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Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +01001 Deadline Task Scheduling
2 ------------------------
3
4CONTENTS
5========
6
7 0. WARNING
8 1. Overview
9 2. Scheduling algorithm
10 3. Scheduling Real-Time Tasks
Luca Abeni6aaa1022015-05-18 15:00:32 +020011 3.1 Definitions
12 3.2 Schedulability Analysis for Uniprocessor Systems
13 3.3 Schedulability Analysis for Multiprocessor Systems
14 3.4 Relationship with SCHED_DEADLINE Parameters
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010015 4. Bandwidth management
16 4.1 System-wide settings
17 4.2 Task interface
18 4.3 Default behavior
Tommaso Cucinottab95202a2016-09-09 19:45:17 +020019 4.4 Behavior of sched_yield()
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010020 5. Tasks CPU affinity
21 5.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
22 6. Future plans
Juri Lellif5801932014-09-09 10:57:15 +010023 A. Test suite
Juri Lelli13924d22014-09-09 10:57:16 +010024 B. Minimal main()
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010025
26
270. WARNING
28==========
29
30 Fiddling with these settings can result in an unpredictable or even unstable
31 system behavior. As for -rt (group) scheduling, it is assumed that root users
32 know what they're doing.
33
34
351. Overview
36===========
37
38 The SCHED_DEADLINE policy contained inside the sched_dl scheduling class is
39 basically an implementation of the Earliest Deadline First (EDF) scheduling
40 algorithm, augmented with a mechanism (called Constant Bandwidth Server, CBS)
41 that makes it possible to isolate the behavior of tasks between each other.
42
43
442. Scheduling algorithm
45==================
46
47 SCHED_DEADLINE uses three parameters, named "runtime", "period", and
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +010048 "deadline", to schedule tasks. A SCHED_DEADLINE task should receive
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010049 "runtime" microseconds of execution time every "period" microseconds, and
50 these "runtime" microseconds are available within "deadline" microseconds
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +020051 from the beginning of the period. In order to implement this behavior,
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010052 every time the task wakes up, the scheduler computes a "scheduling deadline"
53 consistent with the guarantee (using the CBS[2,3] algorithm). Tasks are then
54 scheduled using EDF[1] on these scheduling deadlines (the task with the
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +010055 earliest scheduling deadline is selected for execution). Notice that the
56 task actually receives "runtime" time units within "deadline" if a proper
57 "admission control" strategy (see Section "4. Bandwidth management") is used
58 (clearly, if the system is overloaded this guarantee cannot be respected).
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010059
Luca Abeni3aa2dbe2015-05-18 15:00:26 +020060 Summing up, the CBS[2,3] algorithm assigns scheduling deadlines to tasks so
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010061 that each task runs for at most its runtime every period, avoiding any
62 interference between different tasks (bandwidth isolation), while the EDF[1]
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010063 algorithm selects the task with the earliest scheduling deadline as the one
64 to be executed next. Thanks to this feature, tasks that do not strictly comply
65 with the "traditional" real-time task model (see Section 3) can effectively
66 use the new policy.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010067
68 In more details, the CBS algorithm assigns scheduling deadlines to
69 tasks in the following way:
70
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +020071 - Each SCHED_DEADLINE task is characterized by the "runtime",
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010072 "deadline", and "period" parameters;
73
74 - The state of the task is described by a "scheduling deadline", and
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010075 a "remaining runtime". These two parameters are initially set to 0;
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010076
77 - When a SCHED_DEADLINE task wakes up (becomes ready for execution),
78 the scheduler checks if
79
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010080 remaining runtime runtime
81 ---------------------------------- > ---------
82 scheduling deadline - current time period
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010083
84 then, if the scheduling deadline is smaller than the current time, or
85 this condition is verified, the scheduling deadline and the
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +020086 remaining runtime are re-initialized as
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010087
88 scheduling deadline = current time + deadline
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010089 remaining runtime = runtime
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010090
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010091 otherwise, the scheduling deadline and the remaining runtime are
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010092 left unchanged;
93
94 - When a SCHED_DEADLINE task executes for an amount of time t, its
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010095 remaining runtime is decreased as
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010096
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +010097 remaining runtime = remaining runtime - t
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +010098
99 (technically, the runtime is decreased at every tick, or when the
100 task is descheduled / preempted);
101
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +0100102 - When the remaining runtime becomes less or equal than 0, the task is
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100103 said to be "throttled" (also known as "depleted" in real-time literature)
104 and cannot be scheduled until its scheduling deadline. The "replenishment
105 time" for this task (see next item) is set to be equal to the current
106 value of the scheduling deadline;
107
108 - When the current time is equal to the replenishment time of a
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +0100109 throttled task, the scheduling deadline and the remaining runtime are
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100110 updated as
111
112 scheduling deadline = scheduling deadline + period
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +0100113 remaining runtime = remaining runtime + runtime
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100114
115
1163. Scheduling Real-Time Tasks
117=============================
118
119 * BIG FAT WARNING ******************************************************
120 *
121 * This section contains a (not-thorough) summary on classical deadline
122 * scheduling theory, and how it applies to SCHED_DEADLINE.
