Re: [6.1.7][6.2-rc5] perf all metrics test: FAILED!

From: Ian Rogers
Date: Mon Jan 30 2023 - 22:55:37 EST


On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 7:45 PM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 1:20 AM Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 2:04 AM James Clark <james.clark@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 30/01/2023 02:24, Sedat Dilek wrote:
> > > > ?
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 12:21 AM Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> On Sun, Jan 29, 2023 at 1:59 AM Sedat Dilek <sedat.dilek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ CC LLVM linux folks + Ben from Debian kernel team ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Hi,
> > > >>>
> > > >>> I am playing with LLVM version 16.0.0-rc1 which was released yesterday and PERF.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> After building my selfmade LLVM toolchain, I built perf and run some
> > > >>> perf tests here on my Intel SandyBridge CPU (details see below).
> > > >>>
> > > >>> perf all metrics test: FAILED!
> > > >>>
> > > >>> ...with both Debian's perf version 6.1.7 and my selfmade version 6.2-rc5.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Just noticed:
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Couldn't bump rlimit(MEMLOCK), failures may take place when creating
> > > >>> BPF maps, etc
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Run the below tests with `sudo` - made this go away - still FAILED.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> But maybe I am missing to activate some sysfs/debug or whatever other stuff?
> > > >>
> > > >> Hi Sedat,
> > > >>
> > > >> things have been improving wrt metrics and so this failure may have
> > > >> just been because of the addition of a previously missing metric. The
> > > >> rlimit thing shouldn't affect things but maybe file descriptors?
> > > >> Looking at the test output the issue is:
> > > >>
> > > >> ```
> > > >> Metric 'tma_dram_bound' not printed in:
> > > >> # Running 'internals/synthesize' benchmark:
> > > >> Computing performance of single threaded perf event synthesis by
> > > >> synthesizing events on the perf process itself:
> > > >> Average synthesis took: 207.680 usec (+- 0.176 usec)
> > > >> Average num. events: 30.000 (+- 0.000)
> > > >> Average time per event 6.923 usec
> > > >> Average data synthesis took: 217.833 usec (+- 0.202 usec)
> > > >> Average num. events: 161.000 (+- 0.000)
> > > >> Average time per event 1.353 usec
> > > >>
> > > >> Performance counter stats for 'perf bench internals synthesize':
> > > >>
> > > >> <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT
> > > >> (0,00%)
> > > >> <not counted> CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > > >> (0,00%)
> > > >> <not counted> CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> > > >> (0,00%)
> > > >> <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > > >> (0,00%)
> > > >> ```
> > > >>
> > > >> So the test was checking to see whether the tma_dram_bound metric
> > > >> could be computed on your Sandybridge and it failed. The event counts
> > > >> below show that every event came back "<not counted>" which is usually
> > > >> indicative of a permissions problem - it is also not surprising given
> > > >> this that the metric wasn't computed. You could try repeating the
> > > >> command the test is trying with something like "perf stat -M
> > > >> tma_dram_bound -a sleep 1", but running as root should have resolved
> > > >> that issue. Does that give you enough to keep exploring?
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > > Hi Ian,
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for your feedback!
> > > >
> > > > I booted into my Debian kernel - just to see what happens.
> > > >
> > > > # cat /proc/version
> > > > Linux version 6.1.0-2-amd64 (debian-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) (gcc-12
> > > > (Debian 12.2.0-14) 12.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.40) #1
> > > > SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.7-1 (2023-01-18)
> > > >
> > > > All things run as root...
> > > >
> > > > # echo 0 | tee /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict
> > > > /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid
> > > > 0
> > > >
> > > > # /usr/bin/perf test 10 92 98 99 100 101
> > > > 10: PMU events :
> > > > 10.1: PMU event table sanity : Ok
> > > > 10.2: PMU event map aliases : Ok
> > > > 10.3: Parsing of PMU event table metrics : Ok
> > > > 10.4: Parsing of PMU event table metrics with fake PMUs : Ok
> > > > 92: perf record tests : Ok
> > > > 98: perf stat tests : Ok
> > > > 99: perf all metricgroups test : Ok
> > > > 100: perf all metrics test : FAILED!
> > > > 101: perf all PMU test : Ok
> > > >
> > > > # perf stat -M tma_dram_bound -a sleep 1
> > > >
> > > > Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
> > > >
> > > > <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > > <not counted> CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > > <not counted> CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > > <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > >
> > >
> > > Hi Sedat,
> > >
> > > I also had this failure and did a git bisect, but it led me to the
> > > conclusion that it is a stale build issue rather than a regression.
