Re: [PATCH v2 6/6] KVM: x86: Drop arbitraty KVM_SOFT_MAX_VCPUS

From: Paolo Bonzini
Date: Wed Nov 17 2021 - 07:12:15 EST


On 11/16/21 17:34, Vitaly Kuznetsov wrote:
KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS is used to get the "recommended" maximum number of
VCPUs and arm64/mips/riscv report num_online_cpus(). Powerpc reports
either num_online_cpus() or num_present_cpus(), s390 has multiple
constants depending on hardware features. On x86, KVM reports an
arbitrary value of '710' which is supposed to be the maximum tested
value but it's possible to test all KVM_MAX_VCPUS even when there are
less physical CPUs available.

Drop the arbitrary '710' value and return num_online_cpus() on x86 as
well. The recommendation will match other architectures and will mean
'no CPU overcommit'.

For reference, QEMU only queries KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS to print a warning
when the requested vCPU number exceeds it. The static limit of '710'
is quite weird as smaller systems with just a few physical CPUs should
certainly "recommend" less.

Suggested-by: Eduardo Habkost<ehabkost@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Vitaly Kuznetsov<vkuznets@xxxxxxxxxx>

Given that KVM_SOFT_MAX_VCPUS has already been dropped in 5.16, I changed the commit message to

KVM: x86: Cap KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS by KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS

It doesn't make sense to return the recommended maximum number of
vCPUs which exceeds the maximum possible number of vCPUs.

Paolo