[PATCH V6 0/4 net-next] macvtap/vhost TX zero-copy support

[PATCH V6 0/4 net-next] macvtap/vhost TX zero-copy support

[Shirley Ma]

This patchset add supports for TX zero-copy between guest and host
kernel through vhost. It significantly reduces CPU utilization on the
local host on which the guest is located (It reduced about 50% CPU usage
for single stream test on the host, while 4K message size BW has
increased about 50%). The patchset is based on previous submission and
comments from the community regarding when/how to handle guest kernel
buffers to be released. This is the simplest approach I can think of
after comparing with several other solutions.

This patchset has integrated V3 review comments from community: 

1. Add more comments on how to use device ZEROCOPY flag;

2. Change device ZEROCOPY to available bit 31

3. Fix skb header linear allocation when virtio_net GSO is not enabled

It has integrated V4 review comments from MST and Sridhar:

1. In vhost, using socket poll wake up for outstanding DMAs

2. Add detailed comments for vhost_zerocopy_signal_used call

3. Add sleep in vhost shutting down instead of busy-wait for outstanding
   DMAs.

4. Copy small packets, don't do zero-copy callback in mavtap, mark it's
   DMA done in vhost

5. change zerocopy to bool in macvtap.

It integrates V5 review comments from MST and 


Michał Mirosław <mirqus@gmail.com>

1. Prevent userspace apps from holding skb userspace buffers by copying
userspace buffers to kernel in skb_clone, skb_copy, pskb_copy,
pskb_expand_head.

2. It is also used HIGHDMA, SG feature bits to enable ZEROCOPY to remove
the dependency of a new feature bit, we can add it later when new
feature bit is available.

This patchset includes:

1/4: Add a new sock zero-copy flag, SOCK_ZEROCOPY;

2/4: Add a new struct skb_ubuf_info in skb_share_info for userspace
buffers release callback when lower device DMA has done for that skb,
which is the last reference count gone; Or whenever skb_clone, skb_copy,
pskb_copy, pskb_expand_head get call from tcpdump, filtering, these
userspace
buffers will be copied into kernel ... we don't want userspace apps to
hold
userspace buffers too long.

3/4: Add vhost zero-copy callback in vhost when skb last refcnt is gone;
add vhost_zerocopy_signal_used to notify guest to release TX skb
buffers.

4/4: Add macvtap zero-copy in lower device when sending packet is
greater than 256 bytes.

The patchset is built against most recent net-next linux 2.6.39-rc7. It
has passed netperf/netserver multiple streams stress test, tcpdump
suspended test, dynamically SG change test.

Single TCP_STREAM 120 secs test results over ixgbe 10Gb NIC results:

Message BW(Gb/s)qemu-kvm (NumCPU)vhost-net(NumCPU) PerfTop irq/s
4K      7408.57         92.1%           22.6%           1229
4K(Orig)4913.17         118.1%          84.1%           2086    
8K      9129.90         89.3%           23.3%           1141
8K(Orig)7094.55         115.9%          84.7%           2157
16K     9178.81         89.1%           23.3%           1139
16K(Orig)8927.1         118.7%          83.4%           2262
64K     9171.43         88.4%           24.9%           1253
64K(Orig)9085.85        115.9%          82.4%           2229

For message size less or equal than 2K, there is a known KVM guest TX
overrun issue. With this zero-copy patch, the issue becomes more severe,
guest io_exits has tripled than before, so the performance is not good.
Once the TX overrun problem has been addressed, I will retest the small
message size performance.

 drivers/net/macvtap.c          |  132
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 drivers/vhost/net.c            |   44 +++++++++++++-
 drivers/vhost/vhost.c          |   49 +++++++++++++++
 drivers/vhost/vhost.h          |   13 ++++
 include/linux/netdevice.h      |   10 +++
 include/linux/skbuff.h         |   26 ++++++++
 include/net/sock.h             |    1 +
 net/core/skbuff.c              |   81 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 8 files changed, 345 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)

Re: [PATCH V6 0/4 net-next] macvtap/vhost TX zero-copy support

[Michael S. Tsirkin]

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 01:00:20PM -0700, Shirley Ma wrote:
> 3. Add sleep in vhost shutting down instead of busy-wait for outstanding
>    DMAs.

I still think this is not much better. We need to use a
completion structure and wait on it instead.
If this gets blocked thinkably a tx watchdog can fire and save us
from blocking forver :)

Re: [PATCH V6 0/4 net-next] macvtap/vhost TX zero-copy support

[Shirley Ma]

On Thu, 2011-05-26 at 23:28 +0300, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 01:00:20PM -0700, Shirley Ma wrote:
> > 3. Add sleep in vhost shutting down instead of busy-wait for
> outstanding
> >    DMAs.
> 
> I still think this is not much better. We need to use a
> completion structure and wait on it instead.
> If this gets blocked thinkably a tx watchdog can fire and save us
> from blocking forver :) 

Ok, I can add a completion structure here.

Thanks
Shirley

Re: [PATCH V6 0/4 net-next] macvtap/vhost TX zero-copy support

[Shirley Ma]

On Thu, 2011-05-26 at 13:31 -0700, Shirley Ma wrote:
> On Thu, 2011-05-26 at 23:28 +0300, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 01:00:20PM -0700, Shirley Ma wrote:
> > > 3. Add sleep in vhost shutting down instead of busy-wait for
> > outstanding
> > >    DMAs.
> > 
> > I still think this is not much better. We need to use a
> > completion structure and wait on it instead.
> > If this gets blocked thinkably a tx watchdog can fire and save us
> > from blocking forver :) 
> 
> Ok, I can add a completion structure here. 

The code here doesn't block forever during shutdown, it will release all
outstanding userspace buffers anyway, see vhost_zerocopy_signal_used()
shutdown case.

Thanks
Shirley