[RFC PATCH v2 13/19] KVM: arm/arm64: Avoid timer save/restore in vcpu entry/exit

Christoffer Dall
2017-07-17T14:27:12Z

We don't need to save and restore the hardware timer state and examine
if it generates interrupts on on every entry/exit to the guest. The
timer hardware is perfectly capable of telling us when it has expired
by signaling interrupts.

When taking a vtimer interrupt in the host, we don't want to mess with
the timer configuration, we just want to forward the physical interrupt
to the guest as a virtual interrupt. We can use the split priority drop
and deactivate feature of the GIC to do this, which leaves an EOI'ed
interrupt active on the physical distributor, making sure we don't keep
taking timer interrupts which would prevent the guest from running. We
can then forward the physical interrupt to the VM using the HW bit in
the LR of the GIC VE, like we do already, which lets the guest directly
deactivate both the physical and virtual timer simultaneously, allowing
the timer hardware to exit the VM and generate a new physical interrupt
when the timer output is again asserted later on.

We do need to capture this state when migrating VCPUs between physical
CPUs, however, which we use the vcpu put/load functions for, which are
called through preempt notifiers whenever the thread is scheduled away
from the CPU or called directly if we return from the ioctl to
userspace.

One caveat is that we cannot restore the timer state during
kvm_timer_vcpu_load, because the flow of sleeping a VCPU is:

1. kvm_vcpu_block
2. kvm_timer_schedule
3. schedule
4. kvm_timer_vcpu_put (preempt notifier)
5. schedule (vcpu thread gets scheduled back)
6. kvm_timer_vcpu_load
<---- We restore the hardware state here, but the bg_timer
hrtimer may have scheduled a work function that also
changes the timer state here.
7. kvm_timer_unschedule
<---- We can restore the state here instead

So, while we do need to restore the timer state in step (6) in all other
cases than when we called kvm_vcpu_block(), we have to defer the restore
to step (7) when coming back after kvm_vcpu_block(). Note that we
cannot simply call cancel_work_sync() in step (6), because vcpu_load can
be called from a preempt notifier.

An added benefit beyond not having to read and write the timer sysregs
on every entry and exit is that we no longer have to actively write the
active state to the physical distributor, because we set the affinity of
the vtimer interrupt when loading the timer state, so that the interrupt
automatically stays active after firing.

Signed-off-by: Christoffer Dall <cdall@linaro.org>
---
include/kvm/arm_arch_timer.h | 9 +-
virt/kvm/arm/arch_timer.c | 238 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------
virt/kvm/arm/arm.c | 19 +++-
virt/kvm/arm/hyp/timer-sr.c | 8 +-
4 files changed, 174 insertions(+), 100 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/kvm/arm_arch_timer.h b/include/kvm/arm_arch_timer.h
index 16887c0..8e5ed54 100644
--- a/include/kvm/arm_arch_timer.h
+++ b/include/kvm/arm_arch_timer.h
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ struct arch_timer_context {
/* Timer IRQ */
struct kvm_irq_level irq;

- /* Active IRQ state caching */
- bool active_cleared_last;
+ /* Is the timer state loaded on the hardware timer */
+ bool loaded;

/* Virtual offset */
u64 cntvoff;
@@ -80,10 +80,15 @@ void kvm_timer_unschedule(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);

u64 kvm_phys_timer_read(void);

+void kvm_timer_vcpu_load(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);
void kvm_timer_vcpu_put(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu);

void kvm_timer_init_vhe(void);

#define vcpu_vtimer(v) (&(v)->arch.timer_cpu.vtimer)
#define vcpu_ptimer(v) (&(v)->arch.timer_cpu.ptimer)
+
+void enable_el1_phys_timer_access(void);
+void disable_el1_phys_timer_access(void);
+
#endif
diff --git a/virt/kvm/arm/arch_timer.c b/virt/kvm/arm/arch_timer.c
index 4275f8f..70110ea 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/arm/arch_timer.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/arm/arch_timer.c
@@ -46,10 +46,9 @@ static const struct kvm_irq_level default_vtimer_irq = {
.level = 1,
};

