[PATCH] KVM: x86: fix TSC matching

Tomasz Grabiec
2014-06-24T07:43:39Z

I've observed kvmclock being marked as unstable on a modern
single-socket system with a stable TSC and qemu-1.6.2 or qemu-2.0.0.

The culprit was failure in TSC matching because of overflow of
kvm_arch::nr_vcpus_matched_tsc in case there were multiple TSC writes
in a single synchronization cycle.

Turns out that qemu does multiple TSC writes during init, below is the
evidence of that (qemu-2.0.0):

The first one:

0xffffffffa08ff2b4 : vmx_write_tsc_offset+0xa4/0xb0 [kvm_intel]
0xffffffffa04c9c05 : kvm_write_tsc+0x1a5/0x360 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04cfd6b : kvm_arch_vcpu_postcreate+0x4b/0x80 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04b8188 : kvm_vm_ioctl+0x418/0x750 [kvm]

The second one:

0xffffffffa08ff2b4 : vmx_write_tsc_offset+0xa4/0xb0 [kvm_intel]
0xffffffffa04c9c05 : kvm_write_tsc+0x1a5/0x360 [kvm]
0xffffffffa090610d : vmx_set_msr+0x29d/0x350 [kvm_intel]
0xffffffffa04be83b : do_set_msr+0x3b/0x60 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04c10a8 : msr_io+0xc8/0x160 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04caeb6 : kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0xc86/0x1060 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04b6797 : kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0xc7/0x5a0 [kvm]

#0 kvm_vcpu_ioctl at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/kvm-all.c:1780
#1 kvm_put_msrs at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/target-i386/kvm.c:1270
#2 kvm_arch_put_registers at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/target-i386/kvm.c:1909
#3 kvm_cpu_synchronize_post_init at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/kvm-all.c:1641
#4 cpu_synchronize_post_init at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/include/sysemu/kvm.h:330
#5 cpu_synchronize_all_post_init () at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/cpus.c:521
#6 main at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/vl.c:4390

The third one:

0xffffffffa08ff2b4 : vmx_write_tsc_offset+0xa4/0xb0 [kvm_intel]
0xffffffffa04c9c05 : kvm_write_tsc+0x1a5/0x360 [kvm]
0xffffffffa090610d : vmx_set_msr+0x29d/0x350 [kvm_intel]
0xffffffffa04be83b : do_set_msr+0x3b/0x60 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04c10a8 : msr_io+0xc8/0x160 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04caeb6 : kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl+0xc86/0x1060 [kvm]
0xffffffffa04b6797 : kvm_vcpu_ioctl+0xc7/0x5a0 [kvm]

#0 kvm_vcpu_ioctl at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/kvm-all.c:1780
#1 kvm_put_msrs at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/target-i386/kvm.c:1270
#2 kvm_arch_put_registers at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/target-i386/kvm.c:1909
#3 kvm_cpu_synchronize_post_reset at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/kvm-all.c:1635
#4 cpu_synchronize_post_reset at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/include/sysemu/kvm.h:323
#5 cpu_synchronize_all_post_reset () at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/cpus.c:512
#6 main at /build/buildd/qemu-2.0.0+dfsg/vl.c:4482

The fix is to count each vCPU only once when matched, so that
nr_vcpus_matched_tsc holds the size of the matched set. This is
achieved by reusing generation counters. Every vCPU with
this_tsc_generation == cur_tsc_generation is in the matched set. The
match set is cleared by setting cur_tsc_generation to a value which no
other vCPU is set to (by incrementing it).

I needed to bump up the counter size form u8 to u64 to ensure it never
overflows. Otherwise in cases TSC is not written the same number of
times on each vCPU the counter could overflow and incorrectly indicate
some vCPUs as being in the matched set. This scenario seems unlikely
but I'm not sure if it can be disregarded.

Signed-off-by: Tomasz Grabiec <tgrabiec@cloudius-systems.com>
---
arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h | 4 ++--
arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 11 +++++++----
2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
index 63e020b..af36f89 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
@@ -448,7 +448,7 @@ struct kvm_vcpu_arch {
u64 tsc_offset_adjustment;
u64 this_tsc_nsec;
u64 this_tsc_write;
- u8 this_tsc_generation;
+ u64 this_tsc_generation;
bool tsc_catchup;
bool tsc_always_catchup;
s8 virtual_tsc_shift;
@@ -591,7 +591,7 @@ struct kvm_arch {
u64 cur_tsc_nsec;
u64 cur_tsc_write;
u64 cur_tsc_offset;
- u8 cur_tsc_generation;
+ u64 cur_tsc_generation;
int nr_vcpus_matched_tsc;

spinlock_t pvclock_gtod_sync_lock;
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
index 874607a..d1330f3 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
@@ -1215,6 +1215,7 @@ void kvm_write_tsc(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct msr_data *msr)
unsigned long flags;
s64 usdiff;
bool matched;
+ bool already_matched;
u64 data = msr->data;

raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&kvm->arch.tsc_write_lock, flags);
@@ -1279,6 +1280,7 @@ void kvm_write_tsc(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct msr_data *msr)
pr_debug("kvm: adjusted tsc offset by %llu\n", delta);
}
matched = true;
+ already_matched = (vcpu->arch.this_tsc_generation == kvm->arch.cur_tsc_generation);
} else {
/*
* We split periods of matched TSC writes into generations.
@@ -1294,7 +1296,7 @@ void kvm_write_tsc(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct msr_data *msr)
kvm->arch.cur_tsc_write = data;
kvm->arch.cur_tsc_offset = offset;
matched = false;
- pr_debug("kvm: new tsc generation %u, clock %llu\n",
+ pr_debug("kvm: new tsc generation %llu, clock %llu\n",
kvm->arch.cur_tsc_generation, data);
}

@@ -1319,10 +1321,11 @@ void kvm_write_tsc(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct msr_data *msr)
raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&kvm->arch.tsc_write_lock, flags);

spin_lock(&kvm->arch.pvclock_gtod_sync_lock);
- if (matched)
- kvm->arch.nr_vcpus_matched_tsc++;
- else
+ if (!matched) {
kvm->arch.nr_vcpus_matched_tsc = 0;
+ } else if (!already_matched) {
+ kvm->arch.nr_vcpus_matched_tsc++;
+ }

kvm_track_tsc_matching(vcpu);
spin_unlock(&kvm->arch.pvclock_gtod_sync_lock);
--
1.9.1