aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorBenjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>2011-05-20 15:36:52 +1000
committerBenjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>2011-05-20 15:36:52 +1000
commit880102e78547c1db158a17e36cf0cdd98e7ad710 (patch)
tree3fff9cc54c44dafe275cfabefb96c589e08d971d /Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt
parent3d07f0e83d4323d2cd45cc583f7cf1957aca3cac (diff)
parent39ab05c8e0b519ff0a04a869f065746e6e8c3d95 (diff)
Merge remote branch 'origin/master' into merge
Manual merge of arch/powerpc/kernel/smp.c and add missing scheduler_ipi() call to arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/interrupt.c Signed-off-by: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt187
1 files changed, 187 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d079aed27e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,187 @@
+KVM-specific MSRs.
+Glauber Costa <glommer@redhat.com>, Red Hat Inc, 2010
+=====================================================
+
+KVM makes use of some custom MSRs to service some requests.
+
+Custom MSRs have a range reserved for them, that goes from
+0x4b564d00 to 0x4b564dff. There are MSRs outside this area,
+but they are deprecated and their use is discouraged.
+
+Custom MSR list
+--------
+
+The current supported Custom MSR list is:
+
+MSR_KVM_WALL_CLOCK_NEW: 0x4b564d00
+
+ data: 4-byte alignment physical address of a memory area which must be
+ in guest RAM. This memory is expected to hold a copy of the following
+ structure:
+
+ struct pvclock_wall_clock {
+ u32 version;
+ u32 sec;
+ u32 nsec;
+ } __attribute__((__packed__));
+
+ whose data will be filled in by the hypervisor. The hypervisor is only
+ guaranteed to update this data at the moment of MSR write.
+ Users that want to reliably query this information more than once have
+ to write more than once to this MSR. Fields have the following meanings:
+
+ version: guest has to check version before and after grabbing
+ time information and check that they are both equal and even.
+ An odd version indicates an in-progress update.
+
+ sec: number of seconds for wallclock.
+
+ nsec: number of nanoseconds for wallclock.
+
+ Note that although MSRs are per-CPU entities, the effect of this
+ particular MSR is global.
+
+ Availability of this MSR must be checked via bit 3 in 0x4000001 cpuid
+ leaf prior to usage.
+
+MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME_NEW: 0x4b564d01
+
+ data: 4-byte aligned physical address of a memory area which must be in
+ guest RAM, plus an enable bit in bit 0. This memory is expected to hold
+ a copy of the following structure:
+
+ struct pvclock_vcpu_time_info {
+ u32 version;
+ u32 pad0;
+ u64 tsc_timestamp;
+ u64 system_time;
+ u32 tsc_to_system_mul;
+ s8 tsc_shift;
+ u8 flags;
+ u8 pad[2];
+ } __attribute__((__packed__)); /* 32 bytes */
+
+ whose data will be filled in by the hypervisor periodically. Only one
+ write, or registration, is needed for each VCPU. The interval between
+ updates of this structure is arbitrary and implementation-dependent.
+ The hypervisor may update this structure at any time it sees fit until
+ anything with bit0 == 0 is written to it.
+
+ Fields have the following meanings:
+
+ version: guest has to check version before and after grabbing
+ time information and check that they are both equal and even.
+ An odd version indicates an in-progress update.
+
+ tsc_timestamp: the tsc value at the current VCPU at the time
+ of the update of this structure. Guests can subtract this value
+ from current tsc to derive a notion of elapsed time since the
+ structure update.
+
+ system_time: a host notion of monotonic time, including sleep
+ time at the time this structure was last updated. Unit is
+ nanoseconds.
+
+ tsc_to_system_mul: a function of the tsc frequency. One has
+ to multiply any tsc-related quantity by this value to get
+ a value in nanoseconds, besides dividing by 2^tsc_shift
+
+ tsc_shift: cycle to nanosecond divider, as a power of two, to
+ allow for shift rights. One has to shift right any tsc-related
+ quantity by this value to get a value in nanoseconds, besides
+ multiplying by tsc_to_system_mul.