-void kvm_timer_vcpu_put(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
-{
- vcpu_vtimer(vcpu)->active_cleared_last = false;
-}
+static bool kvm_timer_irq_can_fire(struct arch_timer_context *timer_ctx);
+static void kvm_timer_update_irq(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, bool new_level,
+ struct arch_timer_context *timer_ctx);

u64 kvm_phys_timer_read(void)
{
@@ -74,17 +73,37 @@ static void soft_timer_cancel(struct hrtimer *hrt, struct work_struct *work)
cancel_work_sync(work);
}

-static irqreturn_t kvm_arch_timer_handler(int irq, void *dev_id)
+static void kvm_vtimer_update_mask_user(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
- struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu = *(struct kvm_vcpu **)dev_id;
+ struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);

/*
- * We disable the timer in the world switch and let it be
- * handled by kvm_timer_sync_hwstate(). Getting a timer
- * interrupt at this point is a sure sign of some major
- * breakage.
+ * To prevent continuously exiting from the guest, we mask the
+ * physical interrupt when the virtual level is high, such that the
+ * guest can make forward progress. Once we detect the output level
+ * being deasserted, we unmask the interrupt again so that we exit
+ * from the guest when the timer fires.
*/
- pr_warn("Unexpected interrupt %d on vcpu %p\n", irq, vcpu);
+ if (vtimer->irq.level)
+ disable_percpu_irq(host_vtimer_irq);
+ else
+ enable_percpu_irq(host_vtimer_irq, 0);
+}
+
+static irqreturn_t kvm_arch_timer_handler(int irq, void *dev_id)
+{
+ struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu = *(struct kvm_vcpu **)dev_id;
+ struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
+
+ if (!vtimer->irq.level) {
+ vtimer->cnt_ctl = read_sysreg_el0(cntv_ctl);
+ if (kvm_timer_irq_can_fire(vtimer))
+ kvm_timer_update_irq(vcpu, true, vtimer);
+ }
+
+ if (unlikely(!irqchip_in_kernel(vcpu->kvm)))
+ kvm_vtimer_update_mask_user(vcpu);
+
return IRQ_HANDLED;
}

@@ -220,7 +239,6 @@ static void kvm_timer_update_irq(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, bool new_level,
{
int ret;

- timer_ctx->active_cleared_last = false;
timer_ctx->irq.level = new_level;
trace_kvm_timer_update_irq(vcpu->vcpu_id, timer_ctx->irq.irq,
timer_ctx->irq.level);
@@ -276,10 +294,16 @@ static void phys_timer_emulate(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
soft_timer_start(&timer->phys_timer, kvm_timer_compute_delta(timer_ctx));
}

-static void timer_save_state(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+static void vtimer_save_state(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
struct arch_timer_cpu *timer = &vcpu->arch.timer_cpu;
struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
+ unsigned long flags;
+
+ local_irq_save(flags);
+
+ if (!vtimer->loaded)
+ goto out;

if (timer->enabled) {
vtimer->cnt_ctl = read_sysreg_el0(cntv_ctl);
@@ -288,6 +312,10 @@ static void timer_save_state(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)

/* Disable the virtual timer */
write_sysreg_el0(0, cntv_ctl);
+
+ vtimer->loaded = false;
+out:
+ local_irq_restore(flags);
}

/*
@@ -303,6 +331,8 @@ void kvm_timer_schedule(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)

BUG_ON(bg_timer_is_armed(timer));

+ vtimer_save_state(vcpu);
+
/*
* No need to schedule a background timer if any guest timer has
* already expired, because kvm_vcpu_block will return before putting
@@ -326,16 +356,26 @@ void kvm_timer_schedule(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
soft_timer_start(&timer->bg_timer, kvm_timer_earliest_exp(vcpu));
}

