Re: [libvirt] [RFC v2] [OVS/NOVA] Vhost-user backends cross-version migration support

On Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 10:17:27AM -0300, Eduardo Habkost wrote: > I'm CCing libvir-list and qemu-devel because I would like to get > feedback from libvirt and QEMU developers too. > > On Tue, Aug 08, 2017 at 10:49:21PM +0300, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote: > > On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 03:42:08PM +0200, Maxime Coquelin wrote: > > > This is an revival from a thread I initiated earlier this year [0], that > > > I had to postpone due to other priorities. > > > > > > First, I'd like to thanks reviewers of my first proposal, this new > > > version tries to address the comments made: > > > 1.This is Nova's role and not Libvirt's to query hosts supported > > > compatibility modes and to select one, since Nova adds the vhost-user > > > ports and has visibility on other hosts. Hence I remove libvirt ML and > > > add Openstack one in the recipient list. > > > 2. By default, the compatibility version selected is the most recent > > > one, except if the admin selects on older compat version. > > > > > > The goal of this thread is to draft a solution based on the outcomes > > > of discussions with contributors of the different parties (DPDK/OVS > > > /Nova/...). > > > > > > I'm really interested on feedback from OVS & Nova contributors, > > > as my experience with these projects is rather limited. > > > > > > Problem statement: > > > ================== > > > > > > When migrating a VM from one host to another, the interfaces exposed by > > > QEMU must stay unchanged in order to guarantee a successful migration. > > > In the case of vhost-user interface, parameters like supported Virtio > > > feature set, max number of queues, max vring sizes,... must remain > > > compatible. Indeed, the frontend not being re-initialized, no > > > re-negotiation happens at migration time. > > > > > > For example, we have a VM that runs on host A, which has its vhost-user > > > backend advertising VIRTIO_F_RING_INDIRECT_DESC feature. Since the Guest > > > also support this feature, it is successfully negotiated, and guest > > > transmit packets using indirect descriptor tables, that the backend > > > knows to handle. > > > > > > At some point, the VM is being migrated to host B, which runs an older > > > version of the backend not supporting this VIRTIO_F_RING_INDIRECT_DESC > > > feature. The migration would break, because the Guest still have the > > > VIRTIO_F_RING_INDIRECT_DESC bit sets, and the virtqueue contains some > > > decriptors pointing to indirect tables, that backend B doesn't know to > > > handle. > > > This is just an example about Virtio features compatibility, but other > > > backend implementation details could cause other failures. (e.g. > > > configurable queues sizes) > > > > > > What we need is to be able to query the destination host's backend to > > > ensure migration is possible before it is initiated. > > > > This remided me strongly of the issues around the virtual CPU modeling > > in KVM, see > > https://wiki.qemu.org/index.php/Features/CPUModels#Querying_host_capabili... > > > > QEMU recently gained query-cpu-model-expansion to allow capability queries. > > > > Cc Eduardo accordingly. Eduardo, could you please take a look - > > how is the problem solved on the KVM/VCPU side? Do the above > > problem and solution for vhost look similar? > > (Sorry for taking so long to reply) > > CPU configuration in QEMU has the additional problem of features > depending on host hardware and kernel capabilities (not just QEMU > software capabilities). Do you have vhost-user features that > depend on the host kernel or hardware too, or all of them just > depend on the vhost-user backend software? vhost-net features depend on host kernel. > If it depends only on software, a solution similar to how > machine-types work in QEMU sound enough. If features depend on > host kernel or host hardware too, it is a bit more complex: it > means you need an interface to find out if each configurable > feature/version is really available on the host. > > (In the case of CPU models, we started with an interface that > reported which CPU models were runnable on the host. But as > libvirt allows enabling/disabling individual CPU features, the > interface had to be extended to report which CPU features were > available/unavailable on the host.) > > * * * > > Now, there's one thing that seems very different here: the > guest-visible interface is not defined only by QEMU, but also by > the vhost-user backend. Is that correct? Not exactly. As long as there are no bugs it's defined by QEMU but depends on backend capabilities. Bugs in a backend could be guest visible - same as kvm really.

