Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
KVM: x86/xen: improve accuracy of Xen timers
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
A test program such as http://david.woodhou.se/timerlat.c confirms user
reports that timers are increasingly inaccurate as the lifetime of a
guest increases. Reporting the actual delay observed when asking for
100µs of sleep, it starts off OK on a newly-launched guest but gets
worse over time, giving incorrect sleep times:

root@ip-10-0-193-21:~# ./timerlat -c -n 5
00000000 latency 103243/100000 (3.2430%)
00000001 latency 103243/100000 (3.2430%)
00000002 latency 103242/100000 (3.2420%)
00000003 latency 103245/100000 (3.2450%)
00000004 latency 103245/100000 (3.2450%)

The biggest problem is that get_kvmclock_ns() returns inaccurate values
when the guest TSC is scaled. The guest sees a TSC value scaled from the
host TSC by a mul/shift conversion (hopefully done in hardware). The
guest then converts that guest TSC value into nanoseconds using the
mul/shift conversion given to it by the KVM pvclock information.

But get_kvmclock_ns() performs only a single conversion directly from
host TSC to nanoseconds, giving a different result. A test program at
http://david.woodhou.se/tsdrift.c demonstrates the cumulative error
over a day.

It's non-trivial to fix get_kvmclock_ns(), although I'll come back to
that. The actual guest hv_clock is per-CPU, and *theoretically* each
vCPU could be running at a *different* frequency. But this patch is
needed anyway because...

The other issue with Xen timers was that the code would snapshot the
host CLOCK_MONOTONIC at some point in time, and then... after a few
interrupts may have occurred, some preemption perhaps... would also read
the guest's kvmclock. Then it would proceed under the false assumption
that those two happened at the *same* time. Any time which *actually*
elapsed between reading the two clocks was introduced as inaccuracies
in the time at which the timer fired.

Fix it to use a variant of kvm_get_time_and_clockread(), which reads the
host TSC just *once*, then use the returned TSC value to calculate the
kvmclock (making sure to do that the way the guest would instead of
making the same mistake get_kvmclock_ns() does).

Sadly, hrtimers based on CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW are not supported, so Xen
timers still have to use CLOCK_MONOTONIC. In practice the difference
between the two won't matter over the timescales involved, as the
*absolute* values don't matter; just the delta.

This does mean a new variant of kvm_get_time_and_clockread() is needed;
called kvm_get_monotonic_and_clockread() because that's what it does.

Fixes: 5363952 ("KVM: x86/xen: handle PV timers oneshot mode")
Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
Reviewed-by: Paul Durrant <paul@xen.org>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240227115648.3104-2-dwmw2@infradead.org
[sean: massage moved comment, tweak if statement formatting]
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
  • Loading branch information
dwmw2 authored and sean-jc committed Mar 5, 2024
1 parent 003d914 commit 451a707
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Showing 3 changed files with 152 additions and 40 deletions.
61 changes: 56 additions & 5 deletions arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -2862,7 +2862,11 @@ static inline u64 vgettsc(struct pvclock_clock *clock, u64 *tsc_timestamp,
return v * clock->mult;
}

static int do_monotonic_raw(s64 *t, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
/*
* As with get_kvmclock_base_ns(), this counts from boot time, at the
* frequency of CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW (hence adding gtos->offs_boot).
*/
static int do_kvmclock_base(s64 *t, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
struct pvclock_gtod_data *gtod = &pvclock_gtod_data;
unsigned long seq;
Expand All @@ -2881,6 +2885,29 @@ static int do_monotonic_raw(s64 *t, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
return mode;
}

/*
* This calculates CLOCK_MONOTONIC at the time of the TSC snapshot, with
* no boot time offset.
*/
static int do_monotonic(s64 *t, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
struct pvclock_gtod_data *gtod = &pvclock_gtod_data;
unsigned long seq;
int mode;
u64 ns;

do {
seq = read_seqcount_begin(&gtod->seq);
ns = gtod->clock.base_cycles;
ns += vgettsc(&gtod->clock, tsc_timestamp, &mode);
ns >>= gtod->clock.shift;
ns += ktime_to_ns(gtod->clock.offset);
} while (unlikely(read_seqcount_retry(&gtod->seq, seq)));
*t = ns;

return mode;
}

static int do_realtime(struct timespec64 *ts, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
struct pvclock_gtod_data *gtod = &pvclock_gtod_data;
Expand All @@ -2902,18 +2929,42 @@ static int do_realtime(struct timespec64 *ts, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
return mode;
}

