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[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] Re: [Xen-devel] [RFC v4]Proposal to allow setting up shared memory areas between VMs from xl config file
On Mon, 31 Jul 2017, Edgar E. Iglesias wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 09:03:15PM +0800, Zhongze Liu wrote:
> > ====================================================
> > 1. Motivation and Description
>
> Hi,
>
> I think this looks quite useful. I have a few comments inline.
Hi Edgar, thanks for giving it a look!
> > ====================================================
> > Virtual machines use grant table hypercalls to setup a share page for
> > inter-VMs communications. These hypercalls are used by all PV
> > protocols today. However, very simple guests, such as baremetal
> > applications, might not have the infrastructure to handle the grant table.
> > This project is about setting up several shared memory areas for inter-VMs
> > communications directly from the VM config file.
> > So that the guest kernel doesn't have to have grant table support (in the
> > embedded space, this is not unusual) to be able to communicate with
> > other guests.
> >
> > ====================================================
> > 2. Implementation Plan:
> > ====================================================
> >
> > ======================================
> > 2.1 Introduce a new VM config option in xl:
> > ======================================
> >
> > 2.1.1 Design Goals
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > The shared areas should be shareable among several (>=2) VMs, so every
> > shared
> > physical memory area is assigned to a set of VMs. Therefore, a “token” or
> > “identifier” should be used here to uniquely identify a backing memory area.
> > A string no longer than 128 bytes is used here to serve the purpose.
> >
> > The backing area would be taken from one domain, which we will regard
> > as the "master domain", and this domain should be created prior to any
> > other "slave domain"s. Again, we have to use some kind of tag to tell who
> > is the "master domain".
> >
> > And the ability to specify the permissions and cacheability (and
> > shareability
> > for ARM guest's) of the pages to be shared should also be given to the user.
> >
> > 2.2.2 Syntax and Behavior
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > The following example illustrates the syntax of the proposed config entry
> > (suppose that we're on x86):
> >
> > In xl config file of vm1:
> > static_shm = [ 'id=ID1, begin=0x100000, end=0x200000, role=master,
> > cache_policy=x86_normal, prot=r2',
> >
> > 'id=ID2, begin=0x300000, end=0x400000, role=master' ]
> >
> > In xl config file of vm2:
> > static_shm = [ 'id=ID1, offset = 0, begin=0x500000, end=0x600000,
> > role=slave, prot=ro' ]
> >
> > In xl config file of vm3:
> > static_shm = [ 'id=ID2, offset = 10000, begin=0x690000,
> > end=0x800000, role=slave, prot=ro' ]
> >
> > where:
> > @id The identifier of the backing memory area.
> > Can be any string that matches the regexp "[^
> > \t\n,]+"
> > and no longer than 128 characters
> >
> > @offset Can only appear when @role = slave. The sharing will
> > start from the beginning of backing memory area plus
> > this offset. If not set, it defaults to zero.
> > Can be decimals or hexadecimals of the form
> > "0x20000",
> > and should be the multiple of the hypervisor page
> > granularity (currently 4K on both ARM and x86).
> >
> > @begin/end The boundaries of the shared memory area. The format
> > requirements are the same with @offset.
>
> I'm assuming this is all specified in GFN and also not MFN contigous?
> Would it be possible to allow the specification of MFN mappings
> that are contigous?
That could be done with the iomem= parameter?
> This would be useful to map specific kinds of memory (e.g On Chip RAMs).
>
> Other use-cases are when there are not only guests sharing
> the pages but also devices. In some cases these devs may be locked in
> with low-latency access to specific memory regions.
>
> Perhaps something like the following?
> addr=gfn@<mfn>
> size=0x1000
>
> with mfn being optional?
I can see that it might be useful, but we are trying to keep the scope
small to be able to complete the project within the limited timeframe
allowed by GSoC. We only have one month left! We risk not getting the
feature completed. Once this set of features is done and committed, we
can expand on it.
For the sake of this document, we should make clear that addresses are in
the gfn space and memory is allocated to the master domain.
> > @role Can only be 'master' or 'slave', it defaults to
> > 'slave'.
> >
> > @prot When @role = master, this means the largest set of
> > stage-2 permission flags that can be granted to the
> > slave domains.
> > When @role = slave, this means the stage-2 permission
> > flags of the shared memory area.
> > Currently only 'rw' is supported. If not set. it
> > defaults to 'rw'.
> >
> > @cache_policy The stage-2 cacheability/shareability attributes of
> > the
> > shared memory area. Currently, only two policies are
> > supported:
> > * ARM_normal: Only applicable to ARM guests. This
> > would mean Inner and Outer
> > Write-Back
> > Cacheable, and Inner Shareable.
>
>
> Is there a reason not to set this to Outer Shareable?
> Again, mainly useful when these pages get shared with devs as well.
>
> The guest can always lower it to Inner Shareable via S1 tables if needed.
I don't think we can support memory sharing with devices in this version
of the document (see above about GSoC timelines). Normal memory is inner
shareable in Xen today, it makes sense to default to that.
