linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v4 1/2] KVM: VMX: FIXED+PHYSICAL mode single target IPI fastpath

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Message-ID: <CANRm+Cz0RnF=roCkJf-X8pEyVY5wH4ZgQKWv8o0Whu59t8_A2w@mail.gmail.com>
Date:   Wed, 26 Feb 2020 11:32:53 +0800
From:   Wanpeng Li <kernellwp@...il.com>
To:     LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, kvm <kvm@...r.kernel.org>
Cc:     Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@...hat.com>,
        Sean Christopherson <sean.j.christopherson@...el.com>,
        Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@...hat.com>,
        Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@...cent.com>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@...gle.com>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@...tes.org>,
        Liran Alon <liran.alon@...cle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 1/2] KVM: VMX: FIXED+PHYSICAL mode single target IPI fastpath

On Thu, 21 Nov 2019 at 11:17, Wanpeng Li <kernellwp@...il.com> wrote:
>
> From: Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@...cent.com>
>
> ICR and TSCDEADLINE MSRs write cause the main MSRs write vmexits in our
> product observation, multicast IPIs are not as common as unicast IPI like
> RESCHEDULE_VECTOR and CALL_FUNCTION_SINGLE_VECTOR etc.
>
> This patch introduce a mechanism to handle certain performance-critical
> WRMSRs in a very early stage of KVM VMExit handler.
>
> This mechanism is specifically used for accelerating writes to x2APIC ICR
> that attempt to send a virtual IPI with physical destination-mode, fixed
> delivery-mode and single target. Which was found as one of the main causes
> of VMExits for Linux workloads.
>
> The reason this mechanism significantly reduce the latency of such virtual
> IPIs is by sending the physical IPI to the target vCPU in a very early stage
> of KVM VMExit handler, before host interrupts are enabled and before expensive
> operations such as reacquiring KVM’s SRCU lock.
> Latency is reduced even more when KVM is able to use APICv posted-interrupt
> mechanism (which allows to deliver the virtual IPI directly to target vCPU
> without the need to kick it to host).
>
> Testing on Xeon Skylake server:
>
> The virtual IPI latency from sender send to receiver receive reduces
> more than 200+ cpu cycles.

Testing by IPI microbenchmark(https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/12/19/141):

Normal IPI:           Improved 3%
Broadcast IPI:      Improved 5%

w/ --overcommit cpu-pm=on

Normal IPI:           Improved 14%
Broadcast IPI:      Improved 3.6%

    Wanpeng