123 * The reader can "safely" skip to Section 4 if only interested in seeing
124 * how the scheduling policy can be used. Anyway, we strongly recommend
125 * to come back here and continue reading (once the urge for testing is
126 * satisfied :P) to be sure of fully understanding all technical details.
127 ************************************************************************
128
129 There are no limitations on what kind of task can exploit this new
130 scheduling discipline, even if it must be said that it is particularly
131 suited for periodic or sporadic real-time tasks that need guarantees on their
132 timing behavior, e.g., multimedia, streaming, control applications, etc.
133
Luca Abeni6aaa1022015-05-18 15:00:32 +02001343.1 Definitions
135------------------------
136
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100137 A typical real-time task is composed of a repetition of computation phases
138 (task instances, or jobs) which are activated on a periodic or sporadic
139 fashion.
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200140 Each job J_j (where J_j is the j^th job of the task) is characterized by an
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100141 arrival time r_j (the time when the job starts), an amount of computation
142 time c_j needed to finish the job, and a job absolute deadline d_j, which
143 is the time within which the job should be finished. The maximum execution
Luca Abenic2a68492015-05-18 15:00:28 +0200144 time max{c_j} is called "Worst Case Execution Time" (WCET) for the task.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100145 A real-time task can be periodic with period P if r_{j+1} = r_j + P, or
146 sporadic with minimum inter-arrival time P is r_{j+1} >= r_j + P. Finally,
147 d_j = r_j + D, where D is the task's relative deadline.
Luca Abenie0deda82015-05-18 15:00:29 +0200148 Summing up, a real-time task can be described as
149 Task = (WCET, D, P)
150
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200151 The utilization of a real-time task is defined as the ratio between its
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100152 WCET and its period (or minimum inter-arrival time), and represents
153 the fraction of CPU time needed to execute the task.
154
Luca Abenic2a68492015-05-18 15:00:28 +0200155 If the total utilization U=sum(WCET_i/P_i) is larger than M (with M equal
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100156 to the number of CPUs), then the scheduler is unable to respect all the
157 deadlines.
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200158 Note that total utilization is defined as the sum of the utilizations
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100159 WCET_i/P_i over all the real-time tasks in the system. When considering
160 multiple real-time tasks, the parameters of the i-th task are indicated
161 with the "_i" suffix.
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200162 Moreover, if the total utilization is larger than M, then we risk starving
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100163 non- real-time tasks by real-time tasks.
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200164 If, instead, the total utilization is smaller than M, then non real-time
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100165 tasks will not be starved and the system might be able to respect all the
166 deadlines.
167 As a matter of fact, in this case it is possible to provide an upper bound
168 for tardiness (defined as the maximum between 0 and the difference
169 between the finishing time of a job and its absolute deadline).
170 More precisely, it can be proven that using a global EDF scheduler the
171 maximum tardiness of each task is smaller or equal than
172 ((M − 1) · WCET_max − WCET_min)/(M − (M − 2) · U_max) + WCET_max
Luca Abenic2a68492015-05-18 15:00:28 +0200173 where WCET_max = max{WCET_i} is the maximum WCET, WCET_min=min{WCET_i}
Luca Abeni134136c2015-05-18 15:00:30 +0200174 is the minimum WCET, and U_max = max{WCET_i/P_i} is the maximum
175 utilization[12].
