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Date:   Fri, 7 Oct 2022 14:58:54 +0000
From:   Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
To:     Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko@kernel.org>
Cc:     Chao Peng <chao.p.peng@linux.intel.com>, kvm@vger.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org,
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        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
        Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@redhat.com>,
        Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@tencent.com>,
        Jim Mattson <jmattson@google.com>,
        Joerg Roedel <joro@8bytes.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>,
        x86@kernel.org, "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>,
        Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>,
        Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>,
        "J . Bruce Fields" <bfields@fieldses.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
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        Michael Roth <michael.roth@amd.com>, mhocko@suse.com,
        Muchun Song <songmuchun@bytedance.com>, wei.w.wang@intel.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 2/8] KVM: Extend the memslot to support fd-based
 private memory
Message-ID: <Y0A+rogB6TRDtbyE@google.com>
References: <20220915142913.2213336-1-chao.p.peng@linux.intel.com>
 <20220915142913.2213336-3-chao.p.peng@linux.intel.com>
 <Yz7s+JIexAHJm5dc@kernel.org>
 <Yz7vHXZmU3EpmI0j@kernel.org>
 <Yz71ogila0mSHxxJ@google.com>
 <Y0AJ++m/TxoscOZg@kernel.org>
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On Fri, Oct 07, 2022, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 03:34:58PM +0000, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 06, 2022, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> > > On Thu, Oct 06, 2022 at 05:58:03PM +0300, Jarkko Sakkinen wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 10:29:07PM +0800, Chao Peng wrote:
> > > > > This new extension, indicated by the new flag KVM_MEM_PRIVATE, adds two
> > > > > additional KVM memslot fields private_fd/private_offset to allow
> > > > > userspace to specify that guest private memory provided from the
> > > > > private_fd and guest_phys_addr mapped at the private_offset of the
> > > > > private_fd, spanning a range of memory_size.
> > > > > 
> > > > > The extended memslot can still have the userspace_addr(hva). When use, a
> > > > > single memslot can maintain both private memory through private
> > > > > fd(private_fd/private_offset) and shared memory through
> > > > > hva(userspace_addr). Whether the private or shared part is visible to
> > > > > guest is maintained by other KVM code.
> > > > 
> > > > What is anyway the appeal of private_offset field, instead of having just
> > > > 1:1 association between regions and files, i.e. one memfd per region?
> > 
> > Modifying memslots is slow, both in KVM and in QEMU (not sure about Google's VMM).
> > E.g. if a vCPU converts a single page, it will be forced to wait until all other
> > vCPUs drop SRCU, which can have severe latency spikes, e.g. if KVM is faulting in
> > memory.  KVM's memslot updates also hold a mutex for the entire duration of the
> > update, i.e. conversions on different vCPUs would be fully serialized, exacerbating
> > the SRCU problem.
> > 
> > KVM also has historical baggage where it "needs" to zap _all_ SPTEs when any
> > memslot is deleted.
> > 
> > Taking both a private_fd and a shared userspace address allows userspace to convert
> > between private and shared without having to manipulate memslots.
> 
> Right, this was really good explanation, thank you.
> 
> Still wondering could this possibly work (or not):
> 
> 1. Union userspace_addr and private_fd.

No, because userspace needs to be able to provide both userspace_addr (shared
memory) and private_fd (private memory) for a single memslot.

> 2. Instead of introducing private_offset, use guest_phys_addr as the
>    offset.

No, because that would force userspace to use a single private_fd for all of guest
memory since it effectively means private_offset=0.  And userspace couldn't skip
over holes in guest memory, i.e. the size of the memfd would need to follow the
max guest gpa.  In other words, dropping private_offset could work, but it'd be
quite kludgy and not worth saving 8 bytes.