Virtualization - Apr 2017 - [RFC 1/3] virtio-iommu: firmware description of the virtual topology

> From: Jean-Philippe Brucker
> Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2017 3:18 AM
> 
> Unlike other virtio devices, the virtio-iommu doesn't work
independently,
> it is linked to other virtual or assigned devices. So before jumping into
> device operations, we need to define a way for the guest to discover the
> virtual IOMMU and the devices it translates.
> 
> The host must describe the relation between IOMMU and devices to the
> guest
> using either device-tree or ACPI. The virtual IOMMU identifies each
Do you plan to support both device tree and ACPI?
> virtual device with a 32-bit ID, that we will call "Device ID" in
this
> document. Device IDs are not necessarily unique system-wide, but they may
> not overlap within a single virtual IOMMU. Device ID of passed-through
> devices do not need to match IDs seen by the physical IOMMU.
> 
> The virtual IOMMU uses virtio-mmio transport exclusively, not virtio-pci,
> because with PCI the IOMMU interface would itself be an endpoint, and
> existing firmware interfaces don't allow to describe
IOMMU<->master
> relations between PCI endpoints.
I'm not familiar with virtio-mmio mechanism. Curious how devices in
virtio-mmio are enumerated today? Could we use that mechanism to
identify vIOMMUs and then invent a purely para-virtualized method to
enumerate devices behind each vIOMMU? 

Asking this is because each vendor has its own enumeration methods.
ARM has device tree and ACPI IORT. AMR has ACPI IVRS and device
tree (same format as ARM?). Intel has APCI DMAR and sub-tables. Your 
current proposal looks following ARM definitions which I'm not sure 
extensible enough to cover features defined only in other vendors' 
structures.

Since the purpose of this series is to go para-virtualize, why not also
para-virtualize and simplify the enumeration method? For example, 
we may define a query interface through vIOMMU registers to allow 
guest query whether a device belonging to that vIOMMU. Then we 
can even remove use of any enumeration structure completely... 
Just a quick example which I may not think through all the pros and 
cons. :-)
> 
> The following diagram describes a situation where two virtual IOMMUs
> translate traffic from devices in the system. vIOMMU 1 translates two PCI
> domains, in which each function has a 16-bits requester ID. In order for
> the vIOMMU to differentiate guest requests targeted at devices in each
> domain, their Device ID ranges cannot overlap. vIOMMU 2 translates two PCI
> domains and a collection of platform devices.
> 
>                        Device ID    Requester ID
>                   /       0x0           0x0      \
>                  /         |             |        PCI domain 1
>                 /      0xffff           0xffff   /
>         vIOMMU 1
>                 \     0x10000           0x0      \
>                  \         |             |        PCI domain 2
>                   \   0x1ffff           0xffff   /
> 
>                   /       0x0                    \
>                  /         |                      platform devices
>                 /      0x1fff                    /
>         vIOMMU 2
>                 \      0x2000           0x0      \
>                  \         |             |        PCI domain 3
>                   \   0x11fff           0xffff   /
> 
isn't above be (0x30000, 3ffff) for PCI domain 3 giving device ID is 16bit?

Thanks
Kevin

On 18/04/17 10:51, Tian, Kevin wrote:
>> From: Jean-Philippe Brucker
>> Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2017 3:18 AM
>>
>> Unlike other virtio devices, the virtio-iommu doesn't work
independently,
>> it is linked to other virtual or assigned devices. So before jumping
into
>> device operations, we need to define a way for the guest to discover
the
>> virtual IOMMU and the devices it translates.
>>
>> The host must describe the relation between IOMMU and devices to the
>> guest
>> using either device-tree or ACPI. The virtual IOMMU identifies each
> 
> Do you plan to support both device tree and ACPI?
Yes, with ACPI the topology would be described using IORT nodes. I didn't
include an example in my driver because DT is sufficient for a prototype
and is readily available (both in Linux and kvmtool), whereas IORT would
be quite easy to reuse in Linux, but isn't present in kvmtool at the
moment. However, both interfaces have to be supported for the virtio-iommu
to be portable.
>> virtual device with a 32-bit ID, that we will call "Device
ID" in this
>> document. Device IDs are not necessarily unique system-wide, but they
may
>> not overlap within a single virtual IOMMU. Device ID of passed-through
>> devices do not need to match IDs seen by the physical IOMMU.
>>
>> The virtual IOMMU uses virtio-mmio transport exclusively, not
virtio-pci,
>> because with PCI the IOMMU interface would itself be an endpoint, and
>> existing firmware interfaces don't allow to describe
IOMMU<->master
>> relations between PCI endpoints.
> 
> I'm not familiar with virtio-mmio mechanism. Curious how devices in
> virtio-mmio are enumerated today? Could we use that mechanism to
> identify vIOMMUs and then invent a purely para-virtualized method to
> enumerate devices behind each vIOMMU?
Using DT, virtio-mmio devices are described with "virtio-mmio"
compatible
node, and with ACPI they use _HID LNRO0005. Since the host already
describes available devices to a guest using a firmware interface, I think
we should reuse the tools provided by that interface for describing
relations between DMA masters and IOMMU.
> Asking this is because each vendor has its own enumeration methods.
> ARM has device tree and ACPI IORT. AMR has ACPI IVRS and device
> tree (same format as ARM?). Intel has APCI DMAR and sub-tables. Your 
> current proposal looks following ARM definitions which I'm not sure 
> extensible enough to cover features defined only in other vendors' 
> structures.
ACPI IORT can be extended to incorporate para-virtualized IOMMUs,
regardless of the underlying architecture. It isn't defined solely for the
ARM SMMU, but serves a more general purpose of describing a map of device
identifiers communicated from one components to another. Both DMAR and
IVRS have such description (respectively DRHD and IVHD), but they are
designed for a specific IOMMU, whereas IORT could host other kinds.