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100176
Luca Abeni6aaa1022015-05-18 15:00:32 +02001773.2 Schedulability Analysis for Uniprocessor Systems
178------------------------
179
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100180 If M=1 (uniprocessor system), or in case of partitioned scheduling (each
181 real-time task is statically assigned to one and only one CPU), it is
182 possible to formally check if all the deadlines are respected.
183 If D_i = P_i for all tasks, then EDF is able to respect all the deadlines
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200184 of all the tasks executing on a CPU if and only if the total utilization
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100185 of the tasks running on such a CPU is smaller or equal than 1.
186 If D_i != P_i for some task, then it is possible to define the density of
Luca Abeni48355c42015-05-18 15:00:27 +0200187 a task as WCET_i/min{D_i,P_i}, and EDF is able to respect all the deadlines
Luca Abenie0deda82015-05-18 15:00:29 +0200188 of all the tasks running on a CPU if the sum of the densities of the tasks
189 running on such a CPU is smaller or equal than 1:
190 sum(WCET_i / min{D_i, P_i}) <= 1
191 It is important to notice that this condition is only sufficient, and not
192 necessary: there are task sets that are schedulable, but do not respect the
193 condition. For example, consider the task set {Task_1,Task_2} composed by
194 Task_1=(50ms,50ms,100ms) and Task_2=(10ms,100ms,100ms).
195 EDF is clearly able to schedule the two tasks without missing any deadline
196 (Task_1 is scheduled as soon as it is released, and finishes just in time
197 to respect its deadline; Task_2 is scheduled immediately after Task_1, hence
198 its response time cannot be larger than 50ms + 10ms = 60ms) even if
199 50 / min{50,100} + 10 / min{100, 100} = 50 / 50 + 10 / 100 = 1.1
200 Of course it is possible to test the exact schedulability of tasks with
201 D_i != P_i (checking a condition that is both sufficient and necessary),
202 but this cannot be done by comparing the total utilization or density with
203 a constant. Instead, the so called "processor demand" approach can be used,
204 computing the total amount of CPU time h(t) needed by all the tasks to
205 respect all of their deadlines in a time interval of size t, and comparing
206 such a time with the interval size t. If h(t) is smaller than t (that is,
207 the amount of time needed by the tasks in a time interval of size t is
208 smaller than the size of the interval) for all the possible values of t, then
209 EDF is able to schedule the tasks respecting all of their deadlines. Since
210 performing this check for all possible values of t is impossible, it has been
211 proven[4,5,6] that it is sufficient to perform the test for values of t
212 between 0 and a maximum value L. The cited papers contain all of the
213 mathematical details and explain how to compute h(t) and L.
214 In any case, this kind of analysis is too complex as well as too
215 time-consuming to be performed on-line. Hence, as explained in Section
216 4 Linux uses an admission test based on the tasks' utilizations.
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100217
Luca Abeni6aaa1022015-05-18 15:00:32 +02002183.3 Schedulability Analysis for Multiprocessor Systems
219------------------------
220
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100221 On multiprocessor systems with global EDF scheduling (non partitioned
222 systems), a sufficient test for schedulability can not be based on the
Luca Abeni134136c2015-05-18 15:00:30 +0200223 utilizations or densities: it can be shown that even if D_i = P_i task
224 sets with utilizations slightly larger than 1 can miss deadlines regardless
225 of the number of CPUs.
