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diff --git a/Documentation/vm/hmm.txt b/Documentation/vm/hmm.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..4d3aac9f4a5d --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/vm/hmm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,384 @@ +Heterogeneous Memory Management (HMM) + +Transparently allow any component of a program to use any memory region of said +program with a device without using device specific memory allocator. This is +becoming a requirement to simplify the use of advance heterogeneous computing +where GPU, DSP or FPGA are use to perform various computations. + +This document is divided as follow, in the first section i expose the problems +related to the use of a device specific allocator. The second section i expose +the hardware limitations that are inherent to many platforms. The third section +gives an overview of HMM designs. The fourth section explains how CPU page- +table mirroring works and what is HMM purpose in this context. Fifth section +deals with how device memory is represented inside the kernel. Finaly the last +section present the new migration helper that allow to leverage the device DMA +engine. + + +1) Problems of using device specific memory allocator: +2) System bus, device memory characteristics +3) Share address space and migration +4) Address space mirroring implementation and API +5) Represent and manage device memory from core kernel point of view +6) Migrate to and from device memory +7) Memory cgroup (memcg) and rss accounting + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +1) Problems of using device specific memory allocator: + +Device with large amount of on board memory (several giga bytes) like GPU have +historically manage their memory through dedicated driver specific API. This +creates a disconnect between memory allocated and managed by device driver and +regular application memory (private anonymous, share memory or regular file +back memory). From here on i will refer to this aspect as split address space. +I use share address space to refer to the opposite situation ie one in which +any memory region can be use by device transparently. + +Split address space because device can only access memory allocated through the +device specific API. This imply that all memory object in a program are not +equal from device point of view which complicate large program that rely on a +wide set of libraries. + +Concretly this means that code that wants to leverage device like GPU need to +copy object between genericly allocated memory (malloc, mmap private/share/) +and memory allocated through the device driver API (this still end up with an +mmap but of the device file). + +For flat dataset (array, grid, image, ...) this isn't too hard to achieve but +complex data-set (list, tree, ...) are hard to get right. Duplicating a complex +data-set need to re-map all the pointer relations between each of its elements. +This is error prone and program gets harder to debug because of the duplicate +data-set. + +Split address space also means that library can not transparently use data they +are getting from core program or other library and thus each library might have +to duplicate its input data-set using specific memory allocator. Large project +suffer from this and waste resources because of the various memory copy. + +Duplicating each library API to accept as input or output memory allocted by +each device specific allocator is not a viable option. It would lead to a +combinatorial explosions in the library entry points. + +Finaly with the advance of high level language constructs (in C++ but in other +language too) it is now possible for compiler to leverage GPU or other devices +without even the programmer knowledge. Some of compiler identified patterns are +only do-able with a share address. It is as well more reasonable to use a share +address space for all the other patterns. + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +2) System bus, device memory characteristics + +System bus cripple share address due to few limitations. Most system bus only +allow basic memory access from device to main memory, even cache coherency is +often optional. Access to device memory from CPU is even more limited, most +often than not it is not cache coherent. + +If we only consider the PCIE bus than device can access main memory (often +through an IOMMU) and be cache coherent with the CPUs. However it only allows +a limited set of atomic operation from device on main memory. This is worse +in the other direction the CPUs can only access a limited range of the device +memory and can not perform atomic operations on it. Thus device memory can not +be consider like regular memory from kernel point of view. + +Another crippling factor is the limited bandwidth (~32GBytes/s with PCIE 4.0 +and 16 lanes). This is 33 times less that fastest GPU memory (1 TBytes/s). +The final limitation is latency, access to main memory from the device has an +order of magnitude higher latency than when the device access its own memory. + +Some platform are developing new system bus or additions/modifications to PCIE +to address some of those limitations (OpenCAPI, CCIX). They mainly allow two +way cache coherency between CPU and device and allow all atomic operations the +architecture supports. Saddly not all platform are following this trends and +some major architecture are left without hardware solutions to those problems. + +So for share address space to make sense not only we must allow device to +access any memory memory but we must also permit any memory to be migrated to +device memory while device is using it (blocking CPU access while it happens). + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3) Share address space and migration + +HMM intends to provide two main features. First one is to share the address +space by duplication the CPU page table into the device page table so same +address