Re: [PATCH 2/4] vhost-user: Interface for migration state transfer

[Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>]

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On Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 05:17:02PM +0200, Eugenio Perez Martin wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 7:55 PM Hanna Czenczek <hreitz@redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 13.04.23 13:38, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
> > > On Thu, 13 Apr 2023 at 05:24, Hanna Czenczek <hreitz@redhat.com> wrote:
> > >> On 12.04.23 23:06, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
> > >>> On Tue, Apr 11, 2023 at 05:05:13PM +0200, Hanna Czenczek wrote:
> > >>>> So-called "internal" virtio-fs migration refers to transporting the
> > >>>> back-end's (virtiofsd's) state through qemu's migration stream.  To do
> > >>>> this, we need to be able to transfer virtiofsd's internal state to and
> > >>>> from virtiofsd.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Because virtiofsd's internal state will not be too large, we believe it
> > >>>> is best to transfer it as a single binary blob after the streaming
> > >>>> phase.  Because this method should be useful to other vhost-user
> > >>>> implementations, too, it is introduced as a general-purpose addition to
> > >>>> the protocol, not limited to vhost-user-fs.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> These are the additions to the protocol:
> > >>>> - New vhost-user protocol feature VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_MIGRATORY_STATE:
> > >>>>     This feature signals support for transferring state, and is added so
> > >>>>     that migration can fail early when the back-end has no support.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> - SET_DEVICE_STATE_FD function: Front-end and back-end negotiate a pipe
> > >>>>     over which to transfer the state.  The front-end sends an FD to the
> > >>>>     back-end into/from which it can write/read its state, and the back-end
> > >>>>     can decide to either use it, or reply with a different FD for the
> > >>>>     front-end to override the front-end's choice.
> > >>>>     The front-end creates a simple pipe to transfer the state, but maybe
> > >>>>     the back-end already has an FD into/from which it has to write/read
> > >>>>     its state, in which case it will want to override the simple pipe.
> > >>>>     Conversely, maybe in the future we find a way to have the front-end
> > >>>>     get an immediate FD for the migration stream (in some cases), in which
> > >>>>     case we will want to send this to the back-end instead of creating a
> > >>>>     pipe.
> > >>>>     Hence the negotiation: If one side has a better idea than a plain
> > >>>>     pipe, we will want to use that.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> - CHECK_DEVICE_STATE: After the state has been transferred through the
> > >>>>     pipe (the end indicated by EOF), the front-end invokes this function
> > >>>>     to verify success.  There is no in-band way (through the pipe) to
> > >>>>     indicate failure, so we need to check explicitly.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Once the transfer pipe has been established via SET_DEVICE_STATE_FD
> > >>>> (which includes establishing the direction of transfer and migration
> > >>>> phase), the sending side writes its data into the pipe, and the reading
> > >>>> side reads it until it sees an EOF.  Then, the front-end will check for
> > >>>> success via CHECK_DEVICE_STATE, which on the destination side includes
> > >>>> checking for integrity (i.e. errors during deserialization).
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Suggested-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
> > >>>> Signed-off-by: Hanna Czenczek <hreitz@redhat.com>
> > >>>> ---
> > >>>>    include/hw/virtio/vhost-backend.h |  24 +++++
> > >>>>    include/hw/virtio/vhost.h         |  79 ++++++++++++++++
> > >>>>    hw/virtio/vhost-user.c            | 147 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > >>>>    hw/virtio/vhost.c                 |  37 ++++++++
> > >>>>    4 files changed, 287 insertions(+)
> > >>>>
> > >>>> diff --git a/include/hw/virtio/vhost-backend.h b/include/hw/virtio/vhost-backend.h
> > >>>> index ec3fbae58d..5935b32fe3 100644
> > >>>> --- a/include/hw/virtio/vhost-backend.h
> > >>>> +++ b/include/hw/virtio/vhost-backend.h
> > >>>> @@ -26,6 +26,18 @@ typedef enum VhostSetConfigType {
> > >>>>        VHOST_SET_CONFIG_TYPE_MIGRATION = 1,
> > >>>>    } VhostSetConfigType;
> > >>>>
> > >>>> +typedef enum VhostDeviceStateDirection {
> > >>>> +    /* Transfer state from back-end (device) to front-end */
> > >>>> +    VHOST_TRANSFER_STATE_DIRECTION_SAVE = 0,
> > >>>> +    /* Transfer state from front-end to back-end (device) */
> > >>>> +    VHOST_TRANSFER_STATE_DIRECTION_LOAD = 1,
> > >>>> +} VhostDeviceStateDirection;
> > >>>> +
> > >>>> +typedef enum VhostDeviceStatePhase {
> > >>>> +    /* The device (and all its vrings) is stopped */
> > >>>> +    VHOST_TRANSFER_STATE_PHASE_STOPPED = 0,
> > >>>> +} VhostDeviceStatePhase;
> > >>> vDPA has:
> > >>>
> > >>>     /* Suspend a device so it does not process virtqueue requests anymore
> > >>>      *
> > >>>      * After the return of ioctl the device must preserve all the necessary state
> > >>>      * (the virtqueue vring base plus the possible device specific states) that is
