1 User Interface for Resource Allocation in Intel Resource Director Technology
3 Copyright (C) 2016 Intel Corporation
5 Fenghua Yu <fenghua.yu@intel.com>
6 Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>
7 Vikas Shivappa <vikas.shivappa@intel.com>
9 This feature is enabled by the CONFIG_INTEL_RDT Kconfig and the
10 X86 /proc/cpuinfo flag bits "rdt", "cqm", "cat_l3" and "cdp_l3".
12 To use the feature mount the file system:
14 # mount -t resctrl resctrl [-o cdp] /sys/fs/resctrl
18 "cdp": Enable code/data prioritization in L3 cache allocations.
20 RDT features are orthogonal. A particular system may support only
21 monitoring, only control, or both monitoring and control.
23 The mount succeeds if either of allocation or monitoring is present, but
24 only those files and directories supported by the system will be created.
25 For more details on the behavior of the interface during monitoring
26 and allocation, see the "Resource alloc and monitor groups" section.
31 The 'info' directory contains information about the enabled
32 resources. Each resource has its own subdirectory. The subdirectory
33 names reflect the resource names.
35 Each subdirectory contains the following files with respect to
38 Cache resource(L3/L2) subdirectory contains the following files
39 related to allocation:
41 "num_closids": The number of CLOSIDs which are valid for this
42 resource. The kernel uses the smallest number of
43 CLOSIDs of all enabled resources as limit.
45 "cbm_mask": The bitmask which is valid for this resource.
46 This mask is equivalent to 100%.
48 "min_cbm_bits": The minimum number of consecutive bits which
49 must be set when writing a mask.
51 "shareable_bits": Bitmask of shareable resource with other executing
52 entities (e.g. I/O). User can use this when
53 setting up exclusive cache partitions. Note that
54 some platforms support devices that have their
55 own settings for cache use which can over-ride
58 Memory bandwitdh(MB) subdirectory contains the following files
59 with respect to allocation:
61 "min_bandwidth": The minimum memory bandwidth percentage which
64 "bandwidth_gran": The granularity in which the memory bandwidth
65 percentage is allocated. The allocated
66 b/w percentage is rounded off to the next
67 control step available on the hardware. The
68 available bandwidth control steps are:
69 min_bandwidth + N * bandwidth_gran.
71 "delay_linear": Indicates if the delay scale is linear or
72 non-linear. This field is purely informational
75 If RDT monitoring is available there will be an "L3_MON" directory
76 with the following files:
78 "num_rmids": The number of RMIDs available. This is the
79 upper bound for how many "CTRL_MON" + "MON"
80 groups can be created.
82 "mon_features": Lists the monitoring events if
83 monitoring is enabled for the resource.
85 "max_threshold_occupancy":
86 Read/write file provides the largest value (in
87 bytes) at which a previously used LLC_occupancy
88 counter can be considered for re-use.
90 Finally, in the top level of the "info" directory there is a file
91 named "last_cmd_status". This is reset with every "command" issued
92 via the file system (making new directories or writing to any of the
93 control files). If the command was successful, it will read as "ok".
94 If the command failed, it will provide more information that can be
95 conveyed in the error returns from file operations. E.g.
97 # echo L3:0=f7 > schemata
98 bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument
99 # cat info/last_cmd_status
100 mask f7 has non-consecutive 1-bits
102 Resource alloc and monitor groups
103 ---------------------------------
105 Resource groups are represented as directories in the resctrl file
106 system. The default group is the root directory which, immediately
107 after mounting, owns all the tasks and cpus in the system and can make
108 full use of all resources.
110 On a system with RDT control features additional directories can be
111 created in the root directory that specify different amounts of each
112 resource (see "schemata" below). The root and these additional top level
113 directories are referred to as "CTRL_MON" groups below.
115 On a system with RDT monitoring the root directory and other top level
116 directories contain a directory named "mon_groups" in which additional
117 directories can be created to monitor subsets of tasks in the CTRL_MON
118 group that is their ancestor. These are called "MON" groups in the rest
121 Removing a directory will move all tasks and cpus owned by the group it
122 represents to the parent. Removing one of the created CTRL_MON groups
123 will automatically remove all MON groups below it.