It seems that all we really need is an interface that says "there is a
virtio-iommu at address X, here are the devices it translates and their
corresponding IDs", and both DT and ACPI IORT are able to fulfill this
role.
> Since the purpose of this series is to go para-virtualize, why not also
> para-virtualize and simplify the enumeration method? For example, 
> we may define a query interface through vIOMMU registers to allow 
> guest query whether a device belonging to that vIOMMU. Then we 
> can even remove use of any enumeration structure completely... 
> Just a quick example which I may not think through all the pros and 
> cons. :-)
I don't think adding a brand new topology description mechanism is worth
the effort, we're better off reusing what already exists and is
implemented by operating systems. Adding a query interface inside the
vIOMMU may work (though might be very painful to integrate with fwspec in
Linux), but would be redundant since the host has to provide a firmware
description of the system anyway.
>> The following diagram describes a situation where two virtual IOMMUs
>> translate traffic from devices in the system. vIOMMU 1 translates two
PCI
>> domains, in which each function has a 16-bits requester ID. In order
for
>> the vIOMMU to differentiate guest requests targeted at devices in each
>> domain, their Device ID ranges cannot overlap. vIOMMU 2 translates two
PCI
>> domains and a collection of platform devices.
>>
>>                        Device ID    Requester ID
>>                   /       0x0           0x0      \
>>                  /         |             |        PCI domain 1
>>                 /      0xffff           0xffff   /
>>         vIOMMU 1
>>                 \     0x10000           0x0      \
>>                  \         |             |        PCI domain 2
>>                   \   0x1ffff           0xffff   /
>>
>>                   /       0x0                    \
>>                  /         |                      platform devices
>>                 /      0x1fff                    /
>>         vIOMMU 2
>>                 \      0x2000           0x0      \
>>                  \         |             |        PCI domain 3
>>                   \   0x11fff           0xffff   /
>>
> 
> isn't above be (0x30000, 3ffff) for PCI domain 3 giving device ID is
16bit?
Unlike Requester IDs in PCI, there is no architected rule for IDs of
platform devices, it's an integration choice. The ID of platform device is
used exclusively for interfacing with an IOMMU (or MSI controller), it
doesn't mean anything outside this context. Here the host allocates 13
bits to platform device IDs, which is legal.

