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Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH V3 1/1] expand x86 arch_shared_info to support >3 level p2m tree



On 09/15/2014 11:42 AM, Jan Beulich wrote:
On 15.09.14 at 10:52, <JGross@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 09/15/2014 10:29 AM, Andrew Cooper wrote:

On 12/09/2014 11:31, Juergen Gross wrote:
On 09/09/2014 12:49 PM, Juergen Gross wrote:
On 09/09/2014 12:27 PM, Andrew Cooper wrote:
On 09/09/14 10:58, Juergen Gross wrote:
The x86 struct arch_shared_info field pfn_to_mfn_frame_list_list
currently contains the mfn of the top level page frame of the 3 level
p2m tree, which is used by the Xen tools during saving and restoring
(and live migration) of pv domains. With three levels of the p2m tree
it is possible to support up to 512 GB of RAM for a 64 bit pv domain.
A 32 bit pv domain can support more, as each memory page can hold 1024
instead of 512 entries, leading to a limit of 4 TB. To be able to
support more RAM on x86-64 an additional level is to be added.

This patch expands struct arch_shared_info with a new p2m tree root
and the number of levels of the p2m tree. The new information is
indicated by the domain to be valid by storing ~0UL into
pfn_to_mfn_frame_list_list (this should be done only if more than
three levels are needed, of course).

A small domain feeling a little tight on space could easily opt for a 2
or even 1 level p2m.  (After all, one advantage of virt is to cram many
small VMs into a server).

How is xen and toolstack support for n-level p2ms going to be
advertised
to guests?  Simply assuming the toolstack is capable of dealing with
this new scheme wont work with a new pv guest running on an older Xen.

Is it really worth doing such an optimization? This would save only very
few pages.

If you think it should be done we can add another SIF_* flag to
start_info->flags. In this case a domain using this feature could not be
migrated to a server with old tools, however. So we would probably end
with the need to be able to suppress that flag on a per-domain base.

Any further comments?

Which way should I go?


There are two approaches, with different up/downsides

1) continue to use the old method, and use the new method only when
absolutely required.  This will function, but on old toolstacks, suffer
migration/suspend failures when the toolstack fails to find the p2m.

2) Provide a Xen feature flag indicating the presence of N-level p2m
support.  Guests which can see this flag are free to use N-level, and
guests which can't are not.

Ultimately, giving more than 512GB to a current 64bit PV domain is not
going to work, and the choice above depends on which failure mode you
wish a new/old mix to have.

I'd prefer solution 1), as it will enable Dom0 with more than 512 GB
without requiring a change of any Xen component. Additionally large
domains can be started by users who don't care for migrating or
suspending them.

With the hopefully well understood limitation of kexec not working
there (as it, just like migration for DomU, uses this table for Dom0
in at least machine_crash_shutdown()).

Sure. That's another issue to be addressed.

Juergen

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