Configure Linux NUMA optimization for multi-socket servers with memory policy tuning and CPU affinity

Check NUMA topology

First, examine your system's NUMA topology to understand the hardware layout. This shows how CPU cores, memory, and I/O devices are distributed across NUMA nodes.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y numactl hwloc-nox

sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf install -y numactl hwloc

Analyze NUMA topology

Display detailed NUMA topology information including CPU cores, memory distribution, and interconnect distances between nodes.

numactl --hardware
lscpu | grep NUMA
lstopo-no-graphics --of txt

Check NUMA statistics

Monitor current NUMA memory allocation and access patterns to identify potential optimization opportunities.

numastat
cat /proc/meminfo | grep -i numa
cat /sys/devices/system/node/node*/meminfo

Configure kernel NUMA parameters

Optimize kernel NUMA behavior by tuning zone reclaim mode, balancing, and automatic NUMA balancing settings.

# Disable zone reclaim to prefer remote memory over swap
vm.zone_reclaim_mode = 0

# Enable automatic NUMA balancing for better memory locality
kernel.numa_balancing = 1

# Configure NUMA balancing scan delay
kernel.numa_balancing_scan_delay_ms = 1000

# Set NUMA balancing scan period
kernel.numa_balancing_scan_period_min_ms = 1000
kernel.numa_balancing_scan_period_max_ms = 60000

# Configure memory compaction
vm.compact_memory = 1
vm.compaction_proactiveness = 20

Apply NUMA kernel parameters

Load the new NUMA optimization settings and verify they are applied correctly.

sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-numa-optimization.conf
sudo sysctl -a | grep numa
sudo sysctl vm.zone_reclaim_mode

Configure CPU governor for NUMA

Set CPU frequency scaling governor to performance mode for consistent NUMA performance across all cores.

echo performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
cpupower frequency-info
cpupower frequency-set -g performance

Create NUMA monitoring script

Set up automated monitoring of NUMA statistics to track performance and identify memory access patterns.

#!/bin/bash

# NUMA Performance Monitor Script
LOG_FILE="/var/log/numa-performance.log"
DATE=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

echo "[$DATE] NUMA Performance Stats" >> $LOG_FILE

# Log NUMA hit/miss statistics
echo "NUMA Statistics:" >> $LOG_FILE
numastat >> $LOG_FILE

# Log memory distribution per node
echo "\nMemory per NUMA node:" >> $LOG_FILE
for node in /sys/devices/system/node/node*; do
    if [ -d "$node" ]; then
        node_id=$(basename $node)
        echo "$node_id: $(cat $node/meminfo | grep MemTotal)" >> $LOG_FILE
    fi
done

# Log CPU utilization per NUMA node
echo "\nCPU utilization per NUMA node:" >> $LOG_FILE
for node in /sys/devices/system/node/node*; do
    if [ -d "$node" ]; then
        node_id=$(basename $node)
        cpus=$(cat $node/cpulist)
        echo "$node_id CPUs: $cpus" >> $LOG_FILE
    fi
done

echo "" >> $LOG_FILE

Make monitoring script executable and schedule it

Enable the NUMA monitoring script and schedule it to run every 5 minutes for continuous performance tracking.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/numa-monitor.sh
sudo mkdir -p /var/log
sudo touch /var/log/numa-performance.log

# Add to crontab for regular monitoring
echo "*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/numa-monitor.sh" | sudo crontab -

Configure database NUMA optimization

Create systemd override for database services to bind them to specific NUMA nodes for optimal memory locality.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/postgresql.service.d

[Service]
# Bind PostgreSQL to NUMA node 0 with local memory allocation
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/numactl --cpunodebind=0 --membind=0 /usr/lib/postgresql/15/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/postgresql/15/main -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/15/main/postgresql.conf

# Set CPU affinity for better cache locality
CPUAffinity=0-7

# Memory allocation policy
Environment="NUMA_POLICY=bind"
Environment="NUMA_NODE=0"

Configure web server NUMA optimization

Optimize web server placement across NUMA nodes to balance load and improve response times.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/nginx.service.d

[Service]
# Distribute Nginx workers across NUMA nodes
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/bin/numactl --interleave=all /usr/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon on; master_process on;'

# Allow access to all CPUs for load balancing
CPUAffinity=0-15

# Set memory allocation policy for balanced access
Environment="NUMA_POLICY=interleave"

Configure application-specific NUMA policies

Create wrapper scripts for applications that require specific NUMA placement strategies.

#!/bin/bash

# NUMA-aware application launcher
APP_NAME="$1"
NUMA_POLICY="$2"
NUMA_NODE="$3"
shift 3
APP_COMMAND="$@"

case "$NUMA_POLICY" in
    "bind")
        echo "Launching $APP_NAME with memory bound to node $NUMA_NODE"
        numactl --cpunodebind="$NUMA_NODE" --membind="$NUMA_NODE" $APP_COMMAND
        ;;
    "interleave")
        echo "Launching $APP_NAME with interleaved memory allocation"
        numactl --interleave=all $APP_COMMAND
        ;;
    "preferred")
        echo "Launching $APP_NAME with preferred node $NUMA_NODE"
        numactl --preferred="$NUMA_NODE" $APP_COMMAND
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Unknown NUMA policy: $NUMA_POLICY"
        echo "Usage: $0 

Reload systemd and restart services

Apply the NUMA optimization configurations by reloading systemd and restarting the configured services.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/numa-launch-app.sh
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart postgresql
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Configure IRQ affinity for network interfaces

Optimize interrupt handling by binding network interface IRQs to specific NUMA nodes for better network performance.

