Re: [PATCH] mm, page_alloc: fix build_zonerefs_node()

[David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>]

On 07.04.22 13:40, Michal Hocko wrote:
> On Thu 07-04-22 13:17:19, Juergen Gross wrote:
>> On 07.04.22 13:07, Michal Hocko wrote:
>>> On Thu 07-04-22 12:45:41, Juergen Gross wrote:
>>>> On 07.04.22 12:34, Michal Hocko wrote:
>>>>> Ccing Mel
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu 07-04-22 11:32:21, Juergen Gross wrote:
>>>>>> Since commit 9d3be21bf9c0 ("mm, page_alloc: simplify zonelist
>>>>>> initialization") only zones with free memory are included in a built
>>>>>> zonelist. This is problematic when e.g. all memory of a zone has been
>>>>>> ballooned out.
>>>>>
>>>>> What is the actual problem there?
>>>>
>>>> When running as Xen guest new hotplugged memory will not be onlined
>>>> automatically, but only on special request. This is done in order to
>>>> support adding e.g. the possibility to use another GB of memory, while
>>>> adding only a part of that memory initially.
>>>>
>>>> In case adding that memory is populating a new zone, the page allocator
>>>> won't be able to use this memory when it is onlined, as the zone wasn't
>>>> added to the zonelist, due to managed_zone() returning 0.
>>>
>>> How is that memory onlined? Because "regular" onlining (online_pages())
>>> does rebuild zonelists if their zone hasn't been populated before.
>>
>> The Xen balloon driver has an own callback for onlining pages. The pages
>> are just added to the ballooned-out page list without handing them to the
>> allocator. This is done only when the guest is ballooned up.
> 
> OK, I see. Let me just rephrase to see whether we are on the same page.
> Xen is overriding the online_page_callback to xen_online_page which
> doesn't free pages to the page allocator which means that a zone might
> remain unpopulated after onlining. This means that the default zone
> lists rebuild is not done and later on when those pages are finally
> released to the allocator there is no build_all_zonelists happening so
> those freed pages are not really visible to the allocator via zonelists
> fallback allocation.
> 
> Now to your patch. I suspect this is not sufficient for the full hotplug
> situation. Consider a new NUMA node to be hotadded. hotadd_new_pgdat
> will call build_all_zonelists but the zone is not populated yet at that
> moment unless I am missing something. We do rely on online_pages to
> rebuild once pages are onlined - which usually means they are freed to
> the page allocator.
> 
> The zonelists building is kinda messy TBH. I have to say that I am not
> really clear on Mel's 6aa303defb74 ("mm, vmscan: only allocate and
> reclaim from zones with pages managed by the buddy allocator") because
> as you have said unpoppulated zone is not (or shouldn't be) really all
> that different from a depleted zone.
> 
> I think a better and more complete fix would be the following. In other
> words the zonelists will be built for all present zones. Not sure
> whether that is going to break 6aa303defb74 though.
> 
> diff --git a/mm/memory_hotplug.c b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
> index 2a9627dc784c..880c455e2557 100644
> --- a/mm/memory_hotplug.c
> +++ b/mm/memory_hotplug.c
> @@ -1062,7 +1062,6 @@ int __ref online_pages(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
>  		       struct zone *zone, struct memory_group *group)
>  {
>  	unsigned long flags;
> -	int need_zonelists_rebuild = 0;
>  	const int nid = zone_to_nid(zone);
>  	int ret;
>  	struct memory_notify arg;
> @@ -1106,17 +1105,13 @@ int __ref online_pages(unsigned long pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
>  	 * This means the page allocator ignores this zone.
>  	 * So, zonelist must be updated after online.
>  	 */
> -	if (!populated_zone(zone)) {
> -		need_zonelists_rebuild = 1;
> +	if (!populated_zone(zone))
>  		setup_zone_pageset(zone);
> -	}
>  
>  	online_pages_range(pfn, nr_pages);
>  	adjust_present_page_count(pfn_to_page(pfn), group, nr_pages);
>  
>  	node_states_set_node(nid, &arg);
> -	if (need_zonelists_rebuild)
> -		build_all_zonelists(NULL);
>  
>  	/* Basic onlining is complete, allow allocation of onlined pages. */
>  	undo_isolate_page_range(pfn, pfn + nr_pages, MIGRATE_MOVABLE);
> @@ -1985,10 +1980,8 @@ int __ref offline_pages(unsigned long start_pfn, unsigned long nr_pages,
>  	/* reinitialise watermarks and update pcp limits */
>  	init_per_zone_wmark_min();
>  
> -	if (!populated_zone(zone)) {
> +	if (!populated_zone(zone))
>  		zone_pcp_reset(zone);
> -		build_all_zonelists(NULL);
> -	}
>  
>  	node_states_clear_node(node, &arg);
>  	if (arg.status_change_nid >= 0) {
> diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
> index 3589febc6d31..130a2feceddc 100644
> --- a/mm/page_alloc.c
> +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
> @@ -6112,10 +6112,8 @@ static int build_zonerefs_node(pg_data_t *pgdat, struct zoneref *zonerefs)
>  	do {
>  		zone_type--;
>  		zone = pgdat->node_zones + zone_type;
> -		if (managed_zone(zone)) {
> -			zoneref_set_zone(zone, &zonerefs[nr_zones++]);
> -			check_highest_zone(zone_type);
> -		}
> +		zoneref_set_zone(zone, &zonerefs[nr_zones++]);
> +		check_highest_zone(zone_type);
>  	} while (zone_type);
>  
>  	return nr_zones;

I don't think having !populated zones in the zonelist is a particularly
good idea. Populated vs !populated changes only during page
onlininge/offlining.

If I'm not wrong, with your patch we'd even include ZONE_DEVICE here ...

I'd vote for going with the simple fix first, which should be good
enough AFAIKT.

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb