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diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/zswap.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/zswap.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..b42132969e31 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/zswap.rst @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +===== +zswap +===== + +Overview +======== + +Zswap is a lightweight compressed cache for swap pages. It takes pages that are +in the process of being swapped out and attempts to compress them into a +dynamically allocated RAM-based memory pool. zswap basically trades CPU cycles +for potentially reduced swap I/O. This trade-off can also result in a +significant performance improvement if reads from the compressed cache are +faster than reads from a swap device. + +Some potential benefits: + +* Desktop/laptop users with limited RAM capacities can mitigate the + performance impact of swapping. +* Overcommitted guests that share a common I/O resource can + dramatically reduce their swap I/O pressure, avoiding heavy handed I/O + throttling by the hypervisor. This allows more work to get done with less + impact to the guest workload and guests sharing the I/O subsystem +* Users with SSDs as swap devices can extend the life of the device by + drastically reducing life-shortening writes. + +Zswap evicts pages from compressed cache on an LRU basis to the backing swap +device when the compressed pool reaches its size limit. This requirement had +been identified in prior community discussions. + +Whether Zswap is enabled at the boot time depends on whether +the ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_DEFAULT_ON`` Kconfig option is enabled or not. +This setting can then be overridden by providing the kernel command line +``zswap.enabled=`` option, for example ``zswap.enabled=0``. +Zswap can also be enabled and disabled at runtime using the sysfs interface. +An example command to enable zswap at runtime, assuming sysfs is mounted +at ``/sys``, is:: + + echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/enabled + +When zswap is disabled at runtime it will stop storing pages that are +being swapped out. However, it will _not_ immediately write out or fault +back into memory all of the pages stored in the compressed pool. The +pages stored in zswap will remain in the compressed pool until they are +either invalidated or faulted back into memory. In order to force all +pages out of the compressed pool, a swapoff on the swap device(s) will +fault back into memory all swapped out pages, including those in the +compressed pool. + +Design +====== + +Zswap receives pages for compression from the swap subsystem and is able to +evict pages from its own compressed pool on an LRU basis and write them back to +the backing swap device in the case that the compressed pool is full. + +Zswap makes use of zpool for the managing the compressed memory pool. Each +allocation in zpool is not directly accessible by address. Rather, a handle is +returned by the allocation routine and that handle must be mapped before being +accessed. The compressed memory pool grows on demand and shrinks as compressed +pages are freed. The pool is not preallocated. By default, a zpool +of type selected in ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_ZPOOL_DEFAULT`` Kconfig option is created, +but it can be overridden at boot time by setting the ``zpool`` attribute, +e.g. ``zswap.zpool=zbud``. It can also be changed at runtime using the sysfs +``zpool`` attribute, e.g.:: + + echo zbud > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/zpool + +The zbud type zpool allocates exactly 1 page to store 2 compressed pages, which +means the compression ratio will always be 2:1 or worse (because of half-full +zbud pages). The zsmalloc type zpool has a more complex compressed page +storage method, and it can achieve greater storage densities. + +When a swap page is passed from swapout to zswap, zswap maintains a mapping +of the swap entry, a combination of the swap type and swap offset, to the zpool +handle that references that compressed swap page. This mapping is achieved +with a red-black tree per swap type. The swap offset is the search key for the +tree nodes. + +During a page fault on a PTE that is a swap entry, the swapin code calls the +zswap load function to decompress the page into the page allocated by the page +fault handler. + +Once there are no PTEs referencing a swap page stored in zswap (i.e. the count +in the swap_map goes to 0) the swap code calls the zswap invalidate function +to free the compressed entry. + +Zswap seeks to be simple in its policies. Sysfs attributes allow for one user +controlled policy: + +* max_pool_percent - The maximum percentage of memory that the compressed + pool can occupy. + +The default compressor is selected in ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_COMPRESSOR_DEFAULT`` +Kconfig option, but it can be overridden at boot time by setting the +``compressor`` attribute, e.g. ``zswap.compressor=lzo``. +It can also be changed at runtime using the sysfs "compressor" +attribute, e.g.:: + + echo lzo > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/compressor + +When the zpool and/or compressor parameter is changed at runtime, any existing +compressed pages are not modified; they are left in their own zpool. When a +request is made for a page in an old zpool, it is uncompressed using its +original compressor. Once all pages are removed from an old zpool, the zpool +and its compressor are freed. + +Some of the pages in zswap are same-value filled pages (i.e. contents of the +page have same value or repetitive pattern). These pages include zero-filled +pages and they are handled differently. During store operation, a page is +checked if it is a same-value filled page before compressing it. If true, the +compressed length of the page is set to zero and the pattern or same-filled +value is stored. + +Same-value filled pages identification feature is enabled by default and can be +disabled at boot time by setting the ``same_filled_pages_enabled`` attribute +to 0, e.g. ``zswap.same_filled_pages_enabled=0``. It can also be enabled and +disabled at runtime using the sysfs ``same_filled_pages_enabled`` +attribute, e.g.:: + + echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/same_filled_pages_enabled + +When zswap same-filled page identification is disabled at runtime, it will stop +checking for the same-value filled pages during store operation. +In other words, every page will be then considered non-same-value filled. +However, the existing pages which are marked as same-value filled pages remain +stored unchanged in zswap until they are either loaded or invalidated. + +In some circumstances it might be advantageous to make use of just the zswap +ability to efficiently store same-filled pages without enabling the whole +compressed page storage. +In this case the handling of non-same-value pages by zswap (enabled by default) +can be disabled by setting the ``non_same_filled_pages_enabled`` attribute +to 0, e.g. ``zswap.non_same_filled_pages_enabled=0``. +It can also be enabled and disabled at runtime using the sysfs +``non_same_filled_pages_enabled`` attribute, e.g.:: + + echo 1 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/non_same_filled_pages_enabled + +Disabling both ``zswap.same_filled_pages_enabled`` and +``zswap.non_same_filled_pages_enabled`` effectively disables accepting any new +pages by zswap. + +To prevent zswap from shrinking pool when zswap is full and there's a high +pressure on swap (this will result in flipping pages in and out zswap pool +without any real benefit but with a performance drop for the system), a +special parameter has been introduced to implement a sort of hysteresis to +refuse taking pages into zswap pool until it has sufficient space if the limit +has been hit. To set the threshold at which zswap would start accepting pages +again after it became full, use the sysfs ``accept_threshold_percent`` +attribute, e. g.:: + + echo 80 > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/accept_threshold_percent + +Setting this parameter to 100 will disable the hysteresis. + +Some users cannot tolerate the swapping that comes with zswap store failures +and zswap writebacks. Swapping can be disabled entirely (without disabling +zswap itself) on a cgroup-basis as follows: + + echo 0 > /sys/fs/cgroup/<cgroup-name>/memory.zswap.writeback + +Note that if the store failures are recurring (for e.g if the pages are +incompressible), users can observe reclaim inefficiency after disabling +writeback (because the same pages might be rejected again and again). + +When there is a sizable amount of cold memory residing in the zswap pool, it +can be advantageous to proactively write these cold pages to swap and reclaim +the memory for other use cases. By default, the zswap shrinker is disabled. +User can enable it as follows: + + echo Y > /sys/module/zswap/parameters/shrinker_enabled + +This can be enabled at the boot time if ``CONFIG_ZSWAP_SHRINKER_DEFAULT_ON`` is +selected. + +A debugfs interface is provided for various statistic about pool size, number +of pages stored, same-value filled pages and various counters for the reasons +pages are rejected. |