125 All groups contain the following files:
128 Reading this file shows the list of all tasks that belong to
129 this group. Writing a task id to the file will add a task to the
130 group. If the group is a CTRL_MON group the task is removed from
131 whichever previous CTRL_MON group owned the task and also from
132 any MON group that owned the task. If the group is a MON group,
133 then the task must already belong to the CTRL_MON parent of this
134 group. The task is removed from any previous MON group.
138 Reading this file shows a bitmask of the logical CPUs owned by
139 this group. Writing a mask to this file will add and remove
140 CPUs to/from this group. As with the tasks file a hierarchy is
141 maintained where MON groups may only include CPUs owned by the
142 parent CTRL_MON group.
146 Just like "cpus", only using ranges of CPUs instead of bitmasks.
149 When control is enabled all CTRL_MON groups will also contain:
152 A list of all the resources available to this group.
153 Each resource has its own line and format - see below for details.
155 When monitoring is enabled all MON groups will also contain:
158 This contains a set of files organized by L3 domain and by
159 RDT event. E.g. on a system with two L3 domains there will
160 be subdirectories "mon_L3_00" and "mon_L3_01". Each of these
161 directories have one file per event (e.g. "llc_occupancy",
162 "mbm_total_bytes", and "mbm_local_bytes"). In a MON group these
163 files provide a read out of the current value of the event for
164 all tasks in the group. In CTRL_MON groups these files provide
165 the sum for all tasks in the CTRL_MON group and all tasks in
166 MON groups. Please see example section for more details on usage.
168 Resource allocation rules
169 -------------------------
170 When a task is running the following rules define which resources are
173 1) If the task is a member of a non-default group, then the schemata
174 for that group is used.
176 2) Else if the task belongs to the default group, but is running on a
177 CPU that is assigned to some specific group, then the schemata for the
180 3) Otherwise the schemata for the default group is used.
182 Resource monitoring rules
183 -------------------------
184 1) If a task is a member of a MON group, or non-default CTRL_MON group
185 then RDT events for the task will be reported in that group.
187 2) If a task is a member of the default CTRL_MON group, but is running
188 on a CPU that is assigned to some specific group, then the RDT events
189 for the task will be reported in that group.
191 3) Otherwise RDT events for the task will be reported in the root level
195 Notes on cache occupancy monitoring and control
196 -----------------------------------------------
197 When moving a task from one group to another you should remember that
198 this only affects *new* cache allocations by the task. E.g. you may have
199 a task in a monitor group showing 3 MB of cache occupancy. If you move
200 to a new group and immediately check the occupancy of the old and new
201 groups you will likely see that the old group is still showing 3 MB and
202 the new group zero. When the task accesses locations still in cache from
203 before the move, the h/w does not update any counters. On a busy system
204 you will likely see the occupancy in the old group go down as cache lines
205 are evicted and re-used while the occupancy in the new group rises as
206 the task accesses memory and loads into the cache are counted based on
207 membership in the new group.
209 The same applies to cache allocation control. Moving a task to a group
210 with a smaller cache partition will not evict any cache lines. The
211 process may continue to use them from the old partition.
213 Hardware uses CLOSid(Class of service ID) and an RMID(Resource monitoring ID)
214 to identify a control group and a monitoring group respectively. Each of
215 the resource groups are mapped to these IDs based on the kind of group. The
216 number of CLOSid and RMID are limited by the hardware and hence the creation of
217 a "CTRL_MON" directory may fail if we run out of either CLOSID or RMID
218 and creation of "MON" group may fail if we run out of RMIDs.
220 max_threshold_occupancy - generic concepts
221 ------------------------------------------
223 Note that an RMID once freed may not be immediately available for use as
224 the RMID is still tagged the cache lines of the previous user of RMID.
225 Hence such RMIDs are placed on limbo list and checked back if the cache
226 occupancy has gone down. If there is a time when system has a lot of
227 limbo RMIDs but which are not ready to be used, user may see an -EBUSY
230 max_threshold_occupancy is a user configurable value to determine the
231 occupancy at which an RMID can be freed.
233 Schemata files - general concepts
234 ---------------------------------
235 Each line in the file describes one resource. The line starts with
236 the name of the resource, followed by specific values to be applied
237 in each of the instances of that resource on the system.
