Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC v2 1/2] docs: vhost-user: add in-band kick/call messages

["Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <dgilbert@redhat.com>]

* Johannes Berg (johannes@sipsolutions.net) wrote:
> From: Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@intel.com>
> 
> For good reason, vhost-user is currently built asynchronously, that
> way better performance can be obtained. However, for certain use
> cases such as simulation, this is problematic.
> 
> Consider an event-based simulation in which both the device and CPU
> have scheduled according to a simulation "calendar". Now, consider
> the CPU sending I/O to the device, over a vring in the vhost-user
> protocol. In this case, the CPU must wait for the vring interrupt
> to have been processed by the device, so that the device is able to
> put an entry onto the simulation calendar to obtain time to handle
> the interrupt. Note that this doesn't mean the I/O is actually done
> at this time, it just means that the handling of it is scheduled
> before the CPU can continue running.
> 
> This cannot be done with the asynchronous eventfd based vring kick
> and call design.
> 
> Extend the protocol slightly, so that a message can be used for kick
> and call instead, if VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS is
> negotiated. This in itself doesn't guarantee synchronisation, but both
> sides can also negotiate VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_REPLY_ACK and thus get
> a reply to this message by setting the need_reply flag, and ensure
> synchronisation this way.

I'm confused; if you've already got REPLY_ACK, why do we need anything
else?  We already require the reply on set_mem_table as part of
postcopy.

