RE: [PATCH v2] PCI: Reset PCIe devices to stop ongoing DMA

From: Sumner, William
Date: Tue Jun 11 2013 - 19:20:51 EST



>(2013/06/11 11:20), Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
>> On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 2:46 AM, Takao Indoh <indou.takao@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> (2013/06/07 13:14), Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
>>
>>>> One thing I'm not sure about is that you are only resetting PCIe
>>>> devices, but I don't think the problem is actually specific to PCIe,
>>>> is it? I think the same issue could occur on any system with an
>>>> IOMMU. In the x86 PC world, most IOMMUs are connected with PCIe, but
>>>> there are systems with IOMMUs for plain old PCI devices, e.g.,
>>>> PA-RISC.
>>>
>>> Right, this is not specific to PCIe. The reasons why the target is only
>>> PCIe is just to make algorithm to reset simple. It is possible to reset
>>> legacy PCI devices in my patch, but code becomes somewhat complicated. I
>>> thought recently most systems used PCIe and there was little demand for
>>> resetting legacy PCI. Therefore I decided not to reset legacy PCI
>>> devices, but I'll do if there are requests :-)
>>
>> I'm not sure you need to reset legacy devices (or non-PCI devices)
>> yet, but the current hook isn't anchored anywhere -- it's just an
>> fs_initcall() that doesn't give the reader any clue about the
>> connection between the reset and the problem it's solving.
>>
>> If we do something like this patch, I think it needs to be done at the
>> point where we enable or disable the IOMMU. That way, it's connected
>> to the important event, and there's a clue about how to make
>> corresponding fixes for other IOMMUs.
>
>Ok. pci_iommu_init() is appropriate place to add this hook?
>
>> We already have a "reset_devices" boot option. This is for the same
>> purpose, as far as I can tell, and I'm not sure there's value in
>> having both "reset_devices" and "pci=pcie_reset_endpoint_devices". In
>> fact, there's nothing specific even to PCI here. The Intel VT-d docs
>> seem carefully written so they could apply to either PCIe or non-PCI
>> devices.
>
>Yeah, I can integrate this option into reset_devices. The reason why
>I separate them is to avoid regression.
>
>I have tested my patch on many machines and basically it worked, but I
>found two machines where this reset patch caused problem. The first one
>was caused by bug of raid card firmware. After updating firmware, this
>patch worked. The second one was due to bug of PCIe switch chip. I
>reported this bug to the vendor but it is not fixed yet.
>
>Anyway, this patch may cause problems on such a buggy machine, so I
>introduced new boot parameter so that user can enable or disable this
>function aside from reset_devices.
>
>Actually Vivek Goyal, kdump maintainer said same thing. He proposed using
>reset_devices instead of adding new one, and using quirk or something to
>avoid such a buggy devices.

With respect to "and using quirk or something to avoid such buggy devices",
I believe that it will be necessary to provide a mechanism for devices that
need special handling to do the reset -- perhaps something like a list
of tuples: (device_type, function_to_call) with a default function_to_call
when the device_type is not found in the list. These functions would
need to be physically separate from the device driver because if the device
is present it needs to be reset even if the crash kernel chooses not to load
the driver for that device.

>
>So, basically I agree with using reset_devices, but I want to prepare
>workaround in case this reset causes something wrong.
>
I like the ability to specify the original "reset_devices" separately from
invoking this new mechanism. With so many different uses for Linux in
so many different environments and with so many different device drivers
it seems reasonable to keep the ability to tell the device drivers to
reset their devices -- instead of pulling the reset line on all devices.

I also like the ability to invoke the new reset feature separately from
telling the device drivers to do it.

