sched: Strengthen buddies and mitigate buddy induced latencies

This patch restores the effectiveness of LAST_BUDDY in preventing
pgsql+oltp from collapsing due to wakeup preemption. It also
switches LAST_BUDDY to exclusively do what it does best, namely
mitigate the effects of aggressive wakeup preemption, which
improves vmark throughput markedly, and restores mysql+oltp
scalability.

Since buddies are about scalability, enable them beginning at the
point where we begin expanding sched_latency, namely
sched_nr_latency. Previously, buddies were cleared aggressively,
which seriously reduced their effectiveness. Not clearing
aggressively however, produces a small drop in mysql+oltp
throughput immediately after peak, indicating that LAST_BUDDY is
actually doing some harm. This is right at the point where X on the
desktop in competition with another load wants low latency service.
Ergo, do not enable until we need to scale.

To mitigate latency induced by buddies, or by a task just missing
wakeup preemption, check latency at tick time.

Last hunk prevents buddies from stymieing BALANCE_NEWIDLE via
CACHE_HOT_BUDDY.

Supporting performance tests:

 tip   = v2.6.32-rc5-1497-ga525b32
 tipx  = NO_GENTLE_FAIR_SLEEPERS NEXT_BUDDY granularity knobs = 31 knobs + 31 buddies
 tip+x = NO_GENTLE_FAIR_SLEEPERS granularity knobs = 31 knobs

(Three run averages except where noted.)

 vmark:
 ------
 tip           108466 messages per second
 tip+          125307 messages per second
 tip+x         125335 messages per second
 tipx          117781 messages per second
 2.6.31.3      122729 messages per second

 mysql+oltp:
 -----------
 clients          1        2        4        8       16       32       64        128    256
 ..........................................................................................
 tip        9949.89 18690.20 34801.24 34460.04 32682.88 30765.97 28305.27 25059.64 19548.08
 tip+      10013.90 18526.84 34900.38 34420.14 33069.83 32083.40 30578.30 28010.71 25605.47
 tipx       9698.71 18002.70 34477.56 33420.01 32634.30 31657.27 29932.67 26827.52 21487.18
 2.6.31.3   8243.11 18784.20 34404.83 33148.38 31900.32 31161.90 29663.81 25995.94 18058.86

 pgsql+oltp:
 -----------
 clients          1        2        4        8       16       32       64      128      256
 ..........................................................................................
 tip       13686.37 26609.25 51934.28 51347.81 49479.51 45312.65 36691.91 26851.57 24145.35
 tip+ (1x) 13907.85 27135.87 52951.98 52514.04 51742.52 50705.43 49947.97 48374.19 46227.94
 tip+x     13906.78 27065.81 52951.19 52542.59 52176.11 51815.94 50838.90 49439.46 46891.00
 tipx      13742.46 26769.81 52351.99 51891.73 51320.79 50938.98 50248.65 48908.70 46553.84
 2.6.31.3  13815.35 26906.46 52683.34 52061.31 51937.10 51376.80 50474.28 49394.47 47003.25

Signed-off-by: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
LKML-Reference: <new-submission>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/sched.c b/kernel/sched.c
index 789001da0a94..cae6700bedb3 100644
--- a/kernel/sched.c
+++ b/kernel/sched.c
@@ -2008,7 +2008,7 @@ task_hot(struct task_struct *p, u64 now, struct sched_domain *sd)
 	/*
 	 * Buddy candidates are cache hot:
 	 */
-	if (sched_feat(CACHE_HOT_BUDDY) &&
+	if (sched_feat(CACHE_HOT_BUDDY) && this_rq()->nr_running &&
 			(&p->se == cfs_rq_of(&p->se)->next ||
 			 &p->se == cfs_rq_of(&p->se)->last))
 		return 1;