point to same memory and this for any valid main memory address in +the process address space. + +To achieve this, HMM offer a set of helpers to populate the device page table +while keeping track of CPU page table updates. Device page table updates are +not as easy as CPU page table updates. To update the device page table you must +allow a buffer (or use a pool of pre-allocated buffer) and write GPU specifics +commands in it to perform the update (unmap, cache invalidations and flush, +...). This can not be done through common code for all device. Hence why HMM +provides helpers to factor out everything that can be while leaving the gory +details to the device driver. + +The second mechanism HMM provide is a new kind of ZONE_DEVICE memory that does +allow to allocate a struct page for each page of the device memory. Those page +are special because the CPU can not map them. They however allow to migrate +main memory to device memory using exhisting migration mechanism and everything +looks like if page was swap out to disk from CPU point of view. Using a struct +page gives the easiest and cleanest integration with existing mm mechanisms. +Again here HMM only provide helpers, first to hotplug new ZONE_DEVICE memory +for the device memory and second to perform migration. Policy decision of what +and when to migrate things is left to the device driver. + +Note that any CPU access to a device page trigger a page fault and a migration +back to main memory ie when a page backing an given address A is migrated from +a main memory page to a device page then any CPU access to address A trigger a +page fault and initiate a migration back to main memory. + + +With this two features, HMM not only allow a device to mirror a process address +space and keeps both CPU and device page table synchronize, but also allow to +leverage device memory by migrating part of data-set that is actively use by a +device. + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +4) Address space mirroring implementation and API + +Address space mirroring main objective is to allow to duplicate range of CPU +page table into a device page table and HMM helps keeping both synchronize. A +device driver that want to mirror a process address space must start with the +registration of an hmm_mirror struct: + + int hmm_mirror_register(struct hmm_mirror *mirror, + struct mm_struct *mm); + int hmm_mirror_register_locked(struct hmm_mirror *mirror, + struct mm_struct *mm); + +The locked variant is to be use when the driver is already holding the mmap_sem +of the mm in write mode. The mirror struct has a set of callback that are use +to propagate CPU page table: + + struct hmm_mirror_ops { + /* sync_cpu_device_pagetables() - synchronize page tables + * + * @mirror: pointer to struct hmm_mirror + * @update_type: type of update that occurred to the CPU page table + * @start: virtual start address of the range to update + * @end: virtual end address of the range to update + * + * This callback ultimately originates from mmu_notifiers when the CPU + * page table is updated. The device driver must update its page table + * in response to this callback. The update argument tells what action + * to perform. + * + * The device driver must not return from this callback until the device + * page tables are completely updated (TLBs flushed, etc); this is a + * synchronous call. + */ + void (*update)(struct hmm_mirror *mirror, + enum hmm_update action, + unsigned long start, + unsigned long end); + }; + +Device driver must perform update to the range following action (turn range +read only, or fully unmap, ...). Once driver callback returns the device must +be done with the update. + + +When device driver wants to populate a range of virtual address it can use +either: + int hmm_vma_get_pfns(struct vm_area_struct *vma, + struct hmm_range *range, + unsigned long start, + unsigned long end, + hmm_pfn_t *pfns); + int hmm_vma_fault(struct vm_area_struct *vma, + struct hmm_range *range, + unsigned long start, + unsigned long end, + hmm_pfn_t *pfns, + bool write, + bool block); + +First one (hmm_vma_get_pfns()) will only fetch present CPU page table entry and +will not trigger a page fault on missing or non present entry. The second one +do trigger page fault on missing or read only entry if write parameter is true. +Page fault use the generic mm page fault code path just like a CPU page fault. + +Both function copy CPU page table into their pfns array argument. Each entry in +that array correspond to an address in the virtual range. HMM provide a set of +flags to help driver identify special CPU page table entries. + +Locking with the update() callback is the most important aspect the driver must +respect in order to keep things properly synchronize. The usage pattern is : + + int driver_populate_range(...) + { + struct hmm_range range; + ... + again: + ret = hmm_vma_get_pfns(vma, &range, start, end, pfns); + if (ret) + return ret; + take_lock(driver->update); + if (!hmm_vma_range_done(vma, &range)) { + release_lock(driver->update); + goto again; + } + + // Use pfns array content to update device page table + + release_lock(driver->update); + return 0; + } + +The driver->update lock is the same lock that driver takes inside its update() +callback. That lock must be call before hmm_vma_range_done() to avoid any race +with a concurrent CPU page table update. + +HMM implements all this on top of the mmu_notifier API because we wanted to a +simpler API and also to be able to perform optimization latter own like doing +concurrent device update in multi-devices scenario. + +HMM also serve as an impedence missmatch between how CPU page table update are +done (by CPU write to the page table and TLB flushes) from how device update +their own page table. Device update is a multi-step process, first appropriate +commands are write to a buffer, then this buffer is schedule for execution on +the device. It is only once the device has executed commands in the buffer