1 /******************************************************************************
2 * Xen selfballoon driver (and optional frontswap self-shrinking driver)
4 * Copyright (c) 2009-2011, Dan Magenheimer, Oracle Corp.
6 * This code complements the cleancache and frontswap patchsets to optimize
7 * support for Xen Transcendent Memory ("tmem"). The policy it implements
8 * is rudimentary and will likely improve over time, but it does work well
11 * Two functionalities are implemented here which both use "control theory"
12 * (feedback) to optimize memory utilization. In a virtualized environment
13 * such as Xen, RAM is often a scarce resource and we would like to ensure
14 * that each of a possibly large number of virtual machines is using RAM
15 * efficiently, i.e. using as little as possible when under light load
16 * and obtaining as much as possible when memory demands are high.
17 * Since RAM needs vary highly dynamically and sometimes dramatically,
18 * "hysteresis" is used, that is, memory target is determined not just
19 * on current data but also on past data stored in the system.
21 * "Selfballooning" creates memory pressure by managing the Xen balloon
22 * driver to decrease and increase available kernel memory, driven
23 * largely by the target value of "Committed_AS" (see /proc/meminfo).
24 * Since Committed_AS does not account for clean mapped pages (i.e. pages
25 * in RAM that are identical to pages on disk), selfballooning has the
26 * affect of pushing less frequently used clean pagecache pages out of
27 * kernel RAM and, presumably using cleancache, into Xen tmem where
28 * Xen can more efficiently optimize RAM utilization for such pages.
30 * When kernel memory demand unexpectedly increases faster than Xen, via
31 * the selfballoon driver, is able to (or chooses to) provide usable RAM,
32 * the kernel may invoke swapping. In most cases, frontswap is able
33 * to absorb this swapping into Xen tmem. However, due to the fact
34 * that the kernel swap subsystem assumes swapping occurs to a disk,
35 * swapped pages may sit on the disk for a very long time; even if
36 * the kernel knows the page will never be used again. This is because
37 * the disk space costs very little and can be overwritten when
38 * necessary. When such stale pages are in frontswap, however, they
39 * are taking up valuable real estate. "Frontswap selfshrinking" works
40 * to resolve this: When frontswap activity is otherwise stable
41 * and the guest kernel is not under memory pressure, the "frontswap
42 * selfshrinking" accounts for this by providing pressure to remove some
43 * pages from frontswap and return them to kernel memory.
45 * For both "selfballooning" and "frontswap-selfshrinking", a worker
46 * thread is used and sysfs tunables are provided to adjust the frequency
47 * and rate of adjustments to achieve the goal, as well as to disable one
48 * or both functions independently.
50 * While some argue that this functionality can and should be implemented
51 * in userspace, it has been observed that bad things happen (e.g. OOMs).
53 * System configuration note: Selfballooning should not be enabled on
54 * systems without a sufficiently large swap device configured; for best
55 * results, it is recommended that total swap be increased by the size
56 * of the guest memory. Also, while technically not required to be
57 * configured, it is highly recommended that frontswap also be configured
58 * and enabled when selfballooning is running. So, selfballooning
59 * is disabled by default if frontswap is not configured and can only
60 * be enabled with the "selfballooning" kernel boot option; similarly
61 * selfballooning is enabled by default if frontswap is configured and
62 * can be disabled with the "noselfballooning" kernel boot option. Finally,
63 * when frontswap is configured, frontswap-selfshrinking can be disabled
64 * with the "noselfshrink" kernel boot option.
66 * Selfballooning is disallowed in domain0 and force-disabled.
70 #include <linux/kernel.h>
72 #include <linux/mman.h>
73 #include <linux/workqueue.h>
74 #include <xen/balloon.h>
78 /* Enable/disable with sysfs. */
79 static int xen_selfballooning_enabled __read_mostly
;
82 * Controls rate at which memory target (this iteration) approaches
83 * ultimate goal when memory need is increasing (up-hysteresis) or
84 * decreasing (down-hysteresis). Higher values of hysteresis cause
85 * slower increases/decreases. The default values for the various
86 * parameters were deemed reasonable by experimentation, may be
87 * workload-dependent, and can all be adjusted via sysfs.
89 static unsigned int selfballoon_downhysteresis __read_mostly
= 8;
90 static unsigned int selfballoon_uphysteresis __read_mostly
= 1;
92 /* In HZ, controls frequency of worker invocation. */
93 static unsigned int selfballoon_interval __read_mostly
= 5;
95 static void selfballoon_process(struct work_struct
*work
);
96 static DECLARE_DELAYED_WORK(selfballoon_worker
, selfballoon_process
);
98 #ifdef CONFIG_FRONTSWAP
99 #include <linux/frontswap.h>
101 /* Enable/disable with sysfs. */
102 static bool frontswap_selfshrinking __read_mostly
;
104 /* Enable/disable with kernel boot option. */
105 static bool use_frontswap_selfshrink __initdata
= true;
108 * The default values for the following parameters were deemed reasonable
109 * by experimentation, may be workload-dependent, and can all be
110 * adjusted via sysfs.
