[PATCH 2/5] NFSD: Eliminate percpu counter contention in DRC memory accounting

Chuck Lever <[email protected]> Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:12:29 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.linux.nfs
Message-ID <[email protected]>
The DRC memory usage counter (NFSD_STATS_DRC_MEM_USAGE) tracks
bytes, but percpu_counter_add() uses the global percpu_counter_batch
threshold of max(32, 2*nr_cpus). Each DRC entry add or removal
updates the counter by sizeof(struct nfsd_cacherep) (~144 bytes),
which always exceeds the batch threshold. percpu_counter_add()
then acquires the counter's global spinlock on every update,
serializing all nfsd threads.

On a 10-CPU NFS server handling a high rate of non-idempotent
NFSv3 operations, this lock accounts for a measurable fraction
of total spin lock overhead because nfsd_cache_lookup() both
inserts a new entry and prunes up to three old entries per RPC,
producing 4-7 global lock acquisitions per operation.

Switch to percpu_counter_add_local() and percpu_counter_sub_local(),
which batch with INT_MAX so that updates always remain on the per-CPU
fast path regardless of the amount. The only reader of this counter uses
percpu_counter_sum_positive(), which sums the per-CPU deltas under the
global lock, so read accuracy is unaffected.

Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever <[email protected]>
---
 fs/nfsd/stats.h | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/nfsd/stats.h b/fs/nfsd/stats.h
index 87736b7fbf28..15d30c045dc3 100644
--- a/fs/nfsd/stats.h
+++ b/fs/nfsd/stats.h
@@ -60,14 +60,32 @@ static inline void nfsd_stats_payload_misses_inc(struct nfsd_net *nn)
 	percpu_counter_inc(&nn->counter[NFSD_STATS_PAYLOAD_MISSES]);
 }
 
+/**
+ * nfsd_stats_drc_mem_usage_add - Add memory used by a cache item
+ * @nn: target network namespace
+ * @amount: byte count
+ *
+ * percpu_counter_add_local() keeps updates on the per-CPU fast
+ * path. The sole reader, percpu_counter_sum_positive(), sums the
+ * per-CPU deltas, so batching locally does not lose accuracy.
+ */
 static inline void nfsd_stats_drc_mem_usage_add(struct nfsd_net *nn, s64 amount)
 {
-	percpu_counter_add(&nn->counter[NFSD_STATS_DRC_MEM_USAGE], amount);
+	percpu_counter_add_local(&nn->counter[NFSD_STATS_DRC_MEM_USAGE],
+				 amount);
 }
 
+/**
+ * nfsd_stats_drc_mem_usage_sub - Subtract memory used by a cache item
+ * @nn: target network namespace
+ * @amount: byte count
+ *
+ * See nfsd_stats_drc_mem_usage_add() for batching rationale.
+ */
 static inline void nfsd_stats_drc_mem_usage_sub(struct nfsd_net *nn, s64 amount)
 {
-	percpu_counter_sub(&nn->counter[NFSD_STATS_DRC_MEM_USAGE], amount);
+	percpu_counter_sub_local(&nn->counter[NFSD_STATS_DRC_MEM_USAGE],
+				 amount);
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_NFSD_V4
-- 
2.54.0