Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH v3 3/3] virtio-pmem: should we make it migratable???

[Pankaj Gupta]

> 
> On Fri, 4 May 2018 13:26:51 +0100
> "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > * Igor Mammedov (address@hidden) wrote:
> > > On Thu, 26 Apr 2018 03:37:51 -0400 (EDT)
> > > Pankaj Gupta <address@hidden> wrote:
> > > 
> > > trimming CC list to keep people that might be interested in the topic
> > > and renaming thread to reflect it.
> > >   
> > > > > > > > > > >> +
> > > > > > > > > > >> +    memory_region_add_subregion(&hpms->mr, addr -
> > > > > > > > > > >> hpms->base,
> > > > > > > > > > >> mr);
> > > > > > > > > > > missing vmstate registration?
> > > > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > > > Missed this one: To be called by the caller. Important
> > > > > > > > > > because e.g.
> > > > > > > > > > for
> > > > > > > > > > virtio-pmem we don't want this (I assume :) ).
> > > > > > > > > if pmem isn't on shared storage, then We'd probably want to
> > > > > > > > > migrate
> > > > > > > > > it as well, otherwise target would experience data loss.
> > > > > > > > > Anyways, I'd just reat it as normal RAM in migration case
> > > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > > Main difference between RAM and pmem it acts like combination
> > > > > > > > of RAM
> > > > > > > > and
> > > > > > > > disk.
> > > > > > > > Saying this, in normal use-case size would be 100 GB's - few
> > > > > > > > TB's
> > > > > > > > range.
> > > > > > > > I am not sure we really want to migrate it for non-shared
> > > > > > > > storage
> > > > > > > > use-case.
> > > > > > > with non shared storage you'd have to migrate it target host but
> > > > > > > with shared storage it might be possible to flush it and use
> > > > > > > directly
> > > > > > > from target host. That probably won't work right out of box and
> > > > > > > would
> > > > > > > need some sort of synchronization between src/dst hosts.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Shared storage should work out of the box.
> > > > > > Only thing is data in destination
> > > > > > host will be cache cold and existing pages in cache should be
> > > > > > invalidated
> > > > > > first.
> > > > > > But if we migrate entire fake DAX RAMstate it will populate
> > > > > > destination
> > > > > > host page
> > > > > > cache including pages while were idle in source host. This would
> > > > > > unnecessarily
> > > > > > create entropy in destination host.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > To me this feature don't make much sense. Problem which we are
> > > > > > solving is:
> > > > > > Efficiently use guest RAM.
> > > > > What would live migration handover flow look like in case of
> > > > > guest constantly dirting memory provided by virtio-pmem and
> > > > > and sometimes issuing async flush req along with it?
> > > > 
> > > > Dirty entire pmem (disk) at once not a usual scenario. Some part of
> > > > disk/pmem
> > > > would get dirty and we need to handle that. I just want to say moving
> > > > entire
> > > > pmem (disk) is not efficient solution because we are using this
> > > > solution to
> > > > manage guest memory efficiently. Otherwise it will be like any block
> > > > device copy
> > > > with non-shared storage.
> > > not sure if we can use block layer analogy here.
> > >   
> > > > > > > The same applies to nv/pc-dimm as well, as backend file easily
> > > > > > > could be
> > > > > > > on pmem storage as well.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Are you saying backing file is in actual actual nvdimm hardware? we
> > > > > > don't
> > > > > > need
> > > > > > emulation at all.
> > > > > depends on if file is on DAX filesystem, but your argument about
> > > > > migrating huge 100Gb- TB's range applies in this case as well.
> > > > >     
> > > > > >     
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Maybe for now we should migrate everything so it would work in
> > > > > > > case of
> > > > > > > non shared NVDIMM on host. And then later add migration-less
> > > > > > > capability
> > > > > > > to all of them.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > not sure I agree.
> > > > > So would you inhibit migration in case of non shared backend storage,
> > > > > to avoid loosing data since they aren't migrated?
> > > > 
> > > > I am just thinking what features we want to support with pmem. And live
> > > > migration
> > > > with shared storage is the one which comes to my mind.
> > > > 
> > > > If live migration with non-shared storage is what we want to support (I
> > > > don't know
> > > > yet) we can add this? Even with shared storage it would copy entire
> > > > pmem state?
> > > Perhaps we should register vmstate like for normal ram and use something
> > > similar to
> > >   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2018-04/msg00003.html this
> > > to skip shared memory on migration.
> > > In this case we could use this for pc-dimms as well.
> > > 
> > > David,
> > >  what's your take on it?
> > 
> > My feel is that something is going to have to migrate it, I'm just not
> > sure how.
> > So let me just check I understand:
> >   a) It's potentially huge
> yep, assume it could be in storage quarantines (100s of Gb)
> 
> >   b) It's a RAMBlock
> it is
> 
> >   c) It's backed by ????
> >      c1) Something machine local - i.e. a physical lump of flash in a
> >          socket rather than something sharable by machines?
> it's backed by memory-backend-foo, so it could be really anything (RAM,
> file on local or shared storage, file descriptor)

Just a point I want to add.

Currently, we are proposing file-backed memory which is 'mmaped' in Qemu 
address space. This is to achieve 'persistent' property similar to real 
NVDIMM storage. Latest guest writes should be synced to backed file after 
guest performs a 'fsync' operation with DAX capable file-system.
 
> 
> >   d) It can potentially be rapidly changing as the guest writes to it?
> it's sort of like NVDIMM but without NVDIMM interface, it uses virtio to
> to force flushing instead. Otherwise it's directly mapped into guest
> address space, so guest can do anything with it including fast dirtying.
> 
> 
> > Dave
> > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Pankaj
> > > >    
> > > > > 
> > > > >     
> > > > > > > > One reason why nvdimm added vmstate info could be: still there
> > > > > > > > would be
> > > > > > > > transient
> > > > > > > > writes in memory with fake DAX and there is no way(till now) to
> > > > > > > > flush
> > > > > > > > the
> > > > > > > > guest
> > > > > > > > writes. But with virtio-pmem we can flush such writes before
> > > > > > > > migration
> > > > > > > > and
> > > > > > > > automatically
> > > > > > > > at destination host with shared disk we will have updated data.
> > > > > > > nvdimm has concept of flush address hint (may be not implemented
> > > > > > > in qemu
> > > > > > > yet)
> > > > > > > but it can flush. The only reason I'm buying into virtio-mem idea
> > > > > > > is that would allow async flush queues which would reduce number
> > > > > > > of vmexits.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Thats correct.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > > Pankaj
> > > > > > 
> > > > > >      
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > >     
> > > >   
> > >   
> > --
> > Dr. David Alan Gilbert / address@hidden / Manchester, UK
> 
> 
>