Re: [PATCH v5 0/8] Remove EPYC mode apicid decode and use generic decode

[Igor Mammedov <imammedo@redhat.com>]

On Tue, 25 Aug 2020 16:25:21 +0100
"Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <dgilbert@redhat.com> wrote:

> * Igor Mammedov (imammedo@redhat.com) wrote:
> > On Tue, 25 Aug 2020 09:15:04 +0100
> > "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <dgilbert@redhat.com> wrote:
> >   
> > > * Babu Moger (babu.moger@amd.com) wrote:  
> > > > Hi Dave,
> > > > 
> > > > On 8/24/20 1:41 PM, Dr. David Alan Gilbert wrote:    
> > > > > * Babu Moger (babu.moger@amd.com) wrote:    
> > > > >> To support some of the complex topology, we introduced EPYC mode apicid decode.
> > > > >> But, EPYC mode decode is running into problems. Also it can become quite a
> > > > >> maintenance problem in the future. So, it was decided to remove that code and
> > > > >> use the generic decode which works for majority of the topology. Most of the
> > > > >> SPECed configuration would work just fine. With some non-SPECed user inputs,
> > > > >> it will create some sub-optimal configuration.
> > > > >> Here is the discussion thread.
> > > > >> https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flore.kernel.org%2Fqemu-devel%2Fc0bcc1a6-1d84-a6e7-e468-d5b437c1b254%40amd.com%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7Cbabu.moger%40amd.com%7C74d90724af9c4adcc75008d8485d4d16%7C3dd8961fe4884e608e11a82d994e183d%7C0%7C0%7C637338912853492167&amp;sdata=GTsMKcpeYXAA0CvpLTirPHKdNSdlJE3RuPjCtSyWtGQ%3D&amp;reserved=0
> > > > >>
> > > > >> This series removes all the EPYC mode specific apicid changes and use the generic
> > > > >> apicid decode.    
> > > > > 
> > > > > Hi Babu,
> > > > >   This does simplify things a lot!
> > > > > One worry, what happens about a live migration of a VM from an old qemu
> > > > > that was using the node-id to a qemu with this new scheme?    
> > > > 
> > > > The node_id which we introduced was only used internally. This wasn't
> > > > exposed outside. I don't think live migration will be an issue.    
> > > 
> > > Didn't it become part of the APIC ID visible to the guest?  
> > 
> > Daniel asked similar question wrt hard error on start up,
> > when CLI is not sufficient to create EPYC cpu.
> > 
> > https://www.mail-archive.com/qemu-devel@nongnu.org/msg728536.html
> > 
> > Migration might fall into the same category.
> > Also looking at the history, 5.0 commit 
> >   247b18c593ec29 target/i386: Enable new apic id encoding for EPYC based cpus models
> > silently broke APIC ID (without versioning), for all EPYC models (that's were 1 new and 1 old one).
> > 
> > (I'm not aware of somebody complaining about it)
> > 
> > Another commit ed78467a21459, changed CPUID_8000_001E without versioning as well.
> > 
> > 
> > With current EPYC apicid code, if all starts align (no numa or 1 numa node only on
> > CLI and no -smp dies=) it might produce a valid CPU (apicid+CPUID_8000_001E).
> > No numa is gray area, since EPYC spec implies that it has to be numa machine in case of real EPYC cpus.
> > Multi-node configs would be correct only if user assigns cpus to numa nodes
> > by duplicating internal node_id algorithm that this series removes.
> > 
> > There might be other broken cases that I don't recall anymore
> > (should be mentioned in previous versions of this series)
> > 
> > 
> > To summarize from migration pov (ignoring ed78467a21459 change):
> > 
> >  1) old qemu pre-5.0 ==>  qemu 5.0, 5.1 - broken migration  
> 
> Oh ....
> 
> >  2) with this series (lets call it qemu 5.2)
> >      pre-5.0 ==> qemu 5.2 - should work as series basically rollbacks current code to pre-5.0
> >      qemu 5.0, 5.1 ==> qemu 5.2 - broken
> > 
> > It's all about picking which poison to choose,
> > I'd preffer 2nd case as it lets drop a lot of complicated code that
> > doesn't work as expected.  
> 
> I think that would make our lives easier for other reasons; so I'm happy
> to go with that.

to make things less painful for users, me wonders if there is a way
to block migration if epyc and specific QEMU versions are used?

> > PS:
> >  I didn't review it yet, but with this series we aren't
> >  making up internal node_ids that should match user provided numa node ids somehow.
> >  It seems series lost the patch that would enforce numa in case -smp dies>1,
> >  but otherwise it heads in the right direction.  
> 
> Dave
> 
> > > 
> > > Dave
> > >   
> >