Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] x86/xen: allow privcmd hypercalls to be preempted

Andy Lutomirski
2014-12-10T23:52:12Z

On Wed, Dec 10, 2014 at 3:34 PM, Luis R. Rodriguez
<mcgrof@do-not-panic.com> wrote:
> From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@suse.com>
>
> Xen has support for splitting heavy work work into a series
> of hypercalls, called multicalls, and preempting them through
> what Xen calls continuation [0]. Despite this though without
> CONFIG_PREEMPT preemption won't happen and while enabling
> CONFIG_RT_GROUP_SCHED can at times help its not enough to
> make a system usable. Such is the case for example when
> creating a > 50 GiB HVM guest, we can get softlockups [1] with:.
>
> kernel: [ 802.084335] BUG: soft lockup - CPU#1 stuck for 22s! [xend:31351]
>
> The softlock up triggers on the TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE hanger check
> (default 120 seconds), on the Xen side in this particular case
> this happens when the following Xen hypervisor code is used:
>
> xc_domain_set_pod_target() -->
> do_memory_op() -->
> arch_memory_op() -->
> p2m_pod_set_mem_target()
> -- long delay (real or emulated) --
>
> This happens on arch_memory_op() on the XENMEM_set_pod_target memory
> op even though arch_memory_op() can handle continuation via
> hypercall_create_continuation() for example.
>
> Machines over 50 GiB of memory are on high demand and hard to come
> by so to help replicate this sort of issue long delays on select
> hypercalls have been emulated in order to be able to test this on
> smaller machines [2].
>
> On one hand this issue can be considered as expected given that
> CONFIG_PREEMPT=n is used however we have forced voluntary preemption
> precedent practices in the kernel even for CONFIG_PREEMPT=n through
> the usage of cond_resched() sprinkled in many places. To address
> this issue with Xen hypercalls though we need to find a way to aid
> to the schedular in the middle of hypercalls. We are motivated to
> address this issue on CONFIG_PREEMPT=n as otherwise the system becomes
> rather unresponsive for long periods of time; in the worst case, at least
> only currently by emulating long delays on select io disk bound
> hypercalls, this can lead to filesystem corruption if the delay happens
> for example on SCHEDOP_remote_shutdown (when we call 'xl <domain> shutdown').
>
> We can address this problem by trying to check if we should schedule
> on the xen timer in the middle of a hypercall on the return from the
> timer interrupt. We want to be careful to not always force voluntary
> preemption though so to do this we only selectively enable preemption
> on very specific xen hypercalls.
>
> This enables hypercall preemption by selectively forcing checks for
> voluntary preempting only on ioctl initiated private hypercalls
> where we know some folks have run into reported issues [1].
>
> [0] http://xenbits.xen.org/gitweb/?p=xen.git;a=commitdiff;h=42217cbc5b3e84b8c145d8cfb62dd5de0134b9e8;hp=3a0b9c57d5c9e82c55dd967c84dd06cb43c49ee9
> [1] https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=861093
> [2] http://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/mcgrof/xen/emulate-long-xen-hypercalls.patch
>
> Based on original work by: David Vrabel <david.vrabel@citrix.com>
> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
> Cc: David Vrabel <david.vrabel@citrix.com>
> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
> Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
> Cc: x86@kernel.org
> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>
> Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
> Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <masami.hiramatsu.pt@hitachi.com>
> Cc: Jan Beulich <JBeulich@suse.com>
> Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@suse.com>
> ---
> arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
> arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S | 17 +++++++++++++++++
> drivers/xen/Makefile | 2 +-
> drivers/xen/preempt.c | 17 +++++++++++++++++
> drivers/xen/privcmd.c | 2 ++
> include/xen/xen-ops.h | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 6 files changed, 84 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> create mode 100644 drivers/xen/preempt.c
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S b/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S
> index 344b63f..40b5c0c 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S
> +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S
> @@ -982,7 +982,28 @@ ENTRY(xen_hypervisor_callback)
> ENTRY(xen_do_upcall)
> 1: mov %esp, %eax
> call xen_evtchn_do_upcall
> +#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT
> jmp ret_from_intr
> +#else
> + GET_THREAD_INFO(%ebp)
> +#ifdef CONFIG_VM86
> + movl PT_EFLAGS(%esp), %eax # mix EFLAGS and CS
> + movb PT_CS(%esp), %al
> + andl $(X86_EFLAGS_VM | SEGMENT_RPL_MASK), %eax
> +#else
> + movl PT_CS(%esp), %eax
> + andl $SEGMENT_RPL_MASK, %eax
> +#endif
> + cmpl $USER_RPL, %eax
> + jae resume_userspace # returning to v8086 or userspace
> + DISABLE_INTERRUPTS(CLBR_ANY)
> + cmpb $0,PER_CPU_VAR(xen_in_preemptible_hcall)
> + jz resume_kernel
> + movb $0,PER_CPU_VAR(xen_in_preemptible_hcall)
> + call cond_resched_irq
> + movb $1,PER_CPU_VAR(xen_in_preemptible_hcall)
> + jmp resume_kernel
> +#endif /* CONFIG_PREEMPT */
> CFI_ENDPROC
> ENDPROC(xen_hypervisor_callback)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S b/arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S
> index c0226ab..0ccdd06 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S
> +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/entry_64.S
> @@ -1170,7 +1170,23 @@ ENTRY(xen_do_hypervisor_callback) # do_hypervisor_callback(struct *pt_regs)
> popq %rsp
> CFI_DEF_CFA_REGISTER rsp
> decl PER_CPU_VAR(irq_count)
> +#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT
> jmp error_exit
> +#else
> + movl %ebx, %eax
> + RESTORE_REST
> + DISABLE_INTERRUPTS(CLBR_NONE)
> + TRACE_IRQS_OFF
> + GET_THREAD_INFO(%rcx)
> + testl %eax, %eax
> + je error_exit_user
> + cmpb $0,PER_CPU_VAR(xen_in_preemptible_hcall)
> + jz retint_kernel

I think I understand this part.

> + movb $0,PER_CPU_VAR(xen_in_preemptible_hcall)

Why? Is the issue that, if preemptible hypercalls nest, you don't
want to preempt again?

> + call cond_resched_irq

On !CONFIG_PREEMPT, there's no preempt_disable, right? So how do you
guarantee that you don't preempt something you shouldn't? Is the idea
that these events will only fire nested *directly* inside a
preemptible hypercall? Also, should you check that IRQs were on when
the event fired? (Are they on in pt_regs?)

> + movb $1,PER_CPU_VAR(xen_in_preemptible_hcall)
> + jmp retint_kernel
> +#endif /* CONFIG_PREEMPT */
> CFI_ENDPROC

All that being said, this is IMO a bit gross. You've added a bunch of
asm that's kind of like a parallel error_exit, and the error entry and
exit code is hairy enough that this scares me. Can you do this mostly
in C instead? This would look a nicer if it could be:

call xen_evtchn_do_upcall
popq %rsp
CFI_DEF_CFA_REGISTER rsp
decl PER_CPU_VAR(irq_count)
+ call xen_end_upcall
jmp error_exit

Where xen_end_upcall would be witten in C, nokprobes and notrace (if
needed) and would check pt_regs and whatever else and just call
schedule if needed?

--Andy