226
227 Consider a set {Task_1,...Task_{M+1}} of M+1 tasks on a system with M
228 CPUs, with the first task Task_1=(P,P,P) having period, relative deadline
229 and WCET equal to P. The remaining M tasks Task_i=(e,P-1,P-1) have an
230 arbitrarily small worst case execution time (indicated as "e" here) and a
231 period smaller than the one of the first task. Hence, if all the tasks
232 activate at the same time t, global EDF schedules these M tasks first
233 (because their absolute deadlines are equal to t + P - 1, hence they are
234 smaller than the absolute deadline of Task_1, which is t + P). As a
235 result, Task_1 can be scheduled only at time t + e, and will finish at
236 time t + e + P, after its absolute deadline. The total utilization of the
237 task set is U = M · e / (P - 1) + P / P = M · e / (P - 1) + 1, and for small
238 values of e this can become very close to 1. This is known as "Dhall's
239 effect"[7]. Note: the example in the original paper by Dhall has been
240 slightly simplified here (for example, Dhall more correctly computed
241 lim_{e->0}U).
242
243 More complex schedulability tests for global EDF have been developed in
244 real-time literature[8,9], but they are not based on a simple comparison
245 between total utilization (or density) and a fixed constant. If all tasks
246 have D_i = P_i, a sufficient schedulability condition can be expressed in
247 a simple way:
248 sum(WCET_i / P_i) <= M - (M - 1) · U_max
249 where U_max = max{WCET_i / P_i}[10]. Notice that for U_max = 1,
250 M - (M - 1) · U_max becomes M - M + 1 = 1 and this schedulability condition
251 just confirms the Dhall's effect. A more complete survey of the literature
252 about schedulability tests for multi-processor real-time scheduling can be
253 found in [11].
254
255 As seen, enforcing that the total utilization is smaller than M does not
256 guarantee that global EDF schedules the tasks without missing any deadline
257 (in other words, global EDF is not an optimal scheduling algorithm). However,
258 a total utilization smaller than M is enough to guarantee that non real-time
259 tasks are not starved and that the tardiness of real-time tasks has an upper
260 bound[12] (as previously noted). Different bounds on the maximum tardiness
261 experienced by real-time tasks have been developed in various papers[13,14],
262 but the theoretical result that is important for SCHED_DEADLINE is that if
263 the total utilization is smaller or equal than M then the response times of
264 the tasks are limited.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100265
Luca Abeni6aaa1022015-05-18 15:00:32 +02002663.4 Relationship with SCHED_DEADLINE Parameters
267------------------------
268
Luca Abeni78740852015-05-18 15:00:31 +0200269 Finally, it is important to understand the relationship between the
270 SCHED_DEADLINE scheduling parameters described in Section 2 (runtime,
271 deadline and period) and the real-time task parameters (WCET, D, P)
272 described in this section. Note that the tasks' temporal constraints are
273 represented by its absolute deadlines d_j = r_j + D described above, while
274 SCHED_DEADLINE schedules the tasks according to scheduling deadlines (see
275 Section 2).
276 If an admission test is used to guarantee that the scheduling deadlines
277 are respected, then SCHED_DEADLINE can be used to schedule real-time tasks
278 guaranteeing that all the jobs' deadlines of a task are respected.
279 In order to do this, a task must be scheduled by setting:
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100280
281 - runtime >= WCET
282 - deadline = D
283 - period <= P
284
Luca Abeni3aa2dbe2015-05-18 15:00:26 +0200285 IOW, if runtime >= WCET and if period is <= P, then the scheduling deadlines
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100286 and the absolute deadlines (d_j) coincide, so a proper admission control
287 allows to respect the jobs' absolute deadlines for this task (this is what is
288 called "hard schedulability property" and is an extension of Lemma 1 of [2]).
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +0100289 Notice that if runtime > deadline the admission control will surely reject
290 this task, as it is not possible to respect its temporal constraints.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100291
292 References:
293 1 - C. L. Liu and J. W. Layland. Scheduling algorithms for multiprogram-
294 ming in a hard-real-time environment. Journal of the Association for
295 Computing Machinery, 20(1), 1973.
296 2 - L. Abeni , G. Buttazzo. Integrating Multimedia Applications in Hard
297 Real-Time Systems. Proceedings of the 19th IEEE Real-time Systems
298 Symposium, 1998. http://retis.sssup.it/~giorgio/paps/1998/rtss98-cbs.pdf
299 3 - L. Abeni. Server Mechanisms for Multimedia Applications. ReTiS Lab
Luca Abeniad67dc32014-09-09 10:57:12 +0100300 Technical Report. http://disi.unitn.it/~abeni/tr-98-01.pdf
Luca Abenie0deda82015-05-18 15:00:29 +0200301 4 - J. Y. Leung and M.L. Merril. A Note on Preemptive Scheduling of
302 Periodic, Real-Time Tasks. Information Processing Letters, vol. 11,
303 no. 3, pp. 115-118, 1980.
