[Xen-devel] Re: [PATCH] numa: fix problems with memory-less nodes

[Andre Przywara <andre.przywara@xxxxxxx>]

Keir Fraser wrote:
> On 12/01/2010 16:30, "Andre Przywara" <andre.przywara@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > If we decided to not report memory-less nodes in physinfo we should also
> > skip them in the node_to_{cpu,memory,dma32_mem} Python lists. Currently
> > Xen will not start guests on machines with memory-less nodes which are
> > not the last ones. On an 8-node machine with empty nodes 4 and 5 "xm
> > info" was reporting wrongly, also the node assignment algorithm crashed
> > with a division by zero error.
> > The attached patch fixes this by skipping empty nodes in the enumeration
> > of resources.
> Where to begin? Firstly, I thought that the ordering of nodes in the
> node_to_* lists actually mattered -- the lists are indexed by nodeid (a
> handle which can be passed to other Xen interfaces) are they not? If you
> don't include empty entries, then the index position of entries is no longer
> meaningful.
OK, that seems to be an issue.
To be honest I am not a fan of omitting nodes from physinfo, but that is 
what the current code (RC1!) does and it definitely breaks Xen on my 
box. So I just made this small patch to make it work again.
Actually I would opt to revert the patch cropping the number of nodes 
reported by physinfo (20762:a1d0a575b4ba ?). Yes, that would result in 
nodes reported with zero memory, but in my tests this did not raise 
problems, as a node's memory can (and will) be exhausted even during 
normal operation.
To illustrate the problem:
My box has 8 nodes, I removed the memory from nodes 4 & 5.
With the unpatched version xm info says:
total_memory           : 73712
free_memory            : 70865
node_to_cpu            : node0:0-5,24-35
                         node1:6-11
                         node2:12-17
                         node3:18-23
                         node4:no cpus
                         node5:no cpus
node_to_memory         : node0:14267
                         node1:8167
                         node2:16335
                         node3:8167
                         node4:0
                         node5:0
So this listing completely omits the last two nodes (CPUs 36-47 and the 
24 GB connected to them). The debug key triggered Xen-internal listing 
is correct, though:
(XEN) idx0 -> NODE0 start->0 size->4423680
(XEN) phys_to_nid(0000000000001000) -> 0 should be 0
(XEN) idx1 -> NODE1 start->4423680 size->2097152
(XEN) phys_to_nid(0000000438001000) -> 1 should be 1
(XEN) idx2 -> NODE2 start->6520832 size->4194304
(XEN) phys_to_nid(0000000638001000) -> 2 should be 2
(XEN) idx3 -> NODE3 start->10715136 size->2097152
(XEN) phys_to_nid(0000000a38001000) -> 3 should be 3
(XEN) idx6 -> NODE6 start->12812288 size->4194304
(XEN) phys_to_nid(0000000c38001000) -> 6 should be 6
(XEN) idx7 -> NODE7 start->17006592 size->2097152
(XEN) phys_to_nid(0000001038001000) -> 7 should be 7
With the patched xc.so xm info reports:
node_to_cpu            : node0:0-5,24-35
                         node1:6-11
                         node2:12-17
                         node3:18-23
                         node4:36-41
                         node5:42-47
node_to_memory         : node0:14267
                         node1:8167
                         node2:16335
                         node3:8167
                         node4:16335
                         node5:7590

Although memory less nodes are not very common, it could happen 
sometimes with our new dual-node processor, where one could (even 
accidentally) forget to populate certain memory slots, as it has in fact 
a dual-node dual-channel memory interface.
> Secondly, you avoid appending to the node_to_cpu list if the node is
> cpu-less. But you avoid appending to the node_to_{memory,dma32} lists only
> if the node is *both* cpu-less and memory-less. That's not even consistent.
OK, that's a point. I see that the value of node_exists can change.
> Please just fix the crap Python code.
What part do you exactly mean? The part triggering the division by zero?

I will see if I can fix this properly.

Regards,
Andre.

--
Andre Przywara
AMD-Operating System Research Center (OSRC), Dresden, Germany
Tel: +49 351 448 3567 12
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