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authorMike Rapoport <rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2018-10-05 01:11:00 +0300
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2018-10-07 09:16:16 -0600
commit6bf53999a3a269d5d27bb636602f6788e1bb4dd0 (patch)
tree12e55743d0f8acc5297d9dc38387b69f52c72609 /Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt
parentff348763775e9ed39ca8f354b67f9ba62ec27f2c (diff)
docs: move memory hotplug description into admin-guide/mm
The memory hotplug description in Documentation/memory-hotplug.txt is already formatted as ReST and can be easily added to admin-guide/mm section. While on it, slightly update formatting to make it consistent with the doc-guide. Signed-off-by: Mike Rapoport <rppt@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
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-==============
-Memory Hotplug
-==============
-
-:Created: Jul 28 2007
-:Updated: 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.
-
-.. CONTENTS
-
- 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.
- (2) This text assumes that sysfs is mounted at /sys.
-
-
-Introduction
-============
-
-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.
-
-
-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 :ref:`memory_hotplug_physical_mem`).
-
-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.)
-
-
-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 :ref:`memory_hotplug_sysfs_files`.)
-
-To determine the size (in bytes) of a memory block please read this file:
-
-/sys/devices/system/memory/block_size_bytes
-
-
-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 following are also necessary:
- - Allow for memory hot remove (CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTREMOVE)
- - Page Migration (CONFIG_MIGRATION)
-
-- For ACPI memory hotplug, the following 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.
-
-
-.. _memory_hotplug_sysfs_files:
-
-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
-
-.. _memory_hotplug_physical_mem:
-
-Physical memory hot-add phase
-=============================
-
-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 :ref:`memory_hotplug_how_to_online_memory` and
-:ref:`memory_hotplug_how_to_offline_memory`.
-
-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.
-
-
-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 :ref:`memory_hotplug_how_to_online_memory`.
-
-
-Logical Memory hot-add phase
-============================
-
-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".
-
-
-.. _memory_hotplug_how_to_online_memory:
-
-How to online memory
---------------------
-
-When the memory is hot-added, the kernel decides whether or not to "online"
-it according to the policy which can be read from "auto_online_blocks" file::
-
- % cat /sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks
-
-The default depends on the CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG_DEFAULT_ONLINE kernel config
-option. If it is disabled the default is "offline" which means the newly added
-memory is not in a ready-to-use state and you have to "online" the newly added
-memory blocks manually. Automatic onlining can be requested by writing "online"
-to "auto_online_blocks" file::
-
- % echo online > /sys/devices/system/memory/auto_online_blocks
-
-This sets a global policy and impacts all memory blocks that will subsequently
-be hotplugged. Currently offline blocks keep their state. It is possible, under
-certain circumstances, that some memory blocks will be added but will fail to
-online. User space tools can check their "state" files
-(/sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state) and try to online them manually.
-
-If the automatic onlining wasn't requested, failed, or some memory block was
-offlined it is possible to change the individual block's state by writing to the
-"state" file::
-
- % 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 doesn't belong to any zone an appropriate kernel zone
-(usually ZONE_NORMAL) will be used unless movable_node kernel command line
-option is specified when ZONE_MOVABLE will be used.
-
-You can explicitly request to associate it with ZONE_MOVABLE by::
-
- % echo online_movable > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state
-
-.. note:: current limit: this memory block must be adjacent to ZONE_MOVABLE
-
-Or you can explicitly request a kernel zone (usually ZONE_NORMAL) by::
-
- % echo online_kernel > /sys/devices/system/memory/memoryXXX/state
-
-.. note:: current limit: this memory block must be adjacent to ZONE_NORMAL
-
-An explicit zone onlining can fail (e.g. when the range is already within
-and existing and incompatible zone already).
-
-After this, memory block XXX's state will be 'online' and the amount of
-available memory will be increased.
-
-This may be changed in future.
-
-
-
-Logical memory remove
-=====================
-
-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/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst)
-
-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.
-
-.. _memory_hotplug_how_to_offline_memory:
-
-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.
-
-Physical memory remove
-======================
-
-Need more implementation yet....
- - Notification completion of remove works by OS to firmware.
- - Guard from remove if not yet.
-
-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.
-
-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.