Thanks,
Jean-Philippe

> From: Jean-Philippe Brucker [mailto:jean-philippe.brucker at arm.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2017 2:41 AM
> 
> On 18/04/17 10:51, Tian, Kevin wrote:
> >> From: Jean-Philippe Brucker
> >> Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2017 3:18 AM
> >>
> >> Unlike other virtio devices, the virtio-iommu doesn't work
independently,
> >> it is linked to other virtual or assigned devices. So before
jumping into
> >> device operations, we need to define a way for the guest to
discover the
> >> virtual IOMMU and the devices it translates.
> >>
> >> The host must describe the relation between IOMMU and devices to
the
> >> guest
> >> using either device-tree or ACPI. The virtual IOMMU identifies
each
> >
> > Do you plan to support both device tree and ACPI?
> 
> Yes, with ACPI the topology would be described using IORT nodes. I
didn't
> include an example in my driver because DT is sufficient for a prototype
> and is readily available (both in Linux and kvmtool), whereas IORT would
> be quite easy to reuse in Linux, but isn't present in kvmtool at the
> moment. However, both interfaces have to be supported for the virtio-
> iommu
> to be portable.
'portable' means whether guest enables ACPI?
> 
> >> virtual device with a 32-bit ID, that we will call "Device
ID" in this
> >> document. Device IDs are not necessarily unique system-wide, but
they
> may
> >> not overlap within a single virtual IOMMU. Device ID of
passed-through
> >> devices do not need to match IDs seen by the physical IOMMU.
> >>
> >> The virtual IOMMU uses virtio-mmio transport exclusively, not
virtio-pci,
> >> because with PCI the IOMMU interface would itself be an endpoint,
and
> >> existing firmware interfaces don't allow to describe
IOMMU<->master
> >> relations between PCI endpoints.
> >
> > I'm not familiar with virtio-mmio mechanism. Curious how devices
in
> > virtio-mmio are enumerated today? Could we use that mechanism to
> > identify vIOMMUs and then invent a purely para-virtualized method to
> > enumerate devices behind each vIOMMU?
> 
> Using DT, virtio-mmio devices are described with "virtio-mmio"
compatible
> node, and with ACPI they use _HID LNRO0005. Since the host already
> describes available devices to a guest using a firmware interface, I think
> we should reuse the tools provided by that interface for describing
> relations between DMA masters and IOMMU.
OK, I didn't realize virtio-mmio is defined to rely on DT for enumeration.
> 
> > Asking this is because each vendor has its own enumeration methods.
> > ARM has device tree and ACPI IORT. AMR has ACPI IVRS and device
> > tree (same format as ARM?). Intel has APCI DMAR and sub-tables. Your
> > current proposal looks following ARM definitions which I'm not
sure
> > extensible enough to cover features defined only in other vendors'
> > structures.
> 
> ACPI IORT can be extended to incorporate para-virtualized IOMMUs,
> regardless of the underlying architecture. It isn't defined solely for
the
> ARM SMMU, but serves a more general purpose of describing a map of
> device
> identifiers communicated from one components to another. Both DMAR and
> IVRS have such description (respectively DRHD and IVHD), but they are
> designed for a specific IOMMU, whereas IORT could host other kinds.
I'll take a look at IORT definition. DRHD includes information more
than device mapping.
> 
> It seems that all we really need is an interface that says "there is a
> virtio-iommu at address X, here are the devices it translates and their
> corresponding IDs", and both DT and ACPI IORT are able to fulfill this
role.
> 
> > Since the purpose of this series is to go para-virtualize, why not
also
> > para-virtualize and simplify the enumeration method? For example,
> > we may define a query interface through vIOMMU registers to allow
> > guest query whether a device belonging to that vIOMMU. Then we
> > can even remove use of any enumeration structure completely...
> > Just a quick example which I may not think through all the pros and
> > cons. :-)
> 
> I don't think adding a brand new topology description mechanism is
worth
> the effort, we're better off reusing what already exists and is
> implemented by operating systems. Adding a query interface inside the
> vIOMMU may work (though might be very painful to integrate with fwspec in
> Linux), but would be redundant since the host has to provide a firmware
> description of the system anyway.
> 
> >> The following diagram describes a situation where two virtual
IOMMUs
> >> translate traffic from devices in the system. vIOMMU 1 translates
two PCI
> >> domains, in which each function has a 16-bits requester ID. In
order for
> >> the vIOMMU to differentiate guest requests targeted at devices in
each
> >> domain, their Device ID ranges cannot overlap. vIOMMU 2 translates
two
> PCI
> >> domains and a collection of platform devices.
> >>
> >>                        Device ID    Requester ID
> >>                   /       0x0           0x0      \
> >>                  /         |             |        PCI domain 1
> >>                 /      0xffff           0xffff   /
> >>         vIOMMU 1
> >>                 \     0x10000           0x0      \
> >>                  \         |             |        PCI domain 2
> >>                   \   0x1ffff           0xffff   /
> >>
> >>                   /       0x0                    \
> >>                  /         |                      platform devices
> >>                 /      0x1fff                    /
> >>         vIOMMU 2
> >>                 \      0x2000           0x0      \
> >>                  \         |             |        PCI domain 3
> >>                   \   0x11fff           0xffff   /
> >>
> >
> > isn't above be (0x30000, 3ffff) for PCI domain 3 giving device ID
is 16bit?
> 
> Unlike Requester IDs in PCI, there is no architected rule for IDs of
> platform devices, it's an integration choice. The ID of platform device
is
> used exclusively for interfacing with an IOMMU (or MSI controller), it
> doesn't mean anything outside this context. Here the host allocates 13
> bits to platform device IDs, which is legal.
> 
Please add such explanation to your next version. In earlier text
"16-bits request ID" is mentioned for vIOMMU1, which gave me
the illusion that same 16bit applies to vIOMMU2 too.

Thanks
Kevin