> > >
> > > There was a recent commit that renamed/removed some json PMU files which
> > > the build system can't cope with. I think the tests end up iterating
> > > over a different set of event names than were generated by the build system.
> > >
> > > If you do a clean build the issue should go away. I don't know if there
> > > is anything more we can do to stop this from happening.
> > >
> > > James
> >
> > So I think this is a kernel bug triggering a perf tool bug. The kernel
> > bug can be worked around in the perf tool. I only had an Ivybridge to
> > test with (hence slightly different events) but what I see is both
> > tma_dram_bound and tma_l3_bound using the same 4 events. I could work
> > around the "<not counted>" by adding the --metric-no-group flag:
> >
> > ```
> > $ perf stat -M tma_l3_bound --metric-no-group -a sleep 1
> >
> > Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
> >
> > 400,404 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT # 4.3 %
> > tma_l3_bound (74.99%)
> > 128,937,891 CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > (87.46%)
> > 167,459 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > (74.99%)
> > 759,574,967 CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> > (87.47%)
> >
> > 1.001526438 seconds time elapsed
> >
> > $ perf stat -M tma_dram_bound -a --metric-no-group sleep 1
> >
> > Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
> >
> > 259,954 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT # 15.2 %
> > tma_dram_bound (74.99%)
> > 118,807,043 CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > (87.46%)
> > 111,699 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > (74.95%)
> > 587,571,060 CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> > (87.45%)
> >
> > 1.001518093 seconds time elapsed
> > ```
> >
> > The issue is that perf metrics use weak groups of events. A weak group
> > is the same as a group of events initially. We want to use groups of
> > events with metrics so that all the counters are scheduled in and out
> > at the same time, and not multiplexed independently. Imagine measuring
> > IPC but the counts for instructions and cycles are measured at
> > different periods, the resultant IPC value would be unlikely to be
> > accurate. If perf_event_open fails then the perf tool retries the
> > events without the group. If I try just 3 of the events in a weak
> > group then the failure can be seen:
> >
> > ```
> > $ perf stat -e "{MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT,MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_MISS,CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING}:W"
> > -a sleep 1
> >
> > Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
> >
> > <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT
> > (0.00%)
> > <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > (0.00%)
> > <not counted> CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > (0.00%)
> >
> > 1.001458485 seconds time elapsed
> > ```
> >
> > The kernel should have failed the perf_event_open on opening the third
> > event and then measured without the group, which it can do with
> > multiplexing as in the following:
> >
> > ```
> > $ perf stat -e "MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT,MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_MISS,CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING"
> > -a sleep 1
> >
> > Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
> >
> > 1,239,397 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT
> > (79.06%)
> > 174,826 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > (64.60%)
> > 124,026,024 CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > (81.16%)
> >
> > 1.001483434 seconds time elapsed
> > ```
> >
> > When the --metric-no-group flag is given to perf then it doesn't
> > produce the initial weak group, which works around the bug of the
> > kernel not failing on the 3rd perf_event_open. I've added Kan and
> > Zhengjun to the e-mail as they work on the Intel kernel PMU code.
> >
> > There's a question about what we should do in the perf test about
> > this? I have a few solutions:
> >
> > 1) try metric tests again with the --metric-no-group flag and don't
> > fail the test if this succeeds. This allows kernel bugs to hide, so
> > I'm not a huge fan.
> >
> > 2) add a new metric flag/constraint to say not to group, this way the
> > metric will automatically apply the "--metric-no-group" flag. It is a
> > bit of work to wire this up but this kind of failure is common enough
> > in PMUs that it is probably worthwhile. We also need to add the flag
> > to metrics and I'm not sure how to get a good list of the metrics that
> > currently fail and require it. This is okay but error prone.
> >
> > 3) fix the kernel bug and let the perf test fail until an adequate
> > kernel is installed. Probably the best option.
