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RFC xl: add cpuid config file option

Andre Przywara xen-devel 1 version In review

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  1. v1 RFC Latest2 patches 10 repliesIn review

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#Subject and filesSizeRepliesApplied
1/2xl: add cpuid parametertools/libxl/libxl.c tools/libxl/libxl.h tools/libxl/libxl.idl +2 more+29 -07 replies
2/2xl: add cpuid parsing and translationtools/libxl/xl_cmdimpl.c+209 -00 replies

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Cover letter [PATCH 0/2] [RFC] xl: add cpuid config file option

Hi,

xl is currently ignoring the cpuid= variable in the config file. As I don't like the current interface xm exposes (basically because it is complicated, unintuitive and very error prone), I implemented a new scheme for specifying CPUID flags policy, combining QEMU's and Xen's approach:
cpuid = "<base>,<feature_name>=[01xks]*,...
The patch includes a (preliminary) list of feature names along with their bit positions. The value for each feature bit copies the current meaning is Xen:
0: clear, 1: set, x: don't care/use default, k: keep from host, s: use host but preserve across migration
The value can also be a number (either in hex or decimal), so things like "stepping=3" can be easily specified.
To show you the advantage, I quote the example config file:

Quoted 4 lines

#cpuid=[ '1:ecx=xxxxxxxxxxx00xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
# eax=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' ]
# - Unset the SSE4 features (CPUID.1[ECX][20-19])
# - Default behaviour for all other bits in ECX And EAX registers.

new version: cpuid = "host,sse4.1=0,sse4.2=0"

Quoted 9 lines

# Expose to the guest multi-core cpu instead of multiple processors
# Example for intel, expose a 8-core processor :
#cpuid=['1:edx=xxx1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
# ebx=xxxxxxxx00010000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
# '4,0:eax=001111xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx']

#  - CPUID.1[EDX][HT] : Enable HT
#  - CPUID.1[EBX] : Number of vcpus * 2
#  - CPUID.4,0[EAX] : Number of vcpus * 2 - 1

#vcpus=8

new version: cpuid = "host,htt=1,proccount=16,maxcores=15"

Quoted 9 lines

# Example for amd, expose a 5-core processor :

# cpuid = ['1:ebx=xxxxxxxx00001010xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
#             edx=xxx1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx',
# '0x80000001:ecx=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx1x',
# '0x80000008:ecx=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx001001']
#   - CPUID.1[EBX] : Threads per Core * Cores per Socket (2 * #vcpus)
#   - CPUID.1[EDX][HT] : Enable HT
#   - CPUID.0x80000001[CmpLegacy] : Use legacy method
#   - CPUID.0x80000008[ECX] : #vcpus * 2 - 1

new version: cpuid="host,htt=1,cmplegacy=1,proccount=10,nc=9"

The parse_cpuid function in xl_cmdimpl.c parses the string and translates it into the interface used by libxc.

If backward compatibility to the xm version is needed, I could also add a quirk for the old interface. Since it uses a Python list, this can be intercepted early in xl's parsing process and could use a compat code path.

This first version works for me, I'd like to hear your comments.

Regards,
Andre.

Signature · 3 lines
Andre Przywara
AMD-Operating System Research Center (OSRC), Dresden, Germany
Tel: +49 351 448-3567-12