Manageable input/output (io) for volatile container memory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025265124-A1
Application number	US-202418442557-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 15, 2024
Priority date	Feb 15, 2024
Publication date	Aug 21, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques for a temporary file system with local memory swapping capabilities. An example method includes receiving a mount request comprising a request to mount a temporary file system for a container. The mount request indicates that the temporary file system is to reside in volatile memory of the container and includes one or more local memory-swapping specifications to be applied to the container. The method also includes receiving write operations addressed to the container. The method also includes determining, by a processing device, whether to initiate local memory swapping for the container by comparing memory usage of the container with a threshold memory usage, and in response to determining to initiate local memory swapping, swapping data from the volatile memory of the container to a local swap file specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving a mount request comprising a request to mount a temporary file system for a container, wherein the mount request indicates that the temporary file system is to reside in volatile memory of the container, and wherein the mount request includes one or more local memory-swapping specifications to be applied to the container; receiving write operations addressed to the container; determining, by a processing device, whether to initiate local memory swapping for the container by comparing memory usage of the container with a threshold memory usage; and in response to determining that local memory swapping is initiated, swapping data from the volatile memory of the container to a local swap file specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the container is a member of a container cluster comprising the container and a plurality of additional containers, and wherein additional local memory-swapping specifications are specified for each of the plurality of additional containers individually.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether to initiate local memory swapping for the container is performed by an OS kernel, and wherein the OS kernel is to perform a background cache management process in accordance with a set of global memory-swapping specifications.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more local memory-swapping specifications are specified by an unprivileged user account.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold memory usage is a soft memory limit specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request, and wherein the write operations addressed to the container are allowed while swapping data from the volatile memory of the container to the local swap file.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold memory usage is a hard memory limit specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request, and wherein the write operations addressed to the container are blocked while swapping data from the volatile memory of the container to the local swap file.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the temporary file system is an upper layer of an overlay file system, wherein the overlay file system further includes a lower layer that resides in non-volatile storage and is mounted in a ready-only mode.

8 . A system comprising:
a memory; and a processing device operatively coupled to the memory, the processing device to: receive a mount request comprising a request to mount a temporary file system for a container, wherein the mount request indicates that the temporary file system is to reside in volatile memory of the container, and wherein the mount request includes one or more local memory-swapping specifications to be applied to the container; receive write operations addressed to the container; determine whether to initiate local memory swapping for the container based on a comparison of memory usage of the container with a threshold memory usage; and in response to determining that local memory swapping is initiated, swap data from the volatile memory of the container to a local swap file specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the container is a member of a container cluster comprising the container and a plurality of additional containers, and wherein additional local memory-swapping specifications are specified for each of the plurality of additional containers individually.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the determination to initiate local memory swapping is performed by an OS kernel executing on the processing device, and wherein the OS kernel is configured to perform a background cache management process in accordance with a set of global memory-swapping specifications.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more local memory-swapping specifications are specified by an unprivileged user account.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the threshold memory usage is a soft memory limit specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request, and wherein the write operations addressed to the container are allowed while data is swapped from the volatile memory of the container to the local swap file.

13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the threshold memory usage is a hard memory limit specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request, and wherein the write operations addressed to the container are blocked while data is swapped from the volatile memory of the container to the local swap file.

14 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the temporary file system is an upper layer of an overlay file system, wherein the overlay file system further includes a lower layer that resides in non-volatile storage and is mounted in a ready-only mode.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:
receive a mount request comprising a request to mount a temporary file system for a container, wherein the mount request indicates that the temporary file system is to reside in volatile memory of the container, and wherein the mount request includes one or more local memory-swapping specifications to be applied to the container; receive write operations addressed to the container; determine, by the processing device, whether to initiate local memory swapping for the container based on a comparison of memory usage of the container with a threshold memory usage; and in response to determining that local memory swapping is initiated, swap data from the volatile memory of the container to a local swap file specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the container is a member of a container cluster comprising the container and a plurality of additional containers, and wherein additional local memory-swapping specifications are specified for each of the plurality of additional containers individually.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the determination to initiate local memory swapping is performed by an OS kernel executing on the processing device, and wherein the OS kernel is to perform a background cache management process in accordance with a set of global memory-swapping specifications.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more local memory-swapping specifications are specified by an unprivileged user account.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the threshold memory usage is a soft memory limit specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request, and wherein the write operations addressed to the container are allowed while data is swapped from the volatile memory of the container to the local swap file.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the threshold memory usage is a hard memory limit specified by the one or more local memory-swapping specifications included in the mount request, and wherein the write opera

Assignees

• Red Hat Inc

Inventors

• Scrivano Giuseppe
• Tsirkin Michael

Classifications

• G06F9/5016

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• G06F9/30047

  Prefetch instructions; cache control instructions · CPC title

• G06F16/1774 Primary

  Locking methods, e.g. locking methods for file systems allowing shared and concurrent access to files · CPC title

• G06F9/5011

  the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals · CPC title

• G06F9/5044 Primary

  considering hardware capabilities · CPC title