linux/mm
Michal Hocko e62e384e9d memcg: prevent OOM with too many dirty pages
The current implementation of dirty pages throttling is not memcg aware
which makes it easy to have memcg LRUs full of dirty pages.  Without
throttling, these LRUs can be scanned faster than the rate of writeback,
leading to memcg OOM conditions when the hard limit is small.

This patch fixes the problem by throttling the allocating process
(possibly a writer) during the hard limit reclaim by waiting on
PageReclaim pages.  We are waiting only for PageReclaim pages because
those are the pages that made one full round over LRU and that means that
the writeback is much slower than scanning.

The solution is far from being ideal - long term solution is memcg aware
dirty throttling - but it is meant to be a band aid until we have a real
fix.  We are seeing this happening during nightly backups which are placed
into containers to prevent from eviction of the real working set.

The change affects only memcg reclaim and only when we encounter
PageReclaim pages which is a signal that the reclaim doesn't catch up on
with the writers so somebody should be throttled.  This could be
potentially unfair because it could be somebody else from the group who
gets throttled on behalf of the writer but as writers need to allocate as
well and they allocate in higher rate the probability that only innocent
processes would be penalized is not that high.

I have tested this change by a simple dd copying /dev/zero to tmpfs or
ext3 running under small memcg (1G copy under 5M, 60M, 300M and 2G
containers) and dd got killed by OOM killer every time.  With the patch I
could run the dd with the same size under 5M controller without any OOM.
The issue is more visible with slower devices for output.

* With the patch
================
* tmpfs size=2G
---------------
$ vim cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 5M
using Limit 5M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 30.4049 s, 34.5 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 60M
using Limit 60M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 31.4561 s, 33.3 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 300M
using Limit 300M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 20.4618 s, 51.2 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 2G
using Limit 2G for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 1.42172 s, 738 MB/s

* ext3
------
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 5M
using Limit 5M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 27.9547 s, 37.5 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 60M
using Limit 60M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 30.3221 s, 34.6 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 300M
using Limit 300M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 24.5764 s, 42.7 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 2G
using Limit 2G for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 3.35828 s, 312 MB/s

* Without the patch
===================
* tmpfs size=2G
---------------
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 5M
using Limit 5M for group
./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh: line 46:  4668 Killed                  dd if=/dev/zero of=$OUT/zero bs=1M count=$count
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 60M
using Limit 60M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 25.4989 s, 41.1 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 300M
using Limit 300M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 24.3928 s, 43.0 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 2G
using Limit 2G for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 1.49797 s, 700 MB/s

* ext3
------
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 5M
using Limit 5M for group
./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh: line 46:  4689 Killed                  dd if=/dev/zero of=$OUT/zero bs=1M count=$count
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 60M
using Limit 60M for group
./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh: line 46:  4692 Killed                  dd if=/dev/zero of=$OUT/zero bs=1M count=$count
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 300M
using Limit 300M for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 20.248 s, 51.8 MB/s
$ ./cgroup_cache_oom_test.sh 2G
using Limit 2G for group
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes (1.0 GB) copied, 2.85201 s, 368 MB/s

