Re: [PATCH 3/3] KVM SVM: Add Bus Lock Detect support

Ravi Bangoria
2024-06-05T11:38:17Z

Hi Sean,

On 6/4/2024 6:15 AM, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 29, 2024, Ravi Bangoria wrote:
>> Upcoming AMD uarch will support Bus Lock Detect. Add support for it
>> in KVM. Bus Lock Detect is enabled through MSR_IA32_DEBUGCTLMSR and
>> MSR_IA32_DEBUGCTLMSR is virtualized only if LBR Virtualization is
>> enabled. Add this dependency in the KVM.
>
> This is woefully incomplete, e.g. db_interception() needs to be updated to decipher
> whether the #DB is the responsbility of the host or of the guest.

Can you please elaborate. Are you referring to vcpu->guest_debug thingy?

> Honestly, I don't see any point in virtualizing this in KVM. As Jim alluded to,
> what's far, far more interesting for KVM is "Bus Lock Threshold". Virtualizing
> this for the guest would have been nice to have during the initial split-lock #AC
> support, but now I'm skeptical the complexity is worth the payoff.

This has a valid usecase of penalizing offending processes. I'm not sure
how much it's really used in the production though.

> I suppose we could allow it if #DB isn't interecepted, at which point the enabling
> required is minimal?

The feature uses DEBUG_CTL MSR, #DB and DR6 register. Do you mean expose
it when all three are accelerated or just #DB?

Thanks for the feedback,
Ravi