Principled Performance Tunability in Operating System Kernels

TL;DR

This paper introduces KernelX, a system enabling safe, efficient, and programmable in-situ tuning of performance constants in Linux kernels, leading to improved performance without kernel rebuilds.

Contribution

KernelX provides a novel mechanism called Scoped Indirect Execution for runtime tuning of perf-consts, ensuring safety and flexibility without kernel modifications.

Findings

Enables significant performance improvements in kernel subsystems.

Supports millisecond-scale policy updates.

Ensures side-effect safety during runtime tuning.

Abstract

The Linux kernel source code contains numerous constant values that critically influence system performance. Many of these constants, which we term perf-consts, are magic numbers that encode brittle assumptions about hardware and workloads. As systems and workloads evolve, such constants often become suboptimal. Unfortunately, deployed kernels lack support for safe and efficient in-situ tuning of perf-consts without a long and disruptive process of rebuilding and redeploying the kernel image. This paper advocates principled OS performance tunability. We present KernelX, a system that provides a safe, efficient, and programmable interface for in-situ tuning of arbitrary perf-consts on a running kernel. KernelX transforms any perf-const into a tunable knob on demand using a novel mechanism called Scoped Indirect Execution (SIE). SIE precisely identifies the binary boundaries where a perf-const influences system state and redirects execution to synthesized instructions that update the state as if new values were used. KernelX goes beyond version atomicity to guarantee side-effect safety, a property not provided by existing kernel update mechanisms. KernelX also provides a programmable interface that allows policies to incorporate application hints, hardware heuristics, and fine-grained isolation, without modifying kernel source code or disrupting deployed OS kernels. Case studies across multiple kernel subsystems demonstrate that KernelX enables significant performance improvements by making previously untunable perf-consts safely tunable at runtime, while supporting millisecond-scale policy updates.