-static void timer_restore_state(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+static void vtimer_restore_state(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
struct arch_timer_cpu *timer = &vcpu->arch.timer_cpu;
struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
+ unsigned long flags;
+
+ local_irq_save(flags);
+
+ if (vtimer->loaded)
+ goto out;

if (timer->enabled) {
write_sysreg_el0(vtimer->cnt_cval, cntv_cval);
isb();
write_sysreg_el0(vtimer->cnt_ctl, cntv_ctl);
}
+
+ vtimer->loaded = true;
+out:
+ local_irq_restore(flags);
}

void kvm_timer_unschedule(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
@@ -344,6 +384,8 @@ void kvm_timer_unschedule(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)

soft_timer_cancel(&timer->bg_timer, &timer->expired);
timer->armed = false;
+
+ vtimer_restore_state(vcpu);
}

static void set_cntvoff(u64 cntvoff)
@@ -353,61 +395,56 @@ static void set_cntvoff(u64 cntvoff)
kvm_call_hyp(__kvm_timer_set_cntvoff, low, high);
}

-static void kvm_timer_flush_hwstate_vgic(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+static void kvm_timer_vcpu_load_vgic(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
bool phys_active;
int ret;

- /*
- * If we enter the guest with the virtual input level to the VGIC
- * asserted, then we have already told the VGIC what we need to, and
- * we don't need to exit from the guest until the guest deactivates
- * the already injected interrupt, so therefore we should set the
- * hardware active state to prevent unnecessary exits from the guest.
- *
- * Also, if we enter the guest with the virtual timer interrupt active,
- * then it must be active on the physical distributor, because we set
- * the HW bit and the guest must be able to deactivate the virtual and
- * physical interrupt at the same time.
- *
- * Conversely, if the virtual input level is deasserted and the virtual
- * interrupt is not active, then always clear the hardware active state
- * to ensure that hardware interrupts from the timer triggers a guest
- * exit.
- */
- phys_active = vtimer->irq.level ||
- kvm_vgic_map_is_active(vcpu, vtimer->irq.irq);
-
- /*
- * We want to avoid hitting the (re)distributor as much as
- * possible, as this is a potentially expensive MMIO access
- * (not to mention locks in the irq layer), and a solution for
- * this is to cache the "active" state in memory.
- *
- * Things to consider: we cannot cache an "active set" state,
- * because the HW can change this behind our back (it becomes
- * "clear" in the HW). We must then restrict the caching to
- * the "clear" state.
- *
- * The cache is invalidated on:
- * - vcpu put, indicating that the HW cannot be trusted to be
- * in a sane state on the next vcpu load,
- * - any change in the interrupt state
- *
- * Usage conditions:
- * - cached value is "active clear"
- * - value to be programmed is "active clear"
- */
- if (vtimer->active_cleared_last && !phys_active)
- return;
-
+ if (vtimer->irq.level || kvm_vgic_map_is_active(vcpu, vtimer->irq.irq))
+ phys_active = true;
+ else
+ phys_active = false;
ret = irq_set_irqchip_state(host_vtimer_irq,
IRQCHIP_STATE_ACTIVE,
phys_active);
WARN_ON(ret);
+}
+
+static void kvm_timer_vcpu_load_user(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+{
+ kvm_vtimer_update_mask_user(vcpu);
+}
+
+void kvm_timer_vcpu_load(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+{
+ struct arch_timer_cpu *timer = &vcpu->arch.timer_cpu;
+ struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
+
+ if (unlikely(!timer->enabled))
+ return;
+
+ if (unlikely(!irqchip_in_kernel(vcpu->kvm)))
+ kvm_timer_vcpu_load_user(vcpu);
+ else
+ kvm_timer_vcpu_load_vgic(vcpu);