> > >>>      * required for restoring in the future. The device must not change its
> > >>>      * configuration after that point.
> > >>>      */
> > >>>     #define VHOST_VDPA_SUSPEND      _IO(VHOST_VIRTIO, 0x7D)
> > >>>
> > >>>     /* Resume a device so it can resume processing virtqueue requests
> > >>>      *
> > >>>      * After the return of this ioctl the device will have restored all the
> > >>>      * necessary states and it is fully operational to continue processing the
> > >>>      * virtqueue descriptors.
> > >>>      */
> > >>>     #define VHOST_VDPA_RESUME       _IO(VHOST_VIRTIO, 0x7E)
> > >>>
> > >>> I wonder if it makes sense to import these into vhost-user so that the
> > >>> difference between kernel vhost and vhost-user is minimized. It's okay
> > >>> if one of them is ahead of the other, but it would be nice to avoid
> > >>> overlapping/duplicated functionality.
> > >>>
> > >>> (And I hope vDPA will import the device state vhost-user messages
> > >>> introduced in this series.)
> > >> I don’t understand your suggestion.  (Like, I very simply don’t
> > >> understand :))
> > >>
> > >> These are vhost messages, right?  What purpose do you have in mind for
> > >> them in vhost-user for internal migration?  They’re different from the
> > >> state transfer messages, because they don’t transfer state to/from the
> > >> front-end.  Also, the state transfer stuff is supposed to be distinct
> > >> from starting/stopping the device; right now, it just requires the
> > >> device to be stopped beforehand (or started only afterwards).  And in
> > >> the future, new VhostDeviceStatePhase values may allow the messages to
> > >> be used on devices that aren’t stopped.
> > >>
> > >> So they seem to serve very different purposes.  I can imagine using the
> > >> VDPA_{SUSPEND,RESUME} messages for external migration (what Anton is
> > >> working on), but they don’t really help with internal migration
> > >> implemented here.  If I were to add them, they’d just be sent in
> > >> addition to the new messages added in this patch here, i.e. SUSPEND on
> > >> the source before SET_DEVICE_STATE_FD, and RESUME on the destination
> > >> after CHECK_DEVICE_STATE (we could use RESUME in place of
> > >> CHECK_DEVICE_STATE on the destination, but we can’t do that on the
> > >> source, so we still need CHECK_DEVICE_STATE).
> > > Yes, they are complementary to the device state fd message. I want to
> > > make sure pre-conditions about the device's state (running vs stopped)
> > > already take into account the vDPA SUSPEND/RESUME model.
> > >
> > > vDPA will need device state save/load in the future. For virtiofs
> > > devices, for example. This is why I think we should plan for vDPA and
> > > vhost-user to share the same interface.
> >
> > While the paragraph below is more important, I don’t feel like this
> > would be important right now.  It’s clear that SUSPEND must come before
> > transferring any state, and that RESUME must come after transferring
> > state.  I don’t think we need to clarify this now, it’d be obvious when
> > implementing SUSPEND/RESUME.
> >
> > > Also, I think the code path you're relying on (vhost_dev_stop()) on
> > > doesn't work for backends that implement VHOST_USER_PROTOCOL_F_STATUS
> > > because stopping the backend resets the device and throws away its
> > > state. SUSPEND/RESUME solve this. This looks like a more general
> > > problem since vhost_dev_stop() is called any time the VM is paused.
> > > Maybe it needs to use SUSPEND/RESUME whenever possible.
> >
> > That’s a problem.  Quite a problem, to be honest, because this sounds
> > rather complicated with honestly absolutely no practical benefit right
> > now.
> >
> > Would you require SUSPEND/RESUME for state transfer even if the back-end
> > does not implement GET/SET_STATUS?  Because then this would also lead to
> > more complexity in virtiofsd.
> >
> 
> At this moment the vhost-user net in DPDK suspends at
> VHOST_GET_VRING_BASE. Not the same case though, as here only the vq
> indexes / wrap bits are transferred here.
> 
> Vhost-vdpa implements the suspend call so it does not need to trust
> VHOST_GET_VRING_BASE to be the last vring call done. Since virtiofsd
> is using vhost-user maybe it is not needed to implement it actually.

Careful, if we deliberately make vhost-user and vDPA diverge, then it
will be hard to share the migration interface.

> > Basically, what I’m hearing is that I need to implement a different
> > feature that has no practical impact right now, and also fix bugs around
> > it along the way...
> >
> 
> To fix this properly requires iterative device migration in qemu as
> far as I know, instead of using VMStates [1]. This way the state is
> requested to virtiofsd before the device reset.

I don't follow. Many devices are fine with non-iterative migration. They
shouldn't be forced to do iterative migration.

> What does virtiofsd do when the state is totally sent? Does it keep
> processing requests and generating new state or is only a one shot
> that will suspend the daemon? If it is the second I think it still can
> be done in one shot at the end, always indicating "no more state" at
> save_live_pending and sending all the state at
> save_live_complete_precopy.
> 
> Does that make sense to you?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> [1] https://qemu.readthedocs.io/en/latest/devel/migration.html#iterative-device-migration
> 

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