+
+ With this information, guests can derive per-CPU time by
+ doing:
+
+ time = (current_tsc - tsc_timestamp)
+ time = (time * tsc_to_system_mul) >> tsc_shift
+ time = time + system_time
+
+ flags: bits in this field indicate extended capabilities
+ coordinated between the guest and the hypervisor. Availability
+ of specific flags has to be checked in 0x40000001 cpuid leaf.
+ Current flags are:
+
+ flag bit | cpuid bit | meaning
+ -------------------------------------------------------------
+ | | time measures taken across
+ 0 | 24 | multiple cpus are guaranteed to
+ | | be monotonic
+ -------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ Availability of this MSR must be checked via bit 3 in 0x4000001 cpuid
+ leaf prior to usage.
+
+
+MSR_KVM_WALL_CLOCK: 0x11
+
+ data and functioning: same as MSR_KVM_WALL_CLOCK_NEW. Use that instead.
+
+ This MSR falls outside the reserved KVM range and may be removed in the
+ future. Its usage is deprecated.
+
+ Availability of this MSR must be checked via bit 0 in 0x4000001 cpuid
+ leaf prior to usage.
+
+MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME: 0x12
+
+ data and functioning: same as MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME_NEW. Use that instead.
+
+ This MSR falls outside the reserved KVM range and may be removed in the
+ future. Its usage is deprecated.
+
+ Availability of this MSR must be checked via bit 0 in 0x4000001 cpuid
+ leaf prior to usage.
+
+ The suggested algorithm for detecting kvmclock presence is then:
+
+ if (!kvm_para_available()) /* refer to cpuid.txt */
+ return NON_PRESENT;
+
+ flags = cpuid_eax(0x40000001);
+ if (flags & 3) {
+ msr_kvm_system_time = MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME_NEW;
+ msr_kvm_wall_clock = MSR_KVM_WALL_CLOCK_NEW;
+ return PRESENT;
+ } else if (flags & 0) {
+ msr_kvm_system_time = MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME;
+ msr_kvm_wall_clock = MSR_KVM_WALL_CLOCK;
+ return PRESENT;
+ } else
+ return NON_PRESENT;
+
+MSR_KVM_ASYNC_PF_EN: 0x4b564d02
+ data: Bits 63-6 hold 64-byte aligned physical address of a
+ 64 byte memory area which must be in guest RAM and must be
+ zeroed. Bits 5-2 are reserved and should be zero. Bit 0 is 1
+ when asynchronous page faults are enabled on the vcpu 0 when
+ disabled. Bit 2 is 1 if asynchronous page faults can be injected
+ when vcpu is in cpl == 0.
+
+ First 4 byte of 64 byte memory location will be written to by
+ the hypervisor at the time of asynchronous page fault (APF)
+ injection to indicate type of asynchronous page fault. Value
+ of 1 means that the page referred to by the page fault is not
+ present. Value 2 means that the page is now available. Disabling
+ interrupt inhibits APFs. Guest must not enable interrupt
+ before the reason is read, or it may be overwritten by another
+ APF. Since APF uses the same exception vector as regular page
+ fault guest must reset the reason to 0 before it does
+ something that can generate normal page fault. If during page
+ fault APF reason is 0 it means that this is regular page
+ fault.
+
+ During delivery of type 1 APF cr2 contains a token that will
+ be used to notify a guest when missing page becomes
+ available. When page becomes available type 2 APF is sent with
+ cr2 set to the token associated with the page. There is special
+ kind of token 0xffffffff which tells vcpu that it should wake
+ up all processes waiting for APFs and no individual type 2 APFs
+ will be sent.
+
+ If APF is disabled while there are outstanding APFs, they will
+ not be delivered.
+
+ Currently type 2 APF will be always delivered on the same vcpu as
+ type 1 was, but guest should not rely on that.