Re: Block device throttling [Re: Distributed storage.]

From: Evgeniy Polyakov
Date: Mon Aug 13 2007 - 09:04:51 EST


On Sun, Aug 12, 2007 at 11:44:00PM -0700, Daniel Phillips (phillips@xxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> On Sunday 12 August 2007 22:36, I wrote:
> > Note! There are two more issues I forgot to mention earlier.
>
> Oops, and there is also:
>
> 3) The bio throttle, which is supposed to prevent deadlock, can itself
> deadlock. Let me see if I can remember how it goes.
>
> * generic_make_request puts a bio in flight
> * the bio gets past the throttle and initiates network IO
> * net calls sk_alloc->alloc_pages->shrink_caches
> * shrink_caches submits a bio recursively to our block device
> * this bio blocks on the throttle
> * net may never get the memory it needs, and we are wedged

If system is in such condition, it is already broken - throttle limit
must be lowered (next time) not to allow such situation.

--
Evgeniy Polyakov
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/