- vtimer->active_cleared_last = !phys_active;
+ set_cntvoff(vtimer->cntvoff);
+
+ /*
+ * If we armed a soft timer and potentially queued work, we have to
+ * cancel this, but cannot do it here, because canceling work can
+ * sleep and we can be in the middle of a preempt notifier call.
+ * Instead, when the timer has been armed, we know the return path
+ * from kvm_vcpu_block will call kvm_timer_unschedule, so we can defer
+ * restoring the state and canceling any soft timers and work items
+ * until then.
+ */
+ if (!bg_timer_is_armed(timer))
+ vtimer_restore_state(vcpu);
+
+ if (has_vhe())
+ disable_el1_phys_timer_access();
}

bool kvm_timer_should_notify_user(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
@@ -427,23 +464,6 @@ bool kvm_timer_should_notify_user(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
ptimer->irq.level != plevel;
}

-static void kvm_timer_flush_hwstate_user(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
-{
- struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
-
- /*
- * To prevent continuously exiting from the guest, we mask the
- * physical interrupt such that the guest can make forward progress.
- * Once we detect the output level being deasserted, we unmask the
- * interrupt again so that we exit from the guest when the timer
- * fires.
- */
- if (vtimer->irq.level)
- disable_percpu_irq(host_vtimer_irq);
- else
- enable_percpu_irq(host_vtimer_irq, 0);
-}
-
/**
* kvm_timer_flush_hwstate - prepare timers before running the vcpu
* @vcpu: The vcpu pointer
@@ -456,23 +476,55 @@ static void kvm_timer_flush_hwstate_user(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
void kvm_timer_flush_hwstate(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
struct arch_timer_cpu *timer = &vcpu->arch.timer_cpu;
- struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
+ struct arch_timer_context *ptimer = vcpu_ptimer(vcpu);

if (unlikely(!timer->enabled))
return;

- kvm_timer_update_state(vcpu);
+ if (kvm_timer_should_fire(ptimer) != ptimer->irq.level)
+ kvm_timer_update_irq(vcpu, !ptimer->irq.level, ptimer);

/* Set the background timer for the physical timer emulation. */
phys_timer_emulate(vcpu, vcpu_ptimer(vcpu));
+}

- if (unlikely(!irqchip_in_kernel(vcpu->kvm)))
- kvm_timer_flush_hwstate_user(vcpu);
- else
- kvm_timer_flush_hwstate_vgic(vcpu);
+void kvm_timer_vcpu_put(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+{
+ struct arch_timer_cpu *timer = &vcpu->arch.timer_cpu;

- set_cntvoff(vtimer->cntvoff);
- timer_restore_state(vcpu);
+ if (unlikely(!timer->enabled))
+ return;
+
+ if (has_vhe())
+ enable_el1_phys_timer_access();
+
+ vtimer_save_state(vcpu);
+
+ set_cntvoff(0);
+}
+
+static void unmask_vtimer_irq(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
+{
+ struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);
+
+ if (unlikely(!irqchip_in_kernel(vcpu->kvm))) {
+ kvm_vtimer_update_mask_user(vcpu);
+ return;
+ }
+
+ /*
+ * If the guest disabled the timer without acking the interrupt, then
+ * we must make sure the physical and virtual active states are in
+ * sync by deactivating the physical interrupt, because otherwise we
+ * wouldn't see the next timer interrupt in the host.
+ */
+ if (!kvm_vgic_map_is_active(vcpu, vtimer->irq.irq)) {
+ int ret;
+ ret = irq_set_irqchip_state(host_vtimer_irq,
+ IRQCHIP_STATE_ACTIVE,
+ false);
+ WARN_ON(ret);
+ }
}

/**
@@ -485,6 +537,7 @@ void kvm_timer_flush_hwstate(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
void kvm_timer_sync_hwstate(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
struct arch_timer_cpu *timer = &vcpu->arch.timer_cpu;
+ struct arch_timer_context *vtimer = vcpu_vtimer(vcpu);

/*
* This is to cancel the background timer for the physical timer
@@ -492,14 +545,19 @@ void kvm_timer_sync_hwstate(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
*/
soft_timer_cancel(&timer->phys_timer, NULL);

