Add CPU manager proposal.

contributors/design-proposals/cpu-manager.md

@@ -0,0 +1,366 @@
+# CPU Manager
+
+_Authors:_
+
+* @ConnorDoyle - Connor Doyle <[email protected]>
+* @flyingcougar - Szymon Scharmach <[email protected]>
+* @sjenning - Seth Jennings <[email protected]>
+
+**Contents:**
+
+* [Overview](#overview)
+* [Proposed changes](#proposed-changes)
+* [Operations and observability](#operations-and-observability)
+* [Practical challenges](#practical-challenges)
+* [Implementation roadmap](#implementation-roadmap)
+* [Appendix A: cpuset pitfalls](#appendix-a-cpuset-pitfalls)
+
+## Overview
+
+_Problems to solve:_
+
+1. Poor or unpredictable performance observed compared to virtual machine
+   based orchestration systems. Application latency and lower CPU
+   throughput compared to VMs due to cpu quota being fulfilled across all
+   cores, rather than exclusive cores, which results in fewer context
+   switches and higher cache affinity.
+1. Unacceptable latency attributed to the OS process scheduler, especially
+   for “fast” virtual network functions (want to approach line rate on
+   modern server NICs.)
+
+_Solution requirements:_
+
+1. Provide an API-driven contract from the system to a user: "if you are a
+   Guaranteed pod with 1 or more cores of cpu, the system will try to make
+   sure that the pod gets its cpu quota primarily from reserved core(s),
+   resulting in fewer context switches and higher cache affinity".
+1. Support the case where in a given pod, one container is latency-critical
+   and another is not (e.g. auxillary side-car containers responsible for
+   log forwarding, metrics collection and the like.)
+1. Do not cap CPU quota for guaranteed containers that are granted
+   exclusive cores, since that would be antithetical to (1) above.
+1. Take physical processor topology into account in the CPU affinity policy.
+
+### Related issues
+
+* Feature: [Further differentiate performance characteristics associated
+  with pod level QoS](https://github.com/kubernetes/features/issues/276)
+
+## Proposed changes
+
+### CPU Manager component
+
+The *CPU Manager* is a new software component in Kubelet responsible for
+assigning pod containers to sets of CPUs on the local node. In later
+phases, the scope will expand to include caches, a critical shared
+processor resource.
+
+The kuberuntime notifies the CPU manager when containers come and
+go. The first such notification occurs in between the container runtime
+interface calls to create and start the container. The second notification
+occurs after the container is destroyed by the container runtime. The CPU
+Manager writes CPU settings for containers using a new CRI method named
+[`UpdateContainerResources`](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/46105).
+This new method is invoked from two places in the CPU manager: during each
+call to `RegisterContainer` and also periodically from a separate
+reconciliation loop.
+
+![cpu-manager-block-diagram](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/379372/28443427-bf1b2972-6d6a-11e7-8acb-6cbe9013ac28.png)
+
+_CPU Manager block diagram. `Policy`, `State`, and `Topology` types are
+factored out of the CPU Manager to promote reuse and to make it easier
+to build and test new policies. The shared state abstraction allows
+other Kubelet components to be agnostic of the CPU manager policy for
+observability and checkpointing extensions._
+
+#### Discovering CPU topology
+
+The CPU Manager must understand basic topology. First of all, it must
+determine the number of logical CPUs (hardware threads) available for
+allocation. On architectures that support [hyper-threading][ht], sibling
+threads share a number of hardware resources including the cache
+hierarchy. On multi-socket systems, logical CPUs co-resident on a socket
+share L3 cache. Although there may be some programs that benefit from
+disjoint caches, the policies described in this proposal assume cache
+affinity will yield better application and overall system performance for
+most cases. In all scenarios described below, we prefer to acquire logical
+CPUs topologically. For example, allocating two CPUs on a system that has
+hyper-threading turned on yields both sibling threads on the same
+physical core. Likewise, allocating two CPUs on a non-hyper-threaded
+system yields two cores on the same socket.
+
+**Decision:** Initially the CPU Manager will re-use the existing discovery
+mechanism in cAdvisor.
+
+Alternate options considered for discovering topology:
+
+1. Read and parse the virtual file [`/proc/cpuinfo`][procfs] and construct a
+   convenient data structure.
+1. Execute a simple program like `lscpu -p` in a subprocess and construct a
+   convenient data structure based on the output. Here is an example of
+   [data structure to represent CPU topology][topo] in go. The linked package
+   contains code to build a ThreadSet from the output of `lscpu -p`.
+1. Execute a mature external topology program like [`mpi-hwloc`][hwloc] --
+   potentially adding support for the hwloc file format to the Kubelet.
+
+#### CPU Manager interfaces (sketch)
+
+```go
+type State interface {
+  GetCPUSet(containerID string) (cpuset.CPUSet, bool)
+  GetDefaultCPUSet() cpuset.CPUSet
+  GetCPUSetOrDefault(containerID string) cpuset.CPUSet
+  SetCPUSet(containerID string, cpuset CPUSet)
+  SetDefaultCPUSet(cpuset CPUSet)
+  Delete(containerID string)
+}
+
+type Manager interface {
+  Start()
+  RegisterContainer(p *Pod, c *Container, containerID string) error
+  UnregisterContainer(containerID string) error
+  State() state.Reader
+}
+
+type Policy interface {
+  Name() string
+  Start(s state.State)
+  RegisterContainer(s State, pod *Pod, container *Container, containerID string) error
+  UnregisterContainer(s State, containerID string) error
+}
+
+type CPUSet map[int]struct{} // set operations and parsing/formatting helpers
+
+type CPUTopology TBD
+```
+
+#### Configuring the CPU Manager
+
+Kubernetes will ship with three CPU manager policies. Only one policy is
+active at a time on a given node, chosen by the operator via Kubelet
+configuration. The three policies are **noop**, **static** and **dynamic**.
+
+The active CPU manager policy is set through a new Kubelet
+configuration value `--cpu-manager-policy`. The default value is `noop`.
+
+The number of CPUs that pods may run on is set using the existing
+node-allocatable configuration settings. See the [node allocatable proposal
+document][node-allocatable] for details. The CPU manager will claim
+`ceiling(node.status.allocatable.cpu)` as the number of CPUs available to
+assign to pods, starting from the highest-numbered physical core and
+descending topologically. It is recommended to configure an integer value for
+`node.status.allocatable.cpu` when the CPU manager is enabled.
+
+Operator documentation will be updated to explain how to configure the
+system to use the low-numbered physical cores for kube-reserved and
+system-reserved slices.
+
+Each policy is described below.
+
+#### Policy 1: "no-op" cpuset control [default]
+
+This policy preserves the existing Kubelet behavior of doing nothing
+with the cgroup `cpuset.cpus` and `cpuset.mems` controls. This “no-op”
+policy would become the default CPU Manager policy until the effects of
+the other policies are better understood.
+
+#### Policy 2: "static" cpuset control
+
+The "static" policy allocates exclusive CPUs for containers if they are
+included in a pod of "Guaranteed" [QoS class][qos] and the container's
+resource limit for the CPU resource is an integer greater than or
+equal to one.
+
+When exclusive CPUs are allocated for a container, those CPUs are
+removed from the allowed CPUs of every other container running on the
+node. Once allocated at pod admission time, an exclusive CPU remains
+assigned to a single container for the lifetime of the pod (until it
+becomes terminal.)
+
+##### Implementation sketch
+
+```go
+func (p *staticPolicy) Start(s State) {
+	fullCpuset := cpuset.NewCPUSet()
+	for cpuid := 0; cpuid < p.topology.NumCPUs; cpuid++ {
+		fullCpuset.Add(cpuid)
+	}
+	// Figure out which cores shall not be used in shared pool
+	reserved, _ := takeByTopology(p.topology, fullCpuset, p.topology.NumReservedCores)
+	s.SetDefaultCPUSet(fullCpuset.Difference(reserved))
+}
+
+func (p *staticPolicy) RegisterContainer(s State, pod *Pod, container *Container, containerID string) error {
+  if numCPUs := numGuaranteedCPUs(pod, container); numCPUs != 0 {
+    // container should get some exclusively allocated CPUs
+    cpuset, err := p.allocateCPUs(s, numCPUs)
+    if err != nil {
+      return err
+    }
+    s.SetCPUSet(containerID, cpuset)
+  }
+  // container belongs in the shared pool (nothing to do; use default cpuset)
+  return nil
+}
+
+func (p *staticPolicy) UnregisterContainer(s State, containerID string) error {
+  if toRelease, ok := s.GetCPUSet(containerID); ok {
+    s.Delete(containerID)
+    p.releaseCPUs(s, toRelease)
+  }
+  return nil
+}
+```
+
+##### Example pod specs and interpretation
+
+| Pod                                        | Interpretation                 |
+| ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------ |
+| Pod [Guaranteed]:<br />&emsp;A:<br />&emsp;&emsp;cpu: 0.5 | Container **A** is assigned to the shared cpuset. |
+| Pod [Guaranteed]:<br />&emsp;A:<br />&emsp;&emsp;cpu: 2.0 | Container **A** is assigned two sibling threads on the same physical core (HT) or two physical cores on the same socket (no HT.)<br /><br /> The shared cpuset is shrunk to  make room for the exclusively allocated CPUs. |
+| Pod [Guaranteed]:<br />&emsp;A:<br />&emsp;&emsp;cpu: 1.0<br />&emsp;B:<br />&emsp;&emsp;cpu: 0.5 | Container **A** is assigned one exclusive CPU and container **B** is assigned to the shared cpuset. |
+| Pod [Guaranteed]:<br />&emsp;A:<br />&emsp;&emsp;cpu: 1.5<br />&emsp;B:<br />&emsp;&emsp;cpu: 0.5 | Both containers **A** and **B** are assigned to the shared cpuset. |
+| Pod [Burstable] | All containers are assigned to the shared cpuset. |
+| Pod [BestEffort] | All containers are assigned to the shared cpuset. |
+
+##### Example scenarios and interactions
+
+1. _A container arrives that requires exclusive cores._
+    1. Kuberuntime calls the CRI delegate to create the container.
+    1. Kuberuntime registers the container with the CPU manager.
+    1. CPU manager registers the container to the static policy.
+    1. Static policy acquires CPUs from the default pool, by
+       topological-best-fit.
+    1. Static policy updates the state, adding an assignment for the new
+       container and removing those CPUs from the default pool.
+    1. CPU manager reads container assignment from the state.
+    1. CPU manager updates the container resources via the CRI.
+    1. Kuberuntime calls the CRI delegate to start the container.
+
+1. _A container that was assigned exclusive cores terminates._
+    1. Kuberuntime unregisters the container with the CPU manager.
+    1. CPU manager unregisters the contaner with the static policy.
+    1. Static policy adds the container's assigned CPUs back to the default
+       pool.
+    1. Kuberuntime calls the CRI delegate to remove the container.
+    1. Asynchronously, the CPU manager's reconcile loop updates the
+       cpuset for all containers running in the shared pool.
+
+1. _The shared pool becomes empty._
+    1. The CPU manager adds a taint with effect NoSchedule, NoExecute
+       that prevents BestEffort and Burstable QoS class pods from
+       running on the node.
+
+1. _The shared pool becomes nonempty._
+    1. The CPU manager removes the taint with effect NoSchedule, NoExecute
+       for BestEffort and Burstable QoS class pods.