#!/bin/bash

# Configure IRQ affinity for NUMA optimization
INTERFACE="$1"
NUMA_NODE="$2"

if [ -z "$INTERFACE" ] || [ -z "$NUMA_NODE" ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 

Apply IRQ affinity optimization

Configure network interface IRQ affinity for optimal NUMA performance and create a systemd service for persistent configuration.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/numa-irq-affinity.sh

# Apply to primary network interface (adjust interface name as needed)
sudo /usr/local/bin/numa-irq-affinity.sh eth0 0

[Unit]
Description=NUMA IRQ Affinity Configuration
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/numa-irq-affinity.sh eth0 0
RemainAfterExit=yes

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable IRQ affinity service

Enable the IRQ affinity service to ensure NUMA-optimized interrupt handling persists across reboots.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable numa-irq-affinity.service
sudo systemctl start numa-irq-affinity.service
sudo systemctl status numa-irq-affinity.service

Install performance testing tools

Install additional tools for comprehensive NUMA performance testing and benchmarking.

sudo apt install -y sysbench stress-ng mbw likwid-tools

sudo dnf install -y sysbench stress-ng
# Install mbw from source on RHEL-based systems
wget http://www.coker.com.au/mbw/mbw-1.5.tar.gz
tar -xzf mbw-1.5.tar.gz
cd mbw-1.5
make
sudo cp mbw /usr/local/bin/

Create NUMA benchmark script

Develop a comprehensive benchmark script to measure NUMA performance improvements across different workload types.

#!/bin/bash

# NUMA Performance Benchmark Script
BENCH_LOG="/var/log/numa-benchmark.log"
DATE=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

echo "[$DATE] Starting NUMA Performance Benchmark" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG

# Memory bandwidth test - local vs remote
echo "\n=== Memory Bandwidth Test ===" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
for node in 0 1; do
    if [ -d "/sys/devices/system/node/node$node" ]; then
        echo "Testing memory bandwidth on NUMA node $node:" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
        numactl --cpunodebind=$node --membind=$node mbw -t0 512 2>&1 | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
    fi
done

# CPU performance test per NUMA node
echo "\n=== CPU Performance Test ===" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
for node in 0 1; do
    if [ -d "/sys/devices/system/node/node$node" ]; then
        echo "Testing CPU performance on NUMA node $node:" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
        numactl --cpunodebind=$node sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=10000 --threads=4 run 2>&1 | grep -E "events per second|total time" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
    fi
done

# Memory latency test
echo "\n=== Memory Latency Test ===" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
for node in 0 1; do
    if [ -d "/sys/devices/system/node/node$node" ]; then
        echo "Testing memory latency on NUMA node $node:" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
        numactl --cpunodebind=$node --membind=$node sysbench memory --memory-block-size=1K --memory-total-size=1G run 2>&1 | grep -E "transferred|total time" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
    fi
done

# Cross-node memory access test
echo "\n=== Cross-Node Memory Access Test ===" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
if [ -d "/sys/devices/system/node/node0" ] && [ -d "/sys/devices/system/node/node1" ]; then
    echo "Testing cross-node memory access (CPU node 0, Memory node 1):" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
    numactl --cpunodebind=0 --membind=1 sysbench memory --memory-block-size=1K --memory-total-size=1G run 2>&1 | grep -E "transferred|total time" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
fi

echo "\n[$DATE] NUMA Performance Benchmark Complete" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG
echo "Results saved to $BENCH_LOG" | tee -a $BENCH_LOG

Run initial performance baseline

Execute the benchmark script to establish a performance baseline and verify NUMA optimizations are working correctly.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/numa-benchmark.sh
sudo /usr/local/bin/numa-benchmark.sh

Create NUMA performance dashboard script

Set up a real-time performance monitoring dashboard to track NUMA metrics and identify optimization opportunities.

#!/bin/bash

# Real-time NUMA Performance Dashboard
while true; do
    clear
    echo "=== NUMA Performance Dashboard ==="
    echo "Last updated: $(date)"
    echo
    
    # NUMA topology summary
    echo "=== NUMA Topology ==="
    lscpu | grep -E "NUMA node|CPU\(s\):"
    echo
    
    # Memory usage per NUMA node
    echo "=== Memory Usage per NUMA Node ==="
    for node in /sys/devices/system/node/node*; do
        if [ -d "$node" ]; then
            node_id=$(basename $node)
            memtotal=$(grep MemTotal $node/meminfo | awk '{print $4" "$5}')
            memfree=$(grep MemFree $node/meminfo | awk '{print $4" "$5}')
            echo "$node_id: Total $memtotal, Free $memfree"
        fi
    done
    echo
    
    # NUMA statistics
    echo "=== NUMA Hit/Miss Statistics ==="
    numastat | head -10
    echo
    
    # CPU utilization per NUMA node
    echo "=== CPU Utilization ==="
    top -bn1 | grep "Cpu" | head -2
    echo
    
    # Network IRQ distribution
    echo "=== Network IRQ Distribution ==="
    grep eth0 /proc/interrupts | head -3
    echo
    
    echo "Press Ctrl+C to exit"
    sleep 5
done

Make dashboard script executable

Enable the NUMA dashboard script and test its functionality for real-time monitoring.

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/numa-dashboard.sh

# Test the dashboard (run for a few seconds then exit with Ctrl+C)
sudo /usr/local/bin/numa-dashboard.sh