> >
>
> Hi Ian,
>
> I can confirm:
>
> $ echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict
> /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid
> 0
>
> $ ~/bin/perf stat -M tma_l3_bound --metric-no-group -a sleep 1
>
> Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
>
> 2.058.892 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT # 1,5 %
> tma_l3_bound (99,30%)
> 173.254.697 CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> (99,10%)
> 2.396.130.501 CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> (99,60%)
> 1.110.486 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> (99,53%)
>
> 1,001989022 seconds time elapsed
>
> $ ~/bin/perf stat -M tma_dram_bound --metric-no-group -a sleep 1
>
> Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
>
> 1.729.208 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT # 1,2 %
> tma_dram_bound (99,50%)
> 50.346.734 CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> (99,50%)
> 2.354.963.862 CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> (99,80%)
> 306.500 MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> (99,61%)
>
> 1,001981392 seconds time elapsed
>
> Thanks!

Thanks, apparently it is an issue with SandyBridge/IvyBridge that some
counters on one hyperthread will limit what can be on the other. I
believe that's the comment related to EXCL access here:
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c#L124
So you may have more success with the metric if you disable
hyperthreading, but I imagine that's not a popular option.

Thanks,
Ian

> BR,
> -Sedat-
>
> > Thanks,
> > Ian
> >
> > > > 1,002148600 seconds time elapsed
> > > >
> > > > Hmm... looking at... Metric 'tma_l3_bound' ...
> > > >
> > > > Running...
> > > >
> > > > # perf stat --verbose -M tma_l3_bound -a sleep 1
> > > > Using CPUID GenuineIntel-6-2A-7
> > > > metric expr (MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT /
> > > > (MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT + 7 *
> > > > MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS)) *
> > > > CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING / CLKS for tma_l3_bound
> > > > metric expr CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD for CLKS
> > > >
> > > > found event MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT
> > > > found event CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > > > found event CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> > > > found event MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > > >
> > > > Parsing metric events
> > > > '{MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT/metric-id=MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT/,CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING/metric-id=CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PEND
> > > > ING/,CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD/metric-id=CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD/,MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS/metric-id=MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS/}:W'
> > > > MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT -> cpu/event=0xd1,period=0xc365,umask=0x4/
> > > > CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING ->
> > > > cpu/event=0xa3,cmask=0x5,period=0x1e8483,umask=0x5/
> > > > CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD -> cpu/event=0x3c,period=0x1e8483/
> > > > MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS -> cpu/event=0xd4,period=0x186a7,umask=0x2/
> > > >
> > > > Control descriptor is not initialized
> > > >
> > > > MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT: 0 4007421228 0
> > > > CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING: 0 4007421228 0
> > > > CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD: 0 4007421228 0
> > > > MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS: 0 4007421228 0
> > > >
> > > > Performance counter stats for 'system wide':
> > > >
> > > > <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_RETIRED.LLC_HIT
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > > <not counted> CYCLE_ACTIVITY.STALLS_L2_PENDING
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > > <not counted> CPU_CLK_UNHALTED.THREAD
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > > <not counted> MEM_LOAD_UOPS_MISC_RETIRED.LLC_MISS
> > > > (0,00%)
> > > >
> > > > 1,002310013 seconds time elapsed
> > > >
> > > > So those events/metric-ids resulting in "<not counted>" are all found.
> > > >
> > > > What means "Control descriptor is not initialized"?
> > > >
> > > > To summarize:
> > > >
> > > > Those two tests in "100: perf all metrics test" FAILED:
> > > >
> > > > 1. tma_dram_bound
> > > > 2. tma_l3_bound
> > > >
