Date:   Fri, 24 Feb 2017 12:34:07 +0100
From:   Christoffer Dall <cdall@...aro.org>
To:     Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@...hat.com>
Cc:     David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>,
        Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@...ibm.com>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Andrew Jones <drjones@...hat.com>,
        Marc Zyngier <marc.zyngier@....com>,
        Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@...ibm.com>,
        James Hogan <james.hogan@...tec.com>,
        Paul Mackerras <paulus@...abs.org>,
        Christoffer Dall <christoffer.dall@...aro.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/5] KVM: add __kvm_request_needs_mb

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 04:17:05PM +0100, Radim Krčmář wrote:
> [Oops, the end of this thread got dragged into a mark-as-read spree ...]
> 
> 2017-02-17 11:13+0100, David Hildenbrand:
> >>> This is really complicated stuff, and the basic reason for it (if I
> >>> remember correctly) is that s390x does reenable all interrupts when
> >>> entering the sie (see kvm-s390.c:__vcpu_run()). So the fancy smp-based
> >>> kicks don't work (as it is otherwise just racy), and if I remember
> >>> correctly, SMP reschedule signals (s390x external calls) would be
> >>> slower. (Christian, please correct me if I'm wrong)
> >> 
> >> No the reason was that there are some requests that need to be handled
> >> outside run SIE. For example one reason was the guest prefix page.
> >> This must be mapped read/write ALL THE TIME when a guest is running,
> >> otherwise the host might crash. So we have to exit SIE and make sure that
> >> it does not reenter, therefore we use the RELOAD_MMU request from a notifier
> >> that is called from page table functions, whenever memory management decides
> >> to unmap/write protect (dirty pages tracking, reference tracking, page migration
> >> or compaction...)
> >> 
> >> SMP-based request wills kick out the guest, but for some thing like the
> >> one above it will be too late.
> > 
> > While what you said is 100% correct, I had something else in mind that
> > hindered using vcpu_kick() and especially kvm_make_all_cpus_request().
> > And I remember that being related to how preemption and
> > OUTSIDE_GUEST_MODE is handled. I think this boils down to what would
> > have to be implemented in kvm_arch_vcpu_should_kick().
> > 
> > x86 can track the guest state using vcpu->mode, because they can be sure
> > that the guest can't reschedule while in the critical guest entry/exit
> > section. This is not true for s390x, as preemption is enabled. That's
> > why vcpu->mode cannot be used in its current form to track if a VCPU is
> > in/oustide/exiting guest mode. And kvm_make_all_cpus_request() currently
> > relies on this setting.
> > 
> > For now, calling vcpu_kick() on s390x will result in a BUG().
> > 
> > 
> > On s390x, there are 3 use cases I see for requests:
> > 
> > 1. Remote requests that need a sync
> > 
> > Make a request, wait until SIE has been left and make sure the request
> > will be processed before re-entering the SIE. e.g. KVM_REQ_RELOAD_MMU
> > notifier in mmu notifier you mentioned. Also KVM_REQ_DISABLE_IBS is a
> > candidate.
> 
> Btw. aren't those requests racy?
> 
>     void exit_sie(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
>     {
>     	atomic_or(CPUSTAT_STOP_INT, &vcpu->arch.sie_block->cpuflags);
> 
> If you get stalled here and the target VCPU handles the request and
> reenters SIE in the meantime, then you'll wait until its next exit.
> (And miss an unbounded amount of exits in the worst case.)
> 
>     	while (vcpu->arch.sie_block->prog0c & PROG_IN_SIE)
>     		cpu_relax();
>     }
> 
> And out of curiosity -- how many cycles does this loop usually take?
> 
> > 2. Remote requests that don't need a sync
> > 
> > E.g. KVM_REQ_ENABLE_IBS doesn't strictly need it, while
> > KVM_REQ_DISABLE_IBS does.
> 
> A usual KVM request would kick the VCPU out of nested virt as well.
> Shouldn't it be done for these as well?
> 
> > 3. local requests
> > 
> > E.g. KVM_REQ_TLB_FLUSH from kvm_s390_set_prefix()
> > 
> > 
> > Of course, having a unified interface would be better.
> > 
> > /* set the request and kick the CPU out of guest mode */
> > kvm_set_request(req, vcpu);
> > 
> > /* set the request, kick the CPU out of guest mode, wait until guest
> > mode has been left and make sure the request will be handled before
> > reentering guest mode */
> > kvm_set_sync_request(req, vcpu);
> 
> Sounds good, I'll also add
> 
>   kvm_set_self_request(req, vcpu);
> 
> > Same maybe even for multiple VCPUs (as there are then ways to speed it
> > up, e.g. first kick all, then wait for all)
> > 
> > This would require arch specific callbacks to
> > 1. pre announce the request (e.g. set PROG_REQUEST on s390x)
> > 2. kick the cpu (e.g. CPUSTAT_STOP_INT and later
> > kvm_s390_vsie_kick(vcpu) on s390x)
> > 3. check if still executing the guest (e.g. PROG_IN_SIE on s390x)
> > 
> > This would only make sense if there are other use cases for sync
> > requests. At least I remember that Power also has a faster way for
> > kicking VCPUs, not involving SMP rescheds. I can't judge if this is a
> > s390x only thing and is better be left as is :)
> > 
> > At least vcpu_kick() could be quite easily made to work on s390x.
> > 
> > Radim, are there also other users that need something like sync requests?
> 
> I think that ARM has a similar need when updating vgic, but relies on an
> asumption that VCPUs are going to be out after kicking them with
> kvm_make_all_cpus_request().
> (vgic_change_active_prepare in virt/kvm/arm/vgic/vgic-mmio.c)

Yes, we have similar needs.  We don't actually use the requests
infrastructure in the moment (although I have plans to move to that
following a long series of optimization patches I have stashed on my
machine), but we reuse the kvm_make_all_cpus_request function to figure
out which CPUs need a kick, and which don't, instead of duplicating this
logic in the ARM tree.

> 
> Having synchronous requests in a common API should probably wait for the
> completion of the request, not just for the kick, which would make race
> handling simpler.
> 
> I'm not going to worry about them in this pass, though.
> 

I'll be happy to help working on this or at least reviewing stuff to
move our home-baked "stop all VCPUs and wait for something before
entering the guest again" functionality to common functionality that
uses requests.

Thanks,
-Christoffer

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