>
>>
>>>> I tried to make a list of the interesting scenarios and the events
>>>> that are relevant to this problem:
>>>>
>>>> Case 1: IOMMU off in system, off in kdump kernel
>>>> system kernel leaves IOMMU off
>>>> DMA targets system-kernel memory
>>>> kexec to kdump kernel (IOMMU off, devices untouched)
>>>> DMA targets system-kernel memory (harmless)
>>>> kdump kernel re-inits device
>>>> DMA targets kdump-kernel memory
>>>>
>>>> Case 2: IOMMU off in system kernel, on in kdump kernel
>>>> system kernel leaves IOMMU off
>>>> DMA targets system-kernel memory
>>>> kexec to kdump kernel (IOMMU off, devices untouched)
>>>> DMA targets system-kernel memory (harmless)
>>>> kdump kernel enables IOMMU with no valid mappings
>>>> DMA causes IOMMU errors (annoying but harmless)
>>>> kdump kernel re-inits device
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped kdump-kernel memory
>>>>
>>>> Case 3a: IOMMU on in system kernel, kdump kernel doesn't touch IOMMU
>>>> system kernel enables IOMMU
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kexec to kdump kernel (IOMMU on, devices untouched)
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kdump kernel doesn't know about IOMMU or doesn't touch it
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kdump kernel re-inits device
>>>> kernel assumes no IOMMU, so all new DMA mappings are invalid
>>>> because DMAs actually do go through the IOMMU
>>>> (** corruption or other non-recoverable error likely **)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Case 3b: IOMMU on in system kernel, kdump kernel disables IOMMU
>>>> system kernel enables IOMMU
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kexec to kdump kernel (IOMMU on, devices untouched)
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kdump kernel disables IOMMU
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory, but IOMMU is disabled
>>>> (** corruption or other non-recoverable error likely **)
>>>> kdump kernel re-inits device
>>>> DMA targets kdump-kernel memory
>>>>
>>>> Case 4: IOMMU on in system kernel, on in kdump kernel
>>>> system kernel enables IOMMU
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kexec to kdump kernel (IOMMU on, devices untouched)
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
>>>> kdump kernel enables IOMMU with no valid mappings
>>>> DMA causes IOMMU errors (annoying but harmless)
>>>> kdump kernel re-inits device
>>>> DMA targets IOMMU-mapped kdump-kernel memory
>>>
>>> This is not harmless. Errors like PCI SERR are detected here, and it
>>> makes driver or system unstable, and kdump fails. I also got report that
>>> system hangs up due to this.
>>
>> OK, let's take this slowly. Does an IOMMU error in the system kernel
>> also cause SERR or make the system unstable? Is that the expected
>> behavior on IOMMU errors, or is there something special about the
>> kdump scenario that causes SERRs? I see lots of DMAR errors, e.g.,
>> those in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=743790, that are
>> reported with printk and don't seem to cause an SERR. Maybe the SERR
>> is system-specific behavior?
>>
>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=568153 is another (public)
>> report of IOMMU errors related to a driver bug where we just get
>> printks, not SERR.
>
>Yes, it depends on platform or devices. At least PCI SERR is detected on
>Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX920S2 and TX300S6.
>
>Intel VT-d documents[1] says:
>
> 3.5.1 Hardware Handling of Faulting DMA Requests
> DMA requests that result in remapping faults must be blocked by
> hardware. The exact method of DMA blocking is
> implementation-specific. For example:
>
> - Faulting DMA write requests may be handled in much the same way as
> hardware handles write requests to non-existent memory. For
> example, the DMA request is discarded in a manner convenient for
> implementations (such as by dropping the cycle, completing the
> write request to memory with all byte enables masked off,
> re-directed to a dummy memory location, etc.).
>
> - Faulting DMA read requests may be handled in much the same way as
> hardware handles read requests to non-existent memory. For
> example, the request may be redirected to a dummy memory location,
> returned as all 0<92>s or 1<92>s in a manner convenient to the
> implementation, or the request may be completed with an explicit
> error indication (preferred). For faulting DMA read requests from
> PCI Express devices, hardware must indicate "Unsupported Request"
> (UR) in the completion status field of the PCI Express read
> completion.
>
>So, after IOMMU error, its behavior is implementation-specific.
>
>[1]
>Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O Architecture
>Specification Rev1.3
>
>>
>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=743495 looks like a hang
>> when the kdump kernel reboots (after successfully saving a crashdump).
>> But it is using "iommu=pt", which I don't believe makes sense. The
>> scenario is basically case 4 above, but instead of the kdump kernel
>> starting with no valid IOMMU mappings, it identity-maps bus addresses
>> to physical memory addresses. That's completely bogus because it's
>> certainly not what the system kernel did, so it's entirely likely to
>> make the system unstable or hang. This is not an argument for doing a
>> reset; it's an argument for doing something smarter than "iommu=pt" in
>> the kdump kernel.