> > > > Best regards,
> > > > -Sedat-
> > > >
> > > >> Thanks,
> > > >> Ian
> > > >>
> > > >>> Last perf version which was OK:
> > > >>>
> > > >>> ~/bin/perf -v
> > > >>> perf version 6.0.0
> > > >>>
> > > >>> echo "linux-perf: Adjust limited access to performance monitoring and
> > > >>> observability operations"
> > > >>> echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict
> > > >>> /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid
> > > >>> 0
> > > >>>
> > > >>> ~/bin/perf test 10 86 92 93 94 95
> > > >>> 10: PMU events :
> > > >>> 10.1: PMU event table sanity : Ok
> > > >>> 10.2: PMU event map aliases : Ok
> > > >>> 10.3: Parsing of PMU event table metrics : Ok
> > > >>> 10.4: Parsing of PMU event table metrics with fake PMUs : Ok
> > > >>> 86: perf record tests : Ok
> > > >>> 92: perf stat tests : Ok
> > > >>> 93: perf all metricgroups test : Ok
> > > >>> 94: perf all metrics test : Ok
> > > >>> 95: perf all PMU test : Ok
> > > >>>
> > > >>> echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict
> > > >>> /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid
> > > >>> echo "linux-perf: Reset limited access to performance monitoring and
> > > >>> observability operations"
> > > >>>
> > > >>> If you need further information, please let me know.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Thanks.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Regards,
> > > >>> -Sedat-
> > > >>>
> > > >>> P.S. Instructions
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ REPRODUCER ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> LLVM_MVER="16"
> > > >>>
> > > >>> # Debian LLVM
> > > >>> ##LLVM_TOOLCHAIN_PATH="/usr/lib/llvm-${LLVM_MVER}/bin"
> > > >>> # Selfmade LLVM
> > > >>> LLVM_TOOLCHAIN_PATH="/opt/llvm/bin"
> > > >>> if [ -d ${LLVM_TOOLCHAIN_PATH} ]; then
> > > >>> export PATH="${LLVM_TOOLCHAIN_PATH}:${PATH}"
> > > >>> fi
> > > >>>
> > > >>> PYTHON_VER="3.11"
> > > >>> MAKE="make"
> > > >>> MAKE_OPTS="V=1 -j1 HOSTCC=clang-$LLVM_MVER HOSTLD=ld.lld
> > > >>> HOSTAR=llvm-ar CC=clang-$LLVM_MVER LD=ld.lld AR=llvm-ar
> > > >>> STRIP=llvm-strip"
> > > >>>
> > > >>> echo "LLVM MVER ........ $LLVM_MVER"
> > > >>> echo "Path settings .... $PATH"
> > > >>> echo "Python version ... $PYTHON_VER"
> > > >>> echo "make line ........ $MAKE $MAKE_OPTS"
> > > >>>
> > > >>> LANG=C LC_ALL=C make -C tools/perf clean 2>&1 | tee ../make-log_perf-clean.txt
> > > >>>
> > > >>> LANG=C LC_ALL=C $MAKE $MAKE_OPTS -C tools/perf
> > > >>> PYTHON=python${PYTHON_VER} install-bin 2>&1 | tee
> > > >>> ../make-log_perf-install_bin_python${PYTHON_VER}_llvm${LLVM_MVER}.txt
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ TESTS ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ TESTS - START ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict
> > > >>> /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ TESTS - DEBIAN ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> /usr/bin/perf -v
> > > >>> perf version 6.1.7
> > > >>>
> > > >>> /usr/bin/perf test 10 92 98 99 100 101
> > > >>>
> > > >>> 10: PMU events :
> > > >>> 10.1: PMU event table sanity : Ok
> > > >>> 10.2: PMU event map aliases : Ok
> > > >>> 10.3: Parsing of PMU event table metrics : Ok
> > > >>> 10.4: Parsing of PMU event table metrics with fake PMUs : Ok
> > > >>> 92: perf record tests : Ok
> > > >>> 98: perf stat tests : Ok
> > > >>> 99: perf all metricgroups test : Ok
> > > >>> 100: perf all metrics test : FAILED!
> > > >>> 101: perf all PMU test : Ok
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ TESTS - DILEKS ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> ~/bin/perf -v
> > > >>> perf version 6.2.0-rc5
> > > >>>
> > > >>> ~/bin/perf test 7 87 93 94 95 96
> > > >>>
> > > >>> 7: PMU events :
> > > >>> 7.1: PMU event table sanity : Ok
> > > >>> 7.2: PMU event map aliases : Ok
> > > >>> 7.3: Parsing of PMU event table metrics : Ok
> > > >>> 7.4: Parsing of PMU event table metrics with fake PMUs : Ok
> > > >>> 87: perf record tests : Ok
> > > >>> 93: perf stat tests : Ok
> > > >>> 94: perf all metricgroups test : Ok
> > > >>> 95: perf all metrics test : FAILED!
> > > >>> 96: perf all PMU test : Ok
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ TESTS - FAILED ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> /usr/bin/perf test --verbose 100 2>&1 | tee
> > > >>> perf-test-verbose-100-perf-all-metrics-test_debian-perf-6-1-7.txt
> > > >>>
> > > >>> ~/bin/perf test --verbose 95 2>&1 | tee
> > > >>> perf-test-verbose-95-perf-all-metrics-test_dileks-perf-6-2-rc5.txt
> > > >>>
> > > >>> [ TESTS - STOP ]
> > > >>>
> > > >>> echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict
> > > >>> /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid
> > > >>>
> > > >>> - EOT -