[Virtio-fs] [RFC] [PATCH] virtiofsd: Auto switch between inline and thread-pool processing

[Vivek Goyal]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 03:03:43AM +0800, Liu Bo wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 07:39:54AM -0400, Vivek Goyal wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 02:12:44PM +0800, Liu Bo wrote:
> > > On Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 05:11:30PM -0400, Vivek Goyal wrote:
> > > > This is just an RFC patch for now. I am still running performance numbers
> > > > and see if this method of switching is good enough or not. I did one run
> > > > and seemed to get higher performance on deeper queue depths. There were
> > > > few tests where I did not match lower queue depth performance with 
> > > > no thread pool. May be run to run variation.
> > > > 
> > > > For low queue depth workloads, inline processing works well. But for 
> > > > high queue depth (and multiple process/thread) workloads, parallel
> > > > processing of thread pool can benefit.
> > > > 
> > > > This patch is an experiment which tries to switch to between inline and
> > > > thread-pool processing. If number of requests received on queue is
> > > > 1, inline processing is done. Otherwise requests are handed over to
> > > > a thread pool for processing.
> > > >
> > > 
> > > I'm looking forward to the results showing how many requests would it
> > > beats the overhead of using thread pools.
> > > 
> > > This is a good idea indeed, and the switch mechanism also applies to
> > > async IO framework like iouring.
> > 
> > Hi Liubo,
> > 
> > I have been thinking of using io_uring. Have you managed to make it work.
> > Do we get better performance with io_uring.
> >
> Hi Vivek,
> 
> With fuse-backend-rs, I did some experiments using rust async
> framework and io_uring wrapper ringbahn, and my code is written to
> provide a few rust coroutines to serve fuse process loop.
> 
> I tested the same 8k random read workload on three setups,
> a) single thread
> b) threads=4 multiple threads
> c) coroutines=4 async 
> 
> the performance tests showed some expected feedbacks, in terms of IO
> intensive workloads, "async" beats single thread, it comes with
> overheads though, it performs about 80% of "multiple threads".
> 
> Note that the above tests were done with no limit of cpu/mem
> resources, by limiting cpu to 1, "async" performs the best given the
> async io kthreads were not limited.

So if number of cpus are not limited for virtiofsd, then async (c)
did not perform better than "multiple threads" (b)? 

IOW, async performed better than multiple threads only if number
of cpus was limited to 1 for virtiofsd.

Did I understand it right?

> 
> So it looks like all three setups have pros and cons, it'd be great if
> we can do switching between them on the fly.

Agreed. It probably will make sense to add support for async I/O
(probably using io_uring) and provide a knob to let user select
whatever I/O interface they want to use.

Vivek

> 
> thanks,
> liubo
> 
> > Thanks
> > Vivek
> > 
> > > 
> > > thanks,
> > > liubo
> > > 
> > > > Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal at redhat.com>
> > > > ---
> > > >  tools/virtiofsd/fuse_virtio.c |   27 +++++++++++++++++++--------
> > > >  1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
> > > > 
> > > > Index: rhvgoyal-qemu/tools/virtiofsd/fuse_virtio.c
> > > > ===================================================================
> > > > --- rhvgoyal-qemu.orig/tools/virtiofsd/fuse_virtio.c	2021-04-23 10:03:46.175920039 -0400
> > > > +++ rhvgoyal-qemu/tools/virtiofsd/fuse_virtio.c	2021-04-23 10:56:37.793722634 -0400
> > > > @@ -446,6 +446,15 @@ err:
> > > >  static __thread bool clone_fs_called;
> > > >  
> > > >  /* Process one FVRequest in a thread pool */
> > > > +static void fv_queue_push_to_pool(gpointer data, gpointer user_data)
> > > > +{
> > > > +    FVRequest *req = data;
> > > > +    GThreadPool *pool = user_data;
> > > > +
> > > > +    g_thread_pool_push(pool, req, NULL);
> > > > +}
> > > > +
> > > > +/* Process one FVRequest in a thread pool */
> > > >  static void fv_queue_worker(gpointer data, gpointer user_data)
> > > >  {
> > > >      struct fv_QueueInfo *qi = user_data;
> > > > @@ -605,6 +614,7 @@ static void *fv_queue_thread(void *opaqu
> > > >      struct fuse_session *se = qi->virtio_dev->se;
> > > >      GThreadPool *pool = NULL;
> > > >      GList *req_list = NULL;
> > > > +    int nr_req = 0;
> > > >  
> > > >      if (se->thread_pool_size) {
> > > >          fuse_log(FUSE_LOG_DEBUG, "%s: Creating thread pool for Queue %d\n",
> > > > @@ -686,22 +696,23 @@ static void *fv_queue_thread(void *opaqu
> > > >              }
> > > >  
> > > >              req->reply_sent = false;
> > > > -
> > > > -            if (!se->thread_pool_size) {
> > > > -                req_list = g_list_prepend(req_list, req);
> > > > -            } else {
> > > > -                g_thread_pool_push(pool, req, NULL);
> > > > -            }
> > > > +            req_list = g_list_prepend(req_list, req);
> > > > +            nr_req++;
> > > >          }
> > > >  
> > > >          pthread_mutex_unlock(&qi->vq_lock);
> > > >          vu_dispatch_unlock(qi->virtio_dev);
> > > >  
> > > >          /* Process all the requests. */
> > > > -        if (!se->thread_pool_size && req_list != NULL) {
> > > > -            g_list_foreach(req_list, fv_queue_worker, qi);
> > > > +        if (req_list != NULL) {
> > > > +            if (!se->thread_pool_size || nr_req <= 2) {
> > > > +                g_list_foreach(req_list, fv_queue_worker, qi);
> > > > +            } else  {
> > > > +                g_list_foreach(req_list, fv_queue_push_to_pool, pool);
> > > > +            }
> > > >              g_list_free(req_list);
> > > >              req_list = NULL;
> > > > +            nr_req = 0;
> > > >          }
> > > >      }
> > > >  
> > > > 
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Virtio-fs mailing list
> > > > Virtio-fs at redhat.com
> > > > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/virtio-fs
> > > 
>