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Aug 30, 2022, 6:29:11 PM (20 months ago)
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Peter A. Buhr <pabuhr@…>
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ADT, ast-experimental, master, pthread-emulation
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proofread chapter eval_macro.tex

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  • doc/theses/thierry_delisle_PhD/thesis/text/eval_macro.tex

    r31b9d3c ra8dd247  
    88Therefore, webservers offer a stringent performance benchmark for \CFA.
    99Indeed, existing webservers have close to optimal performance, while the homogeneity of the workload means fairness may not be a problem.
    10 As such, these experiments should highlight the overhead tue to any \CFA fairness cost in realistic scenarios.
     10As such, these experiments should highlight the overhead due to any \CFA fairness cost in realistic scenarios.
    1111
    1212\section{Memcached}
     
    2424Each node has 2 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 v2 running at 2.10GHz.
    2525\item
    26 These CPUs have 6 cores per CPUs and 2 \glspl{hthrd} per core, for a total of 24 \glspl{hthrd}.
    27 \item
    28 The CPUs each have 384 KB, 3 MB and 30 MB of L1, L2 and L3 caches respectively.
    29 \item
    30 Each node is connected to the network through a Mellanox 10 Gigabit Ethernet port.
     26Each CPU has 6 cores and 2 \glspl{hthrd} per core, for a total of 24 \glspl{hthrd}.
     27\item
     28A CPU has 384 KB, 3 MB and 30 MB of L1, L2 and L3 caches, respectively.
     29\item
     30The compute nodes are connected to the network through a Mellanox 10 Gigabit Ethernet port.
    3131\item
    3232Network routing is performed by a Mellanox SX1012 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet switch.
     
    3535\subsection{Memcached threading}\label{memcd:thrd}
    3636Memcached can be built to use multiple threads in addition to its @libevent@ subsystem to handle requests.
    37 When enabled, the threading implementation operates as follows~\cite{https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17952_01/mysql-5.6-en/ha-memcached-using-threads.html}:
     37When enabled, the threading implementation operates as follows~\cite[\S~16.2.2.8]{MemcachedThreading}:
    3838\begin{itemize}
    3939\item
     
    9999        \centering
    100100        \resizebox{0.83\linewidth}{!}{\input{result.memcd.rate.99th.pstex_t}}
    101         \caption[Memcached Benchmark : 99th Percentile Lantency]{Memcached Benchmark : 99th Percentile Lantency\smallskip\newline 99th Percentile of the response latency as a function of \emph{desired} query rate for 15,360 connections. }
     101        \caption[Memcached Benchmark : 99th Percentile Latency]{Memcached Benchmark : 99th Percentile Latency\smallskip\newline 99th Percentile of the response latency as a function of \emph{desired} query rate for 15,360 connections. }
    102102        \label{fig:memcd:rate:tail}
    103103\end{figure}
     
