perf: Drop sample rate when sampling is too slow

This patch keeps track of how long perf's NMI handler is taking,
and also calculates how many samples perf can take a second.  If
the sample length times the expected max number of samples
exceeds a configurable threshold, it drops the sample rate.

This way, we don't have a runaway sampling process eating up the
CPU.

This patch can tend to drop the sample rate down to level where
perf doesn't work very well.  *BUT* the alternative is that my
system hangs because it spends all of its time handling NMIs.

I'll take a busted performance tool over an entire system that's
busted and undebuggable any day.

BTW, my suspicion is that there's still an underlying bug here.
Using the HPET instead of the TSC is definitely a contributing
factor, but I suspect there are some other things going on.
But, I can't go dig down on a bug like that with my machine
hanging all the time.

Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: paulus@samba.org
Cc: acme@ghostprotocols.net
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave@sr71.net>
[ Prettified it a bit. ]
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 88 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index 9c89207..1db3af9 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -165,10 +165,26 @@ int sysctl_perf_event_mlock __read_mostly = 512 + (PAGE_SIZE / 1024); /* 'free'
 /*
  * max perf event sample rate
  */
-#define DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE 100000
-int sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate __read_mostly = DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE;
-static int max_samples_per_tick __read_mostly =
-	DIV_ROUND_UP(DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE, HZ);
+#define DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE		100000
+#define DEFAULT_SAMPLE_PERIOD_NS	(NSEC_PER_SEC / DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE)
+#define DEFAULT_CPU_TIME_MAX_PERCENT	25
+
+int sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate __read_mostly	= DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE;
+
+static int max_samples_per_tick __read_mostly	= DIV_ROUND_UP(DEFAULT_MAX_SAMPLE_RATE, HZ);
+static int perf_sample_period_ns __read_mostly	= DEFAULT_SAMPLE_PERIOD_NS;
+
+static atomic_t perf_sample_allowed_ns __read_mostly =
+	ATOMIC_INIT( DEFAULT_SAMPLE_PERIOD_NS * DEFAULT_CPU_TIME_MAX_PERCENT / 100);
+
+void update_perf_cpu_limits(void)
+{
+	u64 tmp = perf_sample_period_ns;
+
+	tmp *= sysctl_perf_cpu_time_max_percent;
+	tmp = do_div(tmp, 100);
+	atomic_set(&perf_sample_allowed_ns, tmp);
+}
 
 static int perf_rotate_context(struct perf_cpu_context *cpuctx);
 
@@ -182,10 +198,78 @@ int perf_proc_update_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
 		return ret;
 
 	max_samples_per_tick = DIV_ROUND_UP(sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate, HZ);
+	perf_sample_period_ns = NSEC_PER_SEC / sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate;
+	update_perf_cpu_limits();
 
 	return 0;
 }
 
+int sysctl_perf_cpu_time_max_percent __read_mostly = DEFAULT_CPU_TIME_MAX_PERCENT;
+
+int perf_cpu_time_max_percent_handler(struct ctl_table *table, int write,
+				void __user *buffer, size_t *lenp,
+				loff_t *ppos)
+{
+	int ret = proc_dointvec(table, write, buffer, lenp, ppos);
+
+	if (ret || !write)
+		return ret;
+
+	update_perf_cpu_limits();
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/*
+ * perf samples are done in some very critical code paths (NMIs).
+ * If they take too much CPU time, the system can lock up and not
+ * get any real work done.  This will drop the sample rate when
+ * we detect that events are taking too long.
+ */
+#define NR_ACCUMULATED_SAMPLES 128
+DEFINE_PER_CPU(u64, running_sample_length);
+
+void perf_sample_event_took(u64 sample_len_ns)
+{
+	u64 avg_local_sample_len;
+	u64 local_samples_len = __get_cpu_var(running_sample_length);
+
+	if (atomic_read(&perf_sample_allowed_ns) == 0)
+		return;
+
+	/* decay the counter by 1 average sample */
+	local_samples_len = __get_cpu_var(running_sample_length);
+	local_samples_len -= local_samples_len/NR_ACCUMULATED_SAMPLES;
+	local_samples_len += sample_len_ns;
+	__get_cpu_var(running_sample_length) = local_samples_len;
+
+	/*
+	 * note: this will be biased artifically low until we have
+	 * seen NR_ACCUMULATED_SAMPLES.  Doing it this way keeps us
+	 * from having to maintain a count.
+	 */
+	avg_local_sample_len = local_samples_len/NR_ACCUMULATED_SAMPLES;
+
+	if (avg_local_sample_len <= atomic_read(&perf_sample_allowed_ns))
+		return;
+
+	if (max_samples_per_tick <= 1)
+		return;
+
+	max_samples_per_tick = DIV_ROUND_UP(max_samples_per_tick, 2);
+	sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate = max_samples_per_tick * HZ;
+	perf_sample_period_ns = NSEC_PER_SEC / sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate;
+
+	printk_ratelimited(KERN_WARNING
+			"perf samples too long (%lld > %d), lowering "
+			"kernel.perf_event_max_sample_rate to %d\n",
+			avg_local_sample_len,
+			atomic_read(&perf_sample_allowed_ns),
+			sysctl_perf_event_sample_rate);
+
+	update_perf_cpu_limits();
+}
+
 static atomic64_t perf_event_id;
 
 static void cpu_ctx_sched_out(struct perf_cpu_context *cpuctx,