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Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 15:58:33 -0700
From: Dmitry Torokhov <dtor@...are.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc: "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
"pv-drivers@...are.com" <pv-drivers@...are.com>,
Avi Kivity <avi@...hat.com>,
Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...p.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] VMware Balloon driver
On Mon, Apr 05, 2010 at 02:24:19PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 14:52:02 -0700
> Dmitry Torokhov <dtor@...are.com> wrote:
>
> > This is standalone version of VMware Balloon driver. Unlike previous
> > version, that tried to integrate VMware ballooning transport into virtio
> > subsystem, and use stock virtio_ballon driver, this one implements both
> > controlling thread/algorithm and hypervisor transport.
> >
> > We are submitting standalone driver because KVM maintainer (Avi Kivity)
> > expressed opinion (rightly) that our transport does not fit well into
> > virtqueue paradigm and thus it does not make much sense to integrate
> > with virtio.
> >
>
> I think I've forgotten what balloon drivers do. Are they as nasty a
> hack as I remember believing them to be?
>
> A summary of what this code sets out to do, and how it does it would be
> useful.
>
Jeremy provided a very good writeup; I will aldo expand changelog in the
next version.
> Also please explain the applicability of this driver. Will xen use it?
> kvm? Out-of-tree code?
The driver is expected to be used on VMware platform - mainly ESX.
Originally we tried to converge with KVM and use virtio and
stock virtio_balloon driver but Avi mentioned that our code emulating
virtqueue was more than balloon code itself and thus using virtio did
not make nuch sense.
>
> The code implements a user-visible API (in /proc, at least). Please
> fully describe the proposed interface(s) in the changelog so we can
> review and understand that proposal.
OK.
>
> >
> > ...
> >
> > +static bool vmballoon_send_start(struct vmballoon *b)
> > +{
> > + unsigned long status, dummy;
> > +
> > + STATS_INC(b->stats.start);
> > +
> > + status = VMWARE_BALLOON_CMD(START, VMW_BALLOON_PROTOCOL_VERSION, dummy);
> > + if (status == VMW_BALLOON_SUCCESS)
> > + return true;
> > +
> > + pr_debug("%s - failed, hv returns %ld\n", __func__, status);
>
> The code refers to something called "hv". I suspect that's stale?
>
> > + STATS_INC(b->stats.start_fail);
> > + return false;
> > +}
> > +
> > +static bool vmballoon_check_status(struct vmballoon *b, unsigned long status)
> > +{
> > + switch (status) {
> > + case VMW_BALLOON_SUCCESS:
> > + return true;
> > +
> > + case VMW_BALLOON_ERROR_RESET:
> > + b->reset_required = true;
> > + /* fall through */
> > +
> > + default:
> > + return false;
> > + }
> > +}
> > +
> > +static bool vmballoon_send_guest_id(struct vmballoon *b)
> > +{
> > + unsigned long status, dummy;
> > +
> > + status = VMWARE_BALLOON_CMD(GUEST_ID, VMW_BALLOON_GUEST_ID, dummy);
> > +
> > + STATS_INC(b->stats.guest_type);
> > +
> > + if (vmballoon_check_status(b, status))
> > + return true;
> > +
> > + pr_debug("%s - failed, hv returns %ld\n", __func__, status);
> > + STATS_INC(b->stats.guest_type_fail);
> > + return false;
> > +}
>
> The lack of comments makes it all a bit hard to take in.
OK, I will address lack of comments.
>
> >
> > ...
> >
> > +static int __init vmballoon_init(void)
> > +{
> > + int error;
> > +
> > + /*
> > + * Check if we are running on VMware's hypervisor and bail out
> > + * if we are not.
> > + */
> > + if (!vmware_platform())
> > + return -ENODEV;
> > +
> > + vmballoon_wq = create_freezeable_workqueue("vmmemctl");
> > + if (!vmballoon_wq) {
> > + pr_err("failed to create workqueue\n");
> > + return -ENOMEM;
> > + }
> > +
> > + /* initialize global state */
> > + memset(&balloon, 0, sizeof(balloon));
>
> The memset seems to be unneeded.
OK.
>
> > + INIT_LIST_HEAD(&balloon.pages);
> > + INIT_LIST_HEAD(&balloon.refused_pages);
> > +
> > + /* initialize rates */
> > + balloon.rate_alloc = VMW_BALLOON_RATE_ALLOC_MAX;
> > + balloon.rate_free = VMW_BALLOON_RATE_FREE_MAX;
> > +
> > + INIT_DELAYED_WORK(&balloon.dwork, vmballoon_work);
> > +
> > + /*
> > + * Start balloon.
> > + */
> > + if (!vmballoon_send_start(&balloon)) {
> > + pr_err("failed to send start command to the host\n");
> > + error = -EIO;
> > + goto fail;
> > + }
> > +
> > + if (!vmballoon_send_guest_id(&balloon)) {
> > + pr_err("failed to send guest ID to the host\n");
> > + error = -EIO;
> > + goto fail;
> > + }
> > +
> > + error = vmballoon_procfs_init(&balloon);
> > + if (error)
> > + goto fail;
> > +
> > + queue_delayed_work(vmballoon_wq, &balloon.dwork, 0);
> > +
> > + return 0;
> > +
> > +fail:
> > + destroy_workqueue(vmballoon_wq);
> > + return error;
> > +}
> >
> > ...
> >
>
> Oh well, ho hum. Help is needed on working out what to do about this,
> please.
>
> Congrats on the new job, btw ;)
Thanks ;). BTW, please send input stuff to my gmail addresss till.
--
Dmitry
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