sched/fair: Initiate a new task's util avg to a bounded value

A new task's util_avg is set to full utilization of a CPU (100% time
running). This accelerates a new task's utilization ramp-up, useful to
boost its execution in early time. However, it may result in
(insanely) high utilization for a transient time period when a flood
of tasks are spawned. Importantly, it violates the "fundamentally
bounded" CPU utilization, and its side effect is negative if we don't
take any measure to bound it.

This patch proposes an algorithm to address this issue. It has
two methods to approach a sensible initial util_avg:

(1) An expected (or average) util_avg based on its cfs_rq's util_avg:

  util_avg = cfs_rq->util_avg / (cfs_rq->load_avg + 1) * se.load.weight

(2) A trajectory of how successive new tasks' util develops, which
gives 1/2 of the left utilization budget to a new task such that
the additional util is noticeably large (when overall util is low) or
unnoticeably small (when overall util is high enough). In the meantime,
the aggregate utilization is well bounded:

  util_avg_cap = (1024 - cfs_rq->avg.util_avg) / 2^n

where n denotes the nth task.

If util_avg is larger than util_avg_cap, then the effective util is
clamped to the util_avg_cap.

Reported-by: Andrey Ryabinin <aryabinin@virtuozzo.com>
Signed-off-by: Yuyang Du <yuyang.du@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: bsegall@google.com
Cc: morten.rasmussen@arm.com
Cc: pjt@google.com
Cc: steve.muckle@linaro.org
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1459283456-21682-1-git-send-email-yuyang.du@intel.com
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 54 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index 4bb5ace60dc8..b8cc1c35cd7c 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -682,17 +682,68 @@ void init_entity_runnable_average(struct sched_entity *se)
 	sa->period_contrib = 1023;
 	sa->load_avg = scale_load_down(se->load.weight);
 	sa->load_sum = sa->load_avg * LOAD_AVG_MAX;
-	sa->util_avg = scale_load_down(SCHED_LOAD_SCALE);
-	sa->util_sum = sa->util_avg * LOAD_AVG_MAX;
+	/*
+	 * At this point, util_avg won't be used in select_task_rq_fair anyway
+	 */
+	sa->util_avg = 0;
+	sa->util_sum = 0;
 	/* when this task enqueue'ed, it will contribute to its cfs_rq's load_avg */
 }
 
+/*
+ * With new tasks being created, their initial util_avgs are extrapolated
+ * based on the cfs_rq's current util_avg:
+ *
+ *   util_avg = cfs_rq->util_avg / (cfs_rq->load_avg + 1) * se.load.weight
+ *
+ * However, in many cases, the above util_avg does not give a desired
+ * value. Moreover, the sum of the util_avgs may be divergent, such
+ * as when the series is a harmonic series.
+ *
+ * To solve this problem, we also cap the util_avg of successive tasks to
+ * only 1/2 of the left utilization budget:
+ *
+ *   util_avg_cap = (1024 - cfs_rq->avg.util_avg) / 2^n
+ *
+ * where n denotes the nth task.
+ *
+ * For example, a simplest series from the beginning would be like:
+ *
+ *  task  util_avg: 512, 256, 128,  64,  32,   16,    8, ...
+ * cfs_rq util_avg: 512, 768, 896, 960, 992, 1008, 1016, ...
+ *
+ * Finally, that extrapolated util_avg is clamped to the cap (util_avg_cap)
+ * if util_avg > util_avg_cap.
+ */
+void post_init_entity_util_avg(struct sched_entity *se)
+{
+	struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq = cfs_rq_of(se);
+	struct sched_avg *sa = &se->avg;
+	long cap = (long)(scale_load_down(SCHED_LOAD_SCALE) - cfs_rq->avg.util_avg) / 2;
+
+	if (cap > 0) {
+		if (cfs_rq->avg.util_avg != 0) {
+			sa->util_avg  = cfs_rq->avg.util_avg * se->load.weight;
+			sa->util_avg /= (cfs_rq->avg.load_avg + 1);
+
+			if (sa->util_avg > cap)
+				sa->util_avg = cap;
+		} else {
+			sa->util_avg = cap;
+		}
+		sa->util_sum = sa->util_avg * LOAD_AVG_MAX;
+	}
+}
+
 static inline unsigned long cfs_rq_runnable_load_avg(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq);
 static inline unsigned long cfs_rq_load_avg(struct cfs_rq *cfs_rq);
 #else
 void init_entity_runnable_average(struct sched_entity *se)
 {
 }
+void post_init_entity_util_avg(struct sched_entity *se)
+{
+}
 #endif
 
 /*
@@ -8384,6 +8435,7 @@ int alloc_fair_sched_group(struct task_group *tg, struct task_group *parent)
 		init_cfs_rq(cfs_rq);
 		init_tg_cfs_entry(tg, cfs_rq, se, i, parent->se[i]);
 		init_entity_runnable_average(se);
+		post_init_entity_util_avg(se);
 	}
 
 	return 1;