Re: [PATCH v2 0/7] KVM: MMU: fast zap all shadow pages

From: Gleb Natapov
Date: Fri Mar 22 2013 - 08:15:41 EST


On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 08:03:04PM +0800, Xiao Guangrong wrote:
> On 03/22/2013 07:47 PM, Gleb Natapov wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 07:39:24PM +0800, Xiao Guangrong wrote:
> >> On 03/22/2013 07:28 PM, Gleb Natapov wrote:
> >>> On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 07:10:44PM +0800, Xiao Guangrong wrote:
> >>>> On 03/22/2013 06:54 PM, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> And then have codepaths that nuke shadow pages break from the spinlock,
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I think this is not needed any more. We can let mmu_notify use the generation
> >>>>>> number to invalid all shadow pages, then we only need to free them after
> >>>>>> all vcpus down and mmu_notify unregistered - at this point, no lock contention,
> >>>>>> we can directly free them.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> such as kvm_mmu_slot_remove_write_access does now (spin_needbreak).
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> BTW, to my honest, i do not think spin_needbreak is a good way - it does
> >>>>>> not fix the hot-lock contention and it just occupies more cpu time to avoid
> >>>>>> possible soft lock-ups.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Especially, zap-all-shadow-pages can let other vcpus fault and vcpus contest
> >>>>>> mmu-lock, then zap-all-shadow-pages release mmu-lock and wait, other vcpus
> >>>>>> create page tables again. zap-all-shadow-page need long time to be finished,
> >>>>>> the worst case is, it can not completed forever on intensive vcpu and memory
> >>>>>> usage.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Yes, but the suggestion is to use spin_needbreak on the VM shutdown
> >>>>> cases, where there is no detailed concern about performance. Such as
> >>>>> mmu_notifier_release, kvm_destroy_vm, etc. In those cases what matters
> >>>>> most is that host remains unaffected (and that it finishes in a
> >>>>> reasonable time).
> >>>>
> >>>> Okay. I agree with you, will give a try.
> >>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> I still think the right way to fix this kind of thing is optimization for
> >>>>>> mmu-lock.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> And then for the cases where performance matters just increase a
> >>>>> VM global generetion number, zap the roots and then on kvm_mmu_get_page:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> kvm_mmu_get_page() {
> >>>>> sp = lookup_hash(gfn)
> >>>>> if (sp->role = role) {
> >>>>> if (sp->mmu_gen_number != kvm->arch.mmu_gen_number) {
> >>>>> kvm_mmu_commit_zap_page(sp); (no need for TLB flushes as its unreachable)
> >>>>> kvm_mmu_init_page(sp);
> >>>>> proceed as if the page was just allocated
> >>>>> }
> >>>>> }
> >>>>> }
> >>>>>
> >>>>> It makes the kvm_mmu_zap_all path even faster than you have now.
> >>>>> I suppose this was your idea correct with the generation number correct?
> >>>>
> >>>> Wow, great minds think alike, this is exactly what i am doing. ;)
> >>>>
> >>> Not that I disagree with above code, but why not make mmu_gen_number to be
> >>> part of a role and remove old pages in kvm_mmu_free_some_pages() whenever
> >>> limit is reached like we looks to be doing with role.invalid pages now.
> >>
> >> These pages can be reused after purge its entries and delete it from parents
> >> list, it can reduce the pressure of memory allocator. Also, we can move it to
> >> the head of active_list so that the pages with invalid_gen can be reclaimed first.
> >>
> > You mean tail of the active_list, since kvm_mmu_free_some_pages()
> > removes pages from tail? Since pages with new mmu_gen_number will be put
>
> I mean purge the invalid-gen page first, then update its valid-gen to current-gen,
> then move it to the head of active_list:
>
> kvm_mmu_get_page() {
> sp = lookup_hash(gfn)
> if (sp->role = role) {
> if (sp->mmu_gen_number != kvm->arch.mmu_gen_number) {
> kvm_mmu_purge_page(sp); (no need for TLB flushes as its unreachable)
> sp->mmu_gen_number = kvm->arch.mmu_gen_number;
> @@@@@@ move sp to the head of active list @@@@@@
> }
> }
> }
>
>
And I am saying that if you make mmu_gen_number part of the role you do
not need to change kvm_mmu_get_page() at all. It will just work.

> > at the head of the list it is natural that tail will contain pages with
> > outdated generation numbers without need to explicitly move them.
>
> Currently, only the new allocated page can be moved to the head of
> active_list. The existing pages are not moved by kvm_mmu_get_page.
> It seems a bug.
Ideally it needs to be LRU list based on accessed bit scanning.

--
Gleb.
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