>> We might still want to reset PCIe devices, but I want to make sure
>> that we're not papering over other issues when we do. Therefore, I'd
>> like to understand why IOMMU errors seem harmless in some cases but
>> not in others.
>
>As I wrote above, IOMMU behavior on error is up to platform/devcies. I
>think it also depends on the value of Uncorrectable Error Mask Register
>in AER registers of each device.
>
>>> Case 1: Harmless
>>> Case 2: Not tested
>>> Case 3a: Not tested
>>> Case 3b: Cause problem, fixed by my patch
>>> Case 4: Cause problem, fixed by my patch
>>>
>>> I have never tested case 2 and 3a, but I think it also causes problem.
>>
>> I do not believe we need to support case 3b (IOMMU on in system kernel
>> but disabled in kdump kernel). There is no way to make that reliable
>> unless every single device that may perform DMA is reset, and since
>> you don't reset legacy PCI or VGA devices, you're not even proposing
>> to do that.
>>
>> I think we need to support case 1 (for systems with no IOMMU at all)
>> and case 4 (IOMMU enabled in both system kernel and kdump kernel). If
>> the kdump kernel can detect whether the IOMMU is enabled, that should
>> be enough -- it could figure out automatically whether we're in case 1
>> or 4.
>
>Ok, I completely agree.
>
>
>>>> Do you have any bugzilla references or problem report URLs you could
>>>> include here?
>>>
>>> I know three Red Hat bugzilla, but I think these are private article and
>>> you cannot see. I'll add you Cc list in bz so that you can see.
>>>
>>> BZ#743790: Kdump fails with intel_iommu=on
>>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=743790
>>>
>>> BZ#743495: Hardware error is detected with intel_iommu=on
>>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=743495
>>>
>>> BZ#833299: megaraid_sas doesn't work well with intel_iommu=on and iommu=pt
>>> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=833299
>>
>> Thanks for adding me to the CC lists. I looked all three and I'm not
>> sure there's anything sensitive in them. It'd be nice if they could
>> be made public if there's not.
>
>I really appreciate your comments! I'll confirm I can make it public.

I would greatly appreciate being able to see the bugzillas relating to
this patch.
>
>Thanks,
>Takao Indoh

Thinking out of the box:
Much of the discussion about dealing with the ongoing DMA leftover
from the system kernel has assumed that the crash kernel will reset
the IOMMU -- which causes various problems if done while there is any DMA
still active -- which leads to the idea of stopping all of the DMA.

Suppose the crash kernel does not reset the hardware IOMMU, but simply
detects that it is active, resets only the devices that are necessary
for the crash kernel to operate, and re-programs only the translations
for those devices. All other translations remain the same (and remain valid)
so all leftover DMA continues into its buffer in the system kernel area
where it is harmless. New translations needed by the kdump kernel are
added to the existing tables.

I have not yet tried this, so I am not ready to propose it as anything more
than a discussion topic at this time.

It might work this way: (A small modification to case 3a above)

IOMMU on in system kernel, kdump kernel accepts active IOMMU
system kernel enables IOMMU
DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
kexec to kdump kernel (IOMMU on, devices untouched)
DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
kdump kernel detects active IOMMU and doesn't touch it
DMA targets IOMMU-mapped system-kernel memory
kdump kernel does not re-initialize IOMMU hardware
kdump kernel initializes IOMMU in-memory management structures
kdump kernel calls device drivers' standard initialization functions
Drivers initialize their own devices -- DMA from that device stops
When drivers request new DMA mappings, the kdump IOMMU driver:
1. Updates its in-memory mgt structures for that device & range
2. Updates IOMMU translate tables for that device & range
. Translations for all other devices & ranges are unchanged
3. Flushes IOMMU TLB to force IOMMU hardware update

Notes:
A. This seems very similar to case 1

B. Only touch devices with drivers loaded into kdump kernel.
. No need to touch devices that kdump is not going to use.

C. This assumes that all DMA device drivers used by kdump will
initialize the device before requesting DMA mappings.
. Seems reasonable, but need to confirm how many do (or don't)
. Only device drivers that might be included in the kdump
kernel need to observe this initialization ordering.

D. Could copy system kernel's translate tables into kdump kernel
and adjust pointers if this feels more trustworthy than using
the original structures where they are in the system kernel.

E. Handle IRQ remappings in a similar manner.

Thanks,
Bill Sumner


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