    180180
    181181\subsection{NGINX threading}
    182 Like memcached, NGINX can be makde to use multiple \glspl{kthrd}.
    183 It has a very similar architecture to the memcached architecture decscribed in Section~\ref{memcd:thrd}, where multiple \glspl{kthrd} each run a mostly independent network logic.
    184 While it does not necessarily use a dedicated listening thread, each connection is arbitrarily assigned to one of the \newterm{worker} threads.
    185 Each worker threads handles multiple connections exclusively, effectively dividing the connections into distinct sets.
    186 Again, this is effectively the \emph{event-based server} approach.
    187 
    188 \cit{https://www.nginx.com/blog/inside-nginx-how-we-designed-for-performance-scale/}
    189 
     182% Like memcached, NGINX can be made to use multiple \glspl{kthrd}.
     183% It has a very similar architecture to the memcached architecture described in Section~\ref{memcd:thrd}, where multiple \glspl{kthrd} each run a mostly independent network logic.
     184% While it does not necessarily use a dedicated listening thread, each connection is arbitrarily assigned to one of the \newterm{worker} threads.
     185% Each worker thread handles multiple connections exclusively, effectively dividing the connections into distinct sets.
     186% Again, this is effectively the \emph{event-based server} approach.
     187%
     188% \cit{https://www.nginx.com/blog/inside-nginx-how-we-designed-for-performance-scale/}
     189
     190NGINX 1.13.7 is an high-performance, \emph{full-service}, event-driven, with multiple operating-system processes or multiple kernel-threads within a process to handle blocking I/O.
     191It can also serve as a reverse proxy and a load balancer~\cite{reese2008nginx}.
     192Concurrent connections are handled using a complex event-driven architecture.
     193The NGINX server runs a master process that performs operations such as reading configuration files, binding to ports, and controlling worker processes.
     194NGINX uses a disk-based cache for performance, and assigns a dedicated process to manage the cache.
     195This process, known as the \textit{cache manager}, is spun-off by the master process.
     196Additionally, there can be many \textit{worker processes}, each handling network connections, reading and writing disk files, and communicating with upstream servers, such as reverse proxies or databases.
     197
     198A worker is a single-threaded process, running independently of other workers.
     199The worker process handles new incoming connections and processes them.
     200Workers communicate using shared memory for shared cache and session data, and other shared resources.
     201Each worker assigns incoming connections to an HTTP state-machine.
     202As in a typical event-driven architecture, the worker listens for events from the clients, and responds immediately without blocking.
     203Memory use in NGINX is very conservative, because it does not spin up a new process or thread per connection, like Apache~\cite{apache} or \CFA.
     204All operations are asynchronous -- implemented using event notifications, callback functions and fine-tuned timers.
    190205
    191206\subsection{\CFA webserver}
     
    197212Normally, webservers use @sendfile@~\cite{MAN:sendfile} to send files over a socket because it performs a direct move in the kernel from the file-system cache to the NIC, eliminating reading/writing the file into the webserver.
    198213While @io_uring@ does not support @sendfile@, it does supports @splice@~\cite{MAN:splice}, which is strictly more powerful.
    199 However, because of how Linux implements file \io, see Subsection~\ref{ononblock}, @io_uring@ must delegate splice calls to worker threads inside the kernel.
     214However, because of how Linux implements file \io, see Subsection~\ref{ononblock}, @io_uring@ must delegate splice calls to worker threads \emph{inside} the kernel.
    200215As of Linux 5.13, @io_uring@ had no mechanism to restrict the number of worker threads, and therefore, when tens of thousands of splice requests are made, it correspondingly creates tens of thousands of internal \glspl{kthrd}.
    201216Such a high number of \glspl{kthrd} slows Linux significantly.
    202217Rather than abandon the experiment, the \CFA webserver was switched to @sendfile@.
    203218
    204 With a blocking @sendfile@ the \CFA achieves acceptable performance until saturation is reached.
    205 At saturation, latency increases so some client connections timeout.
     219Starting with \emph{blocking} @sendfile@, \CFA achieves acceptable performance until saturation is reached.
     220At saturation, latency increases and client connections begin to timeout.
    206221As these clients close their connection, the server must close its corresponding side without delay so the OS can reclaim the resources used by these connections.
    207222Indeed, until the server connection is closed, the connection lingers in the CLOSE-WAIT TCP state~\cite{rfc:tcp} and the TCP buffers are preserved.
    208 However, this poses a problem using nonblocking @sendfile@ calls:
     223However, this poses a problem using blocking @sendfile@ calls:
    209224when @sendfile@ blocks, the \proc rather than the \at blocks, preventing other connections from closing their sockets.
    210225The call can block if there is insufficient memory, which can be caused by having too many connections in the CLOSE-WAIT state.\footnote{
     