241 On current generation systems there is one L3 cache per socket and L2
242 caches are generally just shared by the hyperthreads on a core, but this
243 isn't an architectural requirement. We could have multiple separate L3
244 caches on a socket, multiple cores could share an L2 cache. So instead
245 of using "socket" or "core" to define the set of logical cpus sharing
246 a resource we use a "Cache ID". At a given cache level this will be a
247 unique number across the whole system (but it isn't guaranteed to be a
248 contiguous sequence, there may be gaps). To find the ID for each logical
249 CPU look in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cache/index*/id
251 Cache Bit Masks (CBM)
252 ---------------------
253 For cache resources we describe the portion of the cache that is available
254 for allocation using a bitmask. The maximum value of the mask is defined
255 by each cpu model (and may be different for different cache levels). It
256 is found using CPUID, but is also provided in the "info" directory of
257 the resctrl file system in "info/{resource}/cbm_mask". X86 hardware
258 requires that these masks have all the '1' bits in a contiguous block. So
259 0x3, 0x6 and 0xC are legal 4-bit masks with two bits set, but 0x5, 0x9
260 and 0xA are not. On a system with a 20-bit mask each bit represents 5%
261 of the capacity of the cache. You could partition the cache into four
262 equal parts with masks: 0x1f, 0x3e0, 0x7c00, 0xf8000.
264 Memory bandwidth(b/w) percentage
265 --------------------------------
266 For Memory b/w resource, user controls the resource by indicating the
267 percentage of total memory b/w.
269 The minimum bandwidth percentage value for each cpu model is predefined
270 and can be looked up through "info/MB/min_bandwidth". The bandwidth
271 granularity that is allocated is also dependent on the cpu model and can
272 be looked up at "info/MB/bandwidth_gran". The available bandwidth
273 control steps are: min_bw + N * bw_gran. Intermediate values are rounded
274 to the next control step available on the hardware.
276 The bandwidth throttling is a core specific mechanism on some of Intel
277 SKUs. Using a high bandwidth and a low bandwidth setting on two threads
278 sharing a core will result in both threads being throttled to use the
281 L3 schemata file details (code and data prioritization disabled)
282 ----------------------------------------------------------------
283 With CDP disabled the L3 schemata format is:
285 L3:<cache_id0>=<cbm>;<cache_id1>=<cbm>;...
287 L3 schemata file details (CDP enabled via mount option to resctrl)
288 ------------------------------------------------------------------
289 When CDP is enabled L3 control is split into two separate resources
290 so you can specify independent masks for code and data like this:
292 L3data:<cache_id0>=<cbm>;<cache_id1>=<cbm>;...
293 L3code:<cache_id0>=<cbm>;<cache_id1>=<cbm>;...
295 L2 schemata file details
296 ------------------------
297 L2 cache does not support code and data prioritization, so the
298 schemata format is always:
300 L2:<cache_id0>=<cbm>;<cache_id1>=<cbm>;...
302 Memory b/w Allocation details
303 -----------------------------
305 Memory b/w domain is L3 cache.
307 MB:<cache_id0>=bandwidth0;<cache_id1>=bandwidth1;...
309 Reading/writing the schemata file
310 ---------------------------------
311 Reading the schemata file will show the state of all resources
312 on all domains. When writing you only need to specify those values
313 which you wish to change. E.g.
316 L3DATA:0=fffff;1=fffff;2=fffff;3=fffff
317 L3CODE:0=fffff;1=fffff;2=fffff;3=fffff
318 # echo "L3DATA:2=3c0;" > schemata
320 L3DATA:0=fffff;1=fffff;2=3c0;3=fffff
321 L3CODE:0=fffff;1=fffff;2=fffff;3=fffff
323 Examples for RDT allocation usage:
327 On a two socket machine (one L3 cache per socket) with just four bits
328 for cache bit masks, minimum b/w of 10% with a memory bandwidth
331 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
334 # echo "L3:0=3;1=c\nMB:0=50;1=50" > /sys/fs/resctrl/p0/schemata
335 # echo "L3:0=3;1=3\nMB:0=50;1=50" > /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/schemata
337 The default resource group is unmodified, so we have access to all parts
338 of all caches (its schemata file reads "L3:0=f;1=f").
340 Tasks that are under the control of group "p0" may only allocate from the
341 "lower" 50% on cache ID 0, and the "upper" 50% of cache ID 1.
342 Tasks in group "p1" use the "lower" 50% of cache on both sockets.
344 Similarly, tasks that are under the control of group "p0" may use a
345 maximum memory b/w of 50% on socket0 and 50% on socket 1.
