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linux/arch/x86/kvm/Kconfig
Michael S. Tsirkin 3a4d5c94e9 vhost_net: a kernel-level virtio server
What it is: vhost net is a character device that can be used to reduce
the number of system calls involved in virtio networking.
Existing virtio net code is used in the guest without modification.

There's similarity with vringfd, with some differences and reduced scope
- uses eventfd for signalling
- structures can be moved around in memory at any time (good for
  migration, bug work-arounds in userspace)
- write logging is supported