/* returns true if host is using TSC based clocksource */
/*
* Calculates the kvmclock_base_ns (CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW + boot time) and
* reports the TSC value from which it do so. Returns true if host is
* using TSC based clocksource.
*/
static bool kvm_get_time_and_clockread(s64 *kernel_ns, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
/* checked again under seqlock below */
if (!gtod_is_based_on_tsc(pvclock_gtod_data.clock.vclock_mode))
return false;

return gtod_is_based_on_tsc(do_monotonic_raw(kernel_ns,
tsc_timestamp));
return gtod_is_based_on_tsc(do_kvmclock_base(kernel_ns,
tsc_timestamp));
}

/* returns true if host is using TSC based clocksource */
/*
* Calculates CLOCK_MONOTONIC and reports the TSC value from which it did
* so. Returns true if host is using TSC based clocksource.
*/
bool kvm_get_monotonic_and_clockread(s64 *kernel_ns, u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
/* checked again under seqlock below */
if (!gtod_is_based_on_tsc(pvclock_gtod_data.clock.vclock_mode))
return false;

return gtod_is_based_on_tsc(do_monotonic(kernel_ns,
tsc_timestamp));
}

/*
* Calculates CLOCK_REALTIME and reports the TSC value from which it did
* so. Returns true if host is using TSC based clocksource.
*
* DO NOT USE this for anything related to migration. You want CLOCK_TAI
* for that.
*/
static bool kvm_get_walltime_and_clockread(struct timespec64 *ts,
u64 *tsc_timestamp)
{
Expand Down
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions arch/x86/kvm/x86.h
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -294,6 +294,7 @@ void kvm_inject_realmode_interrupt(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, int irq, int inc_eip);

u64 get_kvmclock_ns(struct kvm *kvm);
uint64_t kvm_get_wall_clock_epoch(struct kvm *kvm);
bool kvm_get_monotonic_and_clockread(s64 *kernel_ns, u64 *tsc_timestamp);

int kvm_read_guest_virt(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu,
gva_t addr, void *val, unsigned int bytes,
Expand Down
130 changes: 95 additions & 35 deletions arch/x86/kvm/xen.c
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
#include <xen/interface/sched.h>

#include <asm/xen/cpuid.h>
#include <asm/pvclock.h>

#include "cpuid.h"
#include "trace.h"
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -149,8 +150,93 @@ static enum hrtimer_restart xen_timer_callback(struct hrtimer *timer)
return HRTIMER_NORESTART;
}

static void kvm_xen_start_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 guest_abs, s64 delta_ns)
static void kvm_xen_start_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 guest_abs,
bool linux_wa)
{
int64_t kernel_now, delta;
uint64_t guest_now;

/*
* The guest provides the requested timeout in absolute nanoseconds
* of the KVM clock — as *it* sees it, based on the scaled TSC and
* the pvclock information provided by KVM.
*
* The kernel doesn't support hrtimers based on CLOCK_MONOTONIC_RAW
* so use CLOCK_MONOTONIC. In the timescales covered by timers, the
* difference won't matter much as there is no cumulative effect.
*
* Calculate the time for some arbitrary point in time around "now"
* in terms of both kvmclock and CLOCK_MONOTONIC. Calculate the
* delta between the kvmclock "now" value and the guest's requested
* timeout, apply the "Linux workaround" described below, and add
* the resulting delta to the CLOCK_MONOTONIC "now" value, to get
* the absolute CLOCK_MONOTONIC time at which the timer should
* fire.
*/
if (vcpu->arch.hv_clock.version && vcpu->kvm->arch.use_master_clock &&
static_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_CONSTANT_TSC)) {
uint64_t host_tsc, guest_tsc;

if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_64BIT) ||
!kvm_get_monotonic_and_clockread(&kernel_now, &host_tsc)) {
/*
* Don't fall back to get_kvmclock_ns() because it's
* broken; it has a systemic error in its results
* because it scales directly from host TSC to
* nanoseconds, and doesn't scale first to guest TSC
* and *then* to nanoseconds as the guest does.
*
* There is a small error introduced here because time
* continues to elapse between the ktime_get() and the
* subsequent rdtsc(). But not the systemic drift due
* to get_kvmclock_ns().
*/
kernel_now = ktime_get(); /* This is CLOCK_MONOTONIC */
host_tsc = rdtsc();
}

