]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/kernel/linux.git/commit
sched/fair: Skip sched_balance_running cmpxchg when balance is not due
authorTim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
Mon, 10 Nov 2025 18:47:35 +0000 (10:47 -0800)
committerPeter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:12:00 +0000 (17:12 +0100)
commit3324b2180c17b21c31c16966cc85ca41a7c93703
tree3c4e5cb4f4e7dc1d4360f5c8d5beea436ddd13e2
parent65177ea9f64d7402a0b8028e0dbbd01e8a9d1b1d
sched/fair: Skip sched_balance_running cmpxchg when balance is not due

The NUMA sched domain sets the SD_SERIALIZE flag by default, allowing
only one NUMA load balancing operation to run system-wide at a time.

Currently, each sched group leader directly under NUMA domain attempts
to acquire the global sched_balance_running flag via cmpxchg() before
checking whether load balancing is due or whether it is the designated
load balancer for that NUMA domain. On systems with a large number
of cores, this causes significant cache contention on the shared
sched_balance_running flag.

This patch reduces unnecessary cmpxchg() operations by first checking
that the balancer is the designated leader for a NUMA domain from
should_we_balance(), and the balance interval has expired before
trying to acquire sched_balance_running to load balance a NUMA
domain.

On a 2-socket Granite Rapids system with sub-NUMA clustering enabled,
running an OLTP workload, 7.8% of total CPU cycles were previously spent
in sched_balance_domain() contending on sched_balance_running before
this change.

         : 104              static __always_inline int arch_atomic_cmpxchg(atomic_t *v, int old, int new)
         : 105              {
         : 106              return arch_cmpxchg(&v->counter, old, new);
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e6c:       xor    %eax,%eax
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e6e:       mov    $0x1,%ecx
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e73:       lock cmpxchg %ecx,0x2394195(%rip)        # ffffffff836bb010 <sched_balance_running>
         : 110              sched_balance_domains():
         : 12234            if (atomic_cmpxchg_acquire(&sched_balance_running, 0, 1))
   99.39 :   ffffffff81326e7b:       test   %eax,%eax
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e7d:       jne    ffffffff81326e99 <sched_balance_domains+0x209>
         : 12238            if (time_after_eq(jiffies, sd->last_balance + interval)) {
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e7f:       mov    0x14e2b3a(%rip),%rax        # ffffffff828099c0 <jiffies_64>
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e86:       sub    0x48(%r14),%rax
    0.00 :   ffffffff81326e8a:       cmp    %rdx,%rax

After applying this fix, sched_balance_domain() is gone from the profile
and there is a 5% throughput improvement.

[peterz: made it so that redo retains the 'lock' and split out the
         CPU_NEWLY_IDLE change to a separate patch]
Signed-off-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Vincent Guittot <vincent.guittot@linaro.org>
Reviewed-by: Shrikanth Hegde <sshegde@linux.ibm.com>
Reviewed-by: K Prateek Nayak <kprateek.nayak@amd.com>
Reviewed-by: Srikar Dronamraju <srikar@linux.ibm.com>
Tested-by: Mohini Narkhede <mohini.narkhede@intel.com>
Tested-by: Shrikanth Hegde <sshegde@linux.ibm.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/6fed119b723c71552943bfe5798c93851b30a361.1762800251.git.tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com
kernel/sched/fair.c