NUMA configuration

Introduction to NUMA architecture

Servers with NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) architecture require special installation instructions in order to maximize IO Accelerator device performance. These servers include the HP DL580 and the HP DL980 server.

On servers with NUMA architecture, during system boot, the BIOS on some systems will not distribute PCIe slots evenly among the NUMA nodes. Each NUMA node contains multiple CPUs. This imbalanced distribution means that, during high workloads, half or more of the CPUs will remain idle while the rest are 100% utilized. To prevent this imbalance, you must manually assign IO Accelerator devices equally among the available NUMA nodes.

Configuring the IO Accelerator devices for servers FIO_AFFINTIY parameter with the fio-config

with NUMA architecture requires the use of the utility.

FIO_AFFINITY parameter

The FIO_AFFINITY parameter is a list of <affinity specification> triplets that specify the affinity settings of all adapters in the system. Each item in the triplet is separated by a comma, and each triplet set is separated by a semicolon.

Syntax

fio-config -p FIO_AFFINITY <affinity specification>[;<affinity specification>...]

Where each <affinity specification> has the following syntax:

<fct number>,[gn]<group or node number>[,<hex mask>]

If there is no g or n character before the group or node number, then the number is assumed to be a group number.

The hex mask is optional. If it is not present, the mask is assumed to be 0xffffffffffffffff. Also, the 0x prefix is optional.

If the hex mask is a node mask, then the mask is relative to the node, not the group to which the node belongs.

Simple example

fio-config -p FIO_AFFINITY 4,n1,0xf;5,n0;7,g1;9,g2,0xff0

This command creates the following:

Device

Node/Group

Processor Affinity

 

 

 

fct4

node 1

Processors 0 to 3 in the node (mask 0xf)

fct5

node 0

All processors in the node (no hex mask)

fct7

group 1

All processors in the group (no hex mask)

fct9

group 2

Processors 4 to 11 in the group (mask 0xff0)

NUMA configuration 67