docs/doc/source/admintasks/kubernetes/isolating-cpu-cores-to-enhance-application-performance.rst

Isolate the CPU Cores to Enhance Application Performance

supports running the most critical low-latency applications on host CPUs which are completely isolated from the host process scheduler.

This allows you to customize Kubernetes CPU management when policy is set to static so that low-latency applications run with optimal efficiency.

The following restriction applies when using application-isolated cores:

• There must be at least one platform and one application core on each host.

For example:

~(keystone)admin)$ system host-lock worker-1
~(keystone)admin)$ system host-cpu-modify  -f platform -p0 1 worker-1
~(keystone)admin)$ system host-cpu-modify  -f application-isolated -p0 15 worker-1
~(keystone)admin)$ system host-cpu-modify  -f application-isolated -p1 15 worker-1
~(keystone)admin)$ system host-unlock worker-1

All siblings (hyperthreads, if enabled) on a core will have the same assigned function. On host boot, any CPUs designated as isolated will be specified as part of the isolcpus kernel boot argument, which will isolate them from the process scheduler.

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When using the static CPU manager policy before increasing the number of platform CPUs or changing isolated CPUs to application CPUs on a host, ensure that no pods on the host are making use of any isolated CPUs that will be affected. Otherwise, the pod(s) will transition to a Topology Affinity Error state. Although not strictly necessary, the simplest way to do this on systems other than AIO Simplex is to administratively lock the host, causing all the pods to be restarted on an alternate host, before changing CPU assigned functions. On AIO Simplex systems, you must explicitly delete the pods.

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