[PATCH] vhost: add device op to offload the interrupt kick

[Eelco Chaudron]

On 27 Mar 2023, at 15:21, Maxime Coquelin wrote:

> Hi Eelco,
>
> On 3/27/23 14:51, Eelco Chaudron wrote:
>> This patch adds an operation callback which gets called every time the
>> library wants to call eventfd_write(). This eventfd_write() call could
>> result in a system call, which could potentially block the PMD thread.
>>
>> The callback function can decide whether it's ok to handle the
>> eventfd_write() now or have the newly introduced function,
>> rte_vhost_notify_guest(), called at a later time.
>>
>> This can be used by 3rd party applications, like OVS, to avoid system
>> calls being called as part of the PMD threads.
>
> That's a good idea, please find some comments inline:

Thanks for the review, see inline.
>
>> Signed-off-by: Eelco Chaudron <echaudro at redhat.com>
>> ---
>>   lib/vhost/rte_vhost.h |   10 +++++++++-
>>   lib/vhost/vhost.c     |   21 +++++++++++++++++++++
>>   lib/vhost/vhost.h     |   43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------------
>>   3 files changed, 58 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/lib/vhost/rte_vhost.h b/lib/vhost/rte_vhost.h
>> index 58a5d4be92..af7a394d0f 100644
>> --- a/lib/vhost/rte_vhost.h
>> +++ b/lib/vhost/rte_vhost.h
>> @@ -298,7 +298,13 @@ struct rte_vhost_device_ops {
>>   	 */
>>   	void (*guest_notified)(int vid);
>>  -	void *reserved[1]; /**< Reserved for future extension */
>> +	/**
>> +	 * If this callback is registered, notification to the guest can
>> +	 * be handled by the front-end calling rte_vhost_notify_guest().
>> +	 * If it's not handled, 'false' should be returned. This can be used
>> +	 * to remove the "slow" eventfd_write() syscall from the datapath.
>> +	 */
>> +	bool (*guest_notify)(int vid, uint16_t queue_id);
>>   };
>>    /**
>> @@ -433,6 +439,8 @@ void rte_vhost_log_used_vring(int vid, uint16_t vring_idx,
>>    int rte_vhost_enable_guest_notification(int vid, uint16_t queue_id, int enable);
>>  +void rte_vhost_notify_guest(int vid, uint16_t queue_id);
>
> The new API needs to be tagged as experimental, and also documented. (I
> see rte_vhost_enable_guest_notification is not properly documented, so
> not a good example!)

I used exactly that as an example, so thought it should be good ;)
Will add this in the next revision...

>> +
>>   /**
>>    * Register vhost driver. path could be different for multiple
>>    * instance support.
>> diff --git a/lib/vhost/vhost.c b/lib/vhost/vhost.c
>> index ef37943817..ee090d78ef 100644
>> --- a/lib/vhost/vhost.c
>> +++ b/lib/vhost/vhost.c
>> @@ -1467,6 +1467,27 @@ rte_vhost_enable_guest_notification(int vid, uint16_t queue_id, int enable)
>>   	return ret;
>>   }
>>  +void
>> +rte_vhost_notify_guest(int vid, uint16_t queue_id)
>> +{
>> +	struct virtio_net *dev = get_device(vid);
>> +	struct vhost_virtqueue *vq;
>> +
>> +	if (!dev ||  queue_id >= VHOST_MAX_VRING)
>> +		return;
>> +
>> +	vq = dev->virtqueue[queue_id];
>> +	if (!vq)
>> +		return;
>> +
>> +	rte_spinlock_lock(&vq->access_lock);
>> +
>> +	if (vq->callfd >= 0)
>> +		eventfd_write(vq->callfd, (eventfd_t)1);
>
> Maybe we should return an error of callfd is invalid or eventfd_write()
> failed.

