diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/virt/kvm/halt-polling.rst (renamed from Documentation/virt/kvm/halt-polling.txt) | 90 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/virt/kvm/index.rst | 1 |
2 files changed, 48 insertions, 43 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/halt-polling.txt b/Documentation/virt/kvm/halt-polling.rst index 4f791b128dd2..4922e4a15f18 100644 --- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/halt-polling.txt +++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/halt-polling.rst @@ -1,3 +1,6 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +=========================== The KVM halt polling system =========================== @@ -68,7 +71,8 @@ steady state polling interval but will only really do a good job for wakeups which come at an approximately constant rate, otherwise there will be constant adjustment of the polling interval. -[0] total block time: the time between when the halt polling function is +[0] total block time: + the time between when the halt polling function is invoked and a wakeup source received (irrespective of whether the scheduler is invoked within that function). @@ -81,31 +85,32 @@ shrunk. These variables are defined in include/linux/kvm_host.h and as module parameters in virt/kvm/kvm_main.c, or arch/powerpc/kvm/book3s_hv.c in the powerpc kvm-hv case. -Module Parameter | Description | Default Value --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -halt_poll_ns | The global max polling | KVM_HALT_POLL_NS_DEFAULT - | interval which defines | - | the ceiling value of the | - | polling interval for | (per arch value) - | each vcpu. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -halt_poll_ns_grow | The value by which the | 2 - | halt polling interval is | - | multiplied in the | - | grow_halt_poll_ns() | - | function. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -halt_poll_ns_grow_start | The initial value to grow | 10000 - | to from zero in the | - | grow_halt_poll_ns() | - | function. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -halt_poll_ns_shrink | The value by which the | 0 - | halt polling interval is | - | divided in the | - | shrink_halt_poll_ns() | - | function. | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ++-----------------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+ +|Module Parameter | Description | Default Value | ++-----------------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+ +|halt_poll_ns | The global max polling | KVM_HALT_POLL_NS_DEFAULT| +| | interval which defines | | +| | the ceiling value of the | | +| | polling interval for | (per arch value) | +| | each vcpu. | | ++-----------------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+ +|halt_poll_ns_grow | The value by which the | 2 | +| | halt polling interval is | | +| | multiplied in the | | +| | grow_halt_poll_ns() | | +| | function. | | ++-----------------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+ +|halt_poll_ns_grow_start| The initial value to grow | 10000 | +| | to from zero in the | | +| | grow_halt_poll_ns() | | +| | function. | | ++-----------------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+ +|halt_poll_ns_shrink | The value by which the | 0 | +| | halt polling interval is | | +| | divided in the | | +| | shrink_halt_poll_ns() | | +| | function. | | ++-----------------------+---------------------------+-------------------------+ These module parameters can be set from the debugfs files in: @@ -117,20 +122,19 @@ Note: that these module parameters are system wide values and are not able to Further Notes ============= -- Care should be taken when setting the halt_poll_ns module parameter as a -large value has the potential to drive the cpu usage to 100% on a machine which -would be almost entirely idle otherwise. This is because even if a guest has -wakeups during which very little work is done and which are quite far apart, if -the period is shorter than the global max polling interval (halt_poll_ns) then -the host will always poll for the entire block time and thus cpu utilisation -will go to 100%. - -- Halt polling essentially presents a trade off between power usage and latency -and the module parameters should be used to tune the affinity for this. Idle -cpu time is essentially converted to host kernel time with the aim of decreasing -latency when entering the guest. - -- Halt polling will only be conducted by the host when no other tasks are -runnable on that cpu, otherwise the polling will cease immediately and -schedule will be invoked to allow that other task to run. Thus this doesn't -allow a guest to denial of service the cpu. +- Care should be taken when setting the halt_poll_ns module parameter as a large value + has the potential to drive the cpu usage to 100% on a machine which would be almost + entirely idle otherwise. This is because even if a guest has wakeups during which very + little work is done and which are quite far apart, if the period is shorter than the + global max polling interval (halt_poll_ns) then the host will always poll for the + entire block time and thus cpu utilisation will go to 100%. + +- Halt polling essentially presents a trade off between power usage and latency and + the module parameters should be used to tune the affinity for this. Idle cpu time is + essentially converted to host kernel time with the aim of decreasing latency when + entering the guest. + +- Halt polling will only be conducted by the host when no other tasks are runnable on + that cpu, otherwise the polling will cease immediately and schedule will be invoked to + allow that other task to run. Thus this doesn't allow a guest to denial of service the + cpu. diff --git a/Documentation/virt/kvm/index.rst b/Documentation/virt/kvm/index.rst index 488c6370a447..b39f4894b61d 100644 --- a/Documentation/virt/kvm/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/virt/kvm/index.rst @@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ KVM amd-memory-encryption cpuid + halt-polling vcpu-requests arm/index |