113 /* Control rate for frontswap shrinking. Higher hysteresis is slower. */
114 static unsigned int frontswap_hysteresis __read_mostly
= 20;
117 * Number of selfballoon worker invocations to wait before observing that
118 * frontswap selfshrinking should commence. Note that selfshrinking does
119 * not use a separate worker thread.
121 static unsigned int frontswap_inertia __read_mostly
= 3;
123 /* Countdown to next invocation of frontswap_shrink() */
124 static unsigned long frontswap_inertia_counter
;
127 * Invoked by the selfballoon worker thread, uses current number of pages
128 * in frontswap (frontswap_curr_pages()), previous status, and control
129 * values (hysteresis and inertia) to determine if frontswap should be
130 * shrunk and what the new frontswap size should be. Note that
131 * frontswap_shrink is essentially a partial swapoff that immediately
132 * transfers pages from the "swap device" (frontswap) back into kernel
133 * RAM; despite the name, frontswap "shrinking" is very different from
134 * the "shrinker" interface used by the kernel MM subsystem to reclaim
137 static void frontswap_selfshrink(void)
139 static unsigned long cur_frontswap_pages
;
140 static unsigned long last_frontswap_pages
;
141 static unsigned long tgt_frontswap_pages
;
143 last_frontswap_pages
= cur_frontswap_pages
;
144 cur_frontswap_pages
= frontswap_curr_pages();
145 if (!cur_frontswap_pages
||
146 (cur_frontswap_pages
> last_frontswap_pages
)) {
147 frontswap_inertia_counter
= frontswap_inertia
;
150 if (frontswap_inertia_counter
&& --frontswap_inertia_counter
)
152 if (cur_frontswap_pages
<= frontswap_hysteresis
)
153 tgt_frontswap_pages
= 0;
155 tgt_frontswap_pages
= cur_frontswap_pages
-
156 (cur_frontswap_pages
/ frontswap_hysteresis
);
157 frontswap_shrink(tgt_frontswap_pages
);
160 static int __init
xen_nofrontswap_selfshrink_setup(char *s
)
162 use_frontswap_selfshrink
= false;
166 __setup("noselfshrink", xen_nofrontswap_selfshrink_setup
);
168 /* Disable with kernel boot option. */
169 static bool use_selfballooning __initdata
= true;
171 static int __init
xen_noselfballooning_setup(char *s
)
173 use_selfballooning
= false;
177 __setup("noselfballooning", xen_noselfballooning_setup
);
178 #else /* !CONFIG_FRONTSWAP */
179 /* Enable with kernel boot option. */
180 static bool use_selfballooning __initdata
= false;
182 static int __init
xen_selfballooning_setup(char *s
)
184 use_selfballooning
= true;
188 __setup("selfballooning", xen_selfballooning_setup
);
189 #endif /* CONFIG_FRONTSWAP */
192 * Use current balloon size, the goal (vm_committed_as), and hysteresis
193 * parameters to set a new target balloon size
195 static void selfballoon_process(struct work_struct
*work
)
197 unsigned long cur_pages
, goal_pages
, tgt_pages
;
198 bool reset_timer
= false;
200 if (xen_selfballooning_enabled
) {
201 cur_pages
= balloon_stats
.current_pages
;
202 tgt_pages
= cur_pages
; /* default is no change */
203 goal_pages
= percpu_counter_read_positive(&vm_committed_as
) +
204 balloon_stats
.current_pages
- totalram_pages
;
205 #ifdef CONFIG_FRONTSWAP
206 /* allow space for frontswap pages to be repatriated */
207 if (frontswap_selfshrinking
&& frontswap_enabled
)
208 goal_pages
+= frontswap_curr_pages();
210 if (cur_pages
> goal_pages
)
211 tgt_pages
= cur_pages
-
212 ((cur_pages
- goal_pages
) /
213 selfballoon_downhysteresis
);
214 else if (cur_pages
< goal_pages
)
215 tgt_pages
= cur_pages
+
216 ((goal_pages
- cur_pages
) /
217 selfballoon_uphysteresis
);
218 /* else if cur_pages == goal_pages, no change */
219 balloon_set_new_target(tgt_pages
);
222 #ifdef CONFIG_FRONTSWAP
223 if (frontswap_selfshrinking
&& frontswap_enabled
) {
224 frontswap_selfshrink();
229 schedule_delayed_work(&selfballoon_worker
,
230 selfballoon_interval
* HZ
);
235 #include <linux/sysdev.h>
236 #include <linux/capability.h>
238 #define SELFBALLOON_SHOW(name, format, args...) \
239 static ssize_t show_##name(struct sys_device *dev, \
240 struct sysdev_attribute *attr, \
243 return sprintf(buf, format, ##args); \
246 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(selfballooning
, "%d\n", xen_selfballooning_enabled
);
248 static ssize_t
store_selfballooning(struct sys_device
*dev
,
249 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
253 bool was_enabled
= xen_selfballooning_enabled
;
257 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
260 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &tmp
);
261 if (err
|| ((tmp
!= 0) && (tmp
!= 1)))
264 xen_selfballooning_enabled
= !!tmp
;
265 if (!was_enabled
&& xen_selfballooning_enabled
)
266 schedule_delayed_work(&selfballoon_worker
,
267 selfballoon_interval
* HZ
);
272 static SYSDEV_ATTR(selfballooning
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
273 show_selfballooning
, store_selfballooning
);
275 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(selfballoon_interval
, "%d\n", selfballoon_interval
