I've got an Ubuntu VM, running inside Ubuntu-based Xen XCP. It hosts a custom FCGI-based HTTP service, behind nginx.
Under load from ab the first CPU core is saturated, and the rest is under-loaded.
In /proc/interrupts I see that CPU0 serves an order of magnitude more interrupts than any other core. Most of them come from eth1.
Is there anything I can do to improve performance of this VM? Is there a way to balance interrupts more evenly?
Gory details:
$ uname -a
Linux MYHOST 2.6.38-15-virtual #59-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 27 16:40:18 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty
$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0 CPU1 CPU2 CPU3 CPU4 CPU5 CPU6 CPU7
283: 113720624 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-dyn-event eth1
284: 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-dyn-event eth0
285: 2254 0 0 3873799 0 0 0 0 xen-dyn-event blkif
286: 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-dyn-event hvc_console
287: 492 42 0 0 0 0 0 295324 xen-dyn-event xenbus
288: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 222294 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle7
289: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug7
290: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 151302 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc7
291: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3236015 xen-percpu-ipi resched7
292: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 60064 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock7
293: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12355510 xen-percpu-virq timer7
294: 0 0 0 0 0 0 803174 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle6
295: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug6
296: 0 0 0 0 0 0 60027 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc6
297: 0 0 0 0 0 0 5374762 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched6
298: 0 0 0 0 0 0 64976 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock6
299: 0 0 0 0 0 0 15294870 0 xen-percpu-virq timer6
300: 0 0 0 0 0 264441 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle5
301: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug5
302: 0 0 0 0 0 79324 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc5
303: 0 0 0 0 0 3468144 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched5
304: 0 0 0 0 0 66269 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock5
305: 0 0 0 0 0 12778464 0 0 xen-percpu-virq timer5
306: 0 0 0 0 844591 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle4
307: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug4
308: 0 0 0 0 75293 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc4
309: 0 0 0 0 3482146 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched4
310: 0 0 0 0 79312 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock4
311: 0 0 0 0 21642424 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq timer4
312: 0 0 0 449141 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle3
313: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug3
314: 0 0 0 95405 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc3
315: 0 0 0 3802992 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched3
316: 0 0 0 76607 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock3
317: 0 0 0 16439729 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq timer3
318: 0 0 876383 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle2
319: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug2
320: 0 0 76416 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc2
321: 0 0 3422476 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched2
322: 0 0 69217 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock2
323: 0 0 10247182 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq timer2
324: 0 393514 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle1
325: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug1
326: 0 95773 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc1
327: 0 3551629 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched1
328: 0 77823 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock1
329: 0 13784021 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq timer1
330: 730435 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfuncsingle0
331: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq debug0
332: 39649 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi callfunc0
333: 3607120 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi resched0
334: 348740 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-ipi spinlock0
335: 89912004 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 xen-percpu-virq timer0
NMI: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Local timer interrupts
SPU: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Spurious interrupts
PMI: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 IRQ work interrupts
RES: 3607120 3551629 3422476 3802992 3482146 3468144 5374762 3236015 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 770084 489287 952799 544546 919884 343765 863201 373596 Function call interrupts
TLB: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TLB shootdowns
TRM: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Thermal event interrupts
THR: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Machine check exceptions
MCP: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Machine check polls
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
Best Answer
Look in the
/proc/irq/283directory. There is asmp_affinity_listfile which shows which CPUs will get the 283 interrupt. For you this file probably contains "0" (andsmp_affinityprobably contains "1").You can write the CPU range to the
smp_affinity_listfile:Or you can write a bitmask, where each bit corresponds to a CPU, to
smp_affinity:However, irqbalance is known to have its own idea of what affinity each interrupt should have, and it might revert your updates. So it is best if you just uninstall irqbalance completely. Or at least stop it and disable it from coming up on reboot.
If even without irqbalance you are getting odd
smp_affinityfor interrupt 283 after a reboot, you will have to manually update the CPU affinity in one of your startup scripts.