Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH v3 1/1] xen/time: do not decrease steal time after live migration on xen

[Dongli Zhang <dongli.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Boris,

On 10/25/2017 11:12 PM, Boris Ostrovsky wrote:
> On 10/25/2017 02:45 AM, Dongli Zhang wrote:
>> After guest live migration on xen, steal time in /proc/stat
>> (cpustat[CPUTIME_STEAL]) might decrease because steal returned by
>> xen_steal_lock() might be less than this_rq()->prev_steal_time which is
>> derived from previous return value of xen_steal_clock().
>>
>> For instance, steal time of each vcpu is 335 before live migration.
>>
>> cpu  198 0 368 200064 1962 0 0 1340 0 0
>> cpu0 38 0 81 50063 492 0 0 335 0 0
>> cpu1 65 0 97 49763 634 0 0 335 0 0
>> cpu2 38 0 81 50098 462 0 0 335 0 0
>> cpu3 56 0 107 50138 374 0 0 335 0 0
>>
>> After live migration, steal time is reduced to 312.
>>
>> cpu  200 0 370 200330 1971 0 0 1248 0 0
>> cpu0 38 0 82 50123 500 0 0 312 0 0
>> cpu1 65 0 97 49832 634 0 0 312 0 0
>> cpu2 39 0 82 50167 462 0 0 312 0 0
>> cpu3 56 0 107 50207 374 0 0 312 0 0
>>
>> Since runstate times are cumulative and cleared during xen live migration
>> by xen hypervisor, the idea of this patch is to accumulate runstate times
>> to global percpu variables before live migration suspend. Once guest VM is
>> resumed, xen_get_runstate_snapshot_cpu() would always return the sum of new
>> runstate times and previously accumulated times stored in global percpu
>> variables.
>>
>> Similar and more severe issue would impact prior linux 4.8-4.10 as
>> discussed by Michael Las at
>> https://0xstubs.org/debugging-a-flaky-cpu-steal-time-counter-on-a-paravirtualized-xen-guest,
>> which would overflow steal time and lead to 100% st usage in top command
>> for linux 4.8-4.10. A backport of this patch would fix that issue.
>>
>> References: 
>> https://0xstubs.org/debugging-a-flaky-cpu-steal-time-counter-on-a-paravirtualized-xen-guest
>> Signed-off-by: Dongli Zhang <dongli.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> ---
>> Changed since v1:
>>   * relocate modification to xen_get_runstate_snapshot_cpu
>>
>> Changed since v2:
>>   * accumulate runstate times before live migration
>>
>> ---
>>  drivers/xen/manage.c  |  1 +
>>  drivers/xen/time.c    | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
>>  include/xen/xen-ops.h |  1 +
>>  3 files changed, 21 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/drivers/xen/manage.c b/drivers/xen/manage.c
>> index c425d03..9aa2955 100644
>> --- a/drivers/xen/manage.c
>> +++ b/drivers/xen/manage.c
>> @@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ static int xen_suspend(void *data)
>>      }
>>  
>>      gnttab_suspend();
>> +    xen_accumulate_runstate_time();
>>      xen_arch_pre_suspend();
>>  
>>      /*
>> diff --git a/drivers/xen/time.c b/drivers/xen/time.c
>> index ac5f23f..6df3f82 100644
>> --- a/drivers/xen/time.c
>> +++ b/drivers/xen/time.c
>> @@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
>>  /* runstate info updated by Xen */
>>  static DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct vcpu_runstate_info, xen_runstate);
>>  
>> +static DEFINE_PER_CPU(u64[4], old_runstate_time);
>> +
>>  /* return an consistent snapshot of 64-bit time/counter value */
>>  static u64 get64(const u64 *p)
>>  {
>> @@ -52,6 +54,7 @@ static void xen_get_runstate_snapshot_cpu(struct 
>> vcpu_runstate_info *res,
>>  {
>>      u64 state_time;
>>      struct vcpu_runstate_info *state;
>> +    int i;
>>  
>>      BUG_ON(preemptible());
>>  
>> @@ -64,6 +67,22 @@ static void xen_get_runstate_snapshot_cpu(struct 
>> vcpu_runstate_info *res,
>>              rmb();  /* Hypervisor might update data. */
>>      } while (get64(&state->state_entry_time) != state_time ||
>>               (state_time & XEN_RUNSTATE_UPDATE));
>> +
>> +    for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
>> +            res->time[i] += per_cpu(old_runstate_time, cpu)[i];
>> +}
>> +
>> +void xen_accumulate_runstate_time(void)
>> +{
>> +    struct vcpu_runstate_info state;
>> +    int cpu;
>> +
>> +    for_each_possible_cpu(cpu) {
>> +            xen_get_runstate_snapshot_cpu(&state, cpu);
>> +            memcpy(per_cpu(old_runstate_time, cpu),
>> +                            state.time,
>> +                            4 * sizeof(u64));
> 
> sizeof(old_runstate_time). (I think this should work for per_cpu variables)
> 
>> +    }
> 
> Hmm.. This may not perform as intended if we are merely checkpointing
> (or pausing) the guest (i.e. if HYPERVISOR_suspend() returns 1). We will
> double-account for the last interval that the guest has run.
> 
> I'd rather not have yet another per-cpu variable but I can't think of
> anything else. Perhaps you or others can come up with something better.

I have 3 options so far.

The 1st option is to another per-cpu variable while you do not like it.

The 2nd option is to borrow from what do_stolen_accounting() used to do. Compute
the delta of current and previous time and do nothing if delta is less than 0.
The drawback of this option is guest might wait for the new time to catch up
with previous time.

The 3rd option is to check the return value of HYPERVISOR_suspend() to different
if this is a migration of checkpointing. As we will double-account the runstate
time for checkpointing, why not just divide it by 2? The drawback of this option
is the result is not accurate as we divide the incremental (time before and
after checkpointing) by 2.

Would you please let me know which option we prefer?

Thank you very much!

Dongli Zhang


> 
> -boris
> 
>>  }
>>  
>>  /*
>> diff --git a/include/xen/xen-ops.h b/include/xen/xen-ops.h
>> index 218e6aa..5680059 100644
>> --- a/include/xen/xen-ops.h
>> +++ b/include/xen/xen-ops.h
>> @@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ void xen_resume_notifier_unregister(struct notifier_block 
>> *nb);
>>  bool xen_vcpu_stolen(int vcpu);
>>  void xen_setup_runstate_info(int cpu);
>>  void xen_time_setup_guest(void);
>> +void xen_accumulate_runstate_time(void);
>>  void xen_get_runstate_snapshot(struct vcpu_runstate_info *res);
>>  u64 xen_steal_clock(int cpu);
>>  
> 
> 
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