About Kernel Documentation Linux Kernel Contact Linux Resources Linux Blog

Documentation / virtual / kvm / locking.txt




Custom Search

Based on kernel version 3.9. Page generated on 2013-05-02 23:16 EST.

1	KVM Lock Overview
2	=================
3	
4	1. Acquisition Orders
5	---------------------
6	
7	(to be written)
8	
9	2: Exception
10	------------
11	
12	Fast page fault:
13	
14	Fast page fault is the fast path which fixes the guest page fault out of
15	the mmu-lock on x86. Currently, the page fault can be fast only if the
16	shadow page table is present and it is caused by write-protect, that means
17	we just need change the W bit of the spte.
18	
19	What we use to avoid all the race is the SPTE_HOST_WRITEABLE bit and
20	SPTE_MMU_WRITEABLE bit on the spte:
21	- SPTE_HOST_WRITEABLE means the gfn is writable on host.
22	- SPTE_MMU_WRITEABLE means the gfn is writable on mmu. The bit is set when
23	  the gfn is writable on guest mmu and it is not write-protected by shadow
24	  page write-protection.
25	
26	On fast page fault path, we will use cmpxchg to atomically set the spte W
27	bit if spte.SPTE_HOST_WRITEABLE = 1 and spte.SPTE_WRITE_PROTECT = 1, this
28	is safe because whenever changing these bits can be detected by cmpxchg.
29	
30	But we need carefully check these cases:
31	1): The mapping from gfn to pfn
32	The mapping from gfn to pfn may be changed since we can only ensure the pfn
33	is not changed during cmpxchg. This is a ABA problem, for example, below case
34	will happen:
35	
36	At the beginning:
37	gpte = gfn1
38	gfn1 is mapped to pfn1 on host
39	spte is the shadow page table entry corresponding with gpte and
40	spte = pfn1
41	
42	   VCPU 0                           VCPU0
43	on fast page fault path:
44	
45	   old_spte = *spte;
46	                                 pfn1 is swapped out:
47	                                    spte = 0;
48	
49	                                 pfn1 is re-alloced for gfn2.
50	
51	                                 gpte is changed to point to
52	                                 gfn2 by the guest:
53	                                    spte = pfn1;
54	
55	   if (cmpxchg(spte, old_spte, old_spte+W)
56		mark_page_dirty(vcpu->kvm, gfn1)
57	             OOPS!!!
58	
59	We dirty-log for gfn1, that means gfn2 is lost in dirty-bitmap.
60	
61	For direct sp, we can easily avoid it since the spte of direct sp is fixed
62	to gfn. For indirect sp, before we do cmpxchg, we call gfn_to_pfn_atomic()
63	to pin gfn to pfn, because after gfn_to_pfn_atomic():
64	- We have held the refcount of pfn that means the pfn can not be freed and
65	  be reused for another gfn.
66	- The pfn is writable that means it can not be shared between different gfns
67	  by KSM.
68	
69	Then, we can ensure the dirty bitmaps is correctly set for a gfn.
70	
71	Currently, to simplify the whole things, we disable fast page fault for
72	indirect shadow page.
73	
74	2): Dirty bit tracking
75	In the origin code, the spte can be fast updated (non-atomically) if the
76	spte is read-only and the Accessed bit has already been set since the
77	Accessed bit and Dirty bit can not be lost.
78	
79	But it is not true after fast page fault since the spte can be marked
80	writable between reading spte and updating spte. Like below case:
81	
82	At the beginning:
83	spte.W = 0
84	spte.Accessed = 1
85	
86	   VCPU 0                                       VCPU0
87	In mmu_spte_clear_track_bits():
88	
89	   old_spte = *spte;
90	
91	   /* 'if' condition is satisfied. */
92	   if (old_spte.Accssed == 1 &&
93	        old_spte.W == 0)
94	      spte = 0ull;
95	                                         on fast page fault path:
96	                                             spte.W = 1
97	                                         memory write on the spte:
98	                                             spte.Dirty = 1
99	
100	
101	   else
102	      old_spte = xchg(spte, 0ull)
103	
104	
105	   if (old_spte.Accssed == 1)
106	      kvm_set_pfn_accessed(spte.pfn);
107	   if (old_spte.Dirty == 1)
108	      kvm_set_pfn_dirty(spte.pfn);
109	      OOPS!!!
110	
111	The Dirty bit is lost in this case.
112	
113	In order to avoid this kind of issue, we always treat the spte as "volatile"
114	if it can be updated out of mmu-lock, see spte_has_volatile_bits(), it means,
115	the spte is always atomicly updated in this case.
116	
117	3): flush tlbs due to spte updated
118	If the spte is updated from writable to readonly, we should flush all TLBs,
119	otherwise rmap_write_protect will find a read-only spte, even though the
120	writable spte might be cached on a CPU's TLB.
121	
122	As mentioned before, the spte can be updated to writable out of mmu-lock on
123	fast page fault path, in order to easily audit the path, we see if TLBs need
124	be flushed caused by this reason in mmu_spte_update() since this is a common
125	function to update spte (present -> present).
126	
127	Since the spte is "volatile" if it can be updated out of mmu-lock, we always
128	atomicly update the spte, the race caused by fast page fault can be avoided,
129	See the comments in spte_has_volatile_bits() and mmu_spte_update().
130	
131	3. Reference
132	------------
133	
134	Name:		kvm_lock
135	Type:		raw_spinlock
136	Arch:		any
137	Protects:	- vm_list
138			- hardware virtualization enable/disable
139	Comment:	'raw' because hardware enabling/disabling must be atomic /wrt
140			migration.
141	
142	Name:		kvm_arch::tsc_write_lock
143	Type:		raw_spinlock
144	Arch:		x86
145	Protects:	- kvm_arch::{last_tsc_write,last_tsc_nsec,last_tsc_offset}
146			- tsc offset in vmcb
147	Comment:	'raw' because updating the tsc offsets must not be preempted.
148	
149	Name:		kvm->mmu_lock
150	Type:		spinlock_t
151	Arch:		any
152	Protects:	-shadow page/shadow tlb entry
153	Comment:	it is a spinlock since it is used in mmu notifier.
Hide Line Numbers
About Kernel Documentation Linux Kernel Contact Linux Resources Linux Blog
Information is copyright its respective author. All material is available from the Linux Kernel Source distributed under a GPL License. This page is provided as a free service by mjmwired.net.