Re: [PATCH v2] x86/cpu-policy: Fix migration from Ice Lake to Cascade Lake

["Roger Pau Monné" <roger.pau@citrix.com>]

On Tue, May 07, 2024 at 03:31:19PM +0100, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> On 07/05/2024 3:24 pm, Roger Pau Monné wrote:
> > On Tue, May 07, 2024 at 02:45:40PM +0100, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> >> Ever since Xen 4.14, there has been a latent bug with migration.
> >>
> >> While some toolstacks can level the features properly, they don't shink
> >> feat.max_subleaf when all features have been dropped.  This is because
> >> we *still* have not completed the toolstack side work for full CPU Policy
> >> objects.
> >>
> >> As a consequence, even when properly feature levelled, VMs can't migrate
> >> "backwards" across hardware which reduces feat.max_subleaf.  One such example
> >> is Ice Lake (max_subleaf=2 for INTEL_PSFD) to Cascade Lake (max_subleaf=0).
> >>
> >> Extend the max policies feat.max_subleaf to the hightest number Xen knows
> >> about, but leave the default policies matching the host.  This will allow VMs
> >> with a higher feat.max_subleaf than strictly necessary to migrate in.
> >>
> >> Eventually we'll manage to teach the toolstack how to avoid creating such VMs
> >> in the first place, but there's still more work to do there.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@citrix.com>
> > Acked-by: Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@citrix.com>
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> >
> > Even if we have just found one glitch with PSFD and Ice Lake vs
> > Cascade Lack, wouldn't it be safer to always extend the max policies
> > max leafs and subleafs to match the known array sizes?
> 
> This is the final max leaf (containing feature information) to gain
> custom handling, I think?

Couldn't the same happen with extended leaves?  Some of the extended
leaves contain features, and hence for policy leveling toolstack might
decide to zero them, yet extd.max_leaf won't be adjusted.

Thanks, Roger.