Extended statistics from balloon for proper memory management

[AnnaMel]

There is QEMU/KVM and a Linux OS running inside the guest.
Inside the Linux guest a balloon consumes memory in accordance with
commands performed on the host side in QEMU and reports some statistics through memstat structure.
For the Linux guest reported “free” value doesn’t describe the guest memory pressure at all.
The provided patch set in Linux kernel extends the stat with available field.

The problem is addressed in mainstream Linux with the following patchset:

commit
5057dcd0f1aaad57e07e728ba20a99e205c6b9de
Author: Igor Redko <email address hidden>
Date: Thu Mar 17 15:09:34 2016 -0700
virtio_balloon: export 'available' memory to balloon statistics

Add a new field, VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_AVAIL, to virtio_balloon memory
statistics protocol, corresponding to 'Available' in /proc/meminfo.

It indicates to the hypervisor how big the balloon can be inflated
without pushing the guest system to swap.

Signed-off-by: Igor Redko <email address hidden>
Signed-off-by: Denis V. Lunev <email address hidden>
Reviewed-by: Roman Kagan <email address hidden>
Cc: Michael S. Tsirkin <email address hidden>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <email address hidden>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <email address hidden>

commit d02bd27bd33dd7e8d22594cd568b81be0cb584cd
Author: Igor Redko <email address hidden>
Date: Thu Mar 17 15:09:34 2016 -0700
mm/page_alloc.c: calculate 'available' memory in a separate function

Add a new field, VIRTIO_BALLOON_S_AVAIL, to virtio_balloon memory
statistics protocol, corresponding to 'Available' in /proc/meminfo.

It indicates to the hypervisor how big the balloon can be inflated
without pushing the guest system to swap. This metric would be very
useful in VM orchestration software to improve memory management of
different VMs under overcommit.

This patch (of 2):

Factor out calculation of the available memory counter into a separate
exportable function, in order to be able to use it in other parts of the
kernel.

In particular, it appears a relevant metric to report to the hypervisor
via virtio-balloon statistics interface (in a followup patch).

Signed-off-by: Igor Redko <email address hidden>
Signed-off-by: Denis V. Lunev <email address hidden>
Reviewed-by: Roman Kagan <email address hidden>
Cc: Michael S. Tsirkin <email address hidden>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <email address hidden>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <email address hidden>

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1587091

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Joe - please build a test kernel from 'git://kernel.ubuntu.com/rtg/ubuntu-xenial.git lp1587091'

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

I built a Xenial test kernel, which can be downloaded from:
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1587091

Can you test this kernel and see if it resolves this bug?

Thanks in advance!

[AnnaMel (ann-melekhova)]

Joseph, thanks!
Kernel from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1587091 resolved bug for Xenial, but this bug also affects Trusty and Wily, could you please port patches to them too?

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Patches submitted for review: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2016-June/077947.html

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

Joe - please build test kernels from these branches:

git://kernel.ubuntu.com/rtg/ubuntu-trusty.git lp1587091
git://kernel.ubuntu.com/rtg/ubuntu-trusty.git lts-backport-utopic-lp1587091
git://kernel.ubuntu.com/rtg/ubuntu-vivid.git lp1587091
git://kernel.ubuntu.com/rtg/ubuntu-wily.git lp1587091

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Additional test kernels have been built for the other releases and lts kernels. The can be downloaded from:

trusty: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1587091/trusty/
lts-u: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1587091/lts-backport-utopic/
vivid: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1587091/vivid/
wily: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~jsalisbury/lp1587091/wily

[Kamal Mostafa (kamalmostafa)]

This bug is awaiting verification that the kernel in -proposed solves the problem. Please test the kernel and update this bug with the results. If the problem is solved, change the tag 'verification-needed-xenial' to 'verification-done-xenial'.

If verification is not done by 5 working days from today, this fix will be dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 4.4.0-25.44