+
+#### Policy 3: "dynamic" cpuset control
+
+_TODO: Describe the policy._
+
+##### Implementation sketch
+
+```go
+func (p *dynamicPolicy) Start(s State) {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+func (p *dynamicPolicy) RegisterContainer(s State, pod *Pod, container *Container, containerID string) error {
+	// TODO
+}
+
+func (p *dynamicPolicy) UnregisterContainer(s State, containerID string) error {
+	// TODO
+}
+```
+
+##### Example pod specs and interpretation
+
+| Pod                                        | Interpretation                 |
+| ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------ |
+|                                            |                                |
+|                                            |                                |
+
+## Operations and observability
+
+* Checkpointing assignments
+  * The CPU Manager must be able to pick up where it left off in case the
+    Kubelet restarts for any reason.
+* Read effective CPU assinments at runtime for alerting. This could be
+  satisfied by the checkpointing requirement.
+
+## Practical challenges
+
+1. Synchronizing CPU Manager state with the container runtime via the
+   CRI. Runc/libcontainer allows container cgroup settings to be updated
+   after creation, but neither the Kubelet docker shim nor the CRI
+   implement a similar interface.
+    1. Mitigation: [PR 46105](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/46105)
+1. Compatibility with the `isolcpus` Linux kernel boot parameter. The operator
+   may want to correlate exclusive cores with the isolated CPUs, in which
+   case the static policy outlined above, where allocations are taken
+   directly from the shared pool, is too simplistic.
+    1. Mitigation: defer supporting this until a new policy tailored for
+       use with `isolcpus` can be added.
+
+## Implementation roadmap
+
+### Phase 1: No-op policy
+
+* Internal API exists to allocate CPUs to containers
+  ([PR 46105](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/46105))
+* Kubelet configuration includes a CPU manager policy (initially only no-op)
+* No-op policy is implemented.
+* All existing unit and e2e tests pass.
+* Initial unit tests pass.
+
+### Phase 2: Static policy
+
+* Kubelet can discover "basic" CPU topology (HT-to-physical-core map)
+* Static policy is implemented.
+* Unit tests for static policy pass.
+* e2e tests for static policy pass.
+* Performance metrics for one or more plausible synthetic workloads show
+  benefit over no-op policy.
+
+### Phase 3: Cache allocation
+
+* Static policy also manages [cache allocation][cat] on supported platforms.
+
+### Phase 4: Dynamic policy
+
+* Dynamic policy is implemented.
+* Unit tests for dynamic policy pass.
+* e2e tests for dynamic policy pass.
+* Performance metrics for one or more plausible synthetic workloads show
+  benefit over no-op policy.
+
+### Phase 5: NUMA
+
+* Kubelet can discover "advanced" CPU topology (NUMA).
+
+## Appendix A: cpuset pitfalls
+
+1. [`cpuset.sched_relax_domain_level`][cpuset-files]. "controls the width of
+   the range of CPUs over  which  the kernel scheduler performs immediate
+   rebalancing of runnable tasks across CPUs."
+1. Child cpusets must be subsets of their parents. If B is a child of A,
+   then B must be a subset of A. Attempting to shrink A such that B
+   would contain allowed CPUs not in A is not allowed (the write will
+   fail.) Nested cpusets must be shrunk bottom-up. By the same rationale,
+   nested cpusets must be expanded top-down.
+1. Dynamically changing cpusets by directly writing to the sysfs would
+   create inconsistencies with container runtimes.
+1. The `exclusive` flag. This will not be used. We will achieve
+   exclusivity for a CPU by removing it from all other assigned cpusets.
+1. Tricky semantics when cpusets are combined with CFS shares and quota.
+
+[cat]: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/communications/cache-monitoring-cache-allocation-technologies.html
+[cpuset-files]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/cpuset.7.html#FILES
+[ht]: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/hyper-threading/hyper-threading-technology.html
+[hwloc]: https://www.open-mpi.org/projects/hwloc
+[node-allocatable]: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/design-proposals/node-allocatable.md#phase-2---enforce-allocatable-on-pods
+[procfs]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/proc.5.html
+[qos]: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/design-proposals/resource-qos.md
+[topo]: http://github.com/intelsdi-x/swan/tree/master/pkg/isolation/topo