Locking is always an issue in a virtualized environment because of 2
different types of problems:
1) Lock holder preemption
2) Lock waiter preemption
One solution to the lock waiter preemption problem is to allow unfair
lock in a virtualized environment. In this case, a new lock acquirer
can come and steal the lock if the next-in-line CPU to get the lock
is scheduled out.
A simple unfair lock is the test-and-set byte lock where an lock
acquirer constantly spins on the lock word and attempt to grab it
when the lock is freed. This simple unfair lock has 2 main problems:
1) The constant spinning on the lock word put a lot of cacheline
contention traffic on the affected cacheline, thus slowing tasks
that need to access the cacheline.
2) Lock starvation is a real possibility especially if the number of
virtual CPUs is large.
A simple unfair queue spinlock can be implemented by allowing lock
stealing in the fast path. The slowpath will still be the same as
before and all the pending lock acquirers will have to wait in the
queue in FIFO order. This cannot completely solve the lock waiter
preemption problem, but it does help to alleviate the impact of
this problem.
To illustrate the performance impact of the various approaches, the
disk workload of the AIM7 benchmark and the ebizzy test were run on
a 4-socket 40-core Westmere-EX system (bare metal, HT off, ramdisk)
on a 3.14 based kernel. The table below shows the performance
of the different kernel flavors.
AIM7 XFS Disk Test
kernel JPM Real Time Sys Time Usr Time
----- --- --------- -------- --------
ticketlock 5678233 3.17 96.61 5.81
qspinlock 5750799 3.13 94.83 5.97
simple test-and-set 5625000 3.20 98.29 5.93
simple unfair 5750799 3.13 95.91 5.98
qspinlock
AIM7 EXT4 Disk Test
kernel JPM Real Time Sys Time Usr Time
----- --- --------- -------- --------
ticketlock 1114551 16.15 509.72 7.11
qspinlock 2184466 8.24 232.99 6.01
simple test-and-set 593081 30.35 967.55 9.00
simple unfair 2292994 7.85 222.84 5.89
qspinlock
Ebizzy -m test
kernel records/s Real Time Sys Time Usr Time
----- --------- --------- -------- --------
ticketlock 2075 10.00 216.35 3.49
qspinlock 3023 10.00 198.20 4.80
simple test-and-set 1667 10.00 198.93 2.89
simple unfair 2915 10.00 165.68 4.31
qspinlock
The disk-xfs workload spent only about 2.88% of CPU time in
_raw_spin_lock() whereas the disk-ext4 workload spent 57.8% of CPU
time in _raw_spin_lock(). It can be seen that there wasn't too much
difference in performance with low spinlock contention in the disk-xfs
workload. With heavy spinlock contention, the performance of simple
test-and-set lock can plummet when compared with the ticket and
queue spinlocks.
Unfair lock in a native environment is generally not a good idea as
there is a possibility of lock starvation for a heavily contended lock.
This patch adds a new configuration option for the x86 architecture
to enable the use of unfair queue spinlock (PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS) in
a para-virtualized guest. A jump label (paravirt_unfairlocks_enabled)
is used to switch between a fair and an unfair version of the spinlock
code. This jump label will only be enabled in a virtual guest where
the X86_FEATURE_HYPERVISOR feature bit is set.
Enabling this configuration feature causes a slight decrease the
performance of an uncontended lock-unlock operation by about 1-2%
mainly due to the use of a static key. However, uncontended lock-unlock
operation are really just a tiny percentage of a real workload. So
there should no noticeable change in application performance.
With the unfair locking activated on bare metal 4-socket Westmere-EX
box, the execution times (in ms) of a spinlock micro-benchmark were
as follows:
# of Ticket Fair Unfair simple Unfair
tasks lock queue lock queue lock byte lock
------ ------- ---------- ---------- ---------
1 135 135 137 137
2 890 1082 421 718
3 1932 2248 708 1263
4 2829 2819 1030 1916
5 3834 3522 1323 2327
6 4963 4173 1723 2938
7 6299 4875 2067 3292
8 7691 5563 2360 3768
Executing one task per node, the performance data were:
# of Ticket Fair Unfair simple Unfair
nodes lock queue lock queue lock byte lock
------ ------- ---------- ---------- ---------
1 135 135 137 137
2 4603 1034 670 766
3 10940 12087 1389 1934
4 21555 10507 1869 3731
In general, the shorter the critical section, the better the
performance benefit of an unfair lock. For large critical section,
however, there may not be much benefit.
Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@xxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/Kconfig | 11 +++++
arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h | 79 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
arch/x86/kernel/Makefile | 1 +
arch/x86/kernel/paravirt-spinlocks.c | 26 +++++++++++
kernel/locking/qspinlock.c | 8 +++
5 files changed, 125 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/Kconfig b/arch/x86/Kconfig
index 95c9c4e..2f06976 100644
--- a/arch/x86/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig
@@ -585,6 +585,17 @@ config PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS
If you are unsure how to answer this question, answer Y.
+config PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS
+ bool "Enable unfair locks in a para-virtualized guest"
+ depends on PARAVIRT && SMP && QUEUE_SPINLOCK
+ depends on !CONFIG_X86_OOSTORE && !CONFIG_X86_PPRO_FENCE
+ ---help---
+ This changes the kernel to use unfair locks in a
+ para-virtualized guest. This will help performance in most
+ cases. However, there is a possibility of lock starvation
+ on a heavily contended lock especially in a large guest
+ with many virtual CPUs.
