Against: 2.6.34-rc3-mmotm-100405-1609 Kamezawa Hiroyuki requested documentation for the numa_mem_id() and slab related changes. He suggested Documentation/vm/numa for this documentation. Looking at this file, it seems to me to be hopelessly out of date relative to current Linux NUMA support. At the risk of going down a rathole, I have made an attempt to rewrite the doc at a slightly higher level [I think] and provide pointers to other in-tree documents and out-of-tree man pages that cover the details. Let the games begin. Signed-off-by: Lee Schermerhorn <lee.schermerhorn@xxxxxx> --- New in V4. Documentation/vm/numa | 184 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------- 1 files changed, 146 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-) Index: linux-2.6.34-rc3-mmotm-100405-1609/Documentation/vm/numa =================================================================== --- linux-2.6.34-rc3-mmotm-100405-1609.orig/Documentation/vm/numa 2010-04-07 09:49:13.000000000 -0400 +++ linux-2.6.34-rc3-mmotm-100405-1609/Documentation/vm/numa 2010-04-07 10:11:40.000000000 -0400 @@ -1,41 +1,149 @@ Started Nov 1999 by Kanoj Sarcar <kanoj@xxxxxxx> -The intent of this file is to have an uptodate, running commentary -from different people about NUMA specific code in the Linux vm. +What is NUMA? -What is NUMA? It is an architecture where the memory access times -for different regions of memory from a given processor varies -according to the "distance" of the memory region from the processor. -Each region of memory to which access times are the same from any -cpu, is called a node. On such architectures, it is beneficial if -the kernel tries to minimize inter node communications. Schemes -for this range from kernel text and read-only data replication -across nodes, and trying to house all the data structures that -key components of the kernel need on memory on that node. - -Currently, all the numa support is to provide efficient handling -of widely discontiguous physical memory, so architectures which -are not NUMA but can have huge holes in the physical address space -can use the same code. All this code is bracketed by CONFIG_DISCONTIGMEM. - -The initial port includes NUMAizing the bootmem allocator code by -encapsulating all the pieces of information into a bootmem_data_t -structure. Node specific calls have been added to the allocator. -In theory, any platform which uses the bootmem allocator should -be able to put the bootmem and mem_map data structures anywhere -it deems best. - -Each node's page allocation data structures have also been encapsulated -into a pg_data_t. The bootmem_data_t is just one part of this. To -make the code look uniform between NUMA and regular UMA platforms, -UMA platforms have a statically allocated pg_data_t too (contig_page_data). -For the sake of uniformity, the function num_online_nodes() is also defined -for all platforms. As we run benchmarks, we might decide to NUMAize -more variables like low_on_memory, nr_free_pages etc into the pg_data_t. - -The NUMA aware page allocation code currently tries to allocate pages -from different nodes in a round robin manner. This will be changed to -do concentratic circle search, starting from current node, once the -NUMA port achieves more maturity. The call alloc_pages_node has been -added, so that drivers can make the call and not worry about whether -it is running on a NUMA or UMA platform. +This question can be answered from a couple of perspectives: the +hardware view and the Linux software view. + +From the hardware perspective, a NUMA system is a computer platform that +comprises multiple components or assemblies each of which may contain 0 +or more cpus, local memory, and/or IO buses. For brevity and to +disambiguate the hardware view of these physical components/assemblies +from the software abstraction thereof, we'll call the components/assemblies +'cells' in this document. + +Each of the 'cells' may be viewed as an SMP [symmetric multi-processor] subset +of the system--although some components necessary for a stand-alone SMP system +may not be populated on any given cell. The cells of the NUMA system are +connected together with some sort of system interconnect--e.g., a crossbar or +point-to-point link are common types of NUMA system interconnects. Both of +these types of interconnects can be aggregated to create NUMA platforms with +cells at multiple distances from other cells. + +For Linux, the NUMA platforms of interest are primarily what is known as Cache +Coherent NUMA or CCNuma systems. With CCNUMA systems, all memory is visible +to and accessible from any cpu attached to any cell and cache coherency +is handled in hardware by the processor caches and/or the system interconnect. + +Memory access time and effective memory bandwidth varies depending on how far +away the cell containing the cpu or io bus making the memory access is from the +cell containing the target memory. For example, access to memory by cpus +attached to the same cell will experience faster access times and higher +bandwidths than accesses to memory on other, remote cells. NUMA platforms +can have cells at multiple remote distances from any given cell. + +Platform vendors don't build NUMA systems just to make software developers' +lives interesting. Rather, this architecture is a means to provide scalable +memory bandwidth. However, to achieve scalable memory bandwidth, system and +application software must arrange for a large majority of the memory references +[cache misses] to be to "local" memory--memory on the same cell, if any--or +to the closest cell with memory. + +This leads to the Linux software view of a NUMA system: + +Linux divides the system's hardware resources into multiple software +abstractions called "nodes". Linux maps the nodes onto the physical cells +of the hardware platform, abstracting away some of the details for some +architectures. As with physical cells, software nodes may contain 0 or more +cpus, memory and/or IO buses. And, again, memory access times to memory on +"closer" nodes [nodes that map to closer cells] will generally experience +faster access times and higher effective bandwidth than accesses to more +remote cells. + +For some architectures, such as x86, Linux will "hide" any node