While allocating objects whose size is multiple of PAGE_SIZE, say kmalloc-4K, we charge one page for extra bytes corresponding to the obj_cgroup membership pointer and remainder of the charged page gets added to per-cpu stocked bytes. If this allocation is followed by another allocation of the same size, the stocked bytes will not suffice and thus we endup charging an extra page again for membership pointer and remainder of this page gets added to per-cpu stocked bytes. This second addition will cause amount of stocked bytes to go beyond PAGE_SIZE and hence will result in invocation of drain_obj_stock. So if we are in a scenario where we are consecutively allocating, several PAGE_SIZE multiple sized objects, the stocked bytes will never be enough to suffice a request and every second request will trigger draining of stocked bytes. For example invoking __alloc_skb multiple times with 2K < packet size < 4K will give a call graph like: __alloc_skb | |__kmalloc_reserve.isra.61 | | | |__kmalloc_node_track_caller | | | | | |slab_pre_alloc_hook.constprop.88 | | obj_cgroup_charge | | | | | | | |__memcg_kmem_charge | | | | | | | | | |page_counter_try_charge | | | | | | | |refill_obj_stock | | | | | | | | | |drain_obj_stock.isra.68 | | | | | | | | | | | |__memcg_kmem_uncharge | | | | | | | | | | | | | |page_counter_uncharge | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |page_counter_cancel | | | | | | | | |__slab_alloc | | | | | | | |___slab_alloc | | | | | | |slab_post_alloc_hook This frequent draining of stock bytes and resultant charging of pages increases the CPU load and hence deteriorates the scheduler latency. The above mentioned scenario and it's impact can be seen by running hackbench with large packet size on v5.8 and subsequent kernels. The deterioration in hackbench number starts appearing from v5.9 kernel, 'commit f2fe7b09a52b ("mm: memcg/slab: charge individual slab objects instead of pages")'. Increasing the draining limit to twice of KMALLOC_MAX_CACHE_SIZE (a safe upper limit for size of slab cache objects), will avoid draining of stock, every second allocation request, for the above mentioned scenario and hence will reduce the CPU load for such cases. For allocation of smaller objects or other allocation patterns the behaviour will be same as before. This change increases the draining threshold for per-cpu stocked bytes from PAGE_SIZE to KMALLOC_MAX_CACHE_SIZE * 2. Below are the hackbench numbers with and without this change on v5.10.0-rc7. Without this change: # hackbench process 10 1000 -s 100000 Running in process mode with 10 groups using 40 file descriptors each (== 400 tasks) Each sender will pass 100 messages of 100000 bytes Time: 4.401 # hackbench process 10 1000 -s 100000 Running in process mode with 10 groups using 40 file descriptors each (== 400 tasks) Each sender will pass 100 messages of 100000 bytes Time: 4.470 With this change: # hackbench process 10 1000 -s 100000 Running in process mode with 10 groups using 40 file descriptors each (== 400 tasks) Each sender will pass 100 messages of 100000 bytes Time: 3.782 # hackbench process 10 1000 -s 100000 Running in process mode with 10 groups using 40 file descriptors each (== 400 tasks) Each sender will pass 100 messages of 100000 bytes Time: 3.827 As can be seen the change gives an improvement of about 15% in hackbench numbers. Also numbers obtained with the change are inline with those obtained from v5.8 kernel. Signed-off-by: Imran Khan <imran.f.khan@xxxxxxxxxx> --- mm/memcontrol.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/mm/memcontrol.c b/mm/memcontrol.c index 0d74b80..c04633c 100644 --- a/mm/memcontrol.c +++ b/mm/memcontrol.c @@ -3256,7 +3256,7 @@ static void refill_obj_stock(struct obj_cgroup *objcg, unsigned int nr_bytes) } stock->nr_bytes += nr_bytes; - if (stock->nr_bytes > PAGE_SIZE) + if (stock->nr_bytes > KMALLOC_MAX_CACHE_SIZE * 2) drain_obj_stock(stock); local_irq_restore(flags); -- 1.8.3.1