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Updated: 15 Feb. 2008
VMRM Cooperative Memory Management (VMRM-CMM) between a z/VM system
and Linux guests assists in managing memory constraint in the system.
Based on several variables obtained from the system and storage domain CP
monitor data, the Virtual Machine Resource Manager (VMRM) detects when
there is such constraint, and notifies specific Linux virtual guests when
this occurs. The guests can then take the appropriate action to adjust
their memory utilization in order to relieve this constraint on the
system
A user-supplied VMRM configuration file is used to identify which
guests should be notified. These guests must be prepared to handle the
data being sent in the notification and take appropriate actions, such as
issuing a CP Diagnose instruction to release pages of storage.
In addition to the workload management functions for CPU and DASD
I/O provided by VMRM, the following enhancements have been made to the
Virtual Machine Resource Manager for Linux guests:
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A new NOTIFY statement with a MEMORY keyword is supported in the Virtual
Machine Resource Manager configuration file. Following the keyword is a user
ID or a list of user IDs to be notified when virtual memory becomes
constrained. (For the format of this statement, see "External overview:
configuration file NOTIFY statement.")
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System and storage domains are monitored for data to be used for calculating
memory constraint, as well as how much memory to request the guest machine to
release
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The Virtual Machine Resource Manager issues a CP SMSG to notify the
specified guests when memory is constrained and the amount required to
release in order to relieve the constraint. (For the format of the
SMSG buffer, see "Format of the CP SMSG command buffer.")
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A message is logged in the VMRM logfile, indicating which users were
sent an SMSG, and the text of the SMSG buffer. Also, if MSGUSER is
specified on the VMRM ADMIN statement, the same message written to the
log is written to the
MSGUSER user ID's console as well.
External overview: configuration file NOTIFY statement
The NOTIFY statement with a MEMORY keyword is used to list the Linux
guest image names to be notified when memory constraint is detected by the resource
manager.
The new statement has the following format:
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NOTIFY MEMORY user1 [user2... userx]
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Where:
| NOTIFY |
is the type of statement. |
| MEMORY |
is the system object being managed. |
| user1... userx |
is a user ID or list of user IDs to be notified via SMSG.
The list is separated by blanks, and may contain a wildcard "*"
character at the end, such as "linux*".
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Note: The NOTIFY statement can be the only statement in a
configuration file, or it may be specified in addition to
other VMRM configuration statements, such as WORKLOAD, GOAL,
MANAGE, and ADMIN statements.
For a detailed description of these statements, see
Chapter 17 of the
z/VM: Performance
publication.
Starting and stopping the VMRM server
To start the VMRM server, specify the exec name, IRMSERV, with a configuration
file name. For example: IRMSERV MYCONFIG FILE A. To stop the server, log
onto the VMRMSVM user ID and issue the HMONITOR command. This allows VMRM
termination and end-of-command procedures to occur.
Monitoring system domains
In addition to the monitor records being used for CPU and DASD velocity
goals, VMRM enables and monitors some system domain records. There are
two types of problems to solve using this data: 1) determining when
there is memory constraint, and 2) when memory is constrained,
calculating how much memory to notify the guest to release.
Once system memory constraint has been detected, VMRM calculates how much
memory each Linux guest should release to relieve the constraint. Using
the SHRINK keyword on the SMSG command, a message indicating the amount
of storage
to release is sent to each logged on Linux guest in the notify list.
When system memory is no longer constrained, another SHRINK message
with a smaller absolute value is issued. A smaller SHRINK request than
the previous one effectively instructs the guest to reclaim some of the
storage previously released.
Format of the CP SMSG command buffer
The CP SMSG buffer being sent to the guest has the following general
format:
Where:
| userid |
is a user ID from the NOTIFY MEMORY list |
| buffer |
has the form CMM SHRINK value |
| |
Where:
| CMM |
indicates VMRM Cooperative Memory Management |
| SHRINK |
is a keyword indicating that pages are to be released or reclaimed. |
| value |
is the number of pages in decimal to release (through Diagnose X'10').
If the absolute value is smaller than the previous SHRINK value,
the guest can reclaim some of the memory previously released.
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Performance recommendations
The use of VMRM Cooperative Memory Management can significantly improve overall
system performance in cases where the overall z/VM system is constrained for
real storage and much of that storage is being held by one or more Linux
guests. However, use of VMRM-CMM can sometimes reduce the performance of one
or more of the participating Linux guests.
Accordingly, we recommend that the
performance of the Linux guests be monitored before and after the use of
VMRM-CMM is introduced, allowing you to determine whether any
performance-critical guests are being adversely affected and, if so, to remove
them from the NOTIFY list. For a Linux guest excluded from VMRM-CMM, the best
way to constrain the storage usage is to reduce its virtual storage size as
much as is practical.
How to obtain this VMRM CMM support
z/VM V5.2 has the base VMRM CMM support. An additional CMS APAR
is required, VM64085, for full functionality. This APAR
is available as of August 31, 2006.
Linux support
The relevant source code with Linux on System z support, also referred
to as CMM1, for Cooperative Memory Management is available from
developerworks as:
Linux on System z support for CMM1 is available in:
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Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (SLES9) SP3 since kernel level:
kernel-s390(x)-2.6.5-7.257 dated 2006-05-16
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Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES10) since GA
IBM is working with its Linux distribution partners that this function
will be provided in future Linux on System z distribution releases or
service updates.
For relevant documentation on Linux on System z refer to the
chapter "Cooperative memory management"
in the latest Device Drivers, Features, and Commands manual
Recommended Patches
Out of Memory Notifier (for Levels prior to SLES10 SP1)
Return to the
z/VM Resource Manager page.
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