diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt | 450 |
1 files changed, 450 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt b/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ce2cfcf35 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt @@ -0,0 +1,450 @@ +============== +Memory Hotplug +============== + +Created: Jul 28 2007 +Add description of notifier of memory hotplug Oct 11 2007 + +This document is about memory hotplug including how-to-use and current status. +Because Memory Hotplug is still under development, contents of this text will +be changed often. + +1. Introduction + 1.1 purpose of memory hotplug + 1.2. Phases of memory hotplug + 1.3. Unit of Memory online/offline operation +2. Kernel Configuration +3. sysfs files for memory hotplug +4. Physical memory hot-add phase + 4.1 Hardware(Firmware) Support + 4.2 Notify memory hot-add event by hand +5. Logical Memory hot-add phase + 5.1. State of memory + 5.2. How to online memory +6. Logical memory remove + 6.1 Memory offline and ZONE_MOVABLE + 6.2. How to offline memory +7. Physical memory remove +8. Memory hotplug event notifier +9. Future Work List + +Note(1): x86_64's has special implementation for memory hotplug. + This text does not describe it. +Note(2): This text assumes that sysfs is mounted at /sys. + + +--------------- +1. Introduction +--------------- + +1.1 purpose of memory hotplug +------------ +Memory Hotplug allows users to increase/decrease the amount of memory. +Generally, there are two purposes. + +(A) For changing the amount of memory. + This is to allow a feature like capacity on demand. +(B) For installing/removing DIMMs or NUMA-nodes physically. + This is to exchange DIMMs/NUMA-nodes, reduce power consumption, etc. + +(A) is required by highly virtualized environments and (B) is required by +hardware which supports memory power management. + +Linux memory hotplug is designed for both purpose. + + +1.2. Phases of memory hotplug +--------------- +There are 2 phases in Memory Hotplug. + 1) Physical Memory Hotplug phase + 2) Logical Memory Hotplug phase. + +The First phase is to communicate hardware/firmware and make/erase +environment for hotplugged memory. Basically, this phase is necessary +for the purpose (B), but this is good phase for communication between +highly virtualized environments too. + +When memory is hotplugged, the kernel recognizes new memory, makes new memory +management tables, and makes sysfs files for new memory's operation. + +If firmware supports notification of connection of new memory to OS, +this phase is triggered automatically. ACPI can notify this event. If not, +"probe" operation by system administration is used instead. +(see Section 4.). + +Logical Memory Hotplug phase is to change memory state into +available/unavailable for users. Amount of memory from user's view is +changed by this phase. The kernel makes all memory in it as free pages +when a memory range is available. + +In this document, this phase is described as online/offline. + +Logical Memory Hotplug phase is triggered by write of sysfs file by system +administrator. For the hot-add case, it must be executed after Physical Hotplug +phase by hand. +(However, if you writes udev's hotplug scripts for memory hotplug, these + phases can be execute in seamless way.) + + +1.3. Unit of Memory online/offline operation +------------ +Memory hotplug uses SPARSEMEM memory model which allows memory to be divided +into chunks of the same size. These chunks are called "sections". The size of +a memory section is architecture dependent. For example, power uses 16MiB, ia64 +uses 1GiB. + +Memory sections are combined into chunks referred to as "memory blocks". The +size of a memory block is architecture dependent and represents the logical +unit upon which memory online/offline operations are to be performed. The +default size of a memory block is the same as memory section size unless an +architecture specifies otherwise. (see Section 3.) + +To determine the size (in bytes) of a memory block please read this file: + +/sys/devices/system/memory/block_size_bytes + + +----------------------- +2. Kernel Configuration +----------------------- +To use memory hotplug feature, kernel must be compiled with following +config options. + +- For all memory hotplug + Memory model -> Sparse Memory (CONFIG_SPARSEMEM) + Allow for memory hot-add (CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG) + +- To enable memory removal, the followings are also necessary + Allow