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* [PATCH 0/33] KVM: MMU: Cache shadow page tables
@ 2007-01-04 15:48 Avi Kivity
  2007-01-04 15:50 ` [PATCH 1/33] KVM: MMU: Implement simple reverse mapping Avi Kivity
                   ` (4 more replies)
  0 siblings, 5 replies; 37+ messages in thread
From: Avi Kivity @ 2007-01-04 15:48 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: kvm-devel; +Cc: Andrew Morton, linux-kernel

The current kvm shadow page table implementation does not cache shadow 
page tables (except for global translations, used for kernel addresses) 
across context switches.  This means that after a context switch, every 
memory access will trap into the host.  After a while, the shadow page 
tables will be rebuild, and the guest can proceed at native speed until 
the next context switch.

The natural solution, then, is to cache shadow page tables across 
context switches.  Unfortunately, this introduces a bucketload of problems:

- the guest does not notify the processor (and hence kvm) that it 
modifies a page table entry if it has reason to believe that the 
modification will be followed by a tlb flush.  It becomes necessary to 
write-protect guest page tables so that we can use the page fault when 
the access occurs as a notification.
- write protecting the guest page tables means we need to keep track of 
which ptes map those guest page table. We need to add reverse mapping 
for all mapped writable guest pages.
- when the guest does access the write-protected page, we need to allow 
it to perform the write in some way.  We do that either by emulating the 
write, or removing all shadow page tables for that page and allowing the 
write to proceed, depending on circumstances.

This patchset implements the ideas above.  While a lot of tuning remains 
to be done (for example, a sane page replacement algorithm), a guest 
running with this patchset applied is much faster and more responsive 
than with 2.6.20-rc3.  Some preliminary benchmarks are available in 
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.kvm.devel/661.

The patchset is bisectable compile-wise.

-- 
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 37+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2007-01-04 18:02 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 37+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2007-01-04 15:48 [PATCH 0/33] KVM: MMU: Cache shadow page tables Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:50 ` [PATCH 1/33] KVM: MMU: Implement simple reverse mapping Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:05 ` [PATCH 16/33] KVM: MMU: kvm_mmu_put_page() only removes one link to the page Avi Kivity
     [not found] ` <459D21DD.5090506-atKUWr5tajBWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org>
2007-01-04 15:51   ` [PATCH 2/33] KVM: MMU: Teach the page table walker to track guest page table gfns Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:52   ` [PATCH 3/33] KVM: MMU: Load the pae pdptrs on cr3 change like the processor does Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:53   ` [PATCH 4/33] KVM: MMU: Fold fetch_guest() into init_walker() Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:54   ` [PATCH 5/33] KVM: MU: Special treatment for shadow pae root pages Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:55   ` [PATCH 6/33] KVM: MMU: Use the guest pdptrs instead of mapping cr3 in pae mode Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:56   ` [PATCH 7/33] KVM: MMU: Make the shadow page tables also special-case pae Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:57   ` [PATCH 8/33] KVM: MMU: Make kvm_mmu_alloc_page() return a kvm_mmu_page pointer Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:58   ` [PATCH 9/33] KVM: MMU: Shadow page table caching Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 15:59   ` [PATCH 10/33] KVM: MMU: Write protect guest pages when a shadow is created for them Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:00   ` [PATCH 11/33] KVM: MMU: Let the walker extract the target page gfn from the pte Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:01   ` [PATCH 12/33] KVM: MMU: Support emulated writes into RAM Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:02   ` [PATCH 13/33] KVM: MMU: Zap shadow page table entries on writes to guest page tables Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:03   ` [PATCH 14/33] KVM: MMU: If emulating an instruction fails, try unprotecting the page Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:04   ` [PATCH 15/33] KVM: MMU: Implement child shadow unlinking Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:06   ` [PATCH 17/33] KVM: MMU: oom handling Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:07   ` [PATCH 18/33] KVM: MMU: Remove invlpg interception Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:08   ` [PATCH 19/33] KVM: MMU: Remove release_pt_page_64() Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:10   ` [PATCH 21/33] KVM: MMU: <ove is_empty_shadow_page() above kvm_mmu_free_page() Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:11   ` [PATCH 22/33] KVM: MMU: Ensure freed shadow pages are clean Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:13   ` [PATCH 24/33] KVM: MMU: Page table write flood protection Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:14   ` [PATCH 25/33] KVM: MMU: Never free a shadow page actively serving as a root Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:15   ` [PATCH 26/33] KVM: MMU: Fix cmpxchg8b emulation Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:16   ` [PATCH 27/33] KVM: MMU: Treat user-mode faults as a hint that a page is no longer a page table Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:17   ` [PATCH 28/33] KVM: MMU: Free pages on kvm destruction Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:18   ` [PATCH 29/33] KVM: MMU: Replace atomic allocations by preallocated objects Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:19   ` [PATCH 30/33] KVM: MMU: Detect oom conditions and propagate error to userspace Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:20   ` [PATCH 31/33] KVM: MMU: Flush guest tlb when reducing permissions on a pte Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:21   ` [PATCH 32/33] KVM: MMU: Destroy mmu while we still have a vcpu left Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:22   ` [PATCH 33/33] KVM: MMU: add audit code to check mappings, etc are correct Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 17:22   ` [PATCH 0/33] KVM: MMU: Cache shadow page tables Andrew Morton
     [not found]     ` <20070104092226.91fa2dfe.akpm-3NddpPZAyC0@public.gmane.org>
2007-01-04 17:41       ` Avi Kivity
     [not found]         ` <459D3C65.2090703-atKUWr5tajBWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org>
2007-01-04 18:02           ` Ingo Molnar
2007-01-04 16:09 ` [PATCH 20/33] KVM: MMU: Handle misaligned accesses to write protected guest " Avi Kivity
2007-01-04 16:12 ` [PATCH 23/33] KVM: MMU: If an empty shadow page is not empty, report more info Avi Kivity

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