All of lore.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Zide Chen <zide.chen@intel.com>
To: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
	Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org, Jim Mattson <jmattson@google.com>,
	Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Mingwei Zhang <mizhang@google.com>,
	Zide Chen <zide.chen@intel.com>,
	Das Sandipan <Sandipan.Das@amd.com>,
	Shukla Manali <Manali.Shukla@amd.com>,
	Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>,
	Falcon Thomas <thomas.falcon@intel.com>,
	Xudong Hao <xudong.hao@intel.com>
Subject: [PATCH v7 0/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Add hardware Topdown metrics support
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:21:22 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260727192131.582105-1-zide.chen@intel.com> (raw)

The Topdown Microarchitecture Analysis (TMA) method is a structured
approach for identifying performance bottlenecks in out-of-order
processors.

Currently, guests support the TMA method by collecting Topdown events
using GP counters, which may trigger multiplexing.  To free up scarce
GP counters, eliminate multiplexing-induced skew, and obtain coherent
Topdown metric ratios, it is desirable to expose fixed counter 3 and
the IA32_PERF_METRICS MSR to guests.

Several attempts have been made to virtualize this under the legacy
vPMU model [1][2][3], but they were unsuccessful.  With the new mediated
vPMU, enabling TMA support in guests becomes much simpler.  It avoids
invasive changes to the perf core, eliminates CPU pinning and
fixed-counter affinity issues, and reduces the large overhead of
trapping and emulating MSR accesses.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20231031090613.2872700-1-dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230927033124.1226509-1-dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com/T/
[3] https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/20221212125844.41157-1-likexu@tencent.com/

Tested on a Sapphire Rapids. Without this series, only raw topdown.*_slots
events work in the guest, and metric events (e.g. cpu/topdown-bad-spec/) are
not available.

With this series, metric events are visible in the guest.  Run this
command on both host and guest:

$ perf stat --topdown --no-metric-only -- taskset -c 2 perf bench sched messaging

Host results:

     Total time: 1.500 [sec]

 Performance counter stats for 'taskset -c 2 perf bench sched messaging':

     4,266,060,558      TOPDOWN.SLOTS:u              #     32.0 %  tma_frontend_bound
                                                     #      5.2 %  tma_bad_speculation
       588,397,905      topdown-retiring:u           #     13.8 %  tma_retiring
                                                     #     49.0 %  tma_backend_bound
     1,376,283,990      topdown-fe-bound:u
     2,096,827,304      topdown-be-bound:u
       217,425,841      topdown-bad-spec:u
         5,050,520      INT_MISC.UOP_DROPPING:u

Rebased to kvm-x86/next: 567329869b9c

v7 changes:
- Add "reviewed-by" tags.
- patch 5/8: Optimize bit 48 handling in global_status_rsvd;
  document the PERF_METRICS/FC3 write-order exception;
  add nested_vmx_merge_msr_bitmaps_rw().
- patch 7/9: new patch to restrict RDPMC passthrough to known CPUs.
- patch 9/9: Use RDPMC instead of RDMSR in PERF_METRICS sanity test.
v6 changes:
- patch 6/8: New patch to refactor rdpmc emulation code.
- patch 7/8: More strict handling of RDPMC ECX argument.
- patch 8/8: Move perf metrics out of test_arch_events().
- patch 2/8: Minor fix of comments.
v5 changes:
- patch 3,5,6/7: new patches to handle RDPMC on metrics.
- patch 6/7: remove host_initiated check.
v4 changes:
- patch 3/4: Remove WARN_ON_ONCE() and simply reject the guest accesses
  by checking host_initiated. (Sashiko)
- patch 3/4: Passthru MSR_PERF_METRICS only if has_mediated_pmu is
  true. (Sashiko)
v3 changes:
- patch 2/4: Move the non-contiguous counter filter code to pmu.c (Dapeng)
- patch 3/4: Replace WARN_ON() with WARN_ON_ONCE(). (Dapeng)
- patch 4/4: Change abs() with explicit bounds (sum >= 0xfd && sum <= 0x102).
- Minor comment cleanups.

v2 changes:
- As suggested by Dapeng, implement a new selftest patch.
- Don't advertise fixed counter 3 if the host doesn't support it.
- Minor change in patch 1 to remove a magic number.

