kernel_optimize_test/arch/x86
Glauber Costa 489fb490db x86, paravirt: Add a global synchronization point for pvclock
In recent stress tests, it was found that pvclock-based systems
could seriously warp in smp systems. Using ingo's time-warp-test.c,
I could trigger a scenario as bad as 1.5mi warps a minute in some systems.
(to be fair, it wasn't that bad in most of them). Investigating further, I
found out that such warps were caused by the very offset-based calculation
pvclock is based on.

This happens even on some machines that report constant_tsc in its tsc flags,
specially on multi-socket ones.

Two reads of the same kernel timestamp at approx the same time, will likely
have tsc timestamped in different occasions too. This means the delta we
calculate is unpredictable at best, and can probably be smaller in a cpu
that is legitimately reading clock in a forward ocasion.

Some adjustments on the host could make this window less likely to happen,
but still, it pretty much poses as an intrinsic problem of the mechanism.

A while ago, I though about using a shared variable anyway, to hold clock
last state, but gave up due to the high contention locking was likely
to introduce, possibly rendering the thing useless on big machines. I argue,
however, that locking is not necessary.

We do a read-and-return sequence in pvclock, and between read and return,
the global value can have changed. However, it can only have changed
by means of an addition of a positive value. So if we detected that our
clock timestamp is less than the current global, we know that we need to
return a higher one, even though it is not exactly the one we compared to.

OTOH, if we detect we're greater than the current time source, we atomically
replace the value with our new readings. This do causes contention on big
boxes (but big here means *BIG*), but it seems like a good trade off, since
it provide us with a time source guaranteed to be stable wrt time warps.

After this patch is applied, I don't see a single warp in time during 5 days
of execution, in any of the machines I saw them before.

Signed-off-by: Glauber Costa <glommer@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Zachary Amsden <zamsden@redhat.com>
CC: Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@goop.org>
CC: Avi Kivity <avi@redhat.com>
CC: Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>
CC: Zachary Amsden <zamsden@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>
2010-05-19 11:41:00 +03:00
..
boot Merge branch 'x86-setup-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip 2010-02-28 10:43:53 -08:00
configs
crypto include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h 2010-03-30 22:02:32 +09:00
ia32 x86: correctly wire up the newuname system call 2010-04-20 09:17:21 -07:00
include/asm x86, paravirt: Enable pvclock flags in vcpu_time_info structure 2010-05-19 11:40:59 +03:00
kernel x86, paravirt: Add a global synchronization point for pvclock 2010-05-19 11:41:00 +03:00
kvm KVM: x86: Inject #GP with the right rip on efer writes 2010-05-19 11:36:39 +03:00
lguest lguest: stop using KVM hypercall mechanism 2010-04-14 21:43:56 +09:30
lib perf, x86: Add INSTRUCTION_DECODER config flag 2010-03-10 13:34:12 +01:00
math-emu
mm Merge branch 'master' into export-slabh 2010-04-05 11:37:28 +09:00
oprofile perf, x86: Undo some some *_counter* -> *_event* renames 2010-04-02 19:52:02 +02:00
pci include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h 2010-03-30 22:02:32 +09:00
power Merge branch 'x86-fixes-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/x86/linux-2.6-tip 2010-04-07 11:02:23 -07:00
tools
vdso include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h 2010-03-30 22:02:32 +09:00
video
xen include cleanup: Update gfp.h and slab.h includes to prepare for breaking implicit slab.h inclusion from percpu.h 2010-03-30 22:02:32 +09:00
Kbuild
Kconfig Merge branch 'linus' into perf/core 2010-04-08 13:37:18 +02:00
Kconfig.cpu x86, perf, bts, mm: Delete the never used BTS-ptrace code 2010-03-26 11:33:55 +01:00
Kconfig.debug x86, perf, bts, mm: Delete the never used BTS-ptrace code 2010-03-26 11:33:55 +01:00
Makefile x86-64: Allow fbdev primary video code 2010-02-16 21:22:26 -08:00
Makefile_32.cpu