Re: [PATCH 3/3] KVM: x86: Decouple APICv activation state from apicv_inhibit_reasons

Naveen N Rao
2025-02-11T18:17:44Z

On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 08:37:17AM -0800, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2025, Naveen N Rao wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 05, 2025 at 12:36:21PM +0100, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> > I haven't analyzed this yet, but moving apicv_irq_window into a separate
> > cacheline is improving the performance in my tests by ~7 to 8%:
> >
> > diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> > index 9e3465e70a0a..d8a40ac49226 100644
> > --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> > +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/kvm_host.h
> > @@ -1355,6 +1355,9 @@ struct kvm_arch {
> > struct kvm_ioapic *vioapic;
> > struct kvm_pit *vpit;
> > atomic_t vapics_in_nmi_mode;
> > +
> > + atomic_t apicv_irq_window;
> > +
> > struct mutex apic_map_lock;
> > struct kvm_apic_map __rcu *apic_map;
> > atomic_t apic_map_dirty;
> > @@ -1365,7 +1368,6 @@ struct kvm_arch {
> > /* Protects apicv_inhibit_reasons */
> > struct rw_semaphore apicv_update_lock;
> > unsigned long apicv_inhibit_reasons;
> > - atomic_t apicv_irq_window;
> >
> > gpa_t wall_clock;
> >
> >
> > I chose that spot before apic_map_lock simply because there was a 4 byte
> > hole there. This happens to also help performance in the AVIC disabled
> > case by a few percentage points (rather, restores the performance in the
> > AVIC disabled case).
> >
> > Before this change, I was trying to see if we could entirely elide the
> > rwsem read lock in the specific scenario we are seeing the bottleneck.
> > That is, instead of checking for any other inhibit being set, can we
> > specifically test for PIT_REINJ while setting the IRQWIN inhibit? Then,
> > update the inhibit change logic if PIT_REINJ is cleared to re-check the
> > irq window count.
> >
> > There's probably a race here somewhere, but FWIW, along with the above
> > change to 'struct kvm_arch', this helps improve performance by a few
> > more percentage points helping close the gap to within 2% of the AVIC
> > disabled case.
>
> I suspect the issue is that apicv_inhibit_reasons is in the same cache line. That
> field is read on at least every entry
>
> /*
> * Assert that vCPU vs. VM APICv state is consistent. An APICv
> * update must kick and wait for all vCPUs before toggling the
> * per-VM state, and responding vCPUs must wait for the update
> * to complete before servicing KVM_REQ_APICV_UPDATE.
> */
> WARN_ON_ONCE((kvm_vcpu_apicv_activated(vcpu) != kvm_vcpu_apicv_active(vcpu)) &&
> (kvm_get_apic_mode(vcpu) != LAPIC_MODE_DISABLED));
>
> and when opening an IRQ window in svm_set_vintr()
>
> WARN_ON(kvm_vcpu_apicv_activated(&svm->vcpu));

Possibly, but we also write to apicv_update_lock every time we update
apicv_irq_window in kvm_inc_or_dec_irq_window_inhibit(), and that is in
the same cacheline as apicv_inhibit_reasons:

if (READ_ONCE(kvm->arch.apicv_inhibit_reasons) & ~BIT(APICV_INHIBIT_REASON_IRQWIN)) {
guard(rwsem_read)(&kvm->arch.apicv_update_lock);
if (READ_ONCE(kvm->arch.apicv_inhibit_reasons) & ~BIT(APICV_INHIBIT_REASON_IRQWIN)) {
atomic_add(add, &kvm->arch.apicv_irq_window);
return;
}
}

Also, note that introducing apicv_irq_window after apicv_inhibit_reasons
is degrading performance in the AVIC disabled case too. So, it is likely
that some other cacheline below apicv_inhibit_reasons in kvm_arch may
also be contributing to this.

>
> and when handling emulated APIC MMIO in kvm_mmu_faultin_pfn():
>
> /*
> * If the APIC access page exists but is disabled, go directly
> * to emulation without caching the MMIO access or creating a
> * MMIO SPTE. That way the cache doesn't need to be purged
> * when the AVIC is re-enabled.
> */
> if (!kvm_apicv_activated(vcpu->kvm))
> return RET_PF_EMULATE;
>
> Hmm, now that I think about it, lack of emulated MMIO caching that might explain
> the 2% gap. Do you see the same gap if the guest is using x2APIC?

Are you referring to hybrid-AVIC? I am testing this on a Turin system
that has x2AVIC support, so the guest is running in x2APIC/x2AVIC mode
(kvm_amd avic=0/avic=1)

- Naveen