v6: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20260629231938.15129-1-zide.chen@intel.com/T/#t
v5: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20260625034555.141453-1-zide.chen@intel.com/
v4: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20260623041927.178256-1-zide.chen@intel.com/
v3: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20260615230118.50718-1-zide.chen@intel.com/T/#t
v2: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20260423174639.56149-1-zide.chen@intel.com/T/#u
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/kvm/20260226230606.146532-1-zide.chen@intel.com/T/#t
QEMU:
https://lore.kernel.org/qemu-devel/20260604025546.19378-7-zide.chen@intel.com/

Dapeng Mi (2):
  KVM: x86/pmu: Support Intel fixed counter 3 on mediated vPMU
  KVM: x86/pmu: Support PERF_METRICS MSR in mediated vPMU

Mingwei Zhang (1):
  KVM: x86/pmu: Snapshot host IA32_PERF_CAPABILITIES in kvm_host

Zide Chen (6):
  KVM: x86/pmu: Do not map fixed counters >= 3 to generic perf events
  KVM: x86/pmu: Rename and move vcpu_get_perf_capabilities() to pmu.h
  KVM: x86/pmu: Move RDPMC emulation into per-vendor callbacks
  KVM: x86/pmu: Restrict RDPMC passthrough to known CPUs
  KVM: x86/pmu: Emulate RDPMC on performance metrics
  KVM: selftests: Add PERF_METRICS and fixed counter 3 tests

 arch/x86/include/asm/kvm-x86-pmu-ops.h        |  2 +-
 arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h               |  4 +-
 arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h              |  1 +
 arch/x86/kvm/msrs.c                           | 10 +-
 arch/x86/kvm/pmu.c                            | 71 ++++++++++++--
 arch/x86/kvm/pmu.h                            | 17 +++-
 arch/x86/kvm/svm/pmu.c                        | 13 ++-
 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/nested.c                     |  2 +
 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.c                  | 93 +++++++++++++-----
 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/pmu_intel.h                  | 10 +-
 arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmx.c                        | 15 +--
 arch/x86/kvm/x86.c                            |  4 +
 tools/arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h        |  1 +
 tools/testing/selftests/kvm/include/x86/pmu.h |  3 +
 .../selftests/kvm/x86/pmu_counters_test.c     | 94 ++++++++++++++++++-
 15 files changed, 278 insertions(+), 62 deletions(-)

-- 
2.54.0


             reply	other threads:[~2026-07-27 19:32 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 20+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-07-27 19:21 Zide Chen [this message]
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 1/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Do not map fixed counters >= 3 to generic perf events Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 2/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Support Intel fixed counter 3 on mediated vPMU Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:51   ` sashiko-bot
2026-07-27 22:44     ` Chen, Zide
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 3/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Rename and move vcpu_get_perf_capabilities() to pmu.h Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:42   ` sashiko-bot
2026-07-27 22:19     ` Chen, Zide
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 4/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Snapshot host IA32_PERF_CAPABILITIES in kvm_host Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:44   ` sashiko-bot
2026-07-27 23:16     ` Chen, Zide
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 5/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Support PERF_METRICS MSR in mediated vPMU Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:50   ` sashiko-bot
2026-07-27 23:55     ` Chen, Zide
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 6/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Move RDPMC emulation into per-vendor callbacks Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 7/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Restrict RDPMC passthrough to known CPUs Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:41   ` sashiko-bot
2026-07-27 21:41     ` Chen, Zide
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 8/9] KVM: x86/pmu: Emulate RDPMC on performance metrics Zide Chen
2026-07-27 19:21 ` [PATCH v7 9/9] KVM: selftests: Add PERF_METRICS and fixed counter 3 tests Zide Chen

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20260727192131.582105-1-zide.chen@intel.com \
    --to=zide.chen@intel.com \
    --cc=Manali.Shukla@amd.com \
    --cc=Sandipan.Das@amd.com \
    --cc=ak@linux.intel.com \
    --cc=dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com \
    --cc=jmattson@google.com \
    --cc=kvm@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=mizhang@google.com \
    --cc=pbonzini@redhat.com \
    --cc=seanjc@google.com \
    --cc=thomas.falcon@intel.com \
    --cc=xudong.hao@intel.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.