    212227This effect results in a negative feedback where more timeouts lead to more @sendfile@ calls running out of resources.
    213228
    214 Normally, this is address by using @select@/@epoll@ to wait for sockets to have sufficient resources.
    215 However, since @io_uring@ respects nonblocking semantics, marking all sockets as non-blocking effectively circumvents the @io_uring@ subsystem entirely:
    216 all calls would simply immediately return @EAGAIN@ and all asynchronicity would be lost.
    217 
     229Normally, this problem is address by using @select@/@epoll@ to wait for sockets to have sufficient resources.
     230However, since @io_uring@ does not support @sendfile@ but does respects non\-blocking semantics, marking all sockets as non-blocking effectively circumvents the @io_uring@ subsystem entirely:
     231all calls simply immediately return @EAGAIN@ and all asynchronicity is lost.
     232
     233Switching all of the \CFA runtime to @epoll@ for this experiment is unrealistic and does not help in the evaluation of the \CFA runtime.
    218234For this reason, the \CFA webserver sets and resets the @O_NONBLOCK@ flag before and after any calls to @sendfile@.
    219235However, when the nonblocking @sendfile@ returns @EAGAIN@, the \CFA server cannot block the \at because its I/O subsystem uses @io_uring@.
    220 Therefore, the \at must spin performing the @sendfile@ and yield if the call returns @EAGAIN@.
    221 Normally @epoll@ would also be used when these calls to @sendfile@ return @EAGAIN@, but since this would not help in the evaluation of the \CFA runtime, the \CFA webserver simply yields and retries in these cases.
    222 
    223 Interestingly, Linux 5.15 @io_uring@ introduces the ability to limit the number of worker threads that are created, through the @IORING_REGISTER_IOWQ_MAX_WORKERS@ option.
    224 Presumably, this limit could prevent the explosion of \glspl{kthrd} which justified using @sendfile@ over @io_uring@ and @splice@.
     236Therefore, the \at spins performing the @sendfile@, yields if the call returns @EAGAIN@, and retries in these cases.
     237
     238Interestingly, Linux 5.15 @io_uring@ introduces the ability to limit the number of worker threads that are created through the @IORING_REGISTER_IOWQ_MAX_WORKERS@ option.
     239Presumably, this limit would prevent the explosion of \glspl{kthrd}, which justified using @sendfile@ over @io_uring@ and @splice@.
    225240However, recall from Section~\ref{iouring} that @io_uring@ maintains two pools of workers: bounded workers and unbounded workers.
    226 In the particular case of the webserver, we would want the unbounded workers to handle accepts and reads on socket and bounded workers to handle reading the files from disk.
    227 This would allow fine grained countrol over the number of workers needed for each operation type and would presumably lead to good performance.
     241For a webserver, the unbounded workers should handle accepts and reads on socket, and the bounded workers should handle reading files from disk.
     242This setup allows fine-grained control over the number of workers needed for each operation type and presumably lead to good performance.
     243
    228244However, @io_uring@ must contend with another reality of Linux: the versatility of @splice@.
    229 Indeed, @splice@ can be used both for reading and writing, to or from any type of file descriptor.
    230 This makes it more ambiguous which pool @io_uring@ should delegate @splice@ calls to.
    231 In the case of splicing from a socket to pipe, @splice@ will behave like an unbounded operation, but when splicing from a regular file to a pipe, @splice@ becomes a bounded operation.
    232 To make things more complicated, @splice@ can read from a pipe and write out to a regular file.
     245Indeed, @splice@ can be used both for reading and writing to or from any type of file descriptor.
     246This generality makes it ambiguous which pool @io_uring@ should delegate @splice@ calls to.
     247In the case of splicing from a socket to pipe, @splice@ behaves like an unbounded operation, but when splicing from a regular file to a pipe, @splice@ becomes a bounded operation.
     248To make things more complicated, @splice@ can read from a pipe and write to a regular file.
    233249In this case, the read is an unbounded operation but the write is a bounded one.
    234250This leaves @io_uring@ in a difficult situation where it can be very difficult to delegate splice operations to the appropriate type of worker.
    235 Since there is little to no context available to @io_uring@, I believe it makes the decision to always delegate @splice@ operations to the unbounded workers.
    236 This is unfortunate for this specific experiment, since it prevents the webserver from limiting the number of calls to @splice@ happening in parallel without affecting the performance of @read@ or @accept@.
     251Since there is little or no context available to @io_uring@, it seems to always delegate @splice@ operations to the unbounded workers.
     252This decision is unfortunate for this specific experiment, since it prevents the webserver from limiting the number of parallel calls to @splice@ without affecting the performance of @read@ or @accept@.
    237253For this reason, the @sendfile@ approach described above is still the most performant solution in Linux 5.15.
    238254
    239 Note that it could be possible to workaround this problem, for example by creating more @io_uring@ instances so @splice@ operations can be issued to a different instance than the @read@ and @accept@ operations.
    240 However, I do not believe this solution is appropriate in general, it simply replaces a hack in the webserver with a different, equivalent hack.
     255One possible workaround is to create more @io_uring@ instances so @splice@ operations can be issued to a different instance than the @read@ and @accept@ operations.
     256However, I do not believe this solution is appropriate in general;
     257it simply replaces my current webserver hack with a different, equivalent hack.
    241258
    242259\subsection{Benchmark Environment}
     