+
source "arch/x86/xen/Kconfig"
config KVM_GUEST
diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
index e4a4f5d..19af937 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@
#if !defined(CONFIG_X86_OOSTORE) && !defined(CONFIG_X86_PPRO_FENCE)
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS
+extern struct static_key paravirt_unfairlocks_enabled;
+#endif
+
#define queue_spin_unlock queue_spin_unlock
/**
* queue_spin_unlock - release a queue spinlock
@@ -26,4 +30,79 @@ static inline void queue_spin_unlock(struct qspinlock *lock)
#include <asm-generic/qspinlock.h>
+union arch_qspinlock {
+ atomic_t val;
+ u8 locked;
+};
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS
+/**
+ * queue_spin_trylock_unfair - try to acquire the queue spinlock unfairly
+ * @lock : Pointer to queue spinlock structure
+ * Return: 1 if lock acquired, 0 if failed
+ */
+static __always_inline int queue_spin_trylock_unfair(struct qspinlock *lock)
+{
+ union arch_qspinlock *qlock = (union arch_qspinlock *)lock;
+
+ if (!qlock->locked && (cmpxchg(&qlock->locked, 0, _Q_LOCKED_VAL) == 0))
+ return 1;
+ return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * queue_spin_lock_unfair - acquire a queue spinlock unfairly
+ * @lock: Pointer to queue spinlock structure
+ */
+static __always_inline void queue_spin_lock_unfair(struct qspinlock *lock)
+{
+ union arch_qspinlock *qlock = (union arch_qspinlock *)lock;
+
+ if (likely(cmpxchg(&qlock->locked, 0, _Q_LOCKED_VAL) == 0))
+ return;
+ /*
+ * Since the lock is now unfair, we should not activate the 2-task
+ * pending bit spinning code path which disallows lock stealing.
+ */
+ queue_spin_lock_slowpath(lock, -1);
+}
+
+/*
+ * Redefine arch_spin_lock and arch_spin_trylock as inline functions that will
+ * jump to the unfair versions if the static key paravirt_unfairlocks_enabled
+ * is true.
+ */
+#undef arch_spin_lock
+#undef arch_spin_trylock
+#undef arch_spin_lock_flags
+
+/**
+ * arch_spin_lock - acquire a queue spinlock
+ * @lock: Pointer to queue spinlock structure
+ */
+static inline void arch_spin_lock(struct qspinlock *lock)
+{
+ if (static_key_false(¶virt_unfairlocks_enabled))
+ queue_spin_lock_unfair(lock);
+ else
+ queue_spin_lock(lock);
+}
+
+/**
+ * arch_spin_trylock - try to acquire the queue spinlock
+ * @lock : Pointer to queue spinlock structure
+ * Return: 1 if lock acquired, 0 if failed
+ */
+static inline int arch_spin_trylock(struct qspinlock *lock)
+{
+ if (static_key_false(¶virt_unfairlocks_enabled))
+ return queue_spin_trylock_unfair(lock);
+ else
+ return queue_spin_trylock(lock);
+}
+
+#define arch_spin_lock_flags(l, f) arch_spin_lock(l)
+
+#endif /* CONFIG_PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS */
+
#endif /* _ASM_X86_QSPINLOCK_H */
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/Makefile b/arch/x86/kernel/Makefile
index f4d9600..b436419 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/Makefile
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/Makefile
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_DEBUG_NMI_SELFTEST) += nmi_selftest.o
obj-$(CONFIG_KVM_GUEST) += kvm.o kvmclock.o
obj-$(CONFIG_PARAVIRT) += paravirt.o paravirt_patch_$(BITS).o
obj-$(CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS)+= paravirt-spinlocks.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS)+= paravirt-spinlocks.o
obj-$(CONFIG_PARAVIRT_CLOCK) += pvclock.o
obj-$(CONFIG_PCSPKR_PLATFORM) += pcspeaker.o
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt-spinlocks.c b/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt-spinlocks.c
index bbb6c73..7dfd02d 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt-spinlocks.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt-spinlocks.c
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
#include <asm/paravirt.h>
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS
struct pv_lock_ops pv_lock_ops = {
#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
.lock_spinning = __PV_IS_CALLEE_SAVE(paravirt_nop),
@@ -18,3 +19,28 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(pv_lock_ops);
struct static_key paravirt_ticketlocks_enabled = STATIC_KEY_INIT_FALSE;
EXPORT_SYMBOL(paravirt_ticketlocks_enabled);
+#endif
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS
+struct static_key paravirt_unfairlocks_enabled = STATIC_KEY_INIT_FALSE;
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(paravirt_unfairlocks_enabled);
+
+#include <linux/init.h>
+#include <asm/cpufeature.h>
+
+/*
+ * Enable unfair lock only if it is running under a hypervisor
+ */
+static __init int unfair_locks_init_jump(void)
+{
+ if (!boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_HYPERVISOR))
+ return 0;
+
+ static_key_slow_inc(¶virt_unfairlocks_enabled);
+ printk(KERN_INFO "Unfair spinlock enabled\n");
+
+ return 0;
+}
+early_initcall(unfair_locks_init_jump);
+
+#endif
diff --git a/kernel/locking/qspinlock.c b/kernel/locking/qspinlock.c
index 9e7659e..10e87e1 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/qspinlock.c
+++ b/kernel/locking/qspinlock.c
@@ -227,6 +227,14 @@ static __always_inline int get_qlock(struct qspinlock *lock)
{
struct __qspinlock *l = (void *)lock;
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARAVIRT_UNFAIR_LOCKS
+ if (static_key_false(¶virt_unfairlocks_enabled))
+ /*
+ * Need to use atomic operation to get the lock when
+ * lock stealing can happen.
+ */
+ return cmpxchg(&l->locked, 0, _Q_LOCKED_VAL) == 0;
+#endif
barrier();
ACCESS_ONCE(l->locked) = _Q_LOCKED_VAL;
barrier();
--
1.7.1
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