304 5 - S. K. Baruah, A. K. Mok and L. E. Rosier. Preemptively Scheduling
305 Hard-Real-Time Sporadic Tasks on One Processor. Proceedings of the
306 11th IEEE Real-time Systems Symposium, 1990.
307 6 - S. K. Baruah, L. E. Rosier and R. R. Howell. Algorithms and Complexity
308 Concerning the Preemptive Scheduling of Periodic Real-Time tasks on
309 One Processor. Real-Time Systems Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, pp 301-324,
310 1990.
Luca Abeni134136c2015-05-18 15:00:30 +0200311 7 - S. J. Dhall and C. L. Liu. On a real-time scheduling problem. Operations
312 research, vol. 26, no. 1, pp 127-140, 1978.
313 8 - T. Baker. Multiprocessor EDF and Deadline Monotonic Schedulability
314 Analysis. Proceedings of the 24th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, 2003.
315 9 - T. Baker. An Analysis of EDF Schedulability on a Multiprocessor.
316 IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 16, no. 8,
317 pp 760-768, 2005.
318 10 - J. Goossens, S. Funk and S. Baruah, Priority-Driven Scheduling of
319 Periodic Task Systems on Multiprocessors. Real-Time Systems Journal,
320 vol. 25, no. 2–3, pp. 187–205, 2003.
321 11 - R. Davis and A. Burns. A Survey of Hard Real-Time Scheduling for
322 Multiprocessor Systems. ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 43, no. 4, 2011.
323 http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~robdavis/papers/MPSurveyv5.0.pdf
324 12 - U. C. Devi and J. H. Anderson. Tardiness Bounds under Global EDF
325 Scheduling on a Multiprocessor. Real-Time Systems Journal, vol. 32,
326 no. 2, pp 133-189, 2008.
327 13 - P. Valente and G. Lipari. An Upper Bound to the Lateness of Soft
328 Real-Time Tasks Scheduled by EDF on Multiprocessors. Proceedings of
329 the 26th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, 2005.
330 14 - J. Erickson, U. Devi and S. Baruah. Improved tardiness bounds for
331 Global EDF. Proceedings of the 22nd Euromicro Conference on
332 Real-Time Systems, 2010.
333
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100334
3354. Bandwidth management
336=======================
337
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100338 As previously mentioned, in order for -deadline scheduling to be
339 effective and useful (that is, to be able to provide "runtime" time units
340 within "deadline"), it is important to have some method to keep the allocation
341 of the available fractions of CPU time to the various tasks under control.
342 This is usually called "admission control" and if it is not performed, then
343 no guarantee can be given on the actual scheduling of the -deadline tasks.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100344
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100345 As already stated in Section 3, a necessary condition to be respected to
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200346 correctly schedule a set of real-time tasks is that the total utilization
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100347 is smaller than M. When talking about -deadline tasks, this requires that
348 the sum of the ratio between runtime and period for all tasks is smaller
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200349 than M. Notice that the ratio runtime/period is equivalent to the utilization
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100350 of a "traditional" real-time task, and is also often referred to as
351 "bandwidth".
352 The interface used to control the CPU bandwidth that can be allocated
353 to -deadline tasks is similar to the one already used for -rt
Juri Lelli0d9ba8b2014-09-09 10:57:13 +0100354 tasks with real-time group scheduling (a.k.a. RT-throttling - see
355 Documentation/scheduler/sched-rt-group.txt), and is based on readable/
356 writable control files located in procfs (for system wide settings).
