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<center><h1>SlabInfo</h1></center>
<p>
<h3>Introduction</h3>
In version 2.6.22 of the Linux kernel, the slab allocator has
been replaced by a new one called SLUB, <i>the Unqueued Slab Allocator</i>,
and more importantly from collect's perspective,
the way slab statistics are reported has changed as well.
Rather than reporting all slab data in the single file <i>/proc/slabino</i>,
there is now one subdirectory for each slab under <i>/sys/slab</i>.
But before getting into all that here's a quick review of how slabs are
organized by referring to the following diagram:
<p>
<img src=slub.jpg>
<p>
As you can see, for a given slab name there are multiple slabs and each slab
consists of multiple objects. When a process requests an allocation of slab
memory it is provided as an object from a slab if there is one available. If
there are none, a new slab is allocated and the object provided from it.
Furthermore, <i>slub</i> allows slabs of different names
but whose objects are the same sizes to share the same slab as you can see below
for the slab with the very ugly name of <i>:0001024</i>, which in this case is a
slab which contains 1K objects. These additional
entries are called <i>aliases</i> for obvious reasons:
<p>
<pre>
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Dec 27 07:48 /sys/slab/:0001024
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Dec 27 07:48 /sys/slab/biovec-64 -> ../slab/:0001024
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Dec 27 07:48 /sys/slab/kmalloc-1024 -> ../slab/:0001024
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Dec 27 07:48 /sys/slab/sgpool-32 -> ../slab/:0001024
</pre>
<p>
Good news! The slab memory field reported in /proc/meminfo finally matches the total
memory reported the individual slabs and so the need for collectl's slab summary
usage for all slabs has been reduced. However, when selecting a subset of
slabs by filter(s), the summary will show the totals for the selected slabs
and will therefore be more useful. More on this in the examples below.
<p>
The main pieces of information collectl reports on for each named slab are the number of
slabs that have been allocated, the corresponding number of objects and the number
of objects that have actully been allocated to processes. Collectl reports the total
memory associated with the slabs as well as the amount of slab memory actually
being used by processes. It also reports some constants such as the number
of objects/slab and the physical sizes of both objects and slabs.
<center><h3>Examples</h3></center>
<p>
The following examples show several different output formats and the commands
used to produce them. One should note there is similar output for the old style
slab data but. It should also be noted that an interval of 1 second
has been chosen in each case and one should always consult the help
and/or man pages for more detail as there are many other formatting options.
Perhaps the easiest way to get started it to just type the command
<i>collectl -i:1 -sY</i> and later add some additional switches to see their impact.
For those new to collectl, you should also realize that collectl can run as a
daemon logging all this in the background for later playback and that all the
different subsystems it supports can be include by simply adding them to -sY.
<p>
<h3>Summary</h3>
This is the verbose, time-stamped slab summary output for
only those slabs beginning with 'blk' or 'ext3'
<div class=terminal>
<pre>
collectl -i:1 -sy --slabfilt blk,ext --verbose -oT
# SLAB SUMMARY
# <---Objects---><-Slabs-><-----memory----->
# In Use Avail Number Used TotalK
13:21:10 120625 124233 30701 113894K 122832K
13:21:11 120625 124233 30701 113894K 122832K
13:21:12 120625 124233 30701 113894K 122832K
</pre>
</div>
<h3>Standard Detail</h3>
Here's the same report, only now we're looking at details and tossing in msec
timestamps
<div class=terminal-wide13>
<pre>
collectl -i:1 -sY --slabfilt blk,ext -oTm
waiting for 1 second sample...# SLAB DETAIL
# <----------- objects --------><--- slabs ---><---------allocated memory-------->
# Slab Name Size /slab In Use Avail SizeK Number UsedK TotalK Change Pct
09:30:56.004 blkdev_ioc 64 64 1183 1472 4 23 73 92 0 0.0
09:30:56.004 blkdev_queue 1608 5 29 30 8 6 45 48 0 0.0
09:30:56.004 blkdev_requests 288 14 32 56 4 4 9 16 0 0.0
09:30:56.004 ext2_inode_cache 928 4 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0.0
09:30:56.004 ext3_inode_cache 976 4 36916 36916 4 9229 35185 36916 0 0.0
09:30:56.004 ext3_xattr 88 46 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0.0
</pre>
</div>
<h3>Standard detail, changes only</h3>
Here we see the same output again only this time we're simultaneously
writing a large file and choosing to report on only those slabs which
have changed between monitoring intervals. To make the output a little
more interesting we've added filtering on 'dentry' as well:
<div class=terminal-wide13>
<pre>
collectl -i:1 -sY --slabfilt blk,ext,dentry --slabopts S -oT
# SLAB DETAIL
# SLAB DETAIL
# <----------- objects --------><--- slabs ---><---------allocated memory-------->
# Slab Name Size /slab In Use Avail SizeK Number UsedK TotalK Change Pct
09:33:49 blkdev_ioc 64 64 1193 1472 4 23 74 92 0 0.0
09:33:49 blkdev_queue 1608 5 29 30 8 6 45 48 0 0.0
09:33:49 blkdev_requests 288 14 51 70 4 5 14 20 0 0.0
09:33:49 dentry 224 18 42000 42048 4 2336 9187 9344 0 0.0
09:33:49 ext3_inode_cache 976 4 36916 36916 4 9229 35185 36916 0 0.0
09:33:51 blkdev_requests 288 14 40 70 4 5 11 20 0 0.0
09:33:51 dentry 224 18 42006 42048 4 2336 9188 9344 0 0.0
09:34:00 dentry 224 18 42000 42030 4 2335 9187 9340 -4096 -0.0
09:34:01 blkdev_ioc 64 64 1191 1472 4 23 74 92 0 0.0
09:34:01 blkdev_requests 288 14 37 70 4 5 10 20 0 0.0
09:34:01 dentry 224 18 42008 42030 4 2335 9189 9340 0 0.0
</pre>
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<h3>--top format</h3>
Version 3.1.1 of collectl introduces a new format for slab data as specified by <i>--top</i> and produces
output in a format similar to the <i>slabtop</i> command, but adds two new fields <i>TotChg</i> and
<i>TotPct</i>, which allow one to see and sort on the change to the actual physical memory allocation.