for memory hot remove (CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTREMOVE) + Page Migration (CONFIG_MIGRATION) + +- For ACPI memory hotplug, the followings are also necessary + Memory hotplug (under ACPI Support menu) (CONFIG_ACPI_HOTPLUG_MEMORY) + This option can be kernel module. + +- As a related configuration, if your box has a feature of NUMA-node hotplug + via ACPI, then this option is necessary too. + ACPI0004,PNP0A05 and PNP0A06 Container Driver (under ACPI Support menu) + (CONFIG_ACPI_CONTAINER). + This option can be kernel module too. + + +-------------------------------- +3 sysfs files for memory hotplug +-------------------------------- +All memory blocks have their device information in sysfs. Each memory block +is described under /sys/devices/system/memory as + +/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX +(XXX is the memory block id.) + +For the memory block covered by the sysfs directory. It is expected that all +memory sections in this range are present and no memory holes exist in the +range. Currently there is no way to determine if there is a memory hole, but +the existence of one should not affect the hotplug capabilities of the memory +block. + +For example, assume 1GiB memory block size. A device for a memory starting at +0x100000000 is /sys/device/system/memory/memory4 +(0x100000000 / 1Gib = 4) +This device covers address range [0x100000000 ... 0x140000000) + +Under each memory block, you can see 5 files: + +/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/phys_index +/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/phys_device +/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state +/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/removable +/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/valid_zones + +'phys_index' : read-only and contains memory block id, same as XXX. +'state' : read-write + at read: contains online/offline state of memory. + at write: user can specify "online_kernel", + "online_movable", "online", "offline" command + which will be performed on all sections in the block. +'phys_device' : read-only: designed to show the name of physical memory + device. This is not well implemented now. +'removable' : read-only: contains an integer value indicating + whether the memory block is removable or not + removable. A value of 1 indicates that the memory + block is removable and a value of 0 indicates that + it is not removable. A memory block is removable only if + every section in the block is removable. +'valid_zones' : read-only: designed to show which zones this memory block + can be onlined to. + The first column shows it's default zone. + "memory6/valid_zones: Normal Movable" shows this memoryblock + can be onlined to ZONE_NORMAL by default and to ZONE_MOVABLE + by online_movable. + "memory7/valid_zones: Movable Normal" shows this memoryblock + can be onlined to ZONE_MOVABLE by default and to ZONE_NORMAL + by online_kernel. + +NOTE: + These directories/files appear after physical memory hotplug phase. + +If CONFIG_NUMA is enabled the memoryXXX/ directories can also be accessed +via symbolic links located in the /sys/devices/system/node/node* directories. + +For example: +/sys/devices/system/node/node0/memory9 -> ../../memory/memory9 + +A backlink will also be created: +/sys/devices/system/memory/memory9/node0 -> ../../node/node0 + + +-------------------------------- +4. Physical memory hot-add phase +-------------------------------- + +4.1 Hardware(Firmware) Support +------------ +On x86_64/ia64 platform, memory hotplug by ACPI is supported. + +In general, the firmware (ACPI) which supports memory hotplug defines +memory class object of _HID "PNP0C80". When a notify is asserted to PNP0C80, +Linux's ACPI handler does hot-add memory to the system and calls a hotplug udev +script. This will be done automatically. + +But scripts for memory hotplug are not contained in generic udev package(now). +You may have to write it by yourself or online/offline memory by hand. +Please see "How to online memory", "How to offline memory" in this text. + +If firmware supports NUMA-node hotplug, and defines an object _HID "ACPI0004", +"PNP0A05", or "PNP0A06", notification is asserted to it, and ACPI handler +calls hotplug code for all of objects which are defined in it. +If memory device is found, memory hotplug code will be called. + + +4.2 Notify memory hot-add event by hand +------------ +On some architectures, the firmware may not notify the kernel of a