Bug 1785507 - [Docs] Clarify dynamic huge pages configuration and support.
Summary: [Docs] Clarify dynamic huge pages configuration and support.
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager
Classification: Red Hat
Component: Documentation
Version: 4.3.7
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ovirt-4.3.10
: ---
Assignee: Eli Marcus
QA Contact: Germano Veit Michel
URL:
Whiteboard:
: 1526754 (view as bug list)
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2019-12-20 04:29 UTC by Germano Veit Michel
Modified: 2023-03-24 16:32 UTC (History)
11 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: No Doc Update
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2020-05-06 17:15:38 UTC
oVirt Team: Virt
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
rbarry: needinfo-
rbarry: needinfo-
lsvaty: testing_plan_complete-


Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Bugzilla 1526754 0 high CLOSED [Docs][VMM]Document huge pages custom property 2021-02-22 00:41:40 UTC

Internal Links: 1526754

Description Germano Veit Michel 2019-12-20 04:29:32 UTC
Description of problem:

The Documentation[1], in section 4.10.2.4 reads:

~~~
Support for huge pages is a new configuration setting for RHV 4.2. Huge pages are pre-allocated when a virtual machine starts to run (dynamic allocation is disabled by default). 
~~~

This is partial, there is no mention on how to enable it or use dynamic allocation.
I can make it work by:

1. /etc/vdsm/vdsm.conf
[performance]
use_dynamic_hugepages = true

2. Administration -> Configure -> Scheduling Policies -> Edit -> Disable "Huge Pages" Filter

NOTE: without item 2 the engine refuses scheduling the VM on a host without preallocated Huge Pages. It feels like there is missing implementation in the engine to properly support this.

If this is supported downstream then it should be fully documented. Otherwise document it as tech preview or not supported.

Comment 2 Klaas Demter 2019-12-20 12:36:42 UTC
Maybe even enable this by default, it was just disabled by default because it was not supported by engine yet (https://github.com/oVirt/vdsm/commit/03b7ad91fb2bfc5927dfc4623582e6c280283114)

Comment 3 Steve Goodman 2019-12-22 14:14:02 UTC
Sandro,

Please see comment 2. Should this setting be enabled by default?

Comment 5 Germano Veit Michel 2019-12-22 22:19:03 UTC
(In reply to Steve Goodman from comment #4)
> Comment 1 refers to the Virtual Machine Management Guide:
> 
> https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_virtualization/4.3/
> html/virtual_machine_management_guide/
> configuring_high_performance_virtual_machines_templates_and_pools#Configuring
> _Recommended_Manual_Settings

Oops, indeed. Forgot to add the link to the [1] reference. Thank you.

Comment 8 Sandro Bonazzola 2020-01-07 11:07:12 UTC
(In reply to Steve Goodman from comment #3)
> Sandro,
> 
> Please see comment 2. Should this setting be enabled by default?

Redirecting this question to virt team. Ryan?

Comment 9 Ryan Barry 2020-01-07 12:53:38 UTC
Only for high performance VMs, not in general.

Comment 10 Klaas Demter 2020-01-07 14:48:56 UTC
@Ryan do I understand this correctly, you want to:
1) enable huge pages by default for high performance VM type
2) change use_dynamic_hugepages in vdsm default to true

Comment 11 Ryan Barry 2020-01-07 15:00:27 UTC
Well, no. It's a very specific use case, and the calculation across NUMA nodes can be finicky. I'd like to leave it as it is, thought we do need to document how to enable it

Comment 12 Klaas Demter 2020-01-14 09:01:16 UTC
I am not sure if I understood why we can't enable the dynamic hugepages allocation by default, if the VM doesn't use hugepages the setting won't matter - if it uses hugepages it makes using hugepages easier. The engine now supports hugepages so the original argument for disabling it by default is gone, right? Having dynamic hugepages enabled by default also means I can drop it from the filter because that is only relevant for pre-allocated hugepages.

Comment 15 Germano Veit Michel 2020-03-05 23:09:39 UTC
If we plan to make HP default after the related bugs are fixed, a few things to consider:
* Default to 2M HPs to avoid contiguous memory allocation issues
* Scheduler could use buddyinfo from each host to calculate where the VM could run, and maybe even warn the user about fragmentation

Comment 16 Ryan Barry 2020-03-05 23:18:56 UTC
We don't plan to make HP the default

Comment 26 Eli Marcus 2020-07-14 14:08:14 UTC
*** Bug 1526754 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***


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