Re: [ANNOUNCE] 2016-Q1 release of KVMGT (Was Re: KVMGT - the implementation of ...)

[Jike Song]

Hi all,

We are pleased to announce another update of Intel GVT-g for KVM.

Intel GVT-g for KVM (a.k.a. KVMGT) is a full GPU virtualization solution with mediated pass-through, starting from 4th generation Intel Core(TM) processors with Intel Graphics processors.  A virtual GPU instance is maintained for each VM, with part of performance critical resources directly assigned. The capability of running native graphics driver inside a VM, without hypervisor intervention in performance critical paths, achieves a good balance among performance, feature, and sharing capability.


Repositories:

Kernel: https://github.com/01org/igvtg-kernel (2016q1-4.3.0 branch)
Qemu: https://github.com/01org/igvtg-qemu (2016q1-2.3.0 branch)


This update consists of:

- KVMGT now has better support for 5th generation (Broadwell) Intel Core(TM) processors, Xeon(R) E3 v4
- A new feature, QEMU compositor display is added to support display VM in QEMU window. (use i915.enable_vgtbuffer=1 in kernel command line to enable this feature, disabled by default, details please refer to the Setup Guide)
- 2D/3D/Media workloads can be run simultaneously in multiple guests.
- Support both Windows Guest and Linux Guest(Win7-32, Win7-64, Win8.1-64, Ubuntu14.04-64)
- Host Linux kernel has been upgraded from 4.2.0 to 4.3.0 (based on drm-intel)
- KVMGT has preliminary support for 6th generation (Skylake) Intel Core(TM) processors.


Known issues:

   - At least 2GB memory is suggested for VM to run most 3D workloads.
   - On some particular platform, assigning >2G memory to VM will cause Linux VM failed to boot up and Windows VM failed to load GFX driver.
   - Using VLC to play .ogg file may cause mosaic or slow response.
   - Running heavy 3D workloads in multiple guests for couple of hours may cause stability issue.(use i915.preemption_policy=3 in host kernel cmd line can work around this stability issue)


Please subscribe to join the mailing list: https://lists.01.org/mailman/listinfo/igvt-g

Official iGVT-g portal: https://01.org/igvt-g

More information about background, architecture and others about Intel GVT-g, can be found at:


    http://www.linux-kvm.org/images/f/f3/01x08b-KVMGT-a.pdf
    https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc14/technical-sessions/presentation/tian


The upstreaming effort of iGVT-g project is ongoing elsewhere, not as a part of this release.


Note:

The KVMGT project should be considered a work in progress. As such it is not a complete product nor should it be considered one. Extra care should be taken when testing and configuring a system to use the KVMGT project.