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: tweak changelog, reordered the test to optimize for CONFIG_CGROUP_MEM_RES_CTLR=n]
[hughd@google.com: fix deadlock with loop driver]
Cc: KAMEZAWA Hiroyuki <kamezawa.hiroyu@jp.fujtisu.com>
Cc: Minchan Kim <minchan@kernel.org>
Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com>
Cc: Ying Han <yinghan@google.com>
Cc: Greg Thelen <gthelen@google.com>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>
Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@cmpxchg.org>
Reviewed-by: Fengguang Wu <fengguang.wu@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.cz>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2012-07-31 18:42:49 -07:00
..
backing-dev.c mm: prepare for removal of obsolete /proc/sys/vm/nr_pdflush_threads 2012-07-31 18:42:40 -07:00
bootmem.c bootmem: make ___alloc_bootmem_node_nopanic() really nopanic 2012-07-17 16:21:29 -07:00
bounce.c bounce: allow use of bounce pool via config option 2012-07-18 16:40:35 -04:00
cleancache.c ->encode_fh() API change 2012-05-29 23:28:33 -04:00
compaction.c mm: have order > 0 compaction start off where it left 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
debug-pagealloc.c mm, x86: Remove debug_pagealloc_enabled 2011-12-06 09:24:07 +01:00
dmapool.c mm: fix implicit stat.h usage in dmapool.c 2011-10-31 09:20:12 -04:00
fadvise.c mm, fadvise: don't return -EINVAL when filesystem cannot implement fadvise() 2012-07-31 18:42:42 -07:00
failslab.c switch debugfs to umode_t 2012-01-03 22:54:56 -05:00
filemap_xip.c fs: introduce inode operation ->update_time 2012-06-01 12:07:25 -04:00
filemap.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2012-06-01 10:34:35 -07:00
fremap.c mm: delete various needless include <linux/module.h> 2011-10-31 09:20:11 -04:00
frontswap.c mm/frontswap: cleanup doc and comment error 2012-07-23 11:16:20 -04:00
highmem.c mm: add support for direct_IO to highmem pages 2012-07-31 18:42:47 -07:00
huge_memory.c mm/memcg: apply add/del_page to lruvec 2012-05-29 16:22:28 -07:00
hugetlb_cgroup.c hugetlb/cgroup: remove exclude and wakeup rmdir calls from migrate 2012-07-31 18:42:41 -07:00
hugetlb.c hugetlb/cgroup: assign the page hugetlb cgroup when we move the page to active list. 2012-07-31 18:42:41 -07:00
hwpoison-inject.c memcg: rename config variables 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
init-mm.c atomic: use <linux/atomic.h> 2011-07-26 16:49:47 -07:00
internal.h netvm: allow skb allocation to use PFMEMALLOC reserves 2012-07-31 18:42:46 -07:00
Kconfig mm: factor out memory isolate functions 2012-07-31 18:42:45 -07:00
Kconfig.debug mm: more intensive memory corruption debugging 2012-01-10 16:30:42 -08:00
kmemcheck.c
kmemleak-test.c kmemleak: remove memset by using kzalloc 2011-01-27 18:31:51 +00:00
kmemleak.c kmemleak: Disable early logging when kmemleak is off by default 2012-01-20 16:57:05 +00:00
ksm.c ksm: cleanup: introduce find_mergeable_vma() 2012-03-21 17:54:59 -07:00
maccess.c mm: Map most files to use export.h instead of module.h 2011-10-31 09:20:12 -04:00
madvise.c mm: Hold a file reference in madvise_remove 2012-07-06 10:34:38 -07:00
Makefile mm: factor out memory isolate functions 2012-07-31 18:42:45 -07:00
memblock.c mm/memblock.c:memblock_double_array(): cosmetic cleanups 2012-07-31 18:42:41 -07:00
memcontrol.c mm: memcg: only check anon swapin page charges for swap cache 2012-07-31 18:42:49 -07:00
memory_hotplug.c mm/hotplug: free zone->pageset when a zone becomes empty 2012-07-31 18:42:44 -07:00
memory-failure.c memcg: rename config variables 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
memory.c mm/memory.c:print_vma_addr(): call up_read(&mm->mmap_sem) directly 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
mempolicy.c Merge branch 'slab/next' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/penberg/linux 2012-07-30 11:32:24 -07:00
mempool.c mempool: fix first round failure behavior 2012-01-10 16:30:45 -08:00