357 Notice that per-group settings (controlled through cgroupfs) are still not
358 defined for -deadline tasks, because more discussion is needed in order to
359 figure out how we want to manage SCHED_DEADLINE bandwidth at the task group
360 level.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100361
Juri Lelli0d9ba8b2014-09-09 10:57:13 +0100362 A main difference between deadline bandwidth management and RT-throttling
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100363 is that -deadline tasks have bandwidth on their own (while -rt ones don't!),
Juri Lelli0d9ba8b2014-09-09 10:57:13 +0100364 and thus we don't need a higher level throttling mechanism to enforce the
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100365 desired bandwidth. In other words, this means that interface parameters are
366 only used at admission control time (i.e., when the user calls
367 sched_setattr()). Scheduling is then performed considering actual tasks'
368 parameters, so that CPU bandwidth is allocated to SCHED_DEADLINE tasks
369 respecting their needs in terms of granularity. Therefore, using this simple
370 interface we can put a cap on total utilization of -deadline tasks (i.e.,
371 \Sum (runtime_i / period_i) < global_dl_utilization_cap).
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100372
3734.1 System wide settings
374------------------------
375
376 The system wide settings are configured under the /proc virtual file system.
377
Juri Lelli0d9ba8b2014-09-09 10:57:13 +0100378 For now the -rt knobs are used for -deadline admission control and the
Luca Abeni3a3a58d2015-05-18 15:00:25 +0200379 -deadline runtime is accounted against the -rt runtime. We realize that this
Juri Lelli0d9ba8b2014-09-09 10:57:13 +0100380 isn't entirely desirable; however, it is better to have a small interface for
381 now, and be able to change it easily later. The ideal situation (see 5.) is to
382 run -rt tasks from a -deadline server; in which case the -rt bandwidth is a
383 direct subset of dl_bw.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100384
385 This means that, for a root_domain comprising M CPUs, -deadline tasks
386 can be created while the sum of their bandwidths stays below:
387
388 M * (sched_rt_runtime_us / sched_rt_period_us)
389
390 It is also possible to disable this bandwidth management logic, and
391 be thus free of oversubscribing the system up to any arbitrary level.
392 This is done by writing -1 in /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us.
393
394
3954.2 Task interface
396------------------
397
398 Specifying a periodic/sporadic task that executes for a given amount of
399 runtime at each instance, and that is scheduled according to the urgency of
400 its own timing constraints needs, in general, a way of declaring:
401 - a (maximum/typical) instance execution time,
402 - a minimum interval between consecutive instances,
403 - a time constraint by which each instance must be completed.
404
405 Therefore:
406 * a new struct sched_attr, containing all the necessary fields is
407 provided;
408 * the new scheduling related syscalls that manipulate it, i.e.,
409 sched_setattr() and sched_getattr() are implemented.
410
411
4124.3 Default behavior
413---------------------
414
415 The default value for SCHED_DEADLINE bandwidth is to have rt_runtime equal to
416 950000. With rt_period equal to 1000000, by default, it means that -deadline
417 tasks can use at most 95%, multiplied by the number of CPUs that compose the
418 root_domain, for each root_domain.
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100419 This means that non -deadline tasks will receive at least 5% of the CPU time,
420 and that -deadline tasks will receive their runtime with a guaranteed
421 worst-case delay respect to the "deadline" parameter. If "deadline" = "period"
422 and the cpuset mechanism is used to implement partitioned scheduling (see
423 Section 5), then this simple setting of the bandwidth management is able to
424 deterministically guarantee that -deadline tasks will receive their runtime
425 in a period.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100426
Luca Abenib56bfc62014-09-09 10:57:14 +0100427 Finally, notice that in order not to jeopardize the admission control a
428 -deadline task cannot fork.
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100429
Tommaso Cucinottab95202a2016-09-09 19:45:17 +0200430
4314.4 Behavior of sched_yield()
432-----------------------------
433
434 When a SCHED_DEADLINE task calls sched_yield(), it gives up its
435 remaining runtime and is immediately throttled, until the next
436 period, when its runtime will be replenished (a special flag
437 dl_yielded is set and used to handle correctly throttling and runtime
438 replenishment after a call to sched_yield()).
