Re: [PATCH RFC 3/6] KVM: x86: interrupt based APF page-ready event delivery

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 29/04/20 14:40, Vitaly Kuznetsov wrote:
> Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> 
>> On 29/04/20 11:36, Vitaly Kuznetsov wrote:
>>> +
>>> +	Type 1 page (page missing) events are currently always delivered as
>>> +	synthetic #PF exception. Type 2 (page ready) are either delivered
>>> +	by #PF exception (when bit 3 of MSR_KVM_ASYNC_PF_EN is clear) or
>>> +	via an APIC interrupt (when bit 3 set). APIC interrupt delivery is
>>> +	controlled by MSR_KVM_ASYNC_PF2.
>>
>> I think we should (in the non-RFC version) block async page faults
>> completely and only keep APF_HALT unless the guest is using page ready
>> interrupt delivery.
> 
> Sure, we can do that. This is, however, a significant behavioral change:
> APF_HALT frees the host, not the guest, so even if the combined
> performance of all guests on the same pCPU remain the same guests with
> e.g. a lot of simultaneously running processes may suffer more.

Yes, it is a significant change.  However the resulting clean up in the
spec is significant, because we don't have type 2 notifications at all
anymore.

(APF_HALT does free the guest a little bit by allowing interrupt
delivery during a host page fault; in particular it lets the scheduler
tick run, which does improve responsiveness somewhat significantly).

Likewise, I think we should clean up the guest side without prejudice.
Patch 6 should disable async page fault unless page-ready interrupts are
available, and drop the page ready case from the #PF handler.

Thanks,

Paolo

> In theory, we can keep two mechanisms side by side for as long as we
> want but if the end goal is to have '#PF abuse eliminated' than we'll
> have to get rid of the legacy one some day. The day when the new
> mechanism lands is also a good choice :-)