Re: [RFC, PATCH 00/12] TDX: Enable Dynamic PAMT

[Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>]

On Fri, May 02, 2025, Kirill A. Shutemov wrote:
> This RFC patchset enables Dynamic PAMT in TDX. It is not intended to be
> applied, but rather to receive early feedback on the feature design and
> enabling.

In that case, please describe the design, and specifically *why* you chose this
particular design, along with the constraints and rules of dynamic PAMTs that
led to that decision.  It would also be very helpful to know what options you
considered and discarded, so that others don't waste time coming up with solutions
that you already rejected.

> >From our perspective, this feature has a lower priority compared to huge
> page support. I will rebase this patchset on top of Yan's huge page
> enabling at a later time, as it requires additional work.
> 
> Any feedback is welcome. We are open to ideas.
> 
> =========================================================================
> 
> The Physical Address Metadata Table (PAMT) holds TDX metadata for
> physical memory and must be allocated by the kernel during TDX module
> initialization.
> 
> The exact size of the required PAMT memory is determined by the TDX
> module and may vary between TDX module versions, but currently it is
> approximately 0.4% of the system memory. This is a significant
> commitment, especially if it is not known upfront whether the machine
> will run any TDX guests.
> 
> The Dynamic PAMT feature reduces static PAMT allocations. PAMT_1G and
> PAMT_2M levels are still allocated on TDX module initialization, but the
> PAMT_4K level is allocated dynamically, reducing static allocations to
> approximately 0.004% of the system memory.
> 
> PAMT memory is dynamically allocated as pages gain TDX protections.
> It is reclaimed when TDX protections have been removed from all
> pages in a contiguous area.