representing a +physical cell that has no memory attached, and reassign any cpus attached to +that cell to a node representing a cell that does have memory. Thus, on +these architectures, one cannot assume that all cpus that Linux associates with +a given node will see the same local memory access times and bandwidth. + +In addition, for some architectures, again x86 is an example, Linux supports +the emulation of additional nodes. For NUMA emulation, linux will carve up +the existing nodes--or the system memory for non-NUMA platforms--into multiple +nodes. Each emulated node will manage a fraction of the underlying cells' +physical memory. Numa emluation is useful for testing NUMA kernel and +application features on non-NUMA platforms, and as a sort of memory resource +management mechanism when used together with cpusets. +[See Documentation/cgroups/cpusets.txt] + +For each node with memory, Linux constructs an independent memory management +subsystem, complete with its own free page lists, in-use page lists, usage +statistics and locks to mediate access. In addition, Linux constructs for +each memory zone [one or more of DMA, DMA32, NORMAL, HIGH_MEMORY, MOVABLE], +an ordered "zonelist". A zonelist specifies the zones/nodes to visit when a +selected zone/node cannot satisfy the allocation request. This situation, +when a zone's has no available memory to satisfy a request, is called +'overflow" or "fallback". + +Because some nodes contain multiple zones containing different types of +memory, Linux must decide whether to order the zonelists such that allocations +fall back to the same zone type on a different node, or to a different zone +type on the same node. This is an important consideration because some zones, +such as DMA or DMA32, represent relatively scarce resources. Linux chooses +a default zonelist order based on the sizes of the various zone types relative +to the total memory of the node and the total memory of the system. The +default zonelist order may be overridden using the numa_zonelist_order kernel +boot parameter or sysctl. [See Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt and +Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt] + +By default, Linux will attempt to satisfy memory allocation requests from the +node to which the cpu that executes the request is assigned. Specifically, +Linux will attempt to allocate from the first node in the appropriate zonelist +for the node where the request originates. This is called "local allocation." +If the "local" node cannot satisfy the request, the kernel will examine other +nodes' zones in the selected zonelist looking for the first zone in the list +that can satisfy the request. + +Local allocation will tend to keep subsequent access to the allocated memory +"local" to the underlying physical resources and off the system interconnect-- +as long as the task on whose behalf the kernel allocated some memory does not +later migrate away from that memory. The Linux scheduler is aware of the +NUMA topology of the platform--embodied in the "scheduling domains" data +structures [See Documentation/scheduler/sched-domains.txt]--and the scheduler +attempts to minimize task migration to distant scheduling domains. However, +the scheduler does not take a task's NUMA footprint into account directly. +Thus, under sufficient imbalance, tasks can migrate between nodes, remote +from their initial node and kernel data structures. + +System administrators and application designers can restrict a tasks migration +to improve NUMA locality using various cpu affinity command line interfaces, +such as taskset(1) and numactl(1), and program interfaces such as +sched_setaffinity(2). Further, one can modify the kernel's default local +allocation behavior using Linux NUMA memory policy. +[See Documentation/vm/numa_memory_policy.] + +System administrators can restrict the cpus and nodes' memories that a non- +privileged user can specify in the scheduling or NUMA commands and functions +using control groups and cpusets. [See Documentation/cgroups/cpusets.txt] + +On architectures that do not hide memoryless nodes, Linux will include only +zones [nodes] with memory in the zonelists. This means that for a memoryless +node the "local memory node"--the node of the first zone in cpu's node's +zonelist--will not be the node itself. Rather, it will be the node that the +kernel selected as the nearest node with memory when it built the zonelists. +So, default, local allocations will succeed with the kernel supplying the +closest available memory. This is a consequence of the same mechanism that +allows such allocations to fallback to other nearby nodes when a node that +does contain memory overflows. + +Some kernel allocations do not want or cannot tolerate this allocation fallback +behavior. Rather they want to be sure they get memory from the specified node +or get notified that the node has no free memory. This is usually the case when +a subsystem allocates per cpu memory resources, for example. + +A typical model for making such an allocation is to obtain the node id of the +node to which the "current cpu" is attached using one of the kernel's +numa_node_id() or cpu_to_node() functions and then request memory from only +the node id returned. When such an allocation fails, the requesting subsystem +may revert to its own fallback path. The slab kernel memory allocator is an +example of this. Or, the subsystem may chose to disable or not to enable +itself on allocation failure. The kernel profiling subsystem is an example of +this. + +If the architecture supports [does not hide] memoryless nodes, then cpus +attached to memoryless nodes would always incur the fallback path overhead +or some subsystems would fail to initialize if they attempted to allocated +memory exclusively from the a node without memory. To support such +architectures transparently, kernel subsystems can use the numa_mem_id() +or cpu_to_mem() function to locate the "local memory node" for the calling or +specified cpu. Again, this is the same node from which default, local page +allocations will be attempted. -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxx For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx";> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>