep the storage busy. In such scenarios
356 one can try setting slice_idle=0 and that would switch CFQ to IOPS
357 (IO operations per second) mode on NCQ supporting hardware.
359 That means CFQ will not idle between cfq queues of a cfq group and hence be
360 able to driver higher queue depth and achieve better throughput. That also
361 means that cfq provides fairness among groups in terms of IOPS and not in
364 /sys/block/<disk>/queue/iosched/group_idle
365 ------------------------------------------
366 If one disables idling on individual cfq queues and cfq service trees by
367 setting slice_idle=0, group_idle kicks in. That means CFQ will still idle
368 on the group in an attempt to provide fairness among groups.
370 By default group_idle is same as slice_idle and does not do anything if
371 slice_idle is enabled.
373 One can experience an overall throughput drop if you have created multiple
374 groups and put applications in that group which are not driving enough
375 IO to keep disk busy. In that case set group_idle=0, and CFQ will not idle
376 on individual groups and throughput should improve.
381 Page cache is dirtied through buffered writes and shared mmaps and
382 written asynchronously to the backing filesystem by the writeback
383 mechanism. Writeback sits between the memory and IO domains and
384 regulates the proportion of dirty memory by balancing dirtying and
387 On traditional cgroup hierarchies, relationships between different
388 controllers cannot be established making it impossible for writeback
389 to operate accounting for cgroup resource restrictions and all
390 writeback IOs are attributed to the root cgroup.
392 If both the blkio and memory controllers are used on the v2 hierarchy
393 and the filesystem supports cgroup writeback, writeback operations
394 correctly follow the resource restrictions imposed by both memory and
397 Writeback examines both system-wide and per-cgroup dirty memory status
398 and enforces the more restrictive of the two. Also, writeback control
399 parameters which are absolute values - vm.dirty_bytes and
400 vm.dirty_background_bytes - are distributed across cgroups according
401 to their current writeback bandwidth.
403 There's a peculiarity stemming from the discrepancy in ownership
404 granularity between memory controller and writeback. While memory
405 controller tracks ownership per page, writeback operates on inode
406 basis. cgroup writeback bridges the gap by tracking ownership by
407 inode but migrating ownership if too many foreign pages, pages which
408 don't match the current inode ownership, have been encountered while
409 writing back the inode.
411 This is a conscious design choice as writeback operations are
412 inherently tied to inodes making strictly following page ownership
413 complicated and inefficient. The only use case which suffers from
414 this compromise is multiple cgroups concurrently dirtying disjoint
415 regions of the same inode, which is an unlikely use case and decided
416 to be unsupported. Note that as memory controller assigns page
417 ownership on the first use and doesn't update it until the page is
418 released, even if cgroup writeback strictly follows page ownership,
419 multiple cgroups dirtying overlapping areas wouldn't work as expected.
420 In general, write-sharing an inode across multiple cgroups is not well
423 Filesystem support for cgroup writeback
424 ---------------------------------------
426 A filesystem can make writeback IOs cgroup-aware by updating
427 address_space_operations->writepage[s]() to annotate bio's using the
428 following two functions.
430 * wbc_init_bio(@wbc, @bio)
432 Should be called for each bio carrying writeback data and associates
433 the bio with the inode's owner cgroup. Can be called anytime
434 between bio allocation and submission.
436 * wbc_account_io(@wbc, @page, @bytes)
438 Should be called for each data segment being written out. While
439 this function doesn't care exactly when it's called during the
440 writeback session, it's the easiest and most natural to call it as
441 data segments are added to a bio.
443 With writeback bio's annotated, cgroup support can be enabled per
444 super_block by setting MS_CGROUPWB in ->s_flags. This allows for
445 selective disabling of cgroup writeback support which is helpful when
446 certain filesystem features, e.g. journaled data mode, are
449 wbc_init_bio() binds the specified bio to its cgroup. Depending on
450 the configuration, the bio may be executed at a lower priority and if
451 the writeback session is holding shared resources, e.g. a journal
452 entry, may lead to priority inversion. There is no one easy solution
453 for the problem. Filesystems can try to work around specific problem
454 cases by skipping wbc_init_bio() or using bio_associate_blkcg()