Merge tag 'kvm-x86-pmu-6.20' of https://github.com/kvm-x86/linux into HEAD

KVM mediated PMU support for 6.20

Add support for mediated PMUs, where KVM gives the guest full ownership of PMU
hardware (contexted switched around the fastpath run loop) and allows direct
access to data MSRs and PMCs (restricted by the vPMU model), but intercepts
access to control registers, e.g. to enforce event filtering and to prevent the
guest from profiling sensitive host state.

To keep overall complexity reasonable, mediated PMU usage is all or nothing
for a given instance of KVM (controlled via module param).  The Mediated PMU
is disabled default, partly to maintain backwards compatilibity for existing
setup, partly because there are tradeoffs when running with a mediated PMU that
may be non-starters for some use cases, e.g. the host loses the ability to
profile guests with mediated PMUs, the fastpath run loop is also a blind spot,
entry/exit transitions are more expensive, etc.

Versus the emulated PMU, where KVM is "just another perf user", the mediated
PMU delivers more accurate profiling and monitoring (no risk of contention and
thus dropped events), with significantly less overhead (fewer exits and faster
emulation/programming of event selectors) E.g. when running Specint-2017 on
a single-socket Sapphire Rapids with 56 cores and no-SMT, and using perf from
within the guest:

  Perf command:
  a. basic-sampling: perf record -F 1000 -e 6-instructions  -a --overwrite
  b. multiplex-sampling: perf record -F 1000 -e 10-instructions -a --overwrite

  Guest performance overhead:
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | Test case          | emulated vPMU | all passthrough | passthrough with |
  |                    |               |                 | event filters    |
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | basic-sampling     |   33.62%      |    4.24%        |   6.21%          |
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  | multiplex-sampling |   79.32%      |    7.34%        |   10.45%         |
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 files changed, 49 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index aa0031108bc1..8d62a6fdb152 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -3079,6 +3079,26 @@ Kernel parameters
 
 			Default is Y (on).
 
+	kvm.enable_pmu=[KVM,X86]
+			If enabled, KVM will virtualize PMU functionality based
+			on the virtual CPU model defined by userspace.  This
+			can be overridden on a per-VM basis via
+			KVM_CAP_PMU_CAPABILITY.
+
+			If disabled, KVM will not virtualize PMU functionality,
+			e.g. MSRs, PMCs, PMIs, etc., even if userspace defines
+			a virtual CPU model that contains PMU assets.
+
+			Note, KVM's vPMU support implicitly requires running
+			with an in-kernel local APIC, e.g. to deliver PMIs to
+			the guest.  Running without an in-kernel local APIC is
+			not supported, though KVM will allow such a combination
+			(with severely degraded functionality).
+
+			See also enable_mediated_pmu.
+
+			Default is Y (on).
+
 	kvm.enable_virt_at_load=[KVM,ARM64,LOONGARCH,MIPS,RISCV,X86]
 			If enabled, KVM will enable virtualization in hardware
 			when KVM is loaded, and disable virtualization when KVM
@@ -3125,6 +3145,35 @@ Kernel parameters
 			If the value is 0 (the default), KVM will pick a period based
 			on the ratio, such that a page is zapped after 1 hour on average.
 
+	kvm-{amd,intel}.enable_mediated_pmu=[KVM,AMD,INTEL]
+			If enabled, KVM will provide a mediated virtual PMU,
+			instead of the default perf-based virtual PMU (if
+			kvm.enable_pmu is true and PMU is enumerated via the
+			virtual CPU model).
+
+			With a perf-based vPMU, KVM operates as a user of perf,
+			i.e. emulates guest PMU counters using perf events.
+			KVM-created perf events are managed by perf as regular
+			(guest-only) events, e.g. are scheduled in/out, contend
+			for hardware resources, etc.  Using a perf-based vPMU
+			allows guest and host usage of the PMU to co-exist, but
+			incurs non-trivial overhead and can result in silently
+			dropped guest events (due to resource contention).
+
+			With a mediated vPMU, hardware PMU state is context
+			switched around the world switch to/from the guest.
+			KVM mediates which events the guest can utilize, but
+			gives the guest direct access to all other PMU assets
+			when possible (KVM may intercept some accesses if the
+			virtual CPU model provides a subset of hardware PMU
+			functionality).  Using a mediated vPMU significantly
+			reduces PMU virtualization overhead and eliminates lost
+			guest events, but is mutually exclusive with using perf
+			to profile KVM guests and adds latency to most VM-Exits
+			(to context switch PMU state).
+
+			Default is N (off).
+
 	kvm-amd.nested=	[KVM,AMD] Control nested virtualization feature in
 			KVM/SVM. Default is 1 (enabled).