memory +hotplug event. Therefore, the memory "probe" interface is supported to +explicitly notify the kernel. This interface depends on +CONFIG_ARCH_MEMORY_PROBE and can be configured on powerpc, sh, and x86 +if hotplug is supported, although for x86 this should be handled by ACPI +notification. + +Probe interface is located at +/sys/devices/system/memory/probe + +You can tell the physical address of new memory to the kernel by + +% echo start_address_of_new_memory > /sys/devices/system/memory/probe + +Then, [start_address_of_new_memory, start_address_of_new_memory + +memory_block_size] memory range is hot-added. In this case, hotplug script is +not called (in current implementation). You'll have to online memory by +yourself. Please see "How to online memory" in this text. + + +------------------------------ +5. Logical Memory hot-add phase +------------------------------ + +5.1. State of memory +------------ +To see (online/offline) state of a memory block, read 'state' file. + +% cat /sys/device/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + + +If the memory block is online, you'll read "online". +If the memory block is offline, you'll read "offline". + + +5.2. How to online memory +------------ +Even if the memory is hot-added, it is not at ready-to-use state. +For using newly added memory, you have to "online" the memory block. + +For onlining, you have to write "online" to the memory block's state file as: + +% echo online > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +This onlining will not change the ZONE type of the target memory block, +If the memory block is in ZONE_NORMAL, you can change it to ZONE_MOVABLE: + +% echo online_movable > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state +(NOTE: current limit: this memory block must be adjacent to ZONE_MOVABLE) + +And if the memory block is in ZONE_MOVABLE, you can change it to ZONE_NORMAL: + +% echo online_kernel > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state +(NOTE: current limit: this memory block must be adjacent to ZONE_NORMAL) + +After this, memory block XXX's state will be 'online' and the amount of +available memory will be increased. + +Currently, newly added memory is added as ZONE_NORMAL (for powerpc, ZONE_DMA). +This may be changed in future. + + + +------------------------ +6. Logical memory remove +------------------------ + +6.1 Memory offline and ZONE_MOVABLE +------------ +Memory offlining is more complicated than memory online. Because memory offline +has to make the whole memory block be unused, memory offline can fail if +the memory block includes memory which cannot be freed. + +In general, memory offline can use 2 techniques. + +(1) reclaim and free all memory in the memory block. +(2) migrate all pages in the memory block. + +In the current implementation, Linux's memory offline uses method (2), freeing +all pages in the memory block by page migration. But not all pages are +migratable. Under current Linux, migratable pages are anonymous pages and +page caches. For offlining a memory block by migration, the kernel has to +guarantee that the memory block contains only migratable pages. + +Now, a boot option for making a memory block which consists of migratable pages +is supported. By specifying "kernelcore=" or "movablecore=" boot option, you can +create ZONE_MOVABLE...a zone which is just used for movable pages. +(See also Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt) + +Assume the system has "TOTAL" amount of memory at boot time, this boot option +creates ZONE_MOVABLE as following. + +1) When kernelcore=YYYY boot option is used, + Size of memory not for movable pages (not for offline) is YYYY. + Size of memory for movable pages (for offline) is TOTAL-YYYY. + +2) When movablecore=ZZZZ boot option is used, + Size of memory not for movable pages (not for offline) is TOTAL - ZZZZ. + Size of memory for movable pages (for offline) is ZZZZ. + + +Note: Unfortunately, there is no information to show which memory block belongs +to ZONE_MOVABLE. This is TBD. + + +6.2. How to offline memory +------------ +You can offline a memory block by using the same sysfs interface that was used +in memory onlining. + +% echo offline > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state + +If offline succeeds, the state of the memory block is changed to be "offline". +If it fails, some error core (like -EBUSY) will be returned by the kernel. +Even if a memory block does not belong to ZONE_MOVABLE, you can try to offline +it. If