linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 0/8] Lazily allocate memslot rmaps

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Date:   Fri, 7 May 2021 09:40:23 +0200
From:   David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
To:     Ben Gardon <bgardon@...gle.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        kvm@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>, Peter Xu <peterx@...hat.com>,
        Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>,
        Peter Shier <pshier@...gle.com>,
        Yulei Zhang <yulei.kernel@...il.com>,
        Wanpeng Li <kernellwp@...il.com>,
        Xiao Guangrong <xiaoguangrong.eric@...il.com>,
        Kai Huang <kai.huang@...el.com>,
        Keqian Zhu <zhukeqian1@...wei.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 0/8] Lazily allocate memslot rmaps

On 06.05.21 20:42, Ben Gardon wrote:
> This series enables KVM to save memory when using the TDP MMU by waiting
> to allocate memslot rmaps until they are needed. To do this, KVM tracks
> whether or not a shadow root has been allocated. In order to get away
> with not allocating the rmaps, KVM must also be sure to skip operations
> which iterate over the rmaps. If the TDP MMU is in use and we have not
> allocated a shadow root, these operations would essentially be op-ops
> anyway. Skipping the rmap operations has a secondary benefit of avoiding
> acquiring the MMU lock in write mode in many cases, substantially
> reducing MMU lock contention.
> 
> This series was tested on an Intel Skylake machine. With the TDP MMU off
> and on, this introduced no new failures on kvm-unit-tests or KVM selftests.
> 

Happy to see this change pop up, I remember discussing this with Paolo 
recently.

Another step to reduce the rmap overhead could be looking into using a 
dynamic datastructure to manage the rmap, instead of allocating a 
fixed-sized array. That could also significantly reduce memory overhead 
in some setups and give us more flexibility, for example, for resizing 
or splitting slots atomically.

-- 
Thanks,

David / dhildenb