Doris uses Jemalloc as the general memory allocator by default. The memory occupied by Jemalloc itself includes Cache and Metadata. Cache includes Thread Cache and Dirty Page. You can view the original profile of the memory allocator in real time at http://{be\_host}:{be\_web\_server\_port}/memz.

Jemalloc Cache Memory Analysis

If you see a large value of Label=tc/jemalloc_cache, Type=overview Memory Trakcer, it means that Jemalloc or TCMalloc Cache uses a lot of memory. Doris uses Jemalloc as the default Allocator, so here we only analyze the situation where Jemalloc Cache uses a lot of memory.

  1. MemTrackerLimiter Label=tc/jemalloc_cache, Type=overview, Limit=-1.00 B(-1 B), Used=410.44 MB(430376896 B), Peak=-1.00 B(-1 B)

Before Doris 2.1.6, Label=tc/jemalloc_cache also includes Jemalloc Metadata, and it is likely that the large memory usage of Jemalloc Metadata causes Label=tc/jemalloc_cache to be too large. Refer to the analysis of Label=tc/jemalloc_metadata Memory Tracker.

During the running of the BE process, Jemalloc Cache consists of two parts.

  • Thread Cache, cache a specified number of Pages in Thread Cache, refer to Jemalloc opt.tcache.

  • Dirty Page, all memory Pages that can be reused in Arena.

Jemalloc Cache View Method

View Doris BE’s Web page http://{be_host}:{be_web_server_port}/memz (webserver_port defaults to 8040) to obtain Jemalloc Profile, and interpret the use of Jemalloc Cache based on several sets of key information.

  • tcache_bytes in Jemalloc Profile is the total number of bytes of Jemalloc Thread Cache. If the tcache_bytes value is large, it means that the memory used by Jemalloc Thread Cache is too large.

  • The sum of the values ​​of the dirty column in the extents table in the Jemalloc Profile is large, indicating that the memory used by the Jemalloc Dirty Page is too large.

Thread Cache Memory is Too Large

It may be that the Thread Cache caches a large number of large pages, because the upper limit of the Thread Cache is the number of pages, not the total number of bytes of the pages.

Consider reducing lg_tcache_max in JEMALLOC_CONF in be.conf. lg_tcache_max is the upper limit of the byte size of the page allowed to be cached. The default value is 15, that is, 32 KB (2^15). Pages exceeding this size will not be cached in the Thread Cache. lg_tcache_max corresponds to Maximum thread-cached size class in the Jemalloc Profile.

Before Doris 2.1, the default value of lg_tcache_max in JEMALLOC_CONF in be.conf is 20, which will cause the Jemalloc Cache to be too large in some scenarios. After Doris 2.1, it has been changed back to the default value of Jemalloc 15.

This is usually because the query or load in the BE process is applying for a large number of memory pages of large size classes, or after executing a large memory query or load, a large number of memory pages of large size classes are cached in the Thread Cache. There are two times to clean up the Thread Cache. One is to recycle the memory blocks that have not been used for a long time when the memory application and release reach a certain number of times; the other is to recycle all pages when the thread exits. At this time, there is a Bad Case. If the thread has not executed new queries or loads in the future, it will no longer allocate memory and fall into a so-called idle state. Users expect that the memory can be released after the query is completed, but in fact, in this scenario, if the thread does not exit, the Thread Cache will not be cleaned.

However, there is usually no need to pay attention to the Thread Cache. When the available memory of the process is insufficient, if the size of the Thread Cache exceeds 1G, Doris will manually flush the Thread Cache.

Dirty Page Memory Too Large

  1. extents:        size ind       ndirty        dirty       nmuzzy        muzzy    nretained     retained       ntotal        total
  2.                 4096   0            7        28672            1         4096           21        86016           29       118784
  3.                 8192   1           11        90112            2        16384           11        90112           24       196608
  4.                12288   2            2        24576            4        49152           45       552960           51       626688
  5.                16384   3            0            0            1        16384            6        98304            7       114688
  6.                20480   4            0            0            1        20480            5       102400            6       122880
  7.                24576   5            0            0           43      1056768            2        49152           45      1105920
  8.                28672   6            0            0            0            0           13       372736           13       372736
  9.                32768   7            0            0            1        32768           13       425984           14       458752
  10.                40960   8            0            0           31      1150976           35      1302528           66      2453504
  11.                49152   9            4       196608            2        98304            3       139264            9       434176
  12.                57344  10            0            0            1        57344            9       512000           10       569344
  13.                65536  11            3       184320            0            0            6       385024            9       569344
  14.                81920  12            2       147456            3       241664           38      2809856           43      3198976
  15.                98304  13            0            0            1        86016            6       557056            7       643072
  16.               114688  14            1       102400            1       106496           15      1642496           17      185139

Reduce dirty_decay_ms of JEMALLOC_CONF in be.conf to 2000 ms or less. The default dirty_decay_ms in be.conf is 5000 ms. Jemalloc will release dirty pages according to a smooth gradient curve within the time specified by dirty_decay_ms. For reference, Jemalloc opt.dirty_decay_ms. When the BE process has insufficient available memory and triggers Minor GC or Full GC, it will actively release all dirty pages according to a certain strategy.

