Re: [Xen-devel] [RFC PATCH] page_alloc: use first half of higher order chunks when halving

[Matthew Rushton <mvrushton@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 03/28/14 10:02, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 03:15:42PM -0700, Matthew Rushton wrote:
> > On 03/26/14 10:56, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:47:44AM -0700, Matthew Rushton wrote:
> > > > On 03/26/14 09:36, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > > > On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 08:59:04AM -0700, Matthew Rushton wrote:
> > > > > > On 03/26/14 08:15, Matt Wilson wrote:
> > > > > > > On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 11:08:01AM -0400, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > > > > > > Could you elaborate a bit more on the use-case please?
> > > > > > > > My understanding is that most drivers use a scatter gather list - in which
> > > > > > > > case it does not matter if the underlaying MFNs in the PFNs spare are
> > > > > > > > not contingous.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > But I presume the issue you are hitting is with drivers doing dma_map_page
> > > > > > > > and the page is not 4KB but rather large (compound page). Is that the
> > > > > > > > problem you have observed?
> > > > > > > Drivers are using very large size arguments to dma_alloc_coherent()
> > > > > > > for things like RX and TX descriptor rings.
> > > > > Large size like larger than 512kB? That would also cause problems
> > > > > on baremetal then when swiotlb is activated I believe.
> > > > I was looking at network IO performance so the buffers would not
> > > > have been that large. I think large in this context is relative to
> > > > the 4k page size and the odds of the buffer spanning a page
> > > > boundary. For context I saw ~5-10% performance increase with guest
> > > > network throughput by avoiding bounce buffers and also saw dom0 tcp
> > > > streaming performance go from ~6Gb/s to over 9Gb/s on my test setup
> > > > with a 10Gb NIC.
> > > OK, but that would not be the dma_alloc_coherent ones then? That sounds
> > > more like the generic TCP mechanism allocated 64KB pages instead of 4KB
> > > and used those.
> > >
> > > Did you try looking at this hack that Ian proposed a long time ago
> > > to verify that it is said problem?
> > >
> > > https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/9/4/540
> > Yes I had seen that and intially had the same reaction but the
> > change was relatively recent and not relevant. I *think* all the
> > coherent allocations are ok since the swiotlb makes them contiguous.
> > The problem comes with the use of the streaming api. As one example
> > with jumbo frames enabled a driver might use larger rx buffers which
> > triggers the problem.
> >
> > I think the right thing to do is to make the dma streaming api work
> > better with larger buffers on dom0. That way it works across all
> OK.
> > drivers and device types regardless of how they were designed.
> Can you point me to an example of the DMA streaming API?
>
> I am not sure if you mean 'streaming API' as scatter gather operations
> using DMA API?
>
> Is there a particular easy way for me to reproduce this. I have
> to say I hadn't enabled Jumbo frame on my box since I am not even
> sure if the switch I have can do it. Is there a idiots-punch-list
> of how to reproduce this?
>
> Thanks!
By streaming API I'm just referring to drivers that use 
dma_map_single/dma_unmap_single on every buffer instead of using 
coherent allocations. So not related to sg in my case. If you want an 
example of this you can look at the bnx2x Broadcom driver. To reproduce 
this at a minimum you'll need to have:
1) Enough dom0 memory so it overlaps with PCI space and gets remapped by 
Linux at boot
2) A driver that uses dma_map_single/dma_unmap_single
3) Large enough buffers so that they span page boundaries

Things that may help with 3 are enabling jumbos and various offload 
settings in either guests or dom0.
> > > > > > > --msw
> > > > > > It's the dma streaming api I've noticed the problem with, so
> > > > > > dma_map_single(). Applicable swiotlb code would be
> > > > > > xen_swiotlb_map_page() and range_straddles_page_boundary(). So yes
> > > > > > for larger buffers it can cause bouncing.

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