> This means QEMU won't fully control the resulting guest ABI > anymore. I would really prefer if we could keep libvirt+QEMU in > control of the guest ABI as usual, making QEMU configure all the > guest-visible vhost-user features. But I understand this would > require additional interfaces between QEMU and libvirt, and > extending the libvirt APIs. > > So, if QEMU is really not going to control the resulting guest > ABI completely, can we at least provide a mechanism which QEMU > can use to ask vhost-user for guest ABI details on migration, and > block migration if vhost-user was misconfigured on the > destination host when migrating? > > > > > > > The below proposal has been drafted based on how Qemu manages machine types: > > > > > > Proposal > > > ======== > > > > > > The idea is to have a table of supported version strings in OVS, > > > associated to key/value pairs. Nova or any other management tool could > > > query OVS for the list of supported versions strings for each hosts. > > > By default, the latest compatibility version will be selected, but the > > > admin can select manually an older compatibility mode in order to ensure > > > successful migration to an older destination host. > > > > > > Then, Nova would add OVS's vhost-user port with adding the selected > > > version (compatibility mode) as an extra parameter. > > > > > > Before starting the VM migration, Nova will ensure both source and > > > destination hosts' vhost-user interfaces run in the same compatibility > > > modes, and will prevent it if this is not the case. > > > > > > For example host A runs OVS-2.7, and host B OVS-2.6. > > > Host A's OVS-2.7 has an OVS-2.6 compatibility mode (e.g. with indirect > > > descriptors disabled), which should be selected at vhost-user port add > > > time to ensure migration will succeed to host B. > > > > > > Advantage of doing so is that Nova does not need any update if new keys > > > are introduced (i.e. it does not need to know how the new keys have to > > > be handled), all these checks remain in OVS's vhost-user implementation. > > > > > > Ideally, we would support per vhost-user interface compatibility mode, > > > which may have an impact also on DPDK API, as the Virtio feature update > > > API is global, and not per port. > > > > > > - Implementation: > > > ----------------- > > > > > > Goal here is just to illustrate this proposal, I'm sure you will have > > > good suggestion to improve it. > > > In OVS vhost-user library, we would introduce a new structure, for > > > example (neither compiled nor tested): > > > > > > struct vhostuser_compat { > > > char *version; > > > uint64_t virtio_features; > > > uint32_t max_rx_queue_sz; > > > uint32_t max_nr_queues; > > > }; > > > > > > *version* field is the compatibility version string. It could be > > > something like: "upstream.ovs-dpdk.v2.6". In case for example Fedora > > > adds some more patches to its package that would break migration to > > > upstream version, it could have a dedicated compatibility string: > > > "fc26.ovs-dpdk.v2.6". In case OVS-v2.7 does not break compatibility with > > > previous OVS-v2.6 version, then no need to create a new entry, just keep > > > v2.6 one. > > > > > > *virtio_features* field is the Virtio features set for a given > > > compatibility version. When an OVS tag is to be created, it would be > > > associated to a DPDK version. The Virtio features for these version > > > would be stored in this field. It would allow to upgrade the DPDK > > > package for example from v16.07 to v16.11 without breaking migration. > > > In case the distribution wants to benefit from latests Virtio > > > features, it would have to create a new entry to ensure migration > > > won't be broken. > > > > > > *max_rx_queue_sz* > > > *max_nr_queues* fields are just here for example, don't think this is > > > needed today. I just want to illustrate that we have to anticipate > > > other parameters than the Virtio feature set, even if not necessary > > > at the moment. > > > > > > We create a table with different compatibility versions in OVS > > > vhost-user lib: > > > > > > static struct vhostuser_compat vu_compat[] = { > > > { > > > .version = "upstream.ovs-dpdk.v2.7", > > > .virtio_features = 0x12045694, > > > .max_rx_queue_sz = 512, > > > }, > > > { > > > .version = "upstream.ovs-dpdk.v2.6", > > > .virtio_features = 0x10045694, > > > .max_rx_queue_sz = 1024, > > > }, > > > }; > > > > > > At some time during installation, or system init, the table would be > > > parsed, and compatibility version strings would be stored into the OVS > > > database, or a new tool would be created to list these strings, or a > > > config file packaged with OVS stores the list of compatibiliy versions. > > > > > > Before launching the VM, Nova will query the version strings for the > > > host so that the admin can select an older compatibility mode. If none > > > selected by the admin, then the most recent one will be used by default, > > > and passed to the OVS's add-port command as parameter. Note that if no > > > compatibility mode is passed to the add-port command, the most recent > > > one is selected by OVS as default. > > > > > > When the vhost-user connection is initiated, OVS would know in which > > > compatibility mode to init the interface, for example by restricting the > > > support Virtio features of the interface. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Maxime > > > > > > [0]: > > > https://mail.openvswitch.org/pipermail/ovs-dev/2017-February/328257.html > > > <b2a5501c-7df7-ad2a-002f-d731c445a502 at redhat.com> > > -- > Eduardo