Re: [PATCH 06/10] s390/cio: add basic protected virtualization support

[Halil Pasic <pasic@linux.ibm.com>]

On Mon, 20 May 2019 12:21:43 +0200
Cornelia Huck <cohuck@redhat.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 18 May 2019 20:11:00 +0200
> Halil Pasic <pasic@linux.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 16 May 2019 08:29:28 +0200
> > Cornelia Huck <cohuck@redhat.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Wed, 15 May 2019 22:51:58 +0200
> > > Halil Pasic <pasic@linux.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
> > Don't like the second sentence. How about "It handles neither QDIO
> > in the common code, nor any device type specific stuff (like channel
> > programs constructed by the DADS driver)."
> 
> Sounds good to me (with s/DADS/DASD/ :)
> 

Of course!

> > > > A side note: making the subchannel device 'own' the DMA stuff of a
> > > > ccw device (something that was discussed in the RFC thread) is tricky
> > > > because the ccw device may outlive the subchannel (all that orphan
> > > > stuff).  
> > > 
> > > Yes, that's... eww. Not really a problem for virtio-ccw devices (which
> > > do not support the disconnected state), but can we make DMA and the
> > > subchannel moving play nice with each other at all?
> > >   
> > 
> > I don't quite understand the question. This series does not have any
> > problems with that AFAIU. Can you please clarify?
> 
> Wait, weren't you saying that there actually is a problem?
>

No, what I tried to say is: if we tried to make all the dma mem belong to
the subchannel device, we would have a problem. It appeared as a
tempting opportunity for consolidation, but I decided to not do it.

> We seem to have the following situation:
> - the device per se is represented by the ccw device
> - the subchannel is the means of communication, and dma is tied to the
>   (I/O ?) subchannel

It is not. When for example a virtio-ccw device talks to the device
using a channel program, the dma mem hosting the channel program belongs
to the ccw device and not to the subchannel.

In fact everything but the stuff in io_priv->dma_area belongs to the ccw
device.

> - the machine check handling code may move a ccw device to a different
>   subchannel, or even to a fake subchannel (orphanage handling)
> 

Right!

> The moving won't happen with virtio-ccw devices (as they do not support
> the disconnected state, which is a prereq for being moved around), but
> at a glance, this looks like it is worth some more thought.
> 
> - Are all (I/O) subchannels using e.g. the same dma size? (TBH, that
>   question sounds a bit silly: that should be a property belonging to
>   the ccw device, shouldn't it?)
> - What dma properties does the fake subchannel have? (Probably none, as
>   its only purpose is to serve as a parent for otherwise parentless
>   disconnected ccw devices, and is therefore not involved in any I/O.)
> - There needs to be some kind of handling in the machine check code, I
>   guess? We would probably need a different allocation if we end up at
>   a different subchannel?
> 

Basically nothing changes with mem ownership, except that some bits are
dma memory now. Should I provide a more detailed answer to the
questions above?

> I think we can assume that the dma size is at most 31 bits (since that
> is what the common I/O layer needs); but can we also assume that it
> will always be at least 31 bits?
> 

You mean dma_mas by dma size?

> My take on this is that we should be sure that we're not digging
> ourselves a hole that will be hard to get out of again should we want to
> support non-virtio-ccw in the future, not that the current
> implementation is necessarily broken.
> 

I agree!

Regards,
Hali