Dynamic cache partitioning based on hot page migration

Abstract

Static cache partitioning can reduce interapplication cache interference and improve the composite performance of a cache-polluted application and a cachesensitive application when they run on cores that share the last level cache in the same multi-core processor. In a virtualized system, since different applications might run on different virtual machines (VMs) in different time, it is inapplicable to partition the cache statically in advance. This paper proposes a dynamic cache partitioning scheme that makes use of hot page detection and page migration to improve the composite performance of co-hosted virtual machines dynamically according to prior knowledge of cache-sensitive applications. Experimental results show that the overhead of our page migration scheme is low, while in most cases, the composite performance is an improvement over free composition.

Keywords

cache partitioning / hot page migration / dynamic cache partitioning / virtualization / virtual machine monitor

References

[1] Jin X, Chen H, Wang X, . A simple cache partitioning approach in a virtualized environment. In: Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications. 2009, 519-524

[2] Bershad B, Lee D, Romer T, . Avoiding conflict misses dynamically in large direct-mapped caches. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems. 1994, 158-170

[3] Bugnion E, Anderson J, Mowry T, . Compiler-directed page coloring for multiprocessors. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems. 1996, 244-255

[4] Sherwood T, Calder B, Emer J. Reducing cache misses using hardware and software page placement. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Supercomputing. 1999, 155-164

[5] Calder B, Krintz C, John S, . Cache-conscious data placement. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems. 1998, 139-149

[6] Rafique N, Lim W, Thottethodi M. Architectural support for operating system-driven CMP cache management. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques. 2006, 2-12

[7] Barham P, Dragovic B, Fraser K, . Xen and the art of virtualization. In: Proceedings of the 19th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. 2003, 164-177

[8] Jaleel A, Hasenplaugh W, Qureshi M, . Adaptive insertion policies for managing shared caches. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques. 2008, 208-219

[9] Kivity A, Kamay Y, Laor D, . Kvm: the linux virtual machine monitor. In: Proceedings of the Linux Symposium. 2007, 225-230

[10] Riel R. Page replacement in linux 2.4 memory management. In: Proceedings of the 2001 USENIX Annual Technical Conference - FREENIX Track. 2001, 165-172

[11] Chen H, Wang X, Wang Z, . DMM: a dynamic memory mapping model for virtual machines. Science China Information Sciences, 2010, 53(5): 1097-1108

[12] Molka D, Hackenberg D, Schone R, . Memory performance and cache coherency effects on an Intel Nehalem multiprocessor system. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques. 2009, 261-270

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg