Re: [PATCH v5 3/3] KVM: x86: add new nested vmexit tracepoints

From: Paolo Bonzini
Date: Thu Dec 19 2024 - 12:39:14 EST


On 9/10/24 22:03, Maxim Levitsky wrote:
Add 3 new tracepoints for nested VM exits which are intended
to capture extra information to gain insights about the nested guest
behavior.

The new tracepoints are:

- kvm_nested_msr
- kvm_nested_hypercall

These tracepoints capture extra register state to be able to know
which MSR or which hypercall was done.

- kvm_nested_page_fault

This tracepoint allows to capture extra info about which host pagefault
error code caused the nested page fault.

Signed-off-by: Maxim Levitsky <mlevitsk@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c | 22 +++++++++++
arch/x86/kvm/trace.h | 82 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c | 27 +++++++++++++
arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 3 ++
4 files changed, 131 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c
index 6f704c1037e51..2020307481553 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/svm/nested.c
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ static void nested_svm_inject_npf_exit(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
{
struct vcpu_svm *svm = to_svm(vcpu);
struct vmcb *vmcb = svm->vmcb;
+ u64 host_error_code = vmcb->control.exit_info_1;
+
if (vmcb->control.exit_code != SVM_EXIT_NPF) {
/*
@@ -48,11 +50,15 @@ static void nested_svm_inject_npf_exit(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
vmcb->control.exit_code_hi = 0;
vmcb->control.exit_info_1 = (1ULL << 32);
vmcb->control.exit_info_2 = fault->address;
+ host_error_code = 0;
}
vmcb->control.exit_info_1 &= ~0xffffffffULL;
vmcb->control.exit_info_1 |= fault->error_code;
+ trace_kvm_nested_page_fault(fault->address, host_error_code,
+ fault->error_code);
+

I disagree with Sean about trace_kvm_nested_page_fault. It's a useful addition and it is easier to understand what's happening with a dedicated tracepoint (especially on VMX).

Tracepoint are not an exact science and they aren't entirely kernel API. At least they can just go away at any time (changing them is a lot more tricky, but their presence is not guaranteed). The one below has the slight ugliness of having to do some computation in nested_svm_vmexit(), this one should go in.

nested_svm_vmexit(svm);
}
@@ -1126,6 +1132,22 @@ int nested_svm_vmexit(struct vcpu_svm *svm)
vmcb12->control.exit_int_info_err,
KVM_ISA_SVM);
+ /* Collect some info about nested VM exits */
+ switch (vmcb12->control.exit_code) {
+ case SVM_EXIT_MSR:
+ trace_kvm_nested_msr(vmcb12->control.exit_info_1 == 1,
+ kvm_rcx_read(vcpu),
+ (vmcb12->save.rax & 0xFFFFFFFFull) |
+ (((u64)kvm_rdx_read(vcpu) << 32)));
+ break;
+ case SVM_EXIT_VMMCALL:
+ trace_kvm_nested_hypercall(vmcb12->save.rax,
+ kvm_rbx_read(vcpu),
+ kvm_rcx_read(vcpu),
+ kvm_rdx_read(vcpu));
+ break;

Here I probably would have preferred an unconditional tracepoint giving RAX/RBX/RCX/RDX after a nested vmexit. This is not exactly what Sean wanted but perhaps it strikes a middle ground? I know you wrote this for a debugging tool, do you really need to have everything in a single tracepoint, or can you correlate the existing exit tracepoint with this hypothetical trace_kvm_nested_exit_regs, to pick RDMSR vs. WRMSR?

Paolo