);
277 static ssize_t
store_selfballoon_interval(struct sys_device
*dev
,
278 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
285 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
287 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &val
);
290 selfballoon_interval
= val
;
294 static SYSDEV_ATTR(selfballoon_interval
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
295 show_selfballoon_interval
, store_selfballoon_interval
);
297 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(selfballoon_downhys
, "%d\n", selfballoon_downhysteresis
);
299 static ssize_t
store_selfballoon_downhys(struct sys_device
*dev
,
300 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
307 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
309 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &val
);
312 selfballoon_downhysteresis
= val
;
316 static SYSDEV_ATTR(selfballoon_downhysteresis
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
317 show_selfballoon_downhys
, store_selfballoon_downhys
);
320 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(selfballoon_uphys
, "%d\n", selfballoon_uphysteresis
);
322 static ssize_t
store_selfballoon_uphys(struct sys_device
*dev
,
323 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
330 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
332 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &val
);
335 selfballoon_uphysteresis
= val
;
339 static SYSDEV_ATTR(selfballoon_uphysteresis
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
340 show_selfballoon_uphys
, store_selfballoon_uphys
);
342 #ifdef CONFIG_FRONTSWAP
343 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(frontswap_selfshrinking
, "%d\n", frontswap_selfshrinking
);
345 static ssize_t
store_frontswap_selfshrinking(struct sys_device
*dev
,
346 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
350 bool was_enabled
= frontswap_selfshrinking
;
354 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
356 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &tmp
);
357 if (err
|| ((tmp
!= 0) && (tmp
!= 1)))
359 frontswap_selfshrinking
= !!tmp
;
360 if (!was_enabled
&& !xen_selfballooning_enabled
&&
361 frontswap_selfshrinking
)
362 schedule_delayed_work(&selfballoon_worker
,
363 selfballoon_interval
* HZ
);
368 static SYSDEV_ATTR(frontswap_selfshrinking
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
369 show_frontswap_selfshrinking
, store_frontswap_selfshrinking
);
371 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(frontswap_inertia
, "%d\n", frontswap_inertia
);
373 static ssize_t
store_frontswap_inertia(struct sys_device
*dev
,
374 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
381 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
383 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &val
);
386 frontswap_inertia
= val
;
387 frontswap_inertia_counter
= val
;
391 static SYSDEV_ATTR(frontswap_inertia
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
392 show_frontswap_inertia
, store_frontswap_inertia
);
394 SELFBALLOON_SHOW(frontswap_hysteresis
, "%d\n", frontswap_hysteresis
);
396 static ssize_t
store_frontswap_hysteresis(struct sys_device
*dev
,
397 struct sysdev_attribute
*attr
,
404 if (!capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN
))
406 err
= strict_strtoul(buf
, 10, &val
);
409 frontswap_hysteresis
= val
;
413 static SYSDEV_ATTR(frontswap_hysteresis
, S_IRUGO
| S_IWUSR
,
414 show_frontswap_hysteresis
, store_frontswap_hysteresis
);
416 #endif /* CONFIG_FRONTSWAP */
418 static struct attribute
*selfballoon_attrs
[] = {
419 &attr_selfballooning
.attr
,
420 &attr_selfballoon_interval
.attr
,
421 &attr_selfballoon_downhysteresis
.attr
,
422 &attr_selfballoon_uphysteresis
.attr
,
423 #ifdef CONFIG_FRONTSWAP
424 &attr_frontswap_selfshrinking
.attr
,
425 &attr_frontswap_hysteresis
.attr
,
426 &attr_frontswap_inertia
.attr
,
431 static struct attribute_group selfballoon_group
= {
432 .name
= "selfballoon",
433 .attrs
= selfballoon_attrs
437 int register_xen_selfballooning(struct sys_device
*sysdev
)
442 error
= sysfs_create_group(&sysdev
->kobj
, &selfballoon_group
);
446 EXPORT_SYMBOL(register_xen_selfballooning
);
448 static int __init
xen_selfballoon_init(void)
455 if (xen_initial_domain()) {
456 pr_info("xen/balloon: Xen selfballooning driver "
457 "disabled for domain0.\n");
461 xen_selfballooning_enabled
= tmem_enabled
&& use_selfballooning
;
462 if (xen_selfballooning_enabled
) {
463 pr_info("xen/balloon: Initializing Xen "
464 "selfballooning driver.\n");
467 #ifdef CONFIG_FRONTSWAP
468 frontswap_selfshrinking
= tmem_enabled
&& use_frontswap_selfshrink
;
469 if (frontswap_selfshrinking
) {
470 pr_info("xen/balloon: Initializing frontswap "
471 "selfshrinking driver.\n");
478 schedule_delayed_work(&selfballoon_worker
, selfballoon_interval
* HZ
);
483 subsys_initcall(xen_selfballoon_init
);
485 MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");