it doesn't contain 'unmovable' memory, you'll get success. + +A memory block under ZONE_MOVABLE is considered to be able to be offlined +easily. But under some busy state, it may return -EBUSY. Even if a memory +block cannot be offlined due to -EBUSY, you can retry offlining it and may be +able to offline it (or not). (For example, a page is referred to by some kernel +internal call and released soon.) + +Consideration: +Memory hotplug's design direction is to make the possibility of memory offlining +higher and to guarantee unplugging memory under any situation. But it needs +more work. Returning -EBUSY under some situation may be good because the user +can decide to retry more or not by himself. Currently, memory offlining code +does some amount of retry with 120 seconds timeout. + +------------------------- +7. Physical memory remove +------------------------- +Need more implementation yet.... + - Notification completion of remove works by OS to firmware. + - Guard from remove if not yet. + +-------------------------------- +8. Memory hotplug event notifier +-------------------------------- +Hotplugging events are sent to a notification queue. + +There are six types of notification defined in include/linux/memory.h: + +MEM_GOING_ONLINE + Generated before new memory becomes available in order to be able to + prepare subsystems to handle memory. The page allocator is still unable + to allocate from the new memory. + +MEM_CANCEL_ONLINE + Generated if MEMORY_GOING_ONLINE fails. + +MEM_ONLINE + Generated when memory has successfully brought online. The callback may + allocate pages from the new memory. + +MEM_GOING_OFFLINE + Generated to begin the process of offlining memory. Allocations are no + longer possible from the memory but some of the memory to be offlined + is still in use. The callback can be used to free memory known to a + subsystem from the indicated memory block. + +MEM_CANCEL_OFFLINE + Generated if MEMORY_GOING_OFFLINE fails. Memory is available again from + the memory block that we attempted to offline. + +MEM_OFFLINE + Generated after offlining memory is complete. + +A callback routine can be registered by calling + + hotplug_memory_notifier(callback_func, priority) + +Callback functions with higher values of priority are called before callback +functions with lower values. + +A callback function must have the following prototype: + + int callback_func( + struct notifier_block *self, unsigned long action, void *arg); + +The first argument of the callback function (self) is a pointer to the block +of the notifier chain that points to the callback function itself. +The second argument (action) is one of the event types described above. +The third argument (arg) passes a pointer of struct memory_notify. + +struct memory_notify { + unsigned long start_pfn; + unsigned long nr_pages; + int status_change_nid_normal; + int status_change_nid_high; + int status_change_nid; +} + +start_pfn is start_pfn of online/offline memory. +nr_pages is # of pages of online/offline memory. +status_change_nid_normal is set node id when N_NORMAL_MEMORY of nodemask +is (will be) set/clear, if this is -1, then nodemask status is not changed. +status_change_nid_high is set node id when N_HIGH_MEMORY of nodemask +is (will be) set/clear, if this is -1, then nodemask status is not changed. +status_change_nid is set node id when N_MEMORY of nodemask is (will be) +set/clear. It means a new(memoryless) node gets new memory by online and a +node loses all memory. If this is -1, then nodemask status is not changed. +If status_changed_nid* >= 0, callback should create/discard structures for the +node if necessary. + +The callback routine shall return one of the values +NOTIFY_DONE, NOTIFY_OK, NOTIFY_BAD, NOTIFY_STOP +defined in include/linux/notifier.h + +NOTIFY_DONE and NOTIFY_OK have no effect on the further processing. + +NOTIFY_BAD is used as response to the MEM_GOING_ONLINE, MEM_GOING_OFFLINE, +MEM_ONLINE, or MEM_OFFLINE action to cancel hotplugging. It stops +further processing of the notification queue. + +NOTIFY_STOP stops further processing of the notification queue. + +-------------- +9. Future Work +-------------- + - allowing memory hot-add to ZONE_MOVABLE. maybe we need some switch like + sysctl or new control file. + - showing memory block and physical device relationship. + - test and make it better memory offlining. + - support HugeTLB page migration and offlining. + - memmap removing at memory offline. + - physical remove memory. + |