Re: [PATCH v3 0/9] KVM: guest_memfd: folio migration for non-confidential VMs

[David Hildenbrand (Arm)]

On 8/5/26 08:40, Shivank Garg wrote:
> guest_memfd folios are currently always marked unmovable, so the kernel cannot
> perform memory compaction, offlining, etc. This is unavoidable for
> confidential VMs (SEV-SNP, TDX), since memory is encrypted and copying it
> needs firmware assistance. However, for non-confidential VMs (like
> Firecracker), we can migrate the folios.

Yes.

> 
> This series enables folio migration for non-confidential guest_memfd and
> also lays the groundwork for migrating confidential guest_memfd later.
> Once firmware-assisted copying support is available, those VMs can be
> made movable, the confidential folio content can be copied separately,
> and the destination folio marked with FOLIO_CONTENT_COPIED[4] so
> __migrate_folio() skips the host-side folio_mc_copy().
> 
> Testing
> -------
> Host: 7.2-rc6+(c21bb419386) + this, AMD EPYC ZEN 3, 2 NUMA nodes
> 
> - KVM selftest: allocate folios on node 0, migrate them to node 1 and
>   back and verify resulting NUMA node and the folio contents at each
>   step.
> 
> - Firecracker [1]: booted a microVM backed by guest_memfd. While the
>   guest was running, forced host-side migration of its folios via
>   migratepages(8) and explicit move_pages(2) of guest_memfd
>   pages. Verify with /proc/firecracker_pid/numa_maps.
> 
> Notes
> -----
> - Sashiko pointed out a pre-existing ABBA deadlock between
>   kvm_gmem_error_folio() and truncation. It's being addressed separately
>   by Hao Zhang. [2][3]
> 
> [1] https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/tree/feature/secret-hiding
>     In builder.rs, add GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MIGRATABLE to bit-2 and pass it instead
>     of GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_NO_DIRECT_MAP to vm.create_guest_memfd().
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/ambEdSPjerZIVN0b@192.168.1.215/
> [3] https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260611-shivank-gmem-migrate-v1-0-2d266bfc6f95%40amd.com
> [4] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260630-shivank-batch-migrate-offload-v6-1-da95d7e8b8a2@xxxxxxx
> 
> Signed-off-by: Shivank Garg <shivankg@xxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changes in v3:
> - Fix unbalanced mmu_invalidate_in_progress count unbinding dying guest_memfd. (Sashiko)
> - Fix maxnode handling in xapic_ipi_test selftest.
> - Add GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MIGRATABLE documentation
> - Replace open-coded sizeof() * 8 calculation with BITS_PER_TYPE()
> - Add get_numa_mem_nodes() and use  MPOL_F_MEMS_ALLOWED for allowed NUMA ndoes
>   instead of hardcoded NUMA node IDs. (Sashiko)
> - Extend migration selftest to verify rejection without MIGRATABLE flag and
>   move repeated checks into common helpers.
> - Drop RFC tag.
> - Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260728-shivank-gmem-migrate-v2-0-269ac1f84e2b@xxxxxxx
> 
> Changes in v2:
> - Make folio migration opt-in through GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MIGRATABLE,
>   preserving unmovable behavior if userspace don't explictly ask. (Alexandru, David, Sean)
> - Add kvm_arch_supports_gmem_migration() so arch can control whether
>   GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MIGRATABLE is advertised.
> - Allocate movable folios with GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE. (David)
> - Keep guest_memfd unevictable. (David, Sashiko, Sean)
> - Split migrate_folio() implementation and enablement as separate patches.
> - Update selftest with new flag.
> - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260611-shivank-gmem-migrate-v1-0-2d266bfc6f95@xxxxxxx
> 
> ---
> Shivank Garg (9):
>       KVM: guest_memfd: take the invalidate lock when unbinding a dying file
>       mm: split AS_UNMOVABLE back out of AS_INACCESSIBLE
>       KVM: guest_memfd: implement folio migration for non-confidential VMs
>       KVM: guest_memfd: add GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_MIGRATABLE


As discussed, we should for now just always enable it and not expose such a
flag. The hope is that use cases that need migration disabled can just find a
way for kvm to tell guest_memfd about that internally ... or we'll add a
GUEST_MEMFD_FLAG_UNMIGRATABLE or whatever later.

With migration in place, as also discussed, it would be interesting to
investigate what it would take for these shared-only (no conversion) and
migratable guest_memfd instances to support THPs.

I'd assume we might have to teach

1) guest_memfd / KVM parts about this, although I recall that most of it should
be there

2) Unlock guest_memfd in khugeapged

We disallowed khugepaged entirely in commit

commit dd085fe9a8ebfc5d10314c60452db38d2b75e609
Author: Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@xxxxxxxxx>
Date:   Sat Feb 14 05:45:35 2026 +0530

    mm: thp: deny THP for files on anonymous inodes

    file_thp_enabled() incorrectly allows THP for files on anonymous inodes
    (e.g. guest_memfd and secretmem). These files are created via
    alloc_file_pseudo(), which does not call get_write_access() and leaves
    inode->i_writecount at 0. Combined with S_ISREG(inode->i_mode) being
    true, they appear as read-only regular files when
    CONFIG_READ_ONLY_THP_FOR_FS is enabled, making them eligible for THP
    collapse.

It will also be interesting to figure out how well khugepaged would collapse
guest_memfd when most folios are not actually faulted into the user page tables.

collapse_scan_file() does not seem to worry about whether folios are actually
mapped, just if they are present in the page cache.

Which might mean that as long as guestmemfd is mmap'ed, it might just work.


-- 
Cheers,

David