[PATCH] KVM: irqchip: allocate routing entries in chunks

From: lirongqing

Date: Tue Sep 08 2026 - 08:17:27 EST


From: Li RongQing <lirongqing@xxxxxxxxx>

kvm_set_irq_routing() allocates each routing entry separately, so
a routing table with thousands of GSIs needs thousands of small
allocations and frees, adding significant allocator overhead.

Allocate the entries in chunks instead: each chunk holds up to
PAGE_SIZE / sizeof(struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry) entries, and
the chunk pointers are kept in the routing table so that all entries
are freed together when the table is released.

Each chunk is capped at PAGE_SIZE instead of allocating one array for
the whole table: with nr up to KVM_MAX_IRQ_ROUTES (4096), a single array
would be a multi-page contiguous request, which is what tends to fail
once memory is fragmented. Page-sized chunks stay on the normal kmalloc
path, and a failed allocation only costs one chunk. The chunk pointer
array uses kvzalloc_objs() and can fall back to vmalloc.

The last chunk is sized to the number of entries actually left, so a
table smaller than one chunk - the common case - allocates only what it
needs.

Measured with an eBPF probe on kvm_set_irq_routing() on an Intel EMR CPU:
when a VM has a 2000+ entry routing table, the time spent in the function
drops from about 700us to about 300us.

Signed-off-by: Li RongQing <lirongqing@xxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/kvm_host.h | 2 ++
virt/kvm/irqchip.c | 62 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
2 files changed, 53 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/kvm_host.h b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
index 03bfc92..83848d7 100644
--- a/include/linux/kvm_host.h
+++ b/include/linux/kvm_host.h
@@ -693,6 +693,8 @@ struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry {
struct kvm_irq_routing_table {
int chip[KVM_NR_IRQCHIPS][KVM_IRQCHIP_NUM_PINS];
u32 nr_rt_entries;
+ u32 nr_entry_chunks;
+ struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry **entry_chunks;
/*
* Array indexed by gsi. Each entry contains list of irq chips
* the gsi is connected to.
diff --git a/virt/kvm/irqchip.c b/virt/kvm/irqchip.c
index 462c706..044b831 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/irqchip.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/irqchip.c
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@
#include <linux/export.h>
#include <trace/events/kvm.h>

+#define KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_ENTRIES_PER_CHUNK \
+ (PAGE_SIZE / sizeof(struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry))
+
int kvm_irq_map_gsi(struct kvm *kvm,
struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry *entries, int gsi)
{
@@ -107,12 +110,14 @@ static void free_irq_routing_table(struct kvm_irq_routing_table *rt)
struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry *e;
struct hlist_node *n;

- hlist_for_each_entry_safe(e, n, &rt->map[i], link) {
+ hlist_for_each_entry_safe(e, n, &rt->map[i], link)
hlist_del(&e->link);
- kfree(e);
- }
}

+ for (i = 0; i < rt->nr_entry_chunks; ++i)
+ kfree(rt->entry_chunks[i]);
+ kvfree(rt->entry_chunks);
+
kfree(rt);
}

@@ -170,9 +175,11 @@ int kvm_set_irq_routing(struct kvm *kvm,
unsigned nr,
unsigned flags)
{
+ struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry **chunks = NULL;
struct kvm_irq_routing_table *new, *old;
struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry *e;
u32 i, j, nr_rt_entries = 0;
+ u32 nr_chunks;
int r;

for (i = 0; i < nr; ++i) {
@@ -183,6 +190,13 @@ int kvm_set_irq_routing(struct kvm *kvm,

nr_rt_entries += 1;

+ /*
+ * The chunks hold the routing entries, so they are sized by the number
+ * of entries passed in by the caller, not by nr_rt_entries, which is
+ * the size of the GSI map.
+ */
+ nr_chunks = DIV_ROUND_UP(nr, KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_ENTRIES_PER_CHUNK);
+
new = kzalloc_flex(*new, map, nr_rt_entries, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
if (!new)
return -ENOMEM;
@@ -192,26 +206,54 @@ int kvm_set_irq_routing(struct kvm *kvm,
for (j = 0; j < KVM_IRQCHIP_NUM_PINS; j++)
new->chip[i][j] = -1;

+ r = -ENOMEM;
+ if (nr_chunks) {
+ chunks = kvzalloc_objs(*chunks, nr_chunks, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
+ if (!chunks)
+ goto out;
+
+ new->entry_chunks = chunks;
+ new->nr_entry_chunks = nr_chunks;
+ }
+
for (i = 0; i < nr; ++i) {
+ u32 idx = i / KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_ENTRIES_PER_CHUNK;
+ u32 off = i % KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_ENTRIES_PER_CHUNK;
+
r = -ENOMEM;
- e = kzalloc_obj(*e, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
- if (!e)
- goto out;
+ if (!chunks[idx]) {
+ struct kvm_kernel_irq_routing_entry *chunk;
+ /*
+ * A chunk is only entered at its first entry, so nr - i
+ * is the number of entries left for this chunk; the last
+ * chunk is short.
+ */
+ u32 cnt = min_t(u32, nr - i,
+ KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_ENTRIES_PER_CHUNK);
+
+ chunk = kzalloc_objs(*chunk, cnt, GFP_KERNEL_ACCOUNT);
+ if (!chunk)
+ goto out;
+
+ chunks[idx] = chunk;
+ }
+
+ e = chunks[idx] + off;

r = -EINVAL;
switch (ue->type) {
case KVM_IRQ_ROUTING_MSI:
if (ue->flags & ~KVM_MSI_VALID_DEVID)
- goto free_entry;
+ goto out;
break;
default:
if (ue->flags)
- goto free_entry;
+ goto out;
break;
}
r = setup_routing_entry(kvm, new, e, ue);
if (r)
- goto free_entry;
+ goto out;
++ue;
}

@@ -228,8 +270,6 @@ int kvm_set_irq_routing(struct kvm *kvm,
r = 0;
goto out;

-free_entry:
- kfree(e);
out:
free_irq_routing_table(new);

--
2.9.4