---------------
linux (4.4.0-25.44) xenial; urgency=low

  [ Kamal Mostafa ]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #1591289

  * Xenial update to v4.4.13 stable release (LP: #1590455)
    - MIPS64: R6: R2 emulation bugfix
    - MIPS: math-emu: Fix jalr emulation when rd == $0
    - MIPS: MSA: Fix a link error on `_init_msa_upper' with older GCC
    - MIPS: Don't unwind to user mode with EVA
    - MIPS: Avoid using unwind_stack() with usermode
    - MIPS: Fix siginfo.h to use strict posix types
    - MIPS: Fix uapi include in exported asm/siginfo.h
    - MIPS: Fix watchpoint restoration
    - MIPS: Flush highmem pages in __flush_dcache_page
    - MIPS: Handle highmem pages in __update_cache
    - MIPS: Sync icache & dcache in set_pte_at
    - MIPS: ath79: make bootconsole wait for both THRE and TEMT
    - MIPS: Reserve nosave data for hibernation
    - MIPS: Loongson-3: Reserve 32MB for RS780E integrated GPU
    - MIPS: Use copy_s.fmt rather than copy_u.fmt
    - MIPS: Fix MSA ld_*/st_* asm macros to use PTR_ADDU
    - MIPS: Prevent "restoration" of MSA context in non-MSA kernels
    - MIPS: Disable preemption during prctl(PR_SET_FP_MODE, ...)
    - MIPS: ptrace: Fix FP context restoration FCSR regression
    - MIPS: ptrace: Prevent writes to read-only FCSR bits
    - MIPS: Fix sigreturn via VDSO on microMIPS kernel
    - MIPS: Build microMIPS VDSO for microMIPS kernels
    - MIPS: lib: Mark intrinsics notrace
    - MIPS: VDSO: Build with `-fno-strict-aliasing'
    - affs: fix remount failure when there are no options changed
    - ASoC: ak4642: Enable cache usage to fix crashes on resume
    - Input: uinput - handle compat ioctl for UI_SET_PHYS
    - ARM: mvebu: fix GPIO config on the Linksys boards
    - ARM: dts: at91: fix typo in sama5d2 PIN_PD24 description
    - ARM: dts: exynos: Add interrupt line to MAX8997 PMIC on exynos4210-trats
    - ARM: dts: imx35: restore existing used clock enumeration
    - ath9k: Add a module parameter to invert LED polarity.
    - ath9k: Fix LED polarity for some Mini PCI AR9220 MB92 cards.
    - ath10k: fix debugfs pktlog_filter write
    - ath10k: fix firmware assert in monitor mode
    - ath10k: fix rx_channel during hw reconfigure
    - ath10k: fix kernel panic, move arvifs list head init before htt init
    - ath5k: Change led pin configuration for compaq c700 laptop
    - hwrng: exynos - Fix unbalanced PM runtime put on timeout error path
    - rtlwifi: rtl8723be: Add antenna select module parameter
    - rtlwifi: btcoexist: Implement antenna selection
    - rtlwifi: Fix logic error in enter/exit power-save mode
    - rtlwifi: pci: use dev_kfree_skb_irq instead of kfree_skb in
      rtl_pci_reset_trx_ring
    - aacraid: Relinquish CPU during timeout wait
    - aacraid: Fix for aac_command_thread hang
    - aacraid: Fix for KDUMP driver hang
    - hwmon: (ads7828) Enable internal reference
    - mfd: intel-lpss: Save register context on suspend
    - mfd: intel_soc_pmic_core: Terminate panel control GPIO lookup table
      correctly
    - PM / Runtime: Fix error path in pm_runtime_force_resume()
    - cpuidle: Indicate when a device has been unregiste...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package linux - 4.4.0-28.47

---------------
linux (4.4.0-28.47) xenial; urgency=low

  [ Luis Henriques ]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #1595874

  * Linux netfilter local privilege escalation issues (LP: #1595350)
    - netfilter: x_tables: don't move to non-existent next rule
    - netfilter: x_tables: validate targets of jumps
    - netfilter: x_tables: add and use xt_check_entry_offsets
    - netfilter: x_tables: kill check_entry helper
    - netfilter: x_tables: assert minimum target size
    - netfilter: x_tables: add compat version of xt_check_entry_offsets
    - netfilter: x_tables: check standard target size too
    - netfilter: x_tables: check for bogus target offset
    - netfilter: x_tables: validate all offsets and sizes in a rule
    - netfilter: x_tables: don't reject valid target size on some architectures
    - netfilter: arp_tables: simplify translate_compat_table args
    - netfilter: ip_tables: simplify translate_compat_table args
    - netfilter: ip6_tables: simplify translate_compat_table args
    - netfilter: x_tables: xt_compat_match_from_user doesn't need a retval
    - netfilter: x_tables: do compat validation via translate_table
    - netfilter: x_tables: introduce and use xt_copy_counters_from_user

  * Linux netfilter IPT_SO_SET_REPLACE memory corruption (LP: #1555338)
    - netfilter: x_tables: validate e->target_offset early
    - netfilter: x_tables: make sure e->next_offset covers remaining blob size
    - netfilter: x_tables: fix unconditional helper

linux (4.4.0-27.46) xenial; urgency=low

  [ Kamal Mostafa ]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #1594906

  * Support Edge Gateway's Bluetooth LED (LP: #1512999)
    - Revert "UBUNTU: SAUCE: Bluetooth: Support for LED on Marvell modules"

linux (4.4.0-26.45) xenial; urgency=low

  [ Kamal Mostafa ]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #1594442

  * linux: Implement secure boot state variables (LP: #1593075)
    - SAUCE: UEFI: Add secure boot and MOK SB State disabled sysctl

  * failures building userspace packages that include ethtool.h (LP: #1592930)
    - ethtool.h: define INT_MAX for userland

linux (4.4.0-25.44) xenial; urgency=low

  [ Kamal Mostafa ]

  * Release Tracking Bug
    - LP: #1591289

  * Xenial update to v4.4.13 stable release (LP: #1590455)
    - MIPS64: R6: R2 emulation bugfix
    - MIPS: math-emu: Fix jalr emulation when rd == $0
    - MIPS: MSA: Fix a link error on `_init_msa_upper' with older GCC
    - MIPS: Don't unwind to user mode with EVA
    - MIPS: Avoid using unwind_stack() with usermode
    - MIPS: Fix siginfo.h to use strict posix types
    - MIPS: Fix uapi include in exported asm/siginfo.h
    - MIPS: Fix watchpoint restoration
    - MIPS: Flush highmem pages in __flush_dcache_page
    - MIPS: Handle highmem pages in __update_cache
    - MIPS: Sync icache & dcache in set_pte_at
    - MIPS: ath79: make bootconsole wait for both THRE and TEMT
    - MIPS: Reserve nosave data for hibernation
    - MIPS: Loongson-3: Reserve 32MB for RS780E integrated GPU
    - MIPS: Use copy_s.fmt rather than copy_u.fmt
    - MIPS: Fix MSA ld_*/st_* asm macros to use PTR_ADDU
    - MIPS: Prevent "restoration" of MSA c...

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

This bug was nominated against a series that is no longer supported, ie vivid. The bug task representing the vivid nomination is being closed as Won't Fix.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.