Linux Scheduling Algorithm

-Ashish Singh

Introduction
History and Background Linux Scheduling Modification in Linux Scheduling Results Conclusion References Questions

History and Background

In 1991 Linus Torvalds took a college computer science course that used the Minix operating system Minix is a toy UNIX-like OS written by Andrew Tanenbaum as a learning workbench Linus went in his own direction and began working on Linux In October 1991 he announced Linux v0.02 In March 1994 he released Linux v1.0

Scheduling in Linux
Time Sharing System-magical effect by switching from one process to the other in short time frame. Question when to switch and what process?

Linux Approach
Process run concurrently CPU time divided into slices, one for each process. If current process is not terminated when its time quantum expires switch process.

Linux Approach

General Systems algorithms to derive priority of process, end result process assigned a value Linux process priority is dynamic. Scheduler increases/decreases the priority.

Process Scheduling

Linux uses two process-scheduling algorithms: A time-sharing algorithm for fair preemptive scheduling between multiple processes A real-time algorithm for tasks where absolute priorities are more important than fairness A processs scheduling class defines which algorithm to apply For time-sharing processes, Linux uses a prioritized, credit based algorithm The crediting rule
credits := credits + priority 2

factors in both the processs history and its priority

Process Scheduling

Linux implements the FIFO and round-robin real-time scheduling classes; in both cases, each process has a priority in addition to its scheduling class

The scheduler runs the process with the highest priority; for equalpriority processes, it runs the process waiting the longest FIFO processes continue to run until they either exit or block

Priorities: Linux 2.4 Scheduling

Static priority The maximum size of the time slice a process should be allowed before being forced to allow other processes to compete for the CPU. Dynamic priority The amount of time remaining in this time slice; declines with time as long as the process has the CPU. When its dynamic priority falls to 0, the process is marked for rescheduling. Real-time priority Only real-time processes have the real-time priority. Higher real-time values always beat lower values

Linux Scheduling

Process Selection most deserving process is selected by the scheduler

real time processes are given higher priority than ordinary processes when several processes have the same priority, the one nearest the front of the run queue is chosen when a new process is created the number of ticks left to the parent is split in two halves, one for the parent and one for the child priority and counter fields are used both to implement time-sharing and to compute the process dynamic priority

Linux Scheduling

Actions performed by schedule( ) Before actually scheduling a process, the schedule( ) function starts by running the functions left by other kernel control paths in various queues The function then executes all active unmasked bottom halves Scheduling value of current is saved in the prev local variable and the need_resched field of prev is set to 0 a check is made to determine whether prev is a Round Robin real-time process. If so, schedule( ) assigns a new quantum to prev and puts it at the bottom of the runqueue list if state is TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE, the function wakes up the process schedule( ) repeatedly invokes the goodness( ) function on the runnable processes to determine the best candidate when counter field becomes zero, schedule( ) assigns to all existing processes a fresh quantum, whose duration is the sum of the priority value plus half the counter value

Goodness Function in Scheduling Algorithm

goodness( ) function

identify the best candidate among all processes in the runqueue list. It receives as input parameters prev (the descriptor pointer of the previously running process) and p (the descriptor pointer of the process to evaluate) The integer value c returned by goodness( ) measures the "goodness" of p and has the following meanings:

c = -1000 , p must never be selected; this value is returned when the runqueue list contains only init_task c =0 , p has exhausted its quantum. Unless p is the first process in the runqueue list and all runnable processes have also exhausted their quantum, it will not be selected for execution. 0 < c < 1000 , p is a conventional process that has not exhausted its quantum; a higher value of c denotes a higher level of goodness. c >= 1000, p is a real-time process; a higher value of c denotes a higher level of goodness.

Selecting the next Process

Two Level Implementation

The first level scheduler selects a set of processes, a batch, to be scheduled for a specified amount of time. Rather than selecting a constant number of processes for each batch, the processes selected are based on the system load to avoid any subsystem (PE or I/O) to be idle. The first level scheduler keeps processes in two lists: a ready queue and an expired queue. These queues are used to guarantee fairness. All new processes are placed on the ready queue and processes to be scheduled are selected from this queue. When a process has been scheduled for a defined period of time, Crq, the process is removed from the run queue, in the second level scheduler, and placed on the expired queue.

Two Level Implementation

When the ready queue becomes empty, all processes from the expired queue are moved to the ready queue. This is repeated indefinitely. While processes are executed, the system keeps track of time spent in the running state and blocked state for each process.

UPE += Trunning(p)/Tblocked(p) and UIO += 1 (Trunning(p)/Tblocked(p))

Linux Vs Two Level

340.0 330.0 320.0 310.0 300.0 290.0 280.0 270.0 260.0 250.0 240.0 230.0 220.0 210.0 200.0 190.0 180.0 170.0 160.0 150.0 140.0 130.0 120.0 110.0 100.0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

compile time(s)

processes Linux Two Level

Limitations

It has not been possible to improve the Linux scheduler through modifications like this, while maintaining all of the advantages in the existing Linux scheduler. It is hypothesized that if knowledge of the type of jobs which would be executed on the system exists, this could be used to compile-time select the scheduler, which is the most efficient for the specific job-mix and usage.

Advantages

Linux scheduler: Suitable for standard workstation use where few processes is in the running or ready state at a time, as this proves very good response times. Two-level Scheduler: Suitable for systems in where a very high load can exist, and resources are scarce compared to the load of the system.

Conclusion

Two-level scheduling is implemented by suspending a set of processes for longer periods of time. While the load is low, this algorithm performs exactly as the Linux scheduler though a slightly administrative overhead is introduced in the first-level scheduling. Hypothesized that if used it reduces thrashing.

References

[1] Silberschatz, A., P.B. Galvin, and G. Gagne, "Chapter 6 CPU Scheduling, Operating System Concepts, Sixth Ed.," John Wiley & Son, 2003. [2] Daniel P. Bovet & Marco Cesati, "Chapter 10, Processing Scheduling, Understanding the Linux Kernel," 2000. [3] Sivarama P. Dandamudi and Samir Ayachi. Performance of hierarchical processor scheduling in shared-memory multiprocessor systems". IEEE Transactions on Computers, 48(11):12021213, 1999. DA99 [4] S. Haldar and D. K. Subramanian. Fairness in processor scheduling in time sharing systems. Operating Systems Review, Vol 25. Issue 1.:418, 1991. HS91 [5] http://www.answers.com/Two-level%20scheduling [6] http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.18.tar.gz [7]John O'Gorman, Chapter 7, Scheduling, The Linux Process Manager, 2003.