    246263The server runs Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS on top of Linux Kernel 5.13.0-52.
    247264\item
    248 It has an AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 6380 running at 2.5GHz.
     265The server computer has four AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 6380 with 16 cores running at 2.5GHz, for a total of 64 \glspl{hthrd}.
     266\item
     267The computer is booted with only 8 CPUs enabled, which is sufficient to achieve line rate.
    249268\item
    250269Each CPU has 64 KB, 256 KiB and 8 MB of L1, L2 and L3 caches respectively.
    251 \item
    252 The computer is booted with only 8 CPUs enabled, which is sufficient to achieve line rate.
    253270\item
    254271The computer is booted with only 25GB of memory to restrict the file-system cache.
     
    277294
    278295The experiments are run with 16 clients, each running a copy of httperf (one copy per CPU), requiring a set of 16 log files with requests conforming to a Zipf distribution.
    279 This distribution is representative of users accessing static data through a web-browser.
     296This distribution is representative of users accessing static data through a web browser.
    280297Each request reads a file name from its trace, establishes a connection, performs an HTTP get-request for the file name, receive the file data, close the connection, and repeat the process.
    281298Some trace elements have multiple file names that are read across a persistent connection.
     
    287304Server throughput is measured both at peak and after saturation (\ie after peak).
    288305Peak indicates the level of client requests the server can handle and after peak indicates if a server degrades gracefully.
    289 Throughput is measured by aggregating the results from httperf of all the clients.
     306Throughput is measured by aggregating the results from httperf for all the clients.
    290307
    291308This experiment can be done for two workload scenarios by reconfiguring the server with different amounts of memory: 25 GB and 2.5 GB.
     
    305322\end{table}
    306323
     324\begin{figure}
     325        \centering
     326        \subfloat[][Throughput]{
     327                \resizebox{0.85\linewidth}{!}{\input{result.swbsrv.25gb.pstex_t}}
     328                \label{fig:swbsrv:ops}
     329        }
     330
     331        \subfloat[][Rate of Errors]{
     332                \resizebox{0.85\linewidth}{!}{\input{result.swbsrv.25gb.err.pstex_t}}
     333                \label{fig:swbsrv:err}
     334        }
     335        \caption[Static Webserver Benchmark : Throughput]{Static Webserver Benchmark : Throughput\smallskip\newline Throughput vs request rate for short lived connections connections.}
     336        \label{fig:swbsrv}
     337\end{figure}
     338
    307339Figure~\ref{fig:swbsrv} shows the results comparing \CFA to NGINX in terms of throughput.
    308340These results are fairly straightforward.
    309341Both servers achieve the same throughput until around 57,500 requests per seconds.
    310 Since the clients are asking for the same files, the fact that the throughput matches exactly is expected as long as both servers are able to serve the desired rate.
     342Since the clients are asking for the same files, the fact that the throughput matches exactly is expected as long as both servers are able to serve the request rate.
    311343Once the saturation point is reached, both servers are still very close.
    312344NGINX achieves slightly better throughput.
    313 However, Figure~\ref{fig:swbsrv:err} shows the rate of errors, a gross approximation of tail latency, where \CFA achieves notably fewer errors once the machine reaches saturation.
    314 This suggest that \CFA is slightly more fair and NGINX may slightly sacrifice some fairness for improved throughput.
    315 It demonstrate that the \CFA webserver described above is able to match the performance of NGINX up-to and beyond the saturation point of the machine.
    316 
    317 \begin{figure}
    318         \subfloat[][Throughput]{
    319                 \resizebox{0.85\linewidth}{!}{\input{result.swbsrv.25gb.pstex_t}}
    320                 \label{fig:swbsrv:ops}
    321         }
    322 
    323         \subfloat[][Rate of Errors]{
    324                 \resizebox{0.85\linewidth}{!}{\input{result.swbsrv.25gb.err.pstex_t}}
    325                 \label{fig:swbsrv:err}
    326         }
    327         \caption[Static Webserver Benchmark : Throughput]{Static Webserver Benchmark : Throughput\smallskip\newline Throughput vs request rate for short lived connections connections.}
    328         \label{fig:swbsrv}
    329 \end{figure}
     345However, Figure~\ref{fig:swbsrv:err} shows the rate of errors, a gross approximation of tail latency, where \CFA achieves notably fewer errors once the servers reach saturation.
     346This suggests \CFA is slightly fairer with less throughput, while NGINX sacrifice fairness for more throughput.
     347This experiment demonstrate that the \CFA webserver is able to match the performance of NGINX up-to and beyond the saturation point of the machine.
    330348
    331349\subsection{Disk Operations}
    332 The throughput was made using a server with 25gb of memory, this was sufficient to hold the entire fileset in addition to all the code and data needed to run the webserver and the rest of the machine.
    333 Previous work like \cit{Cite Ashif's stuff} demonstrate that an interesting follow-up experiment is to rerun the same throughput experiment but allowing significantly less memory on the machine.
    334 If the machine is constrained enough, it will force the OS to evict files from the file cache and cause calls to @sendfile@ to have to read from disk.
    335 However, in this configuration, the problem with @splice@ and @io_uring@ rears its ugly head again.
     350With 25GB of memory, the entire experimental file-set plus the webserver and OS fit in memory.
     351If memory is constrained, the OS must evict files from the file cache, which causes @sendfile@ to read from disk.\footnote{
     352For the in-memory experiments, the file-system cache was warmed by running an experiment three times before measuring started to ensure all files are in the file-system cache.}
     353Webservers can behave very differently once file I/O begins and increases.
     354Hence, prior work~\cite{Harji10} suggests running both kinds of experiments to test overall webserver performance.
     355
     356However, after reducing memory to 2.5GB, the problem with @splice@ and @io_uring@ rears its ugly head again.
    336357Indeed, in the in-memory configuration, replacing @splice@ with calls to @sendfile@ works because the bounded side basically never blocks.
    337358Like @splice@, @sendfile@ is in a situation where the read side requires bounded blocking, \eg reading from a regular file, while the write side requires unbounded blocking, \eg blocking until the socket is available for writing.
    338 The unbounded side can be handled by yielding when it returns @EAGAIN@ like mentioned above, but this trick does not work for the bounded side.
     359The unbounded side can be handled by yielding when it returns @EAGAIN@, as mentioned above, but this trick does not work for the bounded side.
    339360The only solution for the bounded side is to spawn more threads and let these handle the blocking.
    340361
    341362Supporting this case in the webserver would require creating more \procs or creating a dedicated thread-pool.
    342 However, since what I am to evaluate in this thesis is the runtime of \CFA, I decided to forgo experiments on low memory server.
    343 The implementation of the webserver itself is simply too impactful to be an interesting evaluation of the underlying runtime.
     363However, I felt this kind of modification moves to far away from my goal of evaluating the \CFA runtime, \ie it begins writing another runtime system;
     364hence, I decided to forgo experiments on low-memory performance.
     365% The implementation of the webserver itself is simply too impactful to be an interesting evaluation of the underlying runtime.
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