From be3ffa276446e1b691a2bf84e7621e5a6fb49db9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Wu Fengguang Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 10:51:31 -0600 Subject: writeback: dirty rate control It's all about bdi->dirty_ratelimit, which aims to be (write_bw / N) when there are N dd tasks. On write() syscall, use bdi->dirty_ratelimit ============================================ balance_dirty_pages(pages_dirtied) { task_ratelimit = bdi->dirty_ratelimit * bdi_position_ratio(); pause = pages_dirtied / task_ratelimit; sleep(pause); } On every 200ms, update bdi->dirty_ratelimit =========================================== bdi_update_dirty_ratelimit() { task_ratelimit = bdi->dirty_ratelimit * bdi_position_ratio(); balanced_dirty_ratelimit = task_ratelimit * write_bw / dirty_rate; bdi->dirty_ratelimit = balanced_dirty_ratelimit } Estimation of balanced bdi->dirty_ratelimit =========================================== balanced task_ratelimit ----------------------- balance_dirty_pages() needs to throttle tasks dirtying pages such that the total amount of dirty pages stays below the specified dirty limit in order to avoid memory deadlocks. Furthermore we desire fairness in that tasks get throttled proportionally to the amount of pages they dirty. IOW we want to throttle tasks such that we match the dirty rate to the writeout bandwidth, this yields a stable amount of dirty pages: dirty_rate == write_bw (1) The fairness requirement gives us: task_ratelimit = balanced_dirty_ratelimit == write_bw / N (2) where N is the number of dd tasks. We don't know N beforehand, but still can estimate balanced_dirty_ratelimit within 200ms. Start by throttling each dd task at rate task_ratelimit = task_ratelimit_0 (3) (any non-zero initial value is OK) After 200ms, we measured dirty_rate = # of pages dirtied by all dd's / 200ms write_bw = # of pages written to the disk / 200ms For the aggressive dd dirtiers, the equality holds dirty_rate == N * task_rate == N * task_ratelimit_0 (4) Or task_ratelimit_0 == dirty_rate / N (5) Now we conclude that the balanced task ratelimit can be estimated by write_bw balanced_dirty_ratelimit = task_ratelimit_0 * ---------- (6) dirty_rate Because with (4) and (5) we can get the desired equality (1): write_bw balanced_dirty_ratelimit == (dirty_rate / N) * ---------- dirty_rate == write_bw / N Then using the balanced task ratelimit we can compute task pause times like: task_pause = task->nr_dirtied / task_ratelimit task_ratelimit with position control ------------------------------------ However, while the above gives us means of matching the dirty rate to the writeout bandwidth, it at best provides us with a stable dirty page count (assuming a static system). In order to control the dirty page count such that it is high enough to provide performance, but does not exceed the specified limit we need another control. The dirty position control works by extending (2) to task_ratelimit = balanced_dirty_ratelimit * pos_ratio (7) where pos_ratio is a negative feedback function that subjects to 1) f(setpoint) = 1.0 2) df/dx < 0 That is, if the dirty pages are ABOVE the setpoint, we throttle each task a bit more HEAVY than balanced_dirty_ratelimit, so that the dirty pages are created less fast than they are cleaned, thus DROP to the setpoints (and the reverse). Based on (7) and the assumption that both dirty_ratelimit and pos_ratio remains CONSTANT for the past 200ms, we get task_ratelimit_0 = balanced_dirty_ratelimit * pos_ratio (8) Putting (8) into (6), we get the formula used in bdi_update_dirty_ratelimit(): write_bw balanced_dirty_ratelimit *= pos_ratio * ---------- (9) dirty_rate Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang --- mm/backing-dev.c | 1 + 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+) (limited to 'mm/backing-dev.c') diff --git a/mm/backing-dev.c b/mm/backing-dev.c index fea7e6efd1d7..ba20f94cde93 100644 --- a/mm/backing-dev.c +++ b/mm/backing-dev.c @@ -686,6 +686,7 @@ int bdi_init(struct backing_dev_info *bdi) bdi->bw_time_stamp = jiffies; bdi->written_stamp = 0; + bdi->dirty_ratelimit = INIT_BW; bdi->write_bandwidth = INIT_BW; bdi->avg_write_bandwidth = INIT_BW; -- cgit v1.2.1