migrate.c mm: memcg: fix compaction/migration failing due to memcg limits 2012-07-31 18:42:48 -07:00
mincore.c mm: thp: fix pmd_bad() triggering in code paths holding mmap_sem read mode 2012-03-21 17:54:54 -07:00
mlock.c vm: avoid using find_vma_prev() unnecessarily 2012-03-06 18:23:36 -08:00
mm_init.c mm: Map most files to use export.h instead of module.h 2011-10-31 09:20:12 -04:00
mmap.c mm: account the total_vm in the vm_stat_account() 2012-07-31 18:42:39 -07:00
mmu_context.c mm, counters: remove task argument to sync_mm_rss() and __sync_task_rss_stat() 2012-03-21 17:54:59 -07:00
mmu_notifier.c mm: mmu_notifier: fix freed page still mapped in secondary MMU 2012-07-31 18:42:49 -07:00
mmzone.c memcg: rename config variables 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
mprotect.c Merge branch 'akpm' (Andrew's patch-bomb) 2012-03-22 09:04:48 -07:00
mremap.c mm: account the total_vm in the vm_stat_account() 2012-07-31 18:42:39 -07:00
msync.c
nobootmem.c memblock: free allocated memblock_reserved_regions later 2012-07-11 16:04:50 -07:00
nommu.c nommu: fix compilation of nommu.c 2012-06-04 17:17:31 -04:00
oom_kill.c mm, memcg: move all oom handling to memcontrol.c 2012-07-31 18:42:45 -07:00
page_alloc.c mm: throttle direct reclaimers if PF_MEMALLOC reserves are low and swap is backed by network storage 2012-07-31 18:42:46 -07:00
page_cgroup.c memcg: rename config variables 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
page_io.c mm: add support for direct_IO to highmem pages 2012-07-31 18:42:47 -07:00
page_isolation.c memory-hotplug: fix kswapd looping forever problem 2012-07-31 18:42:45 -07:00
page-writeback.c writeback: Fix some comment errors 2012-06-09 19:54:47 +08:00
pagewalk.c mm: fix kernel-doc warnings 2012-06-20 14:39:36 -07:00
percpu-km.c percpu: clear memory allocated with the km allocator 2010-10-02 10:28:42 +03:00
percpu-vm.c mm: fix kernel-doc warnings 2012-06-20 14:39:36 -07:00
percpu.c kmemleak: Fix the kmemleak tracking of the percpu areas with !SMP 2012-05-09 10:13:29 -07:00
pgtable-generic.c arch/tile: allow building Linux with transparent huge pages enabled 2012-05-25 12:48:21 -04:00
prio_tree.c sanitize <linux/prefetch.h> usage 2011-05-20 12:50:29 -07:00
process_vm_access.c aio/vfs: cleanup of rw_copy_check_uvector() and compat_rw_copy_check_uvector() 2012-05-31 17:49:32 -07:00
quicklist.c mm: delete various needless include <linux/module.h> 2011-10-31 09:20:11 -04:00
readahead.c mm: move readahead syscall to mm/readahead.c 2012-05-29 16:22:23 -07:00
rmap.c mm: remove swap token code 2012-05-29 16:22:19 -07:00
shmem.c don't pass nameidata to ->create() 2012-07-14 16:34:47 +04:00
slab_common.c mm: Fix build warning in kmem_cache_create() 2012-07-30 13:15:40 +03:00
slab.c mm: micro-optimise slab to avoid a function call 2012-07-31 18:42:46 -07:00
slab.h mm, sl[aou]b: Use a common mutex definition 2012-07-09 12:13:41 +03:00
slob.c slob: Fix early boot kernel crash 2012-07-12 10:13:22 +03:00
slub.c mm: slub: optimise the SLUB fast path to avoid pfmemalloc checks 2012-07-31 18:42:45 -07:00
sparse-vmemmap.c mm: delete various needless include <linux/module.h> 2011-10-31 09:20:11 -04:00
sparse.c mm: setup pageblock_order before it's used by sparsemem 2012-07-31 18:42:43 -07:00
swap_state.c mm: add support for a filesystem to activate swap files and use direct_IO for writing swap pages 2012-07-31 18:42:47 -07:00
swap.c mm: add support for direct_IO to highmem pages 2012-07-31 18:42:47 -07:00
swapfile.c mm: swapfile: clean up unuse_pte race handling 2012-07-31 18:42:48 -07:00
truncate.c mm/fs: remove truncate_range 2012-05-29 16:22:23 -07:00
util.c new helper: vm_mmap_pgoff() 2012-06-01 10:37:18 -04:00
vmalloc.c mm: make vb_alloc() more foolproof 2012-07-31 18:42:39 -07:00
vmscan.c memcg: prevent OOM with too many dirty pages 2012-07-31 18:42:49 -07:00
vmstat.c mm: account for the number of times direct reclaimers get throttled 2012-07-31 18:42:46 -07:00