/* Calculate the guest kvmclock as the guest would do it. */
guest_tsc = kvm_read_l1_tsc(vcpu, host_tsc);
guest_now = __pvclock_read_cycles(&vcpu->arch.hv_clock,
guest_tsc);
} else {
/*
* Without CONSTANT_TSC, get_kvmclock_ns() is the only option.
*
* Also if the guest PV clock hasn't been set up yet, as is
* likely to be the case during migration when the vCPU has
* not been run yet. It would be possible to calculate the
* scaling factors properly in that case but there's not much
* point in doing so. The get_kvmclock_ns() drift accumulates
* over time, so it's OK to use it at startup. Besides, on
* migration there's going to be a little bit of skew in the
* precise moment at which timers fire anyway. Often they'll
* be in the "past" by the time the VM is running again after
* migration.
*/
guest_now = get_kvmclock_ns(vcpu->kvm);
kernel_now = ktime_get();
}

delta = guest_abs - guest_now;

/*
* Xen has a 'Linux workaround' in do_set_timer_op() which checks for
* negative absolute timeout values (caused by integer overflow), and
* for values about 13 days in the future (2^50ns) which would be
* caused by jiffies overflow. For those cases, Xen sets the timeout
* 100ms in the future (not *too* soon, since if a guest really did
* set a long timeout on purpose we don't want to keep churning CPU
* time by waking it up). Emulate Xen's workaround when starting the
* timer in response to __HYPERVISOR_set_timer_op.
*/
if (linux_wa &&
unlikely((int64_t)guest_abs < 0 ||
(delta > 0 && (uint32_t) (delta >> 50) != 0))) {
delta = 100 * NSEC_PER_MSEC;
guest_abs = guest_now + delta;
}

/*
* Avoid races with the old timer firing. Checking timer_expires
* to avoid calling hrtimer_cancel() will only have false positives
Expand All @@ -162,14 +248,12 @@ static void kvm_xen_start_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 guest_abs, s64 delta_
atomic_set(&vcpu->arch.xen.timer_pending, 0);
vcpu->arch.xen.timer_expires = guest_abs;

if (delta_ns <= 0) {
if (delta <= 0)
xen_timer_callback(&vcpu->arch.xen.timer);
} else {
ktime_t ktime_now = ktime_get();
else
hrtimer_start(&vcpu->arch.xen.timer,
ktime_add_ns(ktime_now, delta_ns),
ktime_add_ns(kernel_now, delta),
HRTIMER_MODE_ABS_HARD);
}
}

static void kvm_xen_stop_timer(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -997,9 +1081,7 @@ int kvm_xen_vcpu_set_attr(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_xen_vcpu_attr *data)

/* Start the timer if the new value has a valid vector+expiry. */
if (data->u.timer.port && data->u.timer.expires_ns)
kvm_xen_start_timer(vcpu, data->u.timer.expires_ns,
data->u.timer.expires_ns -
get_kvmclock_ns(vcpu->kvm));
kvm_xen_start_timer(vcpu, data->u.timer.expires_ns, false);

r = 0;
break;
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1472,7 +1554,6 @@ static bool kvm_xen_hcall_vcpu_op(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, bool longmode, int cmd,
{
struct vcpu_set_singleshot_timer oneshot;
struct x86_exception e;
s64 delta;

if (!kvm_xen_timer_enabled(vcpu))
return false;
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1506,9 +1587,7 @@ static bool kvm_xen_hcall_vcpu_op(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, bool longmode, int cmd,
return true;
}

/* A delta <= 0 results in an immediate callback, which is what we want */
delta = oneshot.timeout_abs_ns - get_kvmclock_ns(vcpu->kvm);
kvm_xen_start_timer(vcpu, oneshot.timeout_abs_ns, delta);
kvm_xen_start_timer(vcpu, oneshot.timeout_abs_ns, false);
*r = 0;
return true;

Expand All @@ -1531,29 +1610,10 @@ static bool kvm_xen_hcall_set_timer_op(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, uint64_t timeout,
if (!kvm_xen_timer_enabled(vcpu))
return false;

if (timeout) {
uint64_t guest_now = get_kvmclock_ns(vcpu->kvm);
int64_t delta = timeout - guest_now;

/* Xen has a 'Linux workaround' in do_set_timer_op() which
* checks for negative absolute timeout values (caused by
* integer overflow), and for values about 13 days in the
* future (2^50ns) which would be caused by jiffies
* overflow. For those cases, it sets the timeout 100ms in
* the future (not *too* soon, since if a guest really did
* set a long timeout on purpose we don't want to keep
* churning CPU time by waking it up).
*/
if (unlikely((int64_t)timeout < 0 ||
(delta > 0 && (uint32_t) (delta >> 50) != 0))) {
delta = 100 * NSEC_PER_MSEC;
timeout = guest_now + delta;
}

kvm_xen_start_timer(vcpu, timeout, delta);
} else {
if (timeout)
kvm_xen_start_timer(vcpu, timeout, true);
else
kvm_xen_stop_timer(vcpu);
}

*r = 0;
return true;
Expand Down

0 comments on commit 451a707

Please sign in to comment.