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| author | Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com> | 2026-09-21 17:37:22 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> | 2026-09-22 10:49:53 +0200 |
| commit | 0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6 (patch) | |
| tree | 176dc2d685debcfb082c151ee94f2425ac96b364 /Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-cache.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6.tar.gz linux-stable-0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6.zip | |
sched/cache: Keep nr_pref_llc_running in the runnable domain, to fix LLC mis-scheduling buggrafted
alb_break_llc() decides whether to break LLC preference during active
load balance. It does so by testing that every runnable fair task on the
source rq prefers its LLC:
env->src_rq->nr_pref_llc_running == env->src_rq->cfs.h_nr_runnable
But the two counters cover different sets. nr_pref_llc_running is updated
in account_llc_enqueue()/account_llc_dequeue(), next to cfs_rq->nr_queued,
so it follows queued tasks. h_nr_runnable is updated in set_delayed()/
clear_delayed() and drops delay-dequeued tasks.
So under DELAY_DEQUEUE, a preferring task that goes to sleep stays counted
in nr_pref_llc_running while h_nr_runnable falls. The equality then breaks,
alb_break_llc() returns false, and active balance is free to pull a task
off its preferred LLC. Active balance only moves runnable tasks, and this
is the only LLC check it consults: once the stopper runs, LBF_ACTIVE_LB
skips the per-task test in can_migrate_task(). The runnable set is the one
we want.
Fix it on the counter side. A task should be counted in
nr_pref_llc_running exactly while it is both queued on its preferred LLC
(pref_llc_queued) and runnable (!sched_delayed). Define that membership
once in task_pref_llc_runnable(), and adjust the counter only through
pref_llc_running_inc()/pref_llc_running_dec() from the four sites that
change either input: account_llc_enqueue(), account_llc_dequeue(),
set_delayed() and clear_delayed(). Gating every update on the same
predicate keeps the delay, wake and dequeue paths from double-counting
or underflowing; see the comments at those sites for the ordering.
nr_llc_running and sd->llc_counts are not touched and stay on queued
semantics.
Fixes: 714059f79ff0 ("sched/cache: Handle moving single tasks to/from their preferred LLC")
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20260827135000.735138-1-zhanxusheng@xiaomi.com/
Reported-by: Zhan Xusheng <zhanxusheng@xiaomi.com>
Suggested-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Kayra Cizmeci <kayracizmeci@gmail.com>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org> # v7.2.x
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/06af61afedac32e6477f57feb4d658f6c411c3af.1790035273.git.tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-cache.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-cache.rst | 111 |
1 files changed, 111 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-cache.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-cache.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5f947cbc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-cache.rst @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +================ +RAID 4/5/6 cache +================ + +Raid 4/5/6 could include an extra disk for data cache besides normal RAID +disks. The role of RAID disks isn't changed with the cache disk. The cache disk +caches data to the RAID disks. The cache can be in write-through (supported +since 4.4) or write-back mode (supported since 4.10). mdadm (supported since +3.4) has a new option '--write-journal' to create array with cache. Please +refer to mdadm manual for details. By default (RAID array starts), the cache is +in write-through mode. A user can switch it to write-back mode by:: + + echo "write-back" > /sys/block/md0/md/journal_mode + +And switch it back to write-through mode by:: + + echo "write-through" > /sys/block/md0/md/journal_mode + +In both modes, all writes to the array will hit cache disk first. This means +the cache disk must be fast and sustainable. + +write-through mode +================== + +This mode mainly fixes the 'write hole' issue. For RAID 4/5/6 array, an unclean +shutdown can cause data in some stripes to not be in consistent state, eg, data +and parity don't match. The reason is that a stripe write involves several RAID +disks and it's possible the writes don't hit all RAID disks yet before the +unclean shutdown. We call an array degraded if it has inconsistent data. MD +tries to resync the array to bring it back to normal state. But before the +resync completes, any system crash will expose the chance of real data +corruption in the RAID array. This problem is called 'write hole'. + +The write-through cache will cache all data on cache disk first. After the data +is safe on the cache disk, the data will be flushed onto RAID disks. The +two-step write will guarantee MD can recover correct data after unclean +shutdown even the array is degraded. Thus the cache can close the 'write hole'. + +In write-through mode, MD reports IO completion to upper layer (usually +filesystems) after the data is safe on RAID disks, so cache disk failure +doesn't cause data loss. Of course cache disk failure means the array is +exposed to 'write hole' again. + +In write-through mode, the cache disk isn't required to be big. Several +hundreds megabytes are enough. + +write-back mode +=============== + +write-back mode fixes the 'write hole' issue too, since all write data is +cached on cache disk. But the main goal of 'write-back' cache is to speed up +write. If a write crosses all RAID disks of a stripe, we call it full-stripe +write. For non-full-stripe writes, MD must read old data before the new parity +can be calculated. These synchronous reads hurt write throughput. Some writes +which are sequential but not dispatched in the same time will suffer from this +overhead too. Write-back cache will aggregate the data and flush the data to +RAID disks only after the data becomes a full stripe write. This will +completely avoid the overhead, so it's very helpful for some workloads. A +typical workload which does sequential write followed by fsync is an example. + +In write-back mode, MD reports IO completion to upper layer (usually +filesystems) right after the data hits cache disk. The data is flushed to raid +disks later after specific conditions met. So cache disk failure will cause +data loss. + +In write-back mode, MD also caches data in memory. The memory cache includes +the same data stored on cache disk, so a power loss doesn't cause data loss. +The memory cache size has performance impact for the array. It's recommended +the size is big. A user can configure the size by:: + + echo "2048" > /sys/block/md0/md/stripe_cache_size + +Too small cache disk will make the write aggregation less efficient in this +mode depending on the workloads. It's recommended to use a cache disk with at +least several gigabytes size in write-back mode. + +The implementation +================== + +The write-through and write-back cache use the same disk format. The cache disk +is organized as a simple write log. The log consists of 'meta data' and 'data' +pairs. The meta data describes the data. It also includes checksum and sequence +ID for recovery identification. Data can be IO data and parity data. Data is +checksummed too. The checksum is stored in the meta data ahead of the data. The +checksum is an optimization because MD can write meta and data freely without +worry about the order. MD superblock has a field pointed to the valid meta data +of log head. + +The log implementation is pretty straightforward. The difficult part is the +order in which MD writes data to cache disk and RAID disks. Specifically, in +write-through mode, MD calculates parity for IO data, writes both IO data and +parity to the log, writes the data and parity to RAID disks after the data and +parity is settled down in log and finally the IO is finished. Read just reads +from raid disks as usual. + +In write-back mode, MD writes IO data to the log and reports IO completion. The +data is also fully cached in memory at that time, which means read must query +memory cache. If some conditions are met, MD will flush the data to RAID disks. +MD will calculate parity for the data and write parity into the log. After this +is finished, MD will write both data and parity into RAID disks, then MD can +release the memory cache. The flush conditions could be stripe becomes a full +stripe write, free cache disk space is low or free in-kernel memory cache space +is low. + +After an unclean shutdown, MD does recovery. MD reads all meta data and data +from the log. The sequence ID and checksum will help us detect corrupted meta +data and data. If MD finds a stripe with data and valid parities (1 parity for +raid4/5 and 2 for raid6), MD will write the data and parities to RAID disks. If +parities are incompleted, they are discarded. If part of data is corrupted, +they are discarded too. MD then loads valid data and writes them to RAID disks +in normal way. |
