6/6: numtasks_docs
Documents what the numtasks controller does and how to use it.
--
Signed-Off-By: Chandra Seetharaman <[email protected]>
Signed-Off-By: Matt Helsley <[email protected]>
numtasks | 133 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 133 insertions(+)
Index: linux-2617-rc3/Documentation/res_groups/numtasks
===================================================================
--- /dev/null 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000
+++ linux-2617-rc3/Documentation/res_groups/numtasks 2006-04-27 10:14:30.000000000 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+Introduction
+-------------
+
+Numtasks is a resource controller under the Resource Groups framework that
+allows the user/sysadmin to
+ - manage the number of tasks a resource group can create.
+ - limit the fork rate across the system.
+
+As with any other resource under the Resource Groups framework, numtasks also
+assigns all the resources to the default resource group(/config/res_groups).
+Since, the number of tasks in a system is not limited, this resource controller
+provides a way to set the total number of tasks available in the system through
+the config file. The config variable that affect this is total_numtasks.
+
+This resource controller also allows the sysadmin to limit the number of forks
+that are allowed in the system within the specified number of seconds. This
+can be acheived by changing the attributes forkrate and forkrate_interval in
+the config file. Using this feature one can protect the system from being
+attacked by fork bomb type applications.
+
+Configuration parameters of numtasks controller (forkrate, total_numtasks
+and forkrate_interval) can be read/changed through the modparam interface
+/sys/module/numtasks/parameters/
+
+Installation
+-------------
+
+1. Configure "Number of Tasks Resource Manager" under Resource Groups (see
+ Documentation/res_groups/installation).
+
+2. Reboot the system with the new kernel.
+
+3. Verify the controller's presence by reading the file
+ /config/res_groups/shares (should show a line with res=numtasks)
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+For brevity, unless otherwise specified all the following commands are
+executed in the default resource group(/config/res_groups).
+
+As explained above, files in /sys/module/numtasks/parameters/
+shows total_numtasks and forkrate info.
+
+ # cd /sys/module/numtasks/parameters/
+ # ls
+ . .. forkrate forkrate_interval total_numtasks
+ # cat total_numtasks
+ 2147483647
+ # value is INT_MAX which means unlimited
+ # cat forkrate
+ 2147483647
+ # value is INT_MAX which means unlimited
+ # cat forkrate_interval
+ 1
+ # forkrate forks are allowed per 1 sec
+
+By default, the total_numtasks is set to "unlimited", forkrate is set
+to "unlimited" and forkrate_interval is set to 1 second. Which means the
+total number of tasks in a system is unlimited and the forks per second is
+also unlimited.
+
+sysadmin can change these values by just writing the attribute/value pair
+to the config file.
+
+ # echo 10000 > forkrate
+ # cat forkrate
+ 10000
+ # echo 100001 > total_numtasks
+ # cat total_numtasks
+ 100001
+
+By making child_shares_divisor to be same as total_numtasks, sysadmin can
+make the numbers in shares file be same as the number of tasks for a
+resource group.
+In other words, the numbers in shares file will be the absolute number of
+tasks a resource group is allowed.
+
+ # cd /config/res_groups
+ # cat shares
+ res=numtasks,min_shares=-3,max_shares=-3,child_shares_divisor=100
+ # echo res=numtasks,child_shares_divisor=1000 > shares
+ # cat shares
+ res=numtasks,min_shares=-3,max_shares=-3,child_shares_divisor=1000
+
+Class creation
+--------------
+
+ # mkdir c1
+
+Its initial share is don't care. The parent's share values will be unchanged.
+
+Setting a new resource group share
+-------------------------
+
+'min_shares' specifies the number of tasks this resource group is entitled
+to get
+'max_shares' is the maximum number of tasks this resource group can get.
+
+Following command will set the min_shares of resource group c1 to be 250
+and max_shares to be 500
+
+ # echo 'res=numtasks,min_shares=250,max_shares=500' > c1/shares
+ # cat c1/shares
+ res=numtasks,min_shares=250,max_shares=500,child_shares_divisor=100
+
+Note that the min_shares of 250 and max_shares of 500 is w.r.t the
+paren't's 1000 above, and not the absolute numbers.
+
+Limiting forks in a time period
+-------------------------------
+By default, this resource controller allows unlimited forks per second.
+
+Following commands would change it to allow only 100 forks per 10 seconds
+
+ # cd /sys/module/numtasks/parameters
+ # cat 100 > forkrate
+ # cat 10 > forkrate_interval
+
+Note that the same set of values is used across the system. In other words,
+each individual resource group will be allowed 'forkrate' forks in
+'forkrate_interval' seconds.
+
+Monitoring
+----------
+
+stats file shows statistics of the number of tasks usage of a resource
+group
+ # cd /config/res_groups
+ # cat stats
+ numtasks: Number of successes 12554
+ numtasks: Number of failures 0
+ numtasks: Number of forkrate failures 0
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chandra Seetharaman | Be careful what you choose....
- [email protected] | .......you may get it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
[Index of Archives]
[Kernel Newbies]
[Netfilter]
[Bugtraq]
[Photo]
[Stuff]
[Gimp]
[Yosemite News]
[MIPS Linux]
[ARM Linux]
[Linux Security]
[Linux RAID]
[Video 4 Linux]
[Linux for the blind]
[Linux Resources]