> > * x86_normal: Only applicable to x86 HVM guests.
> > This
> > would mean Write-Back Cacheable.
> > If not set, it defaults to the *_normal policy for
> > the
> > corresponding platform.
> >
> > Note:
> > The sizes of the areas specified by @begin and @end in the slave
> > domain's config file should be smaller than the corresponding sizes
> > specified
> > in its master's domain. And @offset should always be within the backing
> > memory region. Overlapping backing memory areas are allowed, but the
> > slave's
> > can't map two different backing memory region's into an overlapping memory
> > space.
> > The "master" role in vm1 for both ID1 and ID2 indicates that vm1 should be
> > created prior to both vm2 and vm3, for they both rely on the pages backed
> > by
> > vm1. If one tries to create vm2 or vm3 prior to vm1, she will get an
> > error.
> >
> > In the example above. A memory area ID1 will be shared between vm1 and vm2.
> > This area will be taken from vm1 and added to vm2's stage-2 page table.
> > The parameter "prot=rw" means that this memory area is offered with
> > read-write
> > permission. vm1 can access this area using 0x100000~0x200000, and vm2 using
> > 0x500000~0x600000. The stage-2 cache policy of this backing memory area is
> > x86_normal.
> >
> > Likewise, a memory area ID2 will be shared between vm1 and vm3 with
> > read-write
> > permissions. vm1 is the master and vm2 the slave. Note the @offset = 0x10000
> > in vm2' config, the actual sharing relationship would be:
> > (vm1 : 0x310000~0x400000) <=====> (vm2 : 0x690000~0x800000)
> > The stage-2 cache policy of this backing memory area is x86_normal.
> >
> > ======================================
> > 2.2 Store the mem-sharing information in xenstore
> > ======================================
> > For we don't have some persistent storage for xl to store the information
> > of the shared memory areas, we have to find some way to keep it between xl
> > launches. And xenstore is a good place to do this. The information for one
> > shared area should include the ID, master's domid, address range,
> > memory attributes and information of the slaves etc.
> > A current plan is to place the information under /local/shared_mem/ID.
> > Still take the above config files as an example:
> >
> > If we instantiate vm1, vm2 and vm3, one after another, “xenstore ls -f”
> > should
> > output something like this:
> >
> > After VM1 was instantiated, the output of “xenstore ls -f
> > will be something like this:
> >
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/master = domid_of_vm1
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/begin = 0x100000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/end = 0x200000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/prot = "rw"
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/cache_policy = "x86_normal"
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/slaves = ""
> >
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/master = domid_of_vm1
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/begin = 0x300000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/end = 0x400000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/permissions = "rw"
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/x86_cacheattr = "x86_normal"
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/slaves = ""
> >
> > After VM2 was instantiated, the following new lines will appear:
> >
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/slaves/domid_of_vm2/begin = 0x500000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/slaves/domid_of_vm2/end = 0x600000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID1/slaves/domid_of_vm2/permissions = "rw"
> >
> > After VM2 was instantiated, the following new lines will appear:
> >
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/slaves/domid_of_vm3/gmfn_begin = 0x690000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/slaves/domid_of_vm3/gmfn_end = 0x800000
> > /local/shared_mem/ID2/slaves/domid_of_vm3/permissions = "rw"
> >
> >
> > When we encounter an static_shm entry with id = IDx during "xl create":
> >
> > + If there's NO corresponding entry in xenstore:
> > + If @role=master, create the corresponding entries for IDx in xenstore
> > + If @role=role, say error.
> >
> > + If the corresponding entry exists in xenstore:
> > + If @role=master, say error
> > + If @role=slave, map the pages to the newly created domain, and add the
> > neccesasry informations under /local/shared_mem/IDx/slaves.
> >
> > ======================================
> > 2.3 mapping the memory areas
> > ======================================
> > Handle the newly added config option in tools/{xl, libxl} and utilize
> > toos/libxc to do the actual memory mapping. Specifically, we will use
> > xc_domain_add_to_physmap_batch with XENMAPSPACE_gmfn_foreign to
> > do the actual mapping.
> >
> > ======================================
> > 2.4 error handling
> > ======================================
> > Add code to handle various errors: Invalid address, invalid permissions,
> > wrong
> > order of vm creation, wrong length of memory area etc.
> >
> > ====================================================
> > 3. Expected Outcomes/Goals:
> > ====================================================
> > A new VM config option in xl will be introduced, allowing users to setup
> > several shared memory areas for inter-VMs communications.
> > This should work on both x86 and ARM.
> >
> > ====================================================
> > 3. Future Directions:
> > ====================================================
> > Implement the missing @prot flags and @cache_policy options.
> >
> > Set up a notification channel between domains who are communicating through
> > shared memory regions, this allows one vm to signal her friends when data is
> > available in the shared memory or when the data in the shared memory is
> > consumed. The channel could be built upon PPI or SGI.
> >
> >
> > [See also:
> > https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Outreach_Program_Projects#Share_a_page_in_memory_from_the_VM_config_file]
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Zhongze Liu
>
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