Re: [RFC PATCH 0/7] Support for virtio-net hash reporting

[Jason Wang <jasowang@redhat.com>]

On 2021/1/17 下午3:57, Yuri Benditovich wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 5:39 AM Jason Wang <jasowang@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 2021/1/13 下午10:33, Willem de Bruijn wrote:
>>> On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 11:11 PM Jason Wang <jasowang@redhat.com> wrote:
>>>> On 2021/1/13 上午7:47, Willem de Bruijn wrote:
>>>>> On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 3:29 PM Yuri Benditovich
>>>>> <yuri.benditovich@daynix.com> wrote:
>>>>>> On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 9:49 PM Yuri Benditovich
>>>>>> <yuri.benditovich@daynix.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 9:41 PM Yuri Benditovich
>>>>>>> <yuri.benditovich@daynix.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Existing TUN module is able to use provided "steering eBPF" to
>>>>>>>> calculate per-packet hash and derive the destination queue to
>>>>>>>> place the packet to. The eBPF uses mapped configuration data
>>>>>>>> containing a key for hash calculation and indirection table
>>>>>>>> with array of queues' indices.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This series of patches adds support for virtio-net hash reporting
>>>>>>>> feature as defined in virtio specification. It extends the TUN module
>>>>>>>> and the "steering eBPF" as follows:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Extended steering eBPF calculates the hash value and hash type, keeps
>>>>>>>> hash value in the skb->hash and returns index of destination virtqueue
>>>>>>>> and the type of the hash. TUN module keeps returned hash type in
>>>>>>>> (currently unused) field of the skb.
>>>>>>>> skb->__unused renamed to 'hash_report_type'.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> When TUN module is called later to allocate and fill the virtio-net
>>>>>>>> header and push it to destination virtqueue it populates the hash
>>>>>>>> and the hash type into virtio-net header.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> VHOST driver is made aware of respective virtio-net feature that
>>>>>>>> extends the virtio-net header to report the hash value and hash report
>>>>>>>> type.
>>>>>>> Comment from Willem de Bruijn:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Skbuff fields are in short supply. I don't think we need to add one
>>>>>>> just for this narrow path entirely internal to the tun device.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> We understand that and try to minimize the impact by using an already
>>>>>> existing unused field of skb.
>>>>> Not anymore. It was repurposed as a flags field very recently.
>>>>>
>>>>> This use case is also very narrow in scope. And a very short path from
>>>>> data producer to consumer. So I don't think it needs to claim scarce
>>>>> bits in the skb.
>>>>>
>>>>> tun_ebpf_select_queue stores the field, tun_put_user reads it and
>>>>> converts it to the virtio_net_hdr in the descriptor.
>>>>>
>>>>> tun_ebpf_select_queue is called from .ndo_select_queue.  Storing the
>>>>> field in skb->cb is fragile, as in theory some code could overwrite
>>>>> that between field between ndo_select_queue and
>>>>> ndo_start_xmit/tun_net_xmit, from which point it is fully under tun
>>>>> control again. But in practice, I don't believe anything does.
>>>>>
>>>>> Alternatively an existing skb field that is used only on disjoint
>>>>> datapaths, such as ingress-only, could be viable.
>>>> A question here. We had metadata support in XDP for cooperation between
>>>> eBPF programs. Do we have something similar in the skb?
>>>>
>>>> E.g in the RSS, if we want to pass some metadata information between
>>>> eBPF program and the logic that generates the vnet header (either hard
>>>> logic in the kernel or another eBPF program). Is there any way that can
>>>> avoid the possible conflicts of qdiscs?
>>> Not that I am aware of. The closest thing is cb[].
>>>
>>> It'll have to aliase a field like that, that is known unused for the given path.
>>
>> Right, we need to make sure cb is not used by other ones. I'm not sure
>> how hard to achieve that consider Qemu installs the eBPF program but it
>> doesn't deal with networking configurations.
>>
>>
>>> One other approach that has been used within linear call stacks is out
>>> of band. Like percpu variables softnet_data.xmit.more and
>>> mirred_rec_level. But that is perhaps a bit overwrought for this use
>>> case.
>>
>> Yes, and if we go that way then eBPF turns out to be a burden since we
>> need to invent helpers to access those auxiliary data structure. It