346 Tasks in group "p1" may also use 50% memory b/w on both sockets.
347 Note that unlike cache masks, memory b/w cannot specify whether these
348 allocations can overlap or not. The allocations specifies the maximum
349 b/w that the group may be able to use and the system admin can configure
354 Again two sockets, but this time with a more realistic 20-bit mask.
356 Two real time tasks pid=1234 running on processor 0 and pid=5678 running on
357 processor 1 on socket 0 on a 2-socket and dual core machine. To avoid noisy
358 neighbors, each of the two real-time tasks exclusively occupies one quarter
359 of L3 cache on socket 0.
361 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
364 First we reset the schemata for the default group so that the "upper"
365 50% of the L3 cache on socket 0 and 50% of memory b/w cannot be used by
368 # echo "L3:0=3ff;1=fffff\nMB:0=50;1=100" > schemata
370 Next we make a resource group for our first real time task and give
371 it access to the "top" 25% of the cache on socket 0.
374 # echo "L3:0=f8000;1=fffff" > p0/schemata
376 Finally we move our first real time task into this resource group. We
377 also use taskset(1) to ensure the task always runs on a dedicated CPU
378 on socket 0. Most uses of resource groups will also constrain which
379 processors tasks run on.
381 # echo 1234 > p0/tasks
384 Ditto for the second real time task (with the remaining 25% of cache):
387 # echo "L3:0=7c00;1=fffff" > p1/schemata
388 # echo 5678 > p1/tasks
391 For the same 2 socket system with memory b/w resource and CAT L3 the
392 schemata would look like(Assume min_bandwidth 10 and bandwidth_gran is
395 For our first real time task this would request 20% memory b/w on socket
398 # echo -e "L3:0=f8000;1=fffff\nMB:0=20;1=100" > p0/schemata
400 For our second real time task this would request an other 20% memory b/w
403 # echo -e "L3:0=f8000;1=fffff\nMB:0=20;1=100" > p0/schemata
408 A single socket system which has real-time tasks running on core 4-7 and
409 non real-time workload assigned to core 0-3. The real-time tasks share text
410 and data, so a per task association is not required and due to interaction
411 with the kernel it's desired that the kernel on these cores shares L3 with
414 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
417 First we reset the schemata for the default group so that the "upper"
418 50% of the L3 cache on socket 0, and 50% of memory bandwidth on socket 0
419 cannot be used by ordinary tasks:
421 # echo "L3:0=3ff\nMB:0=50" > schemata
423 Next we make a resource group for our real time cores and give it access
424 to the "top" 50% of the cache on socket 0 and 50% of memory bandwidth on
428 # echo "L3:0=ffc00\nMB:0=50" > p0/schemata
430 Finally we move core 4-7 over to the new group and make sure that the
431 kernel and the tasks running there get 50% of the cache. They should
432 also get 50% of memory bandwidth assuming that the cores 4-7 are SMT
433 siblings and only the real time threads are scheduled on the cores 4-7.
437 4) Locking between applications
439 Certain operations on the resctrl filesystem, composed of read/writes
440 to/from multiple files, must be atomic.
442 As an example, the allocation of an exclusive reservation of L3 cache
445 1. Read the cbmmasks from each directory
446 2. Find a contiguous set of bits in the global CBM bitmask that is clear
447 in any of the directory cbmmasks
448 3. Create a new directory
449 4. Set the bits found in step 2 to the new directory "schemata" file
451 If two applications attempt to allocate space concurrently then they can
452 end up allocating the same bits so the reservations are shared instead of
455 To coordinate atomic operations on the resctrlfs and to avoid the problem
456 above, the following locking procedure is recommended:
458 Locking is based on flock, which is available in libc and also as a shell
463 A) Take flock(LOCK_EX) on /sys/fs/resctrl
464 B) Read/write the directory structure.
469 A) Take flock(LOCK_SH) on /sys/fs/resctrl
470 B) If success read the directory structure.
475 # Atomically read directory structure
476 $ flock -s /sys/fs/resctrl/ find /sys/fs/resctrl
478 # Read directory contents and create new subdirectory
481 find /sys/fs/resctrl/ > output.txt
482 mask = function-of(output.txt)
483 mkdir /sys/fs/resctrl/newres/
484 echo mask > /sys/fs/resctrl/newres/schemata
486 $ flock /sys/fs/resctrl/ ./create-dir.sh
491 * Example code do take advisory locks
492 * before accessing resctrl filesystem
494 #include <sys/file.h>
497 void resctrl_take_shared_lock(int fd)
501 /* take shared lock on resctrl filesystem */
502 ret = flock(fd, LOCK_SH);
509 void resctrl_take_exclusive_lock(int fd)
513 /* release lock on resctrl filesystem */
514 ret = flock(fd, LOCK_EX);
521 void resctrl_release_lock(int fd)
525 /* take shared lock on resctrl filesystem */
526 ret = flock(fd, LOCK_UN);
537 fd = open("/sys/fs/resctrl", O_DIRECTORY);
542 resctrl_take_shared_lock(fd);
543 /* code to read directory contents */
544 resctrl_release_lock(fd);
546 resctrl_take_exclusive_lock(fd);
547 /* code to read and write directory contents */
548 resctrl_release_lock(fd);
551 Examples for RDT Monitoring along with allocation usage:
553 Reading monitored data
554 ----------------------
555 Reading an event file (for ex: mon_data/mon_L3_00/llc_occupancy) would
556 show the current snapshot of LLC occupancy of the corresponding MON
557 group or CTRL_MON group.
560 Example 1 (Monitor CTRL_MON group and subset of tasks in CTRL_MON group)
562 On a two socket machine (one L3 cache per socket) with just four bits
565 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
568 # echo "L3:0=3;1=c" > /sys/fs/resctrl/p0/schemata
569 # echo "L3:0=3;1=3" > /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/schemata
570 # echo 5678 > p1/tasks
571 # echo 5679 > p1/tasks
573 The default resource group is unmodified, so we have access to all parts
574 of all caches (its schemata file reads "L3:0=f;1=f").
576 Tasks that are under the control of group "p0" may only allocate from the
577 "lower" 50% on cache ID 0, and the "upper" 50% of cache ID 1.
578 Tasks in group "p1" use the "lower" 50% of cache on both sockets.
580 Create monitor groups and assign a subset of tasks to each monitor group.
582 # cd /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/mon_groups
584 # echo 5678 > m11/tasks
585 # echo 5679 > m12/tasks
587 fetch data (data shown in bytes)
589 # cat m11/mon_data/mon_L3_00/llc_occupancy
591 # cat m11/mon_data/mon_L3_01/llc_occupancy
593 # cat m12/mon_data/mon_L3_00/llc_occupancy
596 The parent ctrl_mon group shows the aggregated data.
598 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/mon_data/mon_l3_00/llc_occupancy
601 Example 2 (Monitor a task from its creation)
603 On a two socket machine (one L3 cache per socket)
605 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
609 An RMID is allocated to the group once its created and hence the <cmd>
610 below is monitored from its creation.
612 # echo $$ > /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/tasks
617 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/mon_data/mon_l3_00/llc_occupancy
620 Example 3 (Monitor without CAT support or before creating CAT groups)
623 Assume a system like HSW has only CQM and no CAT support. In this case
624 the resctrl will still mount but cannot create CTRL_MON directories.
625 But user can create different MON groups within the root group thereby
626 able to monitor all tasks including kernel threads.
628 This can also be used to profile jobs cache size footprint before being
629 able to allocate them to different allocation groups.
631 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
633 # mkdir mon_groups/m01
634 # mkdir mon_groups/m02
636 # echo 3478 > /sys/fs/resctrl/mon_groups/m01/tasks
637 # echo 2467 > /sys/fs/resctrl/mon_groups/m02/tasks
639 Monitor the groups separately and also get per domain data. From the
640 below its apparent that the tasks are mostly doing work on
643 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/mon_groups/m01/mon_L3_00/llc_occupancy
645 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/mon_groups/m01/mon_L3_01/llc_occupancy
647 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/mon_groups/m02/mon_L3_00/llc_occupancy
649 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/mon_groups/m02/mon_L3_01/llc_occupancy
653 Example 4 (Monitor real time tasks)
654 -----------------------------------
656 A single socket system which has real time tasks running on cores 4-7
657 and non real time tasks on other cpus. We want to monitor the cache
658 occupancy of the real time threads on these cores.
660 # mount -t resctrl resctrl /sys/fs/resctrl
664 Move the cpus 4-7 over to p1
667 View the llc occupancy snapshot
669 # cat /sys/fs/resctrl/p1/mon_data/mon_L3_00/llc_occupancy