Dave

> To really use it in both directions, VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_REQ
> is also needed.
> 
> Since it is used for simulation purposes and too many messages on
> the socket can lock up the virtual machine, document that this should
> only be used together with the mentioned features.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg <johannes.berg@intel.com>
> ---
>  docs/interop/vhost-user.rst | 113 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------
>  1 file changed, 96 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/docs/interop/vhost-user.rst b/docs/interop/vhost-user.rst
> index 7827b710aa0a..c4396eabf9e9 100644
> --- a/docs/interop/vhost-user.rst
> +++ b/docs/interop/vhost-user.rst
> @@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
>  Vhost-user Protocol
>  ===================
>  :Copyright: 2014 Virtual Open Systems Sarl.
> +:Copyright: 2019 Intel Corporation
>  :Licence: This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL,
>            version 2 or later. See the COPYING file in the top-level
>            directory.
> @@ -279,6 +280,9 @@ If *master* is unable to send the full message or receives a wrong
>  reply it will close the connection. An optional reconnection mechanism
>  can be implemented.
>  
> +If *slave* detects some error such as incompatible features, it may also
> +close the connection. This should only happen in exceptional circumstances.
> +
>  Any protocol extensions are gated by protocol feature bits, which
>  allows full backwards compatibility on both master and slave.  As
>  older slaves don't support negotiating protocol features, a feature
> @@ -315,7 +319,8 @@ it until ring is started, or after it has been stopped.
>  
>  Client must start ring upon receiving a kick (that is, detecting that
>  file descriptor is readable) on the descriptor specified by
> -``VHOST_USER_SET_VRING_KICK``, and stop ring upon receiving
> +``VHOST_USER_SET_VRING_KICK`` (or receiving the in-band message
> +``VHOST_USER_VRING_KICK`` if negotiated) and stop ring upon receiving
>  ``VHOST_USER_GET_VRING_BASE``.
>  
>  While processing the rings (whether they are enabled or not), client
> @@ -767,24 +772,48 @@ When reconnecting:
>  #. Resubmit inflight ``DescStatePacked`` entries in order of their
>     counter value
>  
> +In-band notifications
> +---------------------
> +
> +In some limited situations (e.g. for simulation) it is desirable to
> +have the kick, call and error (if used) signals done via in-band
> +messages instead of asynchronous eventfd notifications. This can be
> +done by negotiating the ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS``
> +protocol feature.
> +
> +Note that due to the fact that too many messages on the sockets can
> +cause the sending application(s) to block, it is not advised to use
> +this feature unless absolutely necessary. It is also considered an
> +error to negotiate this feature without also negotiating
> +``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_REQ`` and ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_REPLY_ACK``,
> +the former is necessary for getting a message channel from the slave
> +to the master, while the latter needs to be used with the in-band
> +notification messages to block until they are processed, both to avoid
> +blocking later and for proper processing (at least in the simulation
> +use case.) As it has no other way of signalling this error, the slave
> +should close the connection as a response to a
> +``VHOST_USER_SET_PROTOCOL_FEATURES`` message that sets the in-band
> +notifications feature flag without the other two.
> +
>  Protocol features
>  -----------------
>  
>  .. code:: c
>  
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_MQ             0
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_LOG_SHMFD      1
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_RARP           2
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_REPLY_ACK      3
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_MTU            4
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_REQ      5
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_CROSS_ENDIAN   6
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_CRYPTO_SESSION 7
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_PAGEFAULT      8
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_CONFIG         9
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_SEND_FD  10
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_HOST_NOTIFIER  11
> -  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_INFLIGHT_SHMFD 12
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_MQ                     0
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_LOG_SHMFD              1
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_RARP                   2
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_REPLY_ACK              3
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_MTU                    4
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_REQ              5
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_CROSS_ENDIAN           6
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_CRYPTO_SESSION         7
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_PAGEFAULT              8
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_CONFIG                 9
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_SEND_FD         10
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_HOST_NOTIFIER         11
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_INFLIGHT_SHMFD        12
> +  #define VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS 13
>  
>  Master message types
>  --------------------
> @@ -946,7 +975,9 @@ Master message types
>    Bits (0-7) of the payload contain the vring index. Bit 8 is the
>    invalid FD flag. This flag is set when there is no file descriptor
>    in the ancillary data. This signals that polling should be used
> -  instead of waiting for a kick.
> +  instead of waiting for the call. however, if the protocol feature
> +  ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS`` has been negotiated
> +  it instead means the updates should be done using the messages.
>  
>  ``VHOST_USER_SET_VRING_CALL``
>    :id: 13
> @@ -959,7 +990,9 @@ Master message types
>    Bits (0-7) of the payload contain the vring index. Bit 8 is the
>    invalid FD flag. This flag is set when there is no file descriptor
>    in the ancillary data. This signals that polling will be used
> -  instead of waiting for the call.
> +  instead of waiting for the call; however, if the protocol feature
> +  ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS`` has been negotiated
> +  it instead means the updates should be done using the messages.
>  
>  ``VHOST_USER_SET_VRING_ERR``
>    :id: 14
> @@ -971,7 +1004,11 @@ Master message types
>  
>    Bits (0-7) of the payload contain the vring index. Bit 8 is the
>    invalid FD flag. This flag is set when there is no file descriptor
> -  in the ancillary data.
> +  in the ancillary data. If the protocol features
> +  ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS`` and
> +  ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_SLAVE_REQ`` have been negotiated the invalid
> +  FD flag will be used to indicate that updates should be done using
> +  the ``VHOST_USER_SLAVE_ message.
>  
>  ``VHOST_USER_GET_QUEUE_NUM``
>    :id: 17
> @@ -1190,6 +1227,20 @@ Master message types
>    ancillary data. The GPU protocol is used to inform the master of
>    rendering state and updates. See vhost-user-gpu.rst for details.
>  
> +``VHOST_USER_VRING_KICK``
> +  :id: 34
> +  :equivalent ioctl: N/A
> +  :slave payload: vring state description
> +  :master payload: N/A
> +
> +  When the ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS`` protocol
> +  feature has been successfully negotiated, this message may be
> +  submitted by the master to indicate that a buffer was added to
> +  the vring instead of signalling it using the vring's event FD or
> +  having the slave rely on polling.
> +
> +  The state.num field is currently reserved and must be set to 0.
> +
>  Slave message types
>  -------------------
>  
> @@ -1246,6 +1297,34 @@ Slave message types
>    ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_HOST_NOTIFIER`` protocol feature has been
>    successfully negotiated.
>  
> +``VHOST_USER_SLAVE_VRING_CALL``
> +  :id: 4
> +  :equivalent ioctl: N/A
> +  :slave payload: vring state description
> +  :master payload: N/A
> +
> +  When the ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS`` protocol
> +  feature has been successfully negotiated, this message may be
> +  submitted by the slave to indicate that a buffer was used from
> +  the vring instead of signalling this using the vring's kick FD or
> +  having the master relying on polling.
> +
> +  The state.num field is currently reserved and must be set to 0.
> +
> +``VHOST_USER_SLAVE_VRING_ERR``
> +  :id: 5
> +  :equivalent ioctl: N/A
> +  :slave payload: vring state description
> +  :master payload: N/A
> +
> +  When the ``VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_IN_BAND_NOTIFICATIONS`` protocol
> +  feature has been successfully negotiated, this message may be
> +  submitted by the slave to indicate that an error occurred on the
> +  specific vring, instead of signalling the error FD set by the
> +  master via ``VHOST_USER_SET_VRING_ERR``.
> +
> +  The state.num field is currently reserved and must be set to 0.
> +
>  .. _reply_ack:
>  
>  VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_REPLY_ACK
> -- 
> 2.20.1
> 
> 
--
Dr. David Alan Gilbert / dgilbert@redhat.com / Manchester, UK