linux_dsm_epyc7002/Documentation/x86_64/machinecheck
Tim Hockin 8a336b0a4b [PATCH] x86-64: Dynamically adjust machine check interval
Background:
 We've found that MCEs (specifically DRAM SBEs) tend to come in bunches,
 especially when we are trying really hard to stress the system out.  The
 current MCE poller uses a static interval which does not care whether it
 has or has not found MCEs recently.

Description:
 This patch makes the MCE poller adjust the polling interval dynamically.
 If we find an MCE, poll 2x faster (down to 10 ms).  When we stop finding
 MCEs, poll 2x slower (up to check_interval seconds).  The check_interval
 tunable becomes the max polling interval.  The "Machine check events
 logged" printk() is rate limited to the check_interval, which should be
 identical behavior to the old functionality.

Result:
 If you start to take a lot of correctable errors (not exceptions), you
 log them faster and more accurately (less chance of overflowing the MCA
 registers).  If you don't take a lot of errors, you will see no change.

Alternatives:
 I considered simply reducing the polling interval to 10 ms immediately
 and keeping it there as long as we continue to find errors.  This felt a
 bit heavy handed, but does perform significantly better for the default
 check_interval of 5 minutes (we're using a few seconds when testing for
 DRAM errors).  I could be convinced to go with this, if anyone felt it
 was not too aggressive.

Testing:
 I used an error-injecting DIMM to create lots of correctable DRAM errors
 and verified that the polling interval accelerates.  The printk() only
 happens once per check_interval seconds.

Patch:
 This patch is against 2.6.21-rc7.

Signed-Off-By: Tim Hockin <thockin@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>
2007-05-02 19:27:19 +02:00

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Configurable sysfs parameters for the x86-64 machine check code.
Machine checks report internal hardware error conditions detected
by the CPU. Uncorrected errors typically cause a machine check
(often with panic), corrected ones cause a machine check log entry.
Machine checks are organized in banks (normally associated with
a hardware subsystem) and subevents in a bank. The exact meaning
of the banks and subevent is CPU specific.
mcelog knows how to decode them.
When you see the "Machine check errors logged" message in the system
log then mcelog should run to collect and decode machine check entries
from /dev/mcelog. Normally mcelog should be run regularly from a cronjob.
Each CPU has a directory in /sys/devices/system/machinecheck/machinecheckN
(N = CPU number)
The directory contains some configurable entries:
Entries:
bankNctl
(N bank number)
64bit Hex bitmask enabling/disabling specific subevents for bank N
When a bit in the bitmask is zero then the respective
subevent will not be reported.
By default all events are enabled.
Note that BIOS maintain another mask to disable specific events
per bank. This is not visible here
The following entries appear for each CPU, but they are truly shared
between all CPUs.
check_interval
How often to poll for corrected machine check errors, in seconds
(Note output is hexademical). Default 5 minutes. When the poller
finds MCEs it triggers an exponential speedup (poll more often) on
the polling interval. When the poller stops finding MCEs, it
triggers an exponential backoff (poll less often) on the polling
interval. The check_interval variable is both the initial and
maximum polling interval.
tolerant
Tolerance level. When a machine check exception occurs for a non
corrected machine check the kernel can take different actions.
Since machine check exceptions can happen any time it is sometimes
risky for the kernel to kill a process because it defies
normal kernel locking rules. The tolerance level configures
how hard the kernel tries to recover even at some risk of deadlock.
0: always panic,
1: panic if deadlock possible,
2: try to avoid panic,
3: never panic or exit (for testing only)
Default: 1
Note this only makes a difference if the CPU allows recovery
from a machine check exception. Current x86 CPUs generally do not.
trigger
Program to run when a machine check event is detected.
This is an alternative to running mcelog regularly from cron
and allows to detect events faster.
TBD document entries for AMD threshold interrupt configuration
For more details about the x86 machine check architecture
see the Intel and AMD architecture manuals from their developer websites.
For more details about the architecture see
see http://one.firstfloor.org/~andi/mce.pdf