These two new fields allow one to see which slabs are changing the most and/or having the most impact on
physical memory because sometimes a small percentage change to a very large slab can make a big difference
in memory while a large percentage change to a small slab may not and hence to 2 additional sorting alternatives.
<p>
As with process data, the argument of the switch
describes how to sort the data and an optional line count. In the case of slabs the sort name matches the
column headers making them easy to identify and if you forget how to get started, just run collectl with
<i>--showtopopts</i>. Naturally filtering can be applied as well and the following shows the output when
used with a couple of filters.
<div class=terminal-wide13>
<pre>
collectl --top numobj --slabfilt nfs,tcp
# TOP SLABS 15:56:41
#NumObj ActObj ObjSize NumSlab Obj/Slab TotSize TotChg TotPct Name
336 336 32 3 112 12K 0 0.0 tcp_bind_bucket
330 330 128 11 30 44K 0 0.0 nfs_page
270 144 128 6 30 36K 0 0.0 tcp_open_request
130 130 384 13 10 52K 0 0.0 nfs_write_data
130 68 384 8 10 52K 0 0.0 nfs_read_data
60 60 128 2 30 8192 0 0.0 tcp_tw_bucket
</pre></div>
<h3>Slab Analysis</h3>
Similar to process data analysis, the <i>--slabanalyze</i> switch will cause the slab data to be analyzed and
summaried in its own file with the <i>.slbs</i>, written into the directory pointed to by -f. The focus of
that analysis is currently on how much memory is actually consumed by each slab, the contents of that file
making it possible to determine which slabs may have had the greatest impact on memory utilization. Slabs which
do not allocate any memory will not be included. The following is an example report:
<div class=terminal-wide13>
<pre>
anon_vma 548864 548864 548864 548864 0 0.00
arp_cache 4096 4096 4096 8192 4096 100.00
avc_node 4096 4096 4096 4096 0 0.00
bdev_cache 45056 45056 45056 45056 0 0.00
bio 65536 114688 53248 1662976 1609728 3023.08
biovec-1 24576 28672 12288 348160 335872 2733.33
biovec-128 4096 12288 4096 24576 20480 500.00
biovec-16 12288 24576 4096 102400 98304 2400.00
</pre></div>
This report shows the starting/ending values of memory utilization for each slab as well as the minimum
and maximum values over the course of the day. The final two, and perhaps the most interesting
columns, show the difference in memory usage over the course of the day as well as the percentage
change over the low value.
<p>
As with the process analysis report, you can control the timeframe of the report using <i>--from/--thru</i>
and unless you explicitly specify one or more subsystems no other data will be reported. On the other hand if you
do specify -s, you will get the additional data reported in the standard way in plot-formatted files.
<h3>Slabs and the <i>rawp</i> file</h3>
As of collectl V3.3.5, it is now possible to request slab data as well as process data be logged to a
separate file as specified by the -G and --group switches. To read more about the mechanics of this
see <a href=Logging.html>Logging</a> and in particular the section on <i>Grouping data into 2 files</i>.
<p>
If you have indeed chosen to use this mechansim there are a few things that have changed in collectl's behavior:
<ul>
<li>If you play back the pair of files as a set the right things will happen. Collectl will play back the non-slab
containing file as if slab data was never requested, defaulting to brief format unless something was requested
that explicitly forces verbose format, and then play back the other file as if only slab (and possibly
process) data had been requested. In any event, the output will not be interleaved as each file is played
back independent of the other.</li>
<li>If you explicitly play back the file with the slab data and specify subsystems other than slabs or
processes, they will be ignored in the output. If you play back the file without the
slab or process data and specify slab or process detail, they will also be ignored.
</ul>
If you <i>do not</i> use -G and write slab data to the same file, -sy will automatically put you in
verbose mode as brief slab data is no longer reported. If you want to see brief slab usage, use -sm.
<table width=100%><tr><td align=right><i>updated June 7, 2009</i></td></tr></colgroup></table>
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