Re: [patch 2/2] KVM: x86: add option to advance tscdeadline hrtimer expiration

Andy Lutomirski
2014-12-11T20:48:42Z

On 12/10/2014 07:07 PM, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 12:37:57AM +0100, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 10/12/2014 21:57, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
>>> For the hrtimer which emulates the tscdeadline timer in the guest,
>>> add an option to advance expiration, and busy spin on VM-entry waiting
>>> for the actual expiration time to elapse.
>>>
>>> This allows achieving low latencies in cyclictest (or any scenario
>>> which requires strict timing regarding timer expiration).
>>>
>>> Reduces cyclictest avg latency by 50%.
>>>
>>> Note: this option requires tuning to find the appropriate value
>>> for a particular hardware/guest combination. One method is to measure the
>>> average delay between apic_timer_fn and VM-entry.
>>> Another method is to start with 1000ns, and increase the value
>>> in say 500ns increments until avg cyclictest numbers stop decreasing.
>>
>> What values are you using in practice for the parameter?
>
> 7us.

It takes 7us to get from TSC deadline expiration to the *start* of
vmresume? That seems rather extreme.

Is it possible that almost all of that latency is from deadline
expiration to C-state exit? If so, can we teach the timer code to wake
up early to account for that? We're supposed to know our idle exit
latency these days.

--Andy

>
>>> Signed-off-by: Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>
>>>
>>> Index: kvm/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c
>>> ===================================================================
>>> --- kvm.orig/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c
>>> +++ kvm/arch/x86/kvm/lapic.c
>>> @@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
>>> #include <asm/page.h>
>>> #include <asm/current.h>
>>> #include <asm/apicdef.h>
>>> +#include <asm/delay.h>
>>> #include <linux/atomic.h>
>>> #include <linux/jump_label.h>
>>> #include "kvm_cache_regs.h"
>>> @@ -1073,6 +1074,7 @@ static void apic_timer_expired(struct kv
>>> {
>>> struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu = apic->vcpu;
>>> wait_queue_head_t *q = &vcpu->wq;
>>> + struct kvm_timer *ktimer = &apic->lapic_timer;
>>>
>>> /*
>>> * Note: KVM_REQ_PENDING_TIMER is implicitly checked in
>>> @@ -1087,11 +1089,58 @@ static void apic_timer_expired(struct kv
>>>
>>> if (waitqueue_active(q))
>>> wake_up_interruptible(q);
>>> +
>>> + if (ktimer->timer_mode_mask == APIC_LVT_TIMER_TSCDEADLINE)
>>> + ktimer->expired_tscdeadline = ktimer->tscdeadline;
>>> +}
>>> +
>>> +static bool lapic_timer_int_injected(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
>>> +{
>>> + struct kvm_lapic *apic = vcpu->arch.apic;
>>> + u32 reg = kvm_apic_get_reg(apic, APIC_LVTT);
>>> +
>>> + if (kvm_apic_hw_enabled(apic)) {
>>> + int vec = reg & APIC_VECTOR_MASK;
>>> +
>>> + if (kvm_x86_ops->test_posted_interrupt)
>>> + return kvm_x86_ops->test_posted_interrupt(vcpu, vec);
>>> + else {
>>> + if (apic_test_vector(vec, apic->regs + APIC_ISR))
>>> + return true;
>>> + }
>>
>> One branch here is testing IRR, the other is testing ISR. I think
>> testing ISR is right; on APICv, the above test will cause a busy wait
>> during a higher-priority task (or during an interrupt service routine
>> for the timer itself), just because the timer interrupt was delivered.
>
> Yes.
>
>> So, on APICv, if the interrupt is in PIR but it has bits 7:4 <=
>> PPR[7:4], you have a problem. :( There is no APICv hook that lets you
>> get a vmexit when the PPR becomes low enough.
>
> Well, you simply exit earlier and busy spin for VM-exit
> time.
>
> For Linux guests, there is no problem.
>
>>> + }
>>> + return false;
>>> +}
>>> +
>>> +void wait_lapic_expire(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
>>> +{
>>> + struct kvm_lapic *apic = vcpu->arch.apic;
>>> + u64 guest_tsc, tsc_deadline;
>>> +
>>> + if (!kvm_vcpu_has_lapic(vcpu))
>>> + return;
>>> +
>>> + if (!apic_lvtt_tscdeadline(apic))
>>> + return;
>>
>> This test is wrong, I think. You need to check whether the timer
>> interrupt was a TSC deadline interrupt. Instead, you are checking
>> whether the current mode is TSC-deadline. This can be different if the
>> interrupt could not be delivered immediately after it was received.
>> This is easy to fix: replace the first two tests with
>> "apic->lapic_timer.expired_tscdeadline != 0" and...
>
> Yes.
>
>>> + if (!lapic_timer_int_injected(vcpu))
>>> + return;
>>> + tsc_deadline = apic->lapic_timer.expired_tscdeadline;
>>
>> ... set apic->lapic_timer.expired_tscdeadline to 0 here.
>>
>> But I'm not sure how to solve the above problem with APICv. That's a
>> pity. Knowing what values you use in practice for the parameter, would
>> also make it easier to understand the problem. Please report that
>> together with the graphs produced by the unit test you added.
>
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