--
Thanks,
Jike

On 01/27/2016 02:32 PM, Jike Song wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> We are pleased to announce another update of Intel GVT-g for KVM.
> 
> Intel GVT-g for KVM (a.k.a. KVMGT) is a full GPU virtualization solution with mediated pass-through, starting from 4th generation Intel Core(TM) processors with Intel Graphics processors.  A virtual GPU instance is maintained for each VM, with part of performance critical resources directly assigned. The capability of running native graphics driver inside a VM, without hypervisor intervention in performance critical paths, achieves a good balance among performance, feature, and sharing capability.
> 
> Repositories:
> 
> 	Kernel: https://github.com/01org/igvtg-kernel (2015q4-4.2.0 branch)
> 	Qemu: https://github.com/01org/igvtg-qemu (kvmgt_public2015q4 branch)
> 
> This update consists of:
> 
> 	- KVMGT now has better support for 5th generation (Broadwell) Intel Core(TM) processors, 2D/3D/Media workloads can be run simultaneously in multiple guests.
> 	- Host Linux kernel has been upgraded from 3.18.0 to 4.2.0 (based on drm-intel)
> 
> Next update will be around early April, 2016.
> 
> Known issues:
> 
> 	- At least 2GB memory is suggested for VM to run most 3D workloads.
> 	- Using VLC to play .ogg file may cause mosaic or slow response.
> 	- Running heavy 3D workloads in multiple guests for couple of hours may cause stability issue.
> 
> Official iGVT-g portal: https://01.org/igvt-g
> Please subscribe the mailing list: https://lists.01.org/mailman/listinfo/igvt-g
> 
> More information about background, architecture and others about Intel GVT-g, can be found at:
> 
> 	http://www.linux-kvm.org/images/f/f3/01x08b-KVMGT-a.pdf
> 	https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc14/technical-sessions/presentation/tian
> 
> 
> Note: The KVMGT project should be considered a work in progress. As such it is not a complete product nor should it be considered one. Extra care should be taken when testing and configuring a system to use the KVMGT project.
> 
> 
> --
> Thanks,
> Jike
> 
> On 10/27/2015 05:36 PM, Jike Song wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> We are pleased to announce another update of Intel GVT-g for KVM.
>>
>> Intel GVT-g is a full GPU virtualization solution with mediated pass-through, starting from 4th generation Intel Core(TM) processors with Intel Graphics processors. A virtual GPU instance is maintained for each VM, with part of performance critical resources directly assigned. The capability of running native graphics driver inside a VM, without hypervisor intervention in performance critical paths, achieves a good balance among performance, feature, and sharing capability. KVM is supported by Intel GVT-g(a.k.a. KVMGT).
>>
>>
>> Repositories
>>
>>      Kernel: https://github.com/01org/igvtg-kernel (2015q3-3.18.0 branch)
>>      Qemu: https://github.com/01org/igvtg-qemu (kvmgt_public2015q3 branch)
>>
>>
>> This update consists of:
>>
>>      - KVMGT is now merged with XenGT in unified repositories(kernel and qemu), but currently
>>        different branches for qemu.  KVMGT and XenGT share same iGVT-g core logic.
>>      - PPGTT supported, hence the Windows guest support
>>      - KVMGT now supports both 4th generation (Haswell) and 5th generation (Broadwell) Intel Core(TM) processors
>>      - 2D/3D/Media decoding have been validated on Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows7/Windows 8.1
>>
>> Next update will be around early Jan, 2016.
>>
>> Known issues:
>>
>>      - At least 2GB memory is suggested for VM to run most 3D workloads.
>>      - 3Dmark06 running in Windows VM may have some stability issue.
>>      - Using VLC to play .ogg file may cause mosaic or slow response.
>>
>>
>> Please subscribe the mailing list to report BUGs, discuss, and/or contribute:
>>
>>      https://lists.01.org/mailman/listinfo/igvt-g
>>
>> More information about Intel GVT-g background, architecture, etc can be found at(may not be up-to-date):
>>
>>      https://01.org/igvt-g
>>      http://www.linux-kvm.org/images/f/f3/01x08b-KVMGT-a.pdf
>>      https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc14/technical-sessions/presentation/tian
>>
>>
>> Note:
>>
>> The KVMGT project should be considered a work in progress. As such it is not a complete product nor should it be considered one. Extra care should be taken when testing and configuring a system to use the KVMGT project.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thanks,
>> Jike
>>
>> On 12/04/2014 10:24 AM, Jike Song wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>    We are pleased to announce the first release of KVMGT project. KVMGT is the implementation of Intel GVT-g technology, a full GPU virtualization solution. Under Intel GVT-g, a virtual GPU instance is maintained for each VM, with part of performance critical resources directly assigned. The capability of running native graphics driver inside a VM, without hypervisor intervention in performance critical paths, achieves a good balance of performance, feature, and sharing capability.
>>>
>>>
>>>    KVMGT is still in the early stage:
>>>
>>>     - Basic functions of full GPU virtualization works, guest can see a full-featured vGPU.
>>>       We ran several 3D workloads such as lightsmark, nexuiz, urbanterror and warsow.
>>>
>>>     - Only Linux guest supported so far, and PPGTT must be disabled in guest through a
>>>       kernel parameter(see README.kvmgt in QEMU).
>>>
>>>     - This drop also includes some Xen specific changes, which will be cleaned up later.
>>>
>>>     - Our end goal is to upstream both XenGT and KVMGT, which shares ~90% logic for vGPU
>>>       device model (will be part of i915 driver), with only difference in hypervisor
>>>       specific services
>>>
>>>     - insufficient test coverage, so please bear with stability issues :)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>    There are things need to be improved, esp. the KVM interfacing part:
>>>
>>> 	1	a domid was added to each KVMGT guest
>>>
>>> 		An ID is needed for foreground OS switching, e.g.
>>>
>>> 			# echo <domid>	>	/sys/kernel/vgt/control/foreground_vm
>>>
>>> 		domid 0 is reserved for host OS.
>>>
>>>
>>>    	2	SRCU workarounds.
>>>
>>> 		Some KVM functions, such as:
>>>
>>> 				kvm_io_bus_register_dev
>>> 				install_new_memslots
>>>
>>> 		must be called *without* &kvm->srcu read-locked. Otherwise it hangs.
>>>
>>> 		In KVMGT, we need to register an iodev only *after* BAR registers are
>>> 		written by guest. That means, we already have &kvm->srcu hold -
>>> 		trapping/emulating PIO(BAR registers) makes us in such a condition.
>>> 		That will make kvm_io_bus_register_dev hangs.
>>>
>>> 		Currently we have to disable rcu_assign_pointer() in such functions.
>>>
>>> 		These were dirty workarounds, your suggestions are high welcome!
>>>
>>>
>>> 	3	syscalls were called to access "/dev/mem" from kernel
>>>
>>> 		An in-kernel memslot was added for aperture, but using syscalls like
>>> 		open and mmap to open and access the character device "/dev/mem",
>>> 		for pass-through.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The source codes(kernel, qemu as well as seabios) are available at github:
>>>
>>> 	git://github.com/01org/KVMGT-kernel
>>> 	git://github.com/01org/KVMGT-qemu
>>> 	git://github.com/01org/KVMGT-seabios
>>>
>>> In the KVMGT-qemu repository, there is a "README.kvmgt" to be referred.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> More information about Intel GVT-g and KVMGT can be found at:
>>>
>>> 	https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc14/technical-sessions/presentation/tian
>>> 	http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/KVMGT-a%20Full%20GPU%20Virtualization%20Solution_1.pdf
>>>
>>>
>>> Appreciate your comments, BUG reports, and contributions!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Thanks,
>>> Jike
>>>