[Xen-devel] [PATCH 01/15] xl: update the manpage about "cpus=" and NUMA node-affinity

[Dario Faggioli <dario.faggioli@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Since d06b1bf169a01a9c7b0947d7825e58cb455a0ba5 ('libxl: automatic placement
deals with node-affinity') it is no longer true that, if no "cpus=" option
is specified, xl picks up some pCPUs by default and pin the domain there.

In fact, it is the NUMA node-affinity that is affected by automatic
placement, not vCPU to pCPU pinning.

Update the xl config file documenation accordingly, as it seems to have
been forgotten at that time.

Signed-off-by: Dario Faggioli <dario.faggioli@xxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Picking this up from a previously submitted series ("xl:
allow for node-wise specification of vcpu pinning") as the
changes in that and in this series would otherwise be
conflicting. If this is considered fine, Feel free to apply
it from here and skip the corresponding e-mail in the
original submission.
---
 docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5 |   22 +++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5 b/docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5
index d57cd4d..cd96969 100644
--- a/docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5
+++ b/docs/man/xl.cfg.pod.5
@@ -104,8 +104,8 @@ created online and the remainder will be offline.
 
 =item B<cpus="CPU-LIST">
 
-List of which cpus the guest is allowed to use. By default xl will pick
-some cpus on its own (see below). A C<CPU-LIST> may be specified as follows:
+List of which cpus the guest is allowed to use. Default is no pinning at
+all (more on this below). A C<CPU-LIST> may be specified as follows:
 
 =over 4
 
@@ -125,11 +125,19 @@ run on cpu #3 of the host.
 
 =back
 
-If this option is not specified, libxl automatically tries to place the new
-domain on the host's NUMA nodes (provided the host has more than one NUMA
-node) by pinning it to the cpus of those nodes. A heuristic approach is
-utilized with the goals of maximizing performance for the domain and, at
-the same time, achieving efficient utilization of the host's CPUs and RAM.
+If this option is not specified, no vcpu to cpu pinning is established,
+and the vcpus of the guest can run on all the cpus of the host.
+
+If we are on a NUMA machine (i.e., if the host has more than one NUMA
+node) and this option is not specified, libxl automatically tries to
+place the guest on the least possible number of nodes. That, however,
+will not affect vcpu pinning, so the guest will still be able to run on
+all the cpus, it will just prefer the ones from the node it has been
+placed on. A heuristic approach is used for choosing the best node (or
+set of nodes), with the goals of maximizing performance for the guest
+and, at the same time, achieving efficient utilization of host cpus
+and memory. See F<docs/misc/xl-numa-placement.markdown> for more
+details.
 
 =back
 


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