sched: Increment cache_nice_tries only on periodic lb

scheduler uses cache_nice_tries as an indicator to do cache_hot and
active load balance, when normal load balance fails. Currently,
this value is changed on any failed load balance attempt. That ends
up being not so nice to workloads that enter/exit idle often, as
they do more frequent new_idle balance and that pretty soon results
in cache hot tasks being pulled in.

Making the cache_nice_tries ignore failed new_idle balance seems to
make better sense. With that only the failed load balance in
periodic load balance gets accounted and the rate of accumulation
of cache_nice_tries will not depend on idle entry/exit (short
running sleep-wakeup kind of tasks). This reduces movement of
cache_hot tasks.

schedstat diff (after-before) excerpt from a workload that has
frequent and short wakeup-idle pattern (:2 in cpu col below refers
to NEWIDLE idx) This snapshot was across ~400 seconds.

Without this change:
domainstats:  domain0
 cpu     cnt      bln      fld      imb     gain    hgain  nobusyq  nobusyg
 0:2  306487   219575    73167  110069413    44583    19070     1172   218403
 1:2  292139   194853    81421  120893383    50745    21902     1259   193594
 2:2  283166   174607    91359  129699642    54931    23688     1287   173320
 3:2  273998   161788    93991  132757146    57122    24351     1366   160422
 4:2  289851   215692    62190  83398383    36377    13680      851   214841
 5:2  316312   222146    77605  117582154    49948    20281      988   221158
 6:2  297172   195596    83623  122133390    52801    21301      929   194667
 7:2  283391   178078    86378  126622761    55122    22239      928   177150
 8:2  297655   210359    72995  110246694    45798    19777     1125   209234
 9:2  297357   202011    79363  119753474    50953    22088     1089   200922
10:2  278797   178703    83180  122514385    52969    22726     1128   177575
11:2  272661   167669    86978  127342327    55857    24342     1195   166474
12:2  293039   204031    73211  110282059    47285    19651      948   203083
13:2  289502   196762    76803  114712942    49339    20547     1016   195746
14:2  264446   169609    78292  115715605    50459    21017      982   168627
15:2  260968   163660    80142  116811793    51483    21281     1064   162596

With this change:
domainstats:  domain0
 cpu     cnt      bln      fld      imb     gain    hgain  nobusyq  nobusyg
 0:2  272347   187380    77455  105420270    24975        1      953   186427
 1:2  267276   172360    86234  116242264    28087        6     1028   171332
 2:2  259769   156777    93281  123243134    30555        1     1043   155734
 3:2  250870   143129    97627  127370868    32026        6     1188   141941
 4:2  248422   177116    64096  78261112    22202        2      757   176359
 5:2  275595   180683    84950  116075022    29400        6      778   179905
 6:2  262418   162609    88944  119256898    31056        4      817   161792
 7:2  252204   147946    92646  122388300    32879        4      824   147122
 8:2  262335   172239    81631  110477214    26599        4      864   171375
 9:2  261563   164775    88016  117203621    28331        3      849   163926
10:2  243389   140949    93379  121353071    29585        2      909   140040
11:2  242795   134651    98310  124768957    30895        2     1016   133635
12:2  255234   166622    79843  104696912    26483        4      746   165876
13:2  244944   151595    83855  109808099    27787        3      801   150794
14:2  241301   140982    89935  116954383    30403        6      845   140137
15:2  232271   128564    92821  119185207    31207        4     1416   127148

Signed-off-by: Venkatesh Pallipadi <venki@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
LKML-Reference: <1284167957-3675-1-git-send-email-venki@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>

kernel/sched_fair.c

@@ -3031,7 +3031,14 @@ redo:
 
 	if (!ld_moved) {
 		schedstat_inc(sd, lb_failed[idle]);
-		sd->nr_balance_failed++;
+		/*
+		 * Increment the failure counter only on periodic balance.
+		 * We do not want newidle balance, which can be very
+		 * frequent, pollute the failure counter causing
+		 * excessive cache_hot migrations and active balances.
+		 */
+		if (idle != CPU_NEWLY_IDLE)
+			sd->nr_balance_failed++;
 
 		if (need_active_balance(sd, sd_idle, idle, cpu_of(busiest),
 					this_cpu)) {