tags 594923 + patch
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Hi Xavier,

Xavier Roche wrote:

> I did the following test:
> * noflushd 2.8-1 on four SATA disks on a fresh squeeze install
> * kernels 2.6.32.57 (without Debian patches) and 3.2.9
>
> With the same noflushd, 2.6.32.57 causes the kernel to eat all CPU (load
> at 15, system very unresponsive), but the 3.2.9 release is just doing
> fine apparently.

Thanks. Does the attached patch help?
From: Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>
Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 20:00:35 +0200
Subject: writeback: fixups for !dirty_writeback_centisecs

commit 6423104b6a1e6f0c18be60e8c33f02d263331d5e upstream.

Commit 69b62d01 fixed up most of the places where we would enter
busy schedule() spins when disabling the periodic background
writeback. This fixes up the sb timer so that it doesn't get
hammered on with the delay disabled, and ensures that it gets
rearmed if needed when /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
gets modified.

bdi_forker_task() also needs to check for !dirty_writeback_centisecs
and use schedule() appropriately, fix that up too.

Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
include/linux/backing-dev.h | 1 +
mm/backing-dev.c | 15 ++++++++++-----
mm/page-writeback.c | 1 +
3 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/backing-dev.h b/include/linux/backing-dev.h
index b449e738533a..61e43a6f3141 100644
--- a/include/linux/backing-dev.h
+++ b/include/linux/backing-dev.h
@@ -105,6 +105,7 @@ void bdi_start_writeback(struct backing_dev_info *bdi, struct super_block *sb,
long nr_pages);
int bdi_writeback_task(struct bdi_writeback *wb);
int bdi_has_dirty_io(struct backing_dev_info *bdi);
+void bdi_arm_supers_timer(void);

extern spinlock_t bdi_lock;
extern struct list_head bdi_list;
diff --git a/mm/backing-dev.c b/mm/backing-dev.c
index 67a33a5a1a93..d82440108131 100644
--- a/mm/backing-dev.c
+++ b/mm/backing-dev.c
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ static struct timer_list sync_supers_timer;

static int bdi_sync_supers(void *);
static void sync_supers_timer_fn(unsigned long);
-static void arm_supers_timer(void);

static void bdi_add_default_flusher_task(struct backing_dev_info *bdi);

@@ -242,7 +241,7 @@ static int __init default_bdi_init(void)

init_timer(&sync_supers_timer);
setup_timer(&sync_supers_timer, sync_supers_timer_fn, 0);
- arm_supers_timer();
+ bdi_arm_supers_timer();

err = bdi_init(&default_backing_dev_info);
if (!err)
@@ -364,10 +363,13 @@ static int bdi_sync_supers(void *unused)
return 0;
}

-static void arm_supers_timer(void)
+void bdi_arm_supers_timer(void)
{
unsigned long next;

+ if (!dirty_writeback_interval)
+ return;
+
next = msecs_to_jiffies(dirty_writeback_interval * 10) + jiffies;
mod_timer(&sync_supers_timer, round_jiffies_up(next));
}
@@ -375,7 +377,7 @@ static void arm_supers_timer(void)
static void sync_supers_timer_fn(unsigned long unused)
{
wake_up_process(sync_supers_tsk);
- arm_supers_timer();
+ bdi_arm_supers_timer();
}

static int bdi_forker_task(void *ptr)
@@ -418,7 +420,10 @@ static int bdi_forker_task(void *ptr)

spin_unlock_bh(&bdi_lock);
wait = msecs_to_jiffies(dirty_writeback_interval * 10);
- schedule_timeout(wait);
+ if (wait)
+ schedule_timeout(wait);
+ else
+ schedule();
try_to_freeze();
continue;
}
diff --git a/mm/page-writeback.c b/mm/page-writeback.c
index 2c5d79236ead..52f71aebfc01 100644
--- a/mm/page-writeback.c
+++ b/mm/page-writeback.c
@@ -694,6 +694,7 @@ int dirty_writeback_centisecs_handler(ctl_table *table, int write,
void __user *buffer, size_t *length, loff_t *ppos)
{
proc_dointvec(table, write, buffer, length, ppos);
+ bdi_arm_supers_timer();
return 0;
}

--
1.7.9.2

Le 03/03/2012 14:55, Jonathan Nieder a écrit :
> Thanks. Does the attached patch help?

Yes, mostly.

It took me a while (the test machine was randomly freezing because of
unrelated ACPI issue) but the patch does appears to fix the noflushd
problem.

With original 2.6.32-5-686 (fresh squeeze install on a x86 machine)
after 15 minutes of uptime and noflushd running:

354 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 50.8 0.0 0:24.36 flush-8:0
13101 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 46.9 0.0 0:14.12 flush-8:32

(/etc/init.d/noflushd stop "clears" the issue)

With the patched kernel (linux-2.6_2.6.32.orig.tar.gz +
writeback-fixups-for-dirty_writeback_centisecs.patch --
linux-2.6_2.6.32-41.diff not applied), I do not have anymore the flush
problem.

However, the ksoftirqd process shows up time to time and eats some CPU:

4 root 20 0 0 0 0 R 28.2 0.0 0:06.55 ksoftirqd/0

This is not an issue as the load average stays very low (0,10) ; but the
problem disappears totally when using 3.2.9.

[ Note: if a disk is going idle because of a previous "/sbin/hdparm
-SXXX /dev/sdXXX", the 100% CPU issue comes back (but can be solved by
awakening the disk), which is not the case in 3.2.9, strangely. ]



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tags 594923 - moreinfo
quit

Xavier Roche wrote:
> Le 03/03/2012 14:55, Jonathan Nieder a écrit :

>> Thanks. Does the attached patch help?
>
> Yes, mostly.

I've passed this information upstream. Hopefully it can be fixed in a
2.6.32.y release soon so everyone benefits.

[...]
> (the test machine was randomly freezing because of
> unrelated ACPI issue)
[...]
> [ Note: if a disk is going idle because of a previous "/sbin/hdparm
> -SXXX /dev/sdXXX", the 100% CPU issue comes back (but can be solved by
> awakening the disk), which is not the case in 3.2.9, strangely. ]

If you are interested in pursuing a fix for either of these, please
feel free to file it as a separate bug. Results from testing a few
versions halfway between from <http://snapshot.debian.org/> could be
helpful in narrowing the search for the fix.

Many thanks,
Jonathan



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