Re: [sched/pelt] 2d02fa8cc2: stress-ng.pipeherd.ops_per_sec -9.7% regression

[Vincent Guittot <vincent.guittot@linaro.org>]

On Tue, 5 Apr 2022 at 16:23, Chen Yu <yu.chen.surf@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, Apr 4, 2022 at 5:53 PM Vincent Guittot
> <vincent.guittot@linaro.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 1 Apr 2022 at 20:32, Chen Yu <yu.chen.surf@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Fri, Apr 1, 2022 at 12:17 AM Vincent Guittot
> > > <vincent.guittot@linaro.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Thu, 31 Mar 2022 at 16:19, Chen Yu <yu.chen.surf@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi Vincent,
> > > > >
> > > > > On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 1:17 PM kernel test robot <oliver.sang@intel.com> wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Greeting,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > FYI, we noticed a -9.7% regression of stress-ng.pipeherd.ops_per_sec due to commit:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > commit: 2d02fa8cc21a93da35cfba462bf8ab87bf2db651 ("sched/pelt: Relax the sync of load_sum with load_avg")
> > > > > > https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git master
> > > > > >
> > > > > > in testcase: stress-ng
> > > > > > on test machine: 128 threads 2 sockets Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8358 CPU @ 2.60GHz with 128G memory
> > > > > > with following parameters:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >         nr_threads: 100%
> > > > > >         testtime: 60s
> > > > > >         class: memory
> > > > > >         test: pipeherd
> > > > > >         cpufreq_governor: performance
> > > > > >         ucode: 0xd000280
> > > > > >
> > > > > This week we have re-run the test result and it seems that this
> > > > > regression is still there.
> > > > > As we are evaluating whether this report is valid or if the
> > > > > downgrading is expected, appreciated
> > > > > if you could give suggestion on further steps:
> > > > >
> > > > > 1.  If I understand correctly,
> > > > > 2d02fa8cc21a93da35cfba462bf8ab87bf2db651 ("sched/pelt: Relax the sync
> > > > > of load_sum with load_avg")
> > > > >      fixed the calculating of  load_sum.  Before this patch  the
> > > > > contribution part would be 'skipped' and caused the load_sum
> > > > >      to be lower than expected.
> > > >
> > > > Yes, you understand it correctly
> > > >
> > > > > 2. If above is true, after this patch, the load_sum becomes higher. Is
> > > > > there a scenario that higher load_sum added to 1 cfs_rq brings
> > > > >     more imbalance between this group and other sched_group, thus
> > > > > brings more task migration/wake up? (because in below perf result,
> > > > >     it seems that, with this patch applied, there are slightly more
> > > > > take wake up)
> > > >
> > > > This change should not impact load balance as it only does comparison
> > > > and I expect the load increase to happen on all cfs rq.
> > > > The only place that could be impacted, would be wake_affine_weight()
> > > > because it removes task load from previous cfs rq load before
> > > > comparing.
> > > > The task's load was not impacted by the underestimate which means that
> > > > the load of prev cfs  might be seen lower than current cfs after
> > > > subtracting the task's load whereas both cfs rqs were similarly
> > > > underestimated.
> > > > Now the load of prev cfs rq is not underestimated and becomes
> > > > comparable or slightly higher than the current cfs and the task
> > > > migrate on current cfs instead of staying on prev one at wakeup
> > > >
> > > Could you please elaborate a little more on this scenario, since both current
> > > and previous cfs rqs were underestimated, how could previous cfs rq has
> > > lower load than the current one before applying this patch?
> > >
> > > Say, suppose the previous cfs rq has a load of L1, and current cfs rq has
> > > a load of L2, the waken task has a load of h, then wake_affine_weight()
> > > compares L1 - h  with L2 + h ,  when L1 < L2 + 2h, the task will remain on
> > > previous CPU.  Since L1 and L2 were underestimated in the same scale,
> > > I'm not quite sure how this patch would affect the choice between
> > > prev and current CPU.
> >
> > Let's take the example of  this_cpu load L1 = 0 and prev_cpu load L2 =
> > 2h'+d. h' reflects h in the cpu load and d is a small delta load. The
> > task will migrate if we have the condition below:
> >
> >     h < 2h'-h+d
> >
> > With this patch, we assume that h' == h as we don't underestimate the
> > load of cfs rqs anymore. The condition for migrating the task is :
> >     h < h+d
> > And the task will migrate on this cpu as soon as there is a small load
> > on prev_cpu in addition to the 2h.
> >
> > Without the patch, the load of cfs_rqs are underestimated which means
> > that the task's load is underestimated in the cfs rq. This can be
> > described as h'  == h-U. U being the underestimated part. In this case
> > the condition to migrate the task becomes:
> >     h < h-2U+d
> > The task will migrate on this cpu is d is large enough to compensate
> > the underestimation so we will migrate less often
> >
> I see. Thanks for this example! So in this scenario when previous CPU
> has some higher load than the current CPU, without this patch applied,
> the OS would have more chances to keep the task on the previous CPU,
> thus less migration and less rq lock contention(according to the perf result).
> I don't have a good idea in mind on how to deal with this case, except that
> by disabling WA_WEIGHT or WA_BIAS(prefer 'this' CPU I suppose).

I don't think that there is any good solution for this bench. It was
taking advantage of the underestimated load_avg because it seems that
it doesn't like to migrate on local cpu but on the other side, some
benches will take advantage of this migration.

Thanks
Vincent
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Chenyu