>> would be better then to hard-coded the RSS in the kernel.
>>
>>
>>>>>>> Instead, you could just run the flow_dissector in tun_put_user if the
>>>>>>> feature is negotiated. Indeed, the flow dissector seems more apt to me
>>>>>>> than BPF here. Note that the flow dissector internally can be
>>>>>>> overridden by a BPF program if the admin so chooses.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> When this set of patches is related to hash delivery in the virtio-net
>>>>>> packet in general,
>>>>>> it was prepared in context of RSS feature implementation as defined in
>>>>>> virtio spec [1]
>>>>>> In case of RSS it is not enough to run the flow_dissector in tun_put_user:
>>>>>> in tun_ebpf_select_queue the TUN calls eBPF to calculate the hash,
>>>>>> hash type and queue index
>>>>>> according to the (mapped) parameters (key, hash types, indirection
>>>>>> table) received from the guest.
>>>>> TUNSETSTEERINGEBPF was added to support more diverse queue selection
>>>>> than the default in case of multiqueue tun. Not sure what the exact
>>>>> use cases are.
>>>>>
>>>>> But RSS is exactly the purpose of the flow dissector. It is used for
>>>>> that purpose in the software variant RPS. The flow dissector
>>>>> implements a superset of the RSS spec, and certainly computes a
>>>>> four-tuple for TCP/IPv6. In the case of RPS, it is skipped if the NIC
>>>>> has already computed a 4-tuple hash.
>>>>>
>>>>> What it does not give is a type indication, such as
>>>>> VIRTIO_NET_HASH_TYPE_TCPv6. I don't understand how this would be used.
>>>>> In datapaths where the NIC has already computed the four-tuple hash
>>>>> and stored it in skb->hash --the common case for servers--, That type
>>>>> field is the only reason to have to compute again.
>>>> The problem is there's no guarantee that the packet comes from the NIC,
>>>> it could be a simple VM2VM or host2VM packet.
>>>>
>>>> And even if the packet is coming from the NIC that calculates the hash
>>>> there's no guarantee that it's the has that guest want (guest may use
>>>> different RSS keys).
>>> Ah yes, of course.
>>>
>>> I would still revisit the need to store a detailed hash_type along with
>>> the hash, as as far I can tell that conveys no actionable information
>>> to the guest.
>>
>> Yes, need to figure out its usage. According to [1], it only mention
>> that storing has type is a charge of driver. Maybe Yuri can answer this.
>>
> For the case of Windows VM we can't know how exactly the network stack
> uses provided hash data (including hash type). But: different releases
> of Windows
> enable different hash types (for example UDP hash is enabled only on
> Server 2016 and up).
>
> Indeed the Windows requires a little more from the network adapter/driver
> than Linux does.
>
> The addition of RSS support to virtio specification takes in account
> the widest set of
> requirements (i.e. Windows one), our initial impression is that this
> should be enough also for Linux.
>
> The NDIS specification in part of RSS is _mandatory_ and there are
> certification tests
> that check that the driver provides the hash data as expected. All the
> high-performance
> network adapters have such RSS functionality in the hardware.
> With pre-RSS QEMU (i.e. where the virtio-net device does not indicate
> the RSS support)
> the virtio-net driver for Windows does all the job related to RSS:
> - hash calculation
> - hash/hash_type delivery
> - reporting each packet on the correct CPU according to RSS settings
>
> With RSS support in QEMU all the packets always come on a proper CPU and
> the driver never needs to reschedule them. The driver still need to
> calculate the
> hash and report it to Windows. In this case we do the same job twice: the device
> (QEMU or eBPF) does calculate the hash and get proper queue/CPU to deliver
> the packet. But the hash is not delivered by the device, so the driver needs to
> recalculate it and report to the Windows.
>
> If we add HASH_REPORT support (current set of patches) and the device
> indicates this
> feature we can avoid hash recalculation in the driver assuming we
> receive the correct hash
> value and hash type. Otherwise the driver can't know which exactly
> hash the device has calculated.
>
> Please let me know if I did not answer the question.


I think I get you. The hash type is also a kind of classification (e.g 
TCP or UDP). Any possibility that it can be deduced from the driver? (Or 
it could be too expensive to do that).

Thanks


>
>> Thanks
>>
>> [1]
>> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/network/indicating-rss-receive-data
>>
>>