Re: [RFC 1/2] x86/bugs: Disable coresched on hardware that does not need it

[Alexander Graf]

On 11.11.20 22:14, Joel Fernandes wrote:
> Sorry, forgot to CC +Tom Lendacky . Please take a look Tom, thanks.
>
> On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 4:10 PM Joel Fernandes (Google)
> <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Some hardware such as certain AMD variants don't have cross-HT MDS/L1TF
> > issues. Detect this and don't enable core scheduling as it can
> > needlessly slow the device done.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >   arch/x86/kernel/cpu/bugs.c | 8 ++++++++
> >   kernel/sched/core.c        | 7 +++++++
> >   kernel/sched/sched.h       | 5 +++++
> >   3 files changed, 20 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/bugs.c b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/bugs.c
> > index dece79e4d1e9..0e6e61e49b23 100644
> > --- a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/bugs.c
> > +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/bugs.c
> > @@ -152,6 +152,14 @@ void __init check_bugs(void)
> >   #endif
> >   }
> >
> > +/*
> > + * Do not need core scheduling if CPU does not have MDS/L1TF vulnerability.
> > + */
> > +int arch_allow_core_sched(void)
> > +{
> > +       return boot_cpu_has_bug(X86_BUG_MDS) || boot_cpu_has_bug(X86_BUG_L1TF);

Can we make this more generic and user settable, similar to the L1 cache 
flushing modes in KVM?

I am not 100% convinced that there are no other thread sibling attacks 
possible without MDS and L1TF. If I'm paranoid, I want to still be able 
to force enable core scheduling.

In addition, we are also using core scheduling as a poor man's mechanism 
to give customers consistent performance for virtual machine thread 
siblings. This is important irrespective of CPU bugs. In such a 
scenario, I want to force enable core scheduling.


Alex



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