439
440 This behavior of sched_yield() allows the task to wake-up exactly at
441 the beginning of the next period. Also, this may be useful in the
442 future with bandwidth reclaiming mechanisms, where sched_yield() will
443 make the leftoever runtime available for reclamation by other
444 SCHED_DEADLINE tasks.
445
446
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +01004475. Tasks CPU affinity
448=====================
449
450 -deadline tasks cannot have an affinity mask smaller that the entire
451 root_domain they are created on. However, affinities can be specified
seokhoon.yoon09c3bcc2016-08-02 23:23:57 +0900452 through the cpuset facility (Documentation/cgroup-v1/cpusets.txt).
Dario Faggioli712e5e32014-01-27 12:20:15 +0100453
4545.1 SCHED_DEADLINE and cpusets HOWTO
455------------------------------------
456
457 An example of a simple configuration (pin a -deadline task to CPU0)
458 follows (rt-app is used to create a -deadline task).
459
460 mkdir /dev/cpuset
461 mount -t cgroup -o cpuset cpuset /dev/cpuset
462 cd /dev/cpuset
463 mkdir cpu0
464 echo 0 > cpu0/cpuset.cpus
465 echo 0 > cpu0/cpuset.mems
466 echo 1 > cpuset.cpu_exclusive
467 echo 0 > cpuset.sched_load_balance
468 echo 1 > cpu0/cpuset.cpu_exclusive
469 echo 1 > cpu0/cpuset.mem_exclusive
470 echo $$ > cpu0/tasks
471 rt-app -t 100000:10000:d:0 -D5 (it is now actually superfluous to specify
472 task affinity)
473
4746. Future plans
475===============
476
477 Still missing:
478
479 - refinements to deadline inheritance, especially regarding the possibility
480 of retaining bandwidth isolation among non-interacting tasks. This is
481 being studied from both theoretical and practical points of view, and
482 hopefully we should be able to produce some demonstrative code soon;
483 - (c)group based bandwidth management, and maybe scheduling;
484 - access control for non-root users (and related security concerns to
485 address), which is the best way to allow unprivileged use of the mechanisms
486 and how to prevent non-root users "cheat" the system?
487
488 As already discussed, we are planning also to merge this work with the EDF
489 throttling patches [https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/2/23/239] but we still are in
490 the preliminary phases of the merge and we really seek feedback that would
491 help us decide on the direction it should take.
Juri Lellif5801932014-09-09 10:57:15 +0100492
493Appendix A. Test suite
494======================
495
496 The SCHED_DEADLINE policy can be easily tested using two applications that
497 are part of a wider Linux Scheduler validation suite. The suite is
498 available as a GitHub repository: https://github.com/scheduler-tools.
499
500 The first testing application is called rt-app and can be used to
501 start multiple threads with specific parameters. rt-app supports
502 SCHED_{OTHER,FIFO,RR,DEADLINE} scheduling policies and their related
503 parameters (e.g., niceness, priority, runtime/deadline/period). rt-app
504 is a valuable tool, as it can be used to synthetically recreate certain
505 workloads (maybe mimicking real use-cases) and evaluate how the scheduler
506 behaves under such workloads. In this way, results are easily reproducible.
507 rt-app is available at: https://github.com/scheduler-tools/rt-app.
508
509 Thread parameters can be specified from the command line, with something like
510 this:
511
512 # rt-app -t 100000:10000:d -t 150000:20000:f:10 -D5
513
514 The above creates 2 threads. The first one, scheduled by SCHED_DEADLINE,
515 executes for 10ms every 100ms. The second one, scheduled at SCHED_FIFO
516 priority 10, executes for 20ms every 150ms. The test will run for a total
517 of 5 seconds.
518
519 More interestingly, configurations can be described with a json file that
520 can be passed as input to rt-app with something like this:
521
522 # rt-app my_config.json
523
524 The parameters that can be specified with the second method are a superset
525 of the command line options. Please refer to rt-app documentation for more
526 details (<rt-app-sources>/doc/*.json).
527
528 The second testing application is a modification of schedtool, called
529 schedtool-dl, which can be used to setup SCHED_DEADLINE parameters for a
530 certain pid/application. schedtool-dl is available at:
531 https://github.com/scheduler-tools/schedtool-dl.git.
