drivers/base/node: optimize memory block registration to reduce boot time

Patch series "drivers/base/node.c: optimization and cleanups", v7.


This patch (of 7)

During node device initialization, `memory blocks` are registered under
each NUMA node.  The `memory blocks` to be registered are identified using
the node's start and end PFNs, which are obtained from the node's pg_data

However, not all PFNs within this range necessarily belong to the same
node—some may belong to other nodes.  Additionally, due to the
discontiguous nature of physical memory, certain sections within a `memory
block` may be absent.

As a result, `memory blocks` that fall between a node's start and end PFNs
may span across multiple nodes, and some sections within those blocks may
be missing.  `Memory blocks` have a fixed size, which is architecture
dependent.

Due to these considerations, the memory block registration is currently
performed as follows:

for_each_online_node(nid):
    start_pfn = pgdat->node_start_pfn;
    end_pfn = pgdat->node_start_pfn + node_spanned_pages;
    for_each_memory_block_between(PFN_PHYS(start_pfn), PFN_PHYS(end_pfn))
        mem_blk = memory_block_id(pfn_to_section_nr(pfn));
        pfn_mb_start=section_nr_to_pfn(mem_blk->start_section_nr)
        pfn_mb_end = pfn_start + memory_block_pfns - 1
        for (pfn = pfn_mb_start; pfn < pfn_mb_end; pfn++):
            if (get_nid_for_pfn(pfn) != nid):
                continue;
            else
                do_register_memory_block_under_node(nid, mem_blk,
                                                        MEMINIT_EARLY);

Here, we derive the start and end PFNs from the node's pg_data, then
determine the memory blocks that may belong to the node.  For each `memory
block` in this range, we inspect all PFNs it contains and check their
associated NUMA node ID.  If a PFN within the block matches the current
node, the memory block is registered under that node.

If CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT is enabled, get_nid_for_pfn() performs
a binary search in the `memblock regions` to determine the NUMA node ID
for a given PFN.  If it is not enabled, the node ID is retrieved directly
from the struct page.

On large systems, this process can become time-consuming, especially since
we iterate over each `memory block` and all PFNs within it until a match
is found.  When CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT is enabled, the
additional overhead of the binary search increases the execution time
significantly, potentially leading to soft lockups during boot.

In this patch, we iterate over `memblock region` to identify the `memory
blocks` that belong to the current NUMA node.  `memblock regions` are
contiguous memory ranges, each associated with a single NUMA node, and
they do not span across multiple nodes.

for_each_memory_region(r): // r => region
  if (!node_online(r->nid)):
    continue;
  else
    for_each_memory_block_between(r->base, r->base + r->size - 1):
      do_register_memory_block_under_node(r->nid, mem_blk, MEMINIT_EARLY);

We iterate over all memblock regions, and if the node associated with the
region is online, we calculate the start and end memory blocks based on
the region's start and end PFNs.  We then register all the memory blocks
within that range under the region node.

Test Results on My system with 32TB RAM
=======================================
1. Boot time with CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT enabled.

Without this patch
------------------
Startup finished in 1min 16.528s (kernel)

With this patch
---------------
Startup finished in 17.236s (kernel) - 78% Improvement

2. Boot time with CONFIG_DEFERRED_STRUCT_PAGE_INIT disabled.

Without this patch
------------------
Startup finished in 28.320s (kernel)

With this patch
---------------
Startup finished in 15.621s (kernel) - 46% Improvement

[donettom@linux.ibm.com: restore removed extra line]
  Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250609140354.467908-1-donettom@linux.ibm.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/2a0a05c2dffc62a742bf1dd030098be4ce99be28.1748452241.git.donettom@linux.ibm.com
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/2a0a05c2dffc62a742bf1dd030098be4ce99be28.1748452241.git.donettom@linux.ibm.com
Signed-off-by: Donet Tom <donettom@linux.ibm.com>
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Oscar Salvador <osalvador@suse.de>
Acked-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) <rppt@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Zi Yan <ziy@nvidia.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/node.h b/include/linux/node.h
index 2b7517892230..485370f3bc17 100644
--- a/include/linux/node.h
+++ b/include/linux/node.h
@@ -120,6 +120,9 @@ static inline void register_memory_blocks_under_node(int nid, unsigned long star
 						     enum meminit_context context)
 {
 }
+static inline void register_memory_blocks_under_nodes(void)
+{
+}
 #endif
 
 extern void unregister_node(struct node *node);