3.2. cpu

Ceiling Enforcement Tunable Parameters

cpu.cfs_period_us

specifies a period of time in microseconds (µs, represented here as "us") for how regularly a cgroup's access to CPU resources should be reallocated. If tasks in a cgroup should be able to access a single CPU for 0.2 seconds out of every 1 second, set cpu.cfs_quota_us to 200000 and cpu.cfs_period_us to 1000000. The upper limit of the cpu.cfs_quota_us parameter is 1 second and the lower limit is 1000 microseconds.

cpu.cfs_quota_us

specifies the total amount of time in microseconds (µs, represented here as "us") for which all tasks in a cgroup can run during one period (as defined by cpu.cfs_period_us). As soon as tasks in a cgroup use up all the time specified by the quota, they are throttled for the remainder of the time specified by the period and not allowed to run until the next period. If tasks in a cgroup should be able to access a single CPU for 0.2 seconds out of every 1 second, set cpu.cfs_quota_us to 200000 and cpu.cfs_period_us to 1000000. Note that the quota and period parameters operate on a CPU basis. To allow a process to fully utilize two CPUs, for example, set cpu.cfs_quota_us to 200000 and cpu.cfs_period_us to 100000.

Setting the value in cpu.cfs_quota_us to -1 indicates that the cgroup does not adhere to any CPU time restrictions. This is also the default value for every cgroup (except the root cgroup).

cpu.stat

reports CPU time statistics using the following values:

• nr_periods — number of period intervals (as specified in cpu.cfs_period_us) that have elapsed.
• nr_throttled — number of times tasks in a cgroup have been throttled (that is, not allowed to run because they have exhausted all of the available time as specified by their quota).
• throttled_time — the total time duration (in nanoseconds) for which tasks in a cgroup have been throttled.

Relative Shares Tunable Parameters

cpu.shares

contains an integer value that specifies a relative share of CPU time available to the tasks in a cgroup. For example, tasks in two cgroups that have cpu.shares set to 100 will receive equal CPU time, but tasks in a cgroup that has cpu.shares set to 200 receive twice the CPU time of tasks in a cgroup where cpu.shares is set to 100. The value specified in the cpu.shares file must be 2 or higher.

Note that shares of CPU time are distributed per all CPU cores on multi-core systems. Even if a cgroup is limited to less than 100% of CPU on a multi-core system, it may use 100% of each individual CPU core. Consider the following example: if cgroup A is configured to use 25% and cgroup B 75% of the CPU, starting four CPU-intensive processes (one in A and three in B) on a system with four cores results in the following division of CPU shares:

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Table 3.1. CPU share division

PID	cgroup	CPU	CPU share
100	A	0	100% of CPU0
101	B	1	100% of CPU1
102	B	2	100% of CPU2
103	B	3	100% of CPU3

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Using relative shares to specify CPU access has two implications on resource management that should be considered:

• Because the CFS does not demand equal usage of CPU, it is hard to predict how much CPU time a cgroup will be allowed to utilize. When tasks in one cgroup are idle and are not using any CPU time, the leftover time is collected in a global pool of unused CPU cycles. Other cgroups are allowed to borrow CPU cycles from this pool.
• The actual amount of CPU time that is available to a cgroup can vary depending on the number of cgroups that exist on the system. If a cgroup has a relative share of 1000 and two other cgroups have a relative share of 500, the first cgroup receives 50% of all CPU time in cases when processes in all cgroups attempt to use 100% of the CPU. However, if another cgroup is added with a relative share of 1000, the first cgroup is only allowed 33% of the CPU (the rest of the cgroups receive 16.5%, 16.5%, and 33% of CPU).