532
533 The usage is straightforward:
534
535 # schedtool -E -t 10000000:100000000 -e ./my_cpuhog_app
536
537 With this, my_cpuhog_app is put to run inside a SCHED_DEADLINE reservation
538 of 10ms every 100ms (note that parameters are expressed in microseconds).
539 You can also use schedtool to create a reservation for an already running
540 application, given that you know its pid:
541
542 # schedtool -E -t 10000000:100000000 my_app_pid
Juri Lelli13924d22014-09-09 10:57:16 +0100543
544Appendix B. Minimal main()
545==========================
546
547 We provide in what follows a simple (ugly) self-contained code snippet
548 showing how SCHED_DEADLINE reservations can be created by a real-time
549 application developer.
550
551 #define _GNU_SOURCE
552 #include <unistd.h>
553 #include <stdio.h>
554 #include <stdlib.h>
555 #include <string.h>
556 #include <time.h>
557 #include <linux/unistd.h>
558 #include <linux/kernel.h>
559 #include <linux/types.h>
560 #include <sys/syscall.h>
561 #include <pthread.h>
562
563 #define gettid() syscall(__NR_gettid)
564
565 #define SCHED_DEADLINE 6
566
567 /* XXX use the proper syscall numbers */
568 #ifdef __x86_64__
569 #define __NR_sched_setattr 314
570 #define __NR_sched_getattr 315
571 #endif
572
573 #ifdef __i386__
574 #define __NR_sched_setattr 351
575 #define __NR_sched_getattr 352
576 #endif
577
578 #ifdef __arm__
579 #define __NR_sched_setattr 380
580 #define __NR_sched_getattr 381
581 #endif
582
583 static volatile int done;
584
585 struct sched_attr {
586 __u32 size;
587
588 __u32 sched_policy;
589 __u64 sched_flags;
590
591 /* SCHED_NORMAL, SCHED_BATCH */
592 __s32 sched_nice;
593
594 /* SCHED_FIFO, SCHED_RR */
595 __u32 sched_priority;
596
597 /* SCHED_DEADLINE (nsec) */
598 __u64 sched_runtime;
599 __u64 sched_deadline;
600 __u64 sched_period;
601 };
602
603 int sched_setattr(pid_t pid,
604 const struct sched_attr *attr,
605 unsigned int flags)
606 {
607 return syscall(__NR_sched_setattr, pid, attr, flags);
608 }
609
610 int sched_getattr(pid_t pid,
611 struct sched_attr *attr,
612 unsigned int size,
613 unsigned int flags)
614 {
615 return syscall(__NR_sched_getattr, pid, attr, size, flags);
616 }
617
618 void *run_deadline(void *data)
619 {
620 struct sched_attr attr;
621 int x = 0;
622 int ret;
623 unsigned int flags = 0;
624
625 printf("deadline thread started [%ld]\n", gettid());
626
627 attr.size = sizeof(attr);
628 attr.sched_flags = 0;
629 attr.sched_nice = 0;
630 attr.sched_priority = 0;
631
632 /* This creates a 10ms/30ms reservation */
633 attr.sched_policy = SCHED_DEADLINE;
634 attr.sched_runtime = 10 * 1000 * 1000;
635 attr.sched_period = attr.sched_deadline = 30 * 1000 * 1000;
636
637 ret = sched_setattr(0, &attr, flags);
638 if (ret < 0) {
639 done = 0;
640 perror("sched_setattr");
641 exit(-1);
642 }
643
644 while (!done) {
645 x++;
646 }
647
648 printf("deadline thread dies [%ld]\n", gettid());
649 return NULL;
650 }
651
652 int main (int argc, char **argv)
653 {
654 pthread_t thread;
655
656 printf("main thread [%ld]\n", gettid());
657
658 pthread_create(&thread, NULL, run_deadline, NULL);
659
660 sleep(10);
661
662 done = 1;
663 pthread_join(thread, NULL);
664
665 printf("main dies [%ld]\n", gettid());
666 return 0;
667 }