that +the update is done. Creating and scheduling update command buffer can happen +concurrently for multiple devices. Waiting for each device to report commands +as executed is serialize (there is no point in doing this concurrently). + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +5) Represent and manage device memory from core kernel point of view + +Several differents design were try to support device memory. First one use +device specific data structure to keep information about migrated memory and +HMM hooked itself in various place of mm code to handle any access to address +that were back by device memory. It turns out that this ended up replicating +most of the fields of struct page and also needed many kernel code path to be +updated to understand this new kind of memory. + +Thing is most kernel code path never try to access the memory behind a page +but only care about struct page contents. Because of this HMM switchted to +directly using struct page for device memory which left most kernel code path +un-aware of the difference. We only need to make sure that no one ever try to +map those page from the CPU side. + +HMM provide a set of helpers to register and hotplug device memory as a new +region needing struct page. This is offer through a very simple API: + + struct hmm_devmem *hmm_devmem_add(const struct hmm_devmem_ops *ops, + struct device *device, + unsigned long size); + void hmm_devmem_remove(struct hmm_devmem *devmem); + +The hmm_devmem_ops is where most of the important things are: + + struct hmm_devmem_ops { + void (*free)(struct hmm_devmem *devmem, struct page *page); + int (*fault)(struct hmm_devmem *devmem, + struct vm_area_struct *vma, + unsigned long addr, + struct page *page, + unsigned flags, + pmd_t *pmdp); + }; + +The first callback (free()) happens when the last reference on a device page is +drop. This means the device page is now free and no longer use by anyone. The +second callback happens whenever CPU try to access a device page which it can +not do. This second callback must trigger a migration back to system memory. + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +6) Migrate to and from device memory + +Because CPU can not access device memory, migration must use device DMA engine +to perform copy from and to device memory. For this we need a new migration +helper: + + int migrate_vma(const struct migrate_vma_ops *ops, + struct vm_area_struct *vma, + unsigned long mentries, + unsigned long start, + unsigned long end, + unsigned long *src, + unsigned long *dst, + void *private); + +Unlike other migration function it works on a range of virtual address, there +is two reasons for that. First device DMA copy has a high setup overhead cost +and thus batching multiple pages is needed as otherwise the migration overhead +make the whole excersie pointless. The second reason is because driver trigger +such migration base on range of address the device is actively accessing. + +The migrate_vma_ops struct define two callbacks. First one (alloc_and_copy()) +control destination memory allocation and copy operation. Second one is there +to allow device driver to perform cleanup operation after migration. + + struct migrate_vma_ops { + void (*alloc_and_copy)(struct vm_area_struct *vma, + const unsigned long *src, + unsigned long *dst, + unsigned long start, + unsigned long end, + void *private); + void (*finalize_and_map)(struct vm_area_struct *vma, + const unsigned long *src, + const unsigned long *dst, + unsigned long start, + unsigned long end, + void *private); + }; + +It is important to stress that this migration helpers allow for hole in the +virtual address range. Some pages in the range might not be migrated for all +the usual reasons (page is pin, page is lock, ...). This helper does not fail +but just skip over those pages. + +The alloc_and_copy() might as well decide to not migrate all pages in the +range (for reasons under the callback control). For those the callback just +have to leave the corresponding dst entry empty. + +Finaly the migration of the struct page might fails (for file back page) for +various reasons (failure to freeze reference, or update page cache, ...). If +that happens then the finalize_and_map() can catch any pages that was not +migrated. Note those page were still copied to new page and thus we wasted +bandwidth but this is considered as a rare event and a price that we are +willing to pay to keep all the code simpler. + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7) Memory cgroup (memcg) and rss accounting + +For now device memory is accounted as any regular page in rss counters (either +anonymous if device page is use for anonymous, file if device page is use for +file back page or shmem if device page is use for share memory). This is a +deliberate choice to keep existing application that might start using device +memory without knowing about it to keep runing unimpacted. + +Drawbacks is that OOM killer might kill an application using a lot of device +memory and not a lot of regular system memory and thus not freeing much system +memory. We want to gather more real world experience on how application and +system react under memory pressure in the presence of device memory before +deciding to account device memory differently. + + +Same decision was made for memory cgroup. Device memory page are accounted +against same memory cgroup a regular page would be accounted to. This does +simplify migration to and from device memory. This also means that migration +back from device memory to regular memory can not fail because it would +go above memory cgroup limit. We might revisit this choice latter on once we +get more experience in how device memory is use and its impact on memory +resource control. + + +Note that device memory can never be pin nor by device driver nor through GUP +and thus such memory is always free upon process exit. Or when last reference +is drop in case of share memory or file back memory. |