Re: [PATCH 2/7] guest_memfd: Introduce an object to manage the guest-memfd with RamDiscardManager

[Chenyi Qiang]

On 1/9/2025 12:29 PM, Chenyi Qiang wrote:
> 
> 
> On 1/9/2025 10:55 AM, Alexey Kardashevskiy wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 9/1/25 13:11, Chenyi Qiang wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On 1/8/2025 7:20 PM, Alexey Kardashevskiy wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 8/1/25 21:56, Chenyi Qiang wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 1/8/2025 12:48 PM, Alexey Kardashevskiy wrote:
>>>>>> On 13/12/24 18:08, Chenyi Qiang wrote:
>>>>>>> As the commit 852f0048f3 ("RAMBlock: make guest_memfd require
>>>>>>> uncoordinated discard") highlighted, some subsystems like VFIO might
>>>>>>> disable ram block discard. However, guest_memfd relies on the discard
>>>>>>> operation to perform page conversion between private and shared
>>>>>>> memory.
>>>>>>> This can lead to stale IOMMU mapping issue when assigning a hardware
>>>>>>> device to a confidential VM via shared memory (unprotected memory
>>>>>>> pages). Blocking shared page discard can solve this problem, but it
>>>>>>> could cause guests to consume twice the memory with VFIO, which is
>>>>>>> not
>>>>>>> acceptable in some cases. An alternative solution is to convey other
>>>>>>> systems like VFIO to refresh its outdated IOMMU mappings.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> RamDiscardManager is an existing concept (used by virtio-mem) to
>>>>>>> adjust
>>>>>>> VFIO mappings in relation to VM page assignment. Effectively page
>>>>>>> conversion is similar to hot-removing a page in one mode and
>>>>>>> adding it
>>>>>>> back in the other, so the similar work that needs to happen in
>>>>>>> response
>>>>>>> to virtio-mem changes needs to happen for page conversion events.
>>>>>>> Introduce the RamDiscardManager to guest_memfd to achieve it.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> However, guest_memfd is not an object so it cannot directly implement
>>>>>>> the RamDiscardManager interface.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> One solution is to implement the interface in HostMemoryBackend. Any
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This sounds about right.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> guest_memfd-backed host memory backend can register itself in the
>>>>>>> target
>>>>>>> MemoryRegion. However, this solution doesn't cover the scenario
>>>>>>> where a
>>>>>>> guest_memfd MemoryRegion doesn't belong to the HostMemoryBackend,
>>>>>>> e.g.
>>>>>>> the virtual BIOS MemoryRegion.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What is this virtual BIOS MemoryRegion exactly? What does it look like
>>>>>> in "info mtree -f"? Do we really want this memory to be DMAable?
>>>>>
>>>>> virtual BIOS shows in a separate region:
>>>>>
>>>>>    Root memory region: system
>>>>>     0000000000000000-000000007fffffff (prio 0, ram): pc.ram KVM
>>>>>     ...
>>>>>     00000000ffc00000-00000000ffffffff (prio 0, ram): pc.bios KVM
>>>>
>>>> Looks like a normal MR which can be backed by guest_memfd.
>>>
>>> Yes, virtual BIOS memory region is initialized by
>>> memory_region_init_ram_guest_memfd() which will be backed by a
>>> guest_memfd.
>>>
>>> The tricky thing is, for Intel TDX (not sure about AMD SEV), the virtual
>>> BIOS image will be loaded and then copied to private region.
>>> After that,
>>> the loaded image will be discarded and this region become useless.
>>
>> I'd think it is loaded as "struct Rom" and then copied to the MR-
>> ram_guest_memfd() which does not leave MR useless - we still see
>> "pc.bios" in the list so it is not discarded. What piece of code are you
>> referring to exactly?
> 
> Sorry for confusion, maybe it is different between TDX and SEV-SNP for
> the vBIOS handling.
> 
> In x86_bios_rom_init(), it initializes a guest_memfd-backed MR and loads
> the vBIOS image to the shared part of the guest_memfd MR. For TDX, it
> will copy the image to private region (not the vBIOS guest_memfd MR
> private part) and discard the shared part. So, although the memory
> region still exists, it seems useless.

Correct myself. After some discussion internally, I found I
misunderstood the vBIOS handling in TDX. The memory region is valid. It
copies the vBIOS image to the private region (vBIOS guest_memfd private
part). Sorry for confusion.

> 
> It is different for SEV-SNP, correct? Does SEV-SNP manage the vBIOS in
> vBIOS guest_memfd private memory?
>