See below

>> +
>> +	rte_spinlock_unlock(&vq->access_lock);
>> +}
>> +
>>   void
>>   rte_vhost_log_write(int vid, uint64_t addr, uint64_t len)
>>   {
>> diff --git a/lib/vhost/vhost.h b/lib/vhost/vhost.h
>> index 8fdab13c70..39ad8260a1 100644
>> --- a/lib/vhost/vhost.h
>> +++ b/lib/vhost/vhost.h
>> @@ -883,6 +883,30 @@ vhost_need_event(uint16_t event_idx, uint16_t new_idx, uint16_t old)
>>   	return (uint16_t)(new_idx - event_idx - 1) < (uint16_t)(new_idx - old);
>>   }
>>  +static __rte_always_inline void
>> +vhost_vring_kick_guest(struct virtio_net *dev, struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
>> +{
>> +	if (dev->notify_ops->guest_notify) {
>> +		uint16_t qid;
>> +		for (qid = 0;  qid < dev->nr_vring; qid++) {
>> +			if (dev->virtqueue[qid] == vq) {
>> +				if (dev->notify_ops->guest_notify(dev->vid,
>> +								  qid))
>> +					goto done;
>> +				break;
>> +			}
>> +		}
>
> Since v22.11, you no more need to iterate through the port's virtqueues,
> David introduced index field in vhost_virtuqueue in v22.11 (57e414e3ec29
> ("vhost: keep a reference to virtqueue index")).

Thanks will change this, I did most of this a while back and did not re-check.

>> +	}
>> +	eventfd_write(vq->callfd, (eventfd_t) 1);
>> +
>> +done:
>> +	if (dev->flags & VIRTIO_DEV_STATS_ENABLED)
>> +		vq->stats.guest_notifications++;
>> +	if (dev->notify_ops->guest_notified)
>> +		dev->notify_ops->guest_notified(dev->vid);
>> +}
>
> FYI, I have done almost the same refactoring in the VDUSE series I will
> soon send:
>
> https://gitlab.com/mcoquelin/dpdk-next-virtio/-/commit/7089a8a6d1e89b9db90547eb5b4fef886f24fd5b
>
> My version also introduces a new counter in case the notification
> failed. Maybe we could also have a counter in case the notification has
> been "offloaded" to the application?

What would be the best approach!? I can wait to send a new rev until your patch is out.

>> +
>> +
>>   static __rte_always_inline void
>>   vhost_vring_call_split(struct virtio_net *dev, struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
>>   {
>> @@ -905,21 +929,13 @@ vhost_vring_call_split(struct virtio_net *dev, struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
>>   		if ((vhost_need_event(vhost_used_event(vq), new, old) &&
>>   					(vq->callfd >= 0)) ||
>>   				unlikely(!signalled_used_valid)) {
>> -			eventfd_write(vq->callfd, (eventfd_t) 1);
>> -			if (dev->flags & VIRTIO_DEV_STATS_ENABLED)
>> -				vq->stats.guest_notifications++;
>> -			if (dev->notify_ops->guest_notified)
>> -				dev->notify_ops->guest_notified(dev->vid);
>> +			vhost_vring_kick_guest(dev, vq);
>>   		}
>>   	} else {
>>   		/* Kick the guest if necessary. */
>>   		if (!(vq->avail->flags & VRING_AVAIL_F_NO_INTERRUPT)
>>   				&& (vq->callfd >= 0)) {
>> -			eventfd_write(vq->callfd, (eventfd_t)1);
>> -			if (dev->flags & VIRTIO_DEV_STATS_ENABLED)
>> -				vq->stats.guest_notifications++;
>> -			if (dev->notify_ops->guest_notified)
>> -				dev->notify_ops->guest_notified(dev->vid);
>> +			vhost_vring_kick_guest(dev, vq);
>>   		}
>>   	}
>>   }
>> @@ -971,11 +987,8 @@ vhost_vring_call_packed(struct virtio_net *dev, struct vhost_virtqueue *vq)
>>   	if (vhost_need_event(off, new, old))
>>   		kick = true;
>>   kick:
>> -	if (kick) {
>> -		eventfd_write(vq->callfd, (eventfd_t)1);
>> -		if (dev->notify_ops->guest_notified)
>> -			dev->notify_ops->guest_notified(dev->vid);
>> -	}
>> +	if (kick)
>> +		vhost_vring_kick_guest(dev, vq);
>>   }
>>    static __rte_always_inline void
>>