- timer_save_state(vcpu);
- set_cntvoff(0);
-
/*
- * The guest could have modified the timer registers or the timer
- * could have expired, update the timer state.
+ * If we entered the guest with the vtimer output asserted we have to
+ * check if the guest has modified the timer so that we should lower
+ * the line at this point.
*/
- kvm_timer_update_state(vcpu);
+ if (vtimer->irq.level) {
+ vtimer->cnt_ctl = read_sysreg_el0(cntv_ctl);
+ vtimer->cnt_cval = read_sysreg_el0(cntv_cval);
+ if (!kvm_timer_should_fire(vtimer)) {
+ kvm_timer_update_irq(vcpu, false, vtimer);
+ unmask_vtimer_irq(vcpu);
+ }
+ }
}

int kvm_timer_vcpu_reset(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
diff --git a/virt/kvm/arm/arm.c b/virt/kvm/arm/arm.c
index a49b19e..aed3e5c 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/arm/arm.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/arm/arm.c
@@ -354,18 +354,18 @@ void kvm_arch_vcpu_load(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int cpu)
vcpu->arch.host_cpu_context = this_cpu_ptr(kvm_host_cpu_state);

kvm_arm_set_running_vcpu(vcpu);
-
kvm_vgic_load(vcpu);
+ kvm_timer_vcpu_load(vcpu);
}

void kvm_arch_vcpu_put(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
+ kvm_timer_vcpu_put(vcpu);
kvm_vgic_put(vcpu);

vcpu->cpu = -1;

kvm_arm_set_running_vcpu(NULL);
- kvm_timer_vcpu_put(vcpu);
}

static void vcpu_power_off(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
@@ -705,16 +705,27 @@ int kvm_arch_vcpu_ioctl_run(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_run *run)
kvm_arm_clear_debug(vcpu);

/*
- * We must sync the PMU and timer state before the vgic state so
+ * We must sync the PMU state before the vgic state so
* that the vgic can properly sample the updated state of the
* interrupt line.
*/
kvm_pmu_sync_hwstate(vcpu);
- kvm_timer_sync_hwstate(vcpu);

+ /*
+ * Sync the vgic state before syncing the timer state because
+ * the timer code needs to know if the virtual timer
+ * interrupts are active.
+ */
kvm_vgic_sync_hwstate(vcpu);

/*
+ * Sync the timer hardware state before enabling interrupts as
+ * we don't want vtimer interrupts to race with syncing the
+ * timer virtual interrupt state.
+ */
+ kvm_timer_sync_hwstate(vcpu);
+
+ /*
* We may have taken a host interrupt in HYP mode (ie
* while executing the guest). This interrupt is still
* pending, as we haven't serviced it yet!
diff --git a/virt/kvm/arm/hyp/timer-sr.c b/virt/kvm/arm/hyp/timer-sr.c
index a6c3b10..f398616 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/arm/hyp/timer-sr.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/arm/hyp/timer-sr.c
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ void __hyp_text __kvm_timer_set_cntvoff(u32 cntvoff_low, u32 cntvoff_high)
write_sysreg(cntvoff, cntvoff_el2);
}

-void __hyp_text enable_phys_timer(void)
+void __hyp_text enable_el1_phys_timer_access(void)
{
u64 val;

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ void __hyp_text enable_phys_timer(void)
write_sysreg(val, cnthctl_el2);
}

-void __hyp_text disable_phys_timer(void)
+void __hyp_text disable_el1_phys_timer_access(void)
{
u64 val;

@@ -58,11 +58,11 @@ void __hyp_text __timer_disable_traps(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
* with HCR_EL2.TGE ==1, which makes those bits have no impact.
*/
if (!has_vhe())
- enable_phys_timer();
+ enable_el1_phys_timer_access();
}

void __hyp_text __timer_enable_traps(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
{
if (!has_vhe())
- disable_phys_timer();
+ disable_el1_phys_timer_access();
}
--
2.9.0