During migrations, after each iteration, cpu_throttle_set() is called, which irrespective of input, re-arms the timer according to value of new_throttle_pct. This causes cpu_throttle_thread() to be delayed in getting scheduled and consqeuntly lets guest run for more time than what the throttle value should allow. This leads to spikes in guest throughput at high cpu-throttle percentage whenever cpu_throttle_set() is called.
A solution would be not to modify the timer immediately in cpu_throttle_set(), instead, only modify throttle_percentage so that the throttle would automatically adjust to the required percentage when cpu_throttle_timer_tick() is invoked. Manually tested the patch using following configuration: Guest: Centos7 (3.10.0-123.el7.x86_64) Total Memory - 64GB , CPUs - 16 Tool used - stress (1.0.4) Workload - stress --vm 32 --vm-bytes 1G --vm-keep Migration Parameters: Network Bandwidth - 500MBPS cpu-throttle-initial - 99 Results: With timer_mod(): fails to converge, continues indefinitely Without timer_mod(): converges in 249 sec Signed-off-by: Utkarsh Tripathi <utkarsh.tripa...@nutanix.com> --- softmmu/cpu-throttle.c | 11 +++++++++-- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/softmmu/cpu-throttle.c b/softmmu/cpu-throttle.c index 2ec4b8e..8c2144a 100644 --- a/softmmu/cpu-throttle.c +++ b/softmmu/cpu-throttle.c @@ -90,14 +90,21 @@ static void cpu_throttle_timer_tick(void *opaque) void cpu_throttle_set(int new_throttle_pct) { + /* + * boolean to store whether throttle is already active or not, + * before modifying throttle_percentage + */ + bool throttle_active = cpu_throttle_active(); + /* Ensure throttle percentage is within valid range */ new_throttle_pct = MIN(new_throttle_pct, CPU_THROTTLE_PCT_MAX); new_throttle_pct = MAX(new_throttle_pct, CPU_THROTTLE_PCT_MIN); qatomic_set(&throttle_percentage, new_throttle_pct); - timer_mod(throttle_timer, qemu_clock_get_ns(QEMU_CLOCK_VIRTUAL_RT) + - CPU_THROTTLE_TIMESLICE_NS); + if (!throttle_active) { + cpu_throttle_timer_tick(NULL); + } } void cpu_throttle_stop(void) -- 1.8.3.1