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Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] x86/vtx: Improvements to ept= command line handling


  • To: Jan Beulich <JBeulich@xxxxxxxx>
  • From: Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2018 11:15:51 +0000
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  • Cc: Kevin Tian <kevin.tian@xxxxxxxxx>, Xen-devel <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Wei Liu <wei.liu2@xxxxxxxxxx>, Jun Nakajima <jun.nakajima@xxxxxxxxx>, Roger Pau Monne <roger.pau@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • Delivery-date: Fri, 21 Dec 2018 11:16:11 +0000
  • List-id: Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xenproject.org>
  • Openpgp: preference=signencrypt

On 21/12/2018 11:13, Jan Beulich wrote:
>>>> On 20.12.18 at 18:16, <andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Switch parse_ept_param() to use the parse_boolean() infrastructure for more
>> consistency with related command line parameters.  Rename opt_pml_enabled to
>> opt_ept_pml for consistency with opt_ept_ad, and switch it to being bool
>>
>> Drop the comment leading comment for parse_ept_param().  It is stale, and 
>> just
> Nit: There's one "comment" to many here.

Oops - will fix.

>
>> --- a/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
>> +++ b/docs/misc/xen-command-line.markdown
>> @@ -841,29 +841,37 @@ effect the inverse meaning.
>>  >> Allows mapping of RuntimeServices which have no cachability attribute
>>  >> set as UC.
>>  
>> -### ept (Intel)
>> -> `= List of ( {no-}pml | {no-}ad )`
>> +### ept
>> +> `= List of [ ad=<bool>, pml=<bool> ]`
>>  
>> -Controls EPT related features.
>> +> Applicability: Intel
>>  
>> -> Sub-options:
>> -
>> -> `pml`
>> +Extended Page Tables are a feature of Intel's VT-x technology, whereby
>> +hardware manages the virtualisation of HVM guest pagetables.  EPT was
>> +introduced with the Nehalem architecture.
>>  
>> -> Default: `true`
>> +*   The `ad` boolean controls hardware tracking of Access and Dirty bits in 
>> the
>> +    EPT pagetables, and was first introduced in Broadwell Server.
>>  
>> ->> PML is a new hardware feature in Intel's Broadwell Server and further
>> ->> platforms which reduces hypervisor overhead of log-dirty mechanism by
>> ->> automatically recording GPAs (guest physical addresses) when guest memory
>> ->> gets dirty, and therefore significantly reducing number of EPT violation
>> ->> caused by write protection of guest memory, which is a necessity to
>> ->> implement log-dirty mechanism before PML.
>> +    By default, Xen will use A/D tracking when available in hardware, except
>> +    on Avoton processors affected by erratum AVR41.  Explicitly choosing
>> +    `ad=0` will disable the use of A/D tracking on capable hardware, whereas
>> +    choosing `ad=1` will cause tracking to be used even on AVR41-affected
>> +    hardware.
> Is there any reason for this special casing of the one erratum?
> Earlier this week I've gone through some spec updates for other
> purposes, and I've seen some rather frightening EPT A/D errata.

Which, out of interest?  There are a few, particularly on Skylake, but
all the problematic ones I'm aware of are fixed in microcode.

~Andrew

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