Before Doris 2.1, the default value of dirty_decay_ms in JEMALLOC_CONF in be.conf is 15000, which will cause the Jemalloc Cache to be too large in some scenarios. After Doris 2.1, the default value is 5000.

extents in Jemalloc Profile contains the statistical values ​​of buckets of different page sizes in all Jemalloc arena, where ndirty is the number of dirty pages and dirty is the total memory of dirty pages. Refer to stats.arenas.<i>.extents.<j>.{extent_type}_bytes in Jemalloc and add up the dirty of all Page Sizes to get the memory byte size of the Dirty Page in Jemalloc.

Jemalloc Metadata Memory Analysis

If the value of Label=tc/jemalloc_metadata, Type=overview Memory Trakcer is large, it means that Jemalloc or TCMalloc Metadata uses a lot of memory. Doris uses Jemalloc as the default Allocator, so here we only analyze the situation where Jemalloc Metadata uses a lot of memory.

  1. MemTrackerLimiter Label=tc/jemalloc_metadata, Type=overview, Limit=-1.00 B(-1 B), Used=144 MB(151759440 B), Peak=-1.00 B(-1 B)

Label=tc/jemalloc_metadata Memory Tracker was added after Doris 2.1.6. In the past, Jemalloc Metadata was included in Label=tc/jemalloc_cache Memory Tracker.

How to view Jemalloc Metadata

You can get the Jemalloc Profile by viewing the Doris BE web page http://{be_host}:{be_web_server_port}/memz (webserver_port defaults to 8040). Find the overall memory statistics of Jemalloc in the Jemalloc Profile as follows, where metadata is the memory size of Jemalloc Metadata.

Allocated: 2401232080, active: 2526302208, metadata: 535979296 (n_thp 221), resident: 2995621888, mapped: 3221979136, retained: 131542581248

  • Allocated The total number of bytes of memory allocated by Jemalloc for the BE process.

  • active The total number of bytes of all pages allocated by Jemalloc for the BE process, which is a multiple of Page Size and is usually greater than or equal to Allocated.

  • metadata The total number of bytes of Jemalloc metadata, which is related to the number of allocated and cached pages, memory fragmentation and other factors. Refer to the document Jemalloc stats.metadata

  • retained The size of the virtual memory mapping retained by Jemalloc, which is not returned to the operating system through munmap or similar methods, and is not strongly associated with physical memory. Reference document Jemalloc stats.retained

Jemalloc Metadata memory is too large

The size of Jemalloc Metadata is positively correlated with the size of process virtual memory. Usually, the virtual memory of Doris BE process is large because Jemalloc retains a large number of virtual memory mappings, that is, the above retained. The virtual memory returned to Jemalloc is cached in Retained by default, waiting to be reused, and will not be released automatically or manually.

The fundamental reason for the large size of Jemalloc Retained is that the memory reuse at the Doris code level is insufficient, resulting in the need to apply for a large amount of virtual memory, which enters Jemalloc Retained after being released. Usually, the ratio of virtual memory to Jemalloc Metadata size is between 300-500, that is, if there is 10T of virtual memory, Jemalloc Metadata may occupy 20G.

If you encounter problems with Jemalloc Metadata and Retained continuing to increase, and the process virtual memory is too large, it is recommended to consider restarting the Doris BE process regularly. Usually this only occurs after Doris BE has been running for a long time, and only a few Doris clusters will encounter it. There is currently no way to reduce the virtual memory mapping retained by Jemalloc Retained without losing performance. Doris is continuously optimizing memory usage.

If the above problems occur frequently, refer to the following methods.

  1. A fundamental solution is to turn off the Jemalloc Retained cache virtual memory mapping, add retain:false after JEMALLOC_CONF in be.conf, and restart BE. However, query performance may be significantly reduced, and the performance of the TPC-H Benchmark test will be reduced by about 3 times.

  2. On Doris 2.1, you can turn off Pipelinex and Pipeline by executing set global experimental_enable_pipeline_engine=false; set global experimental_enable_pipeline_x_engine=false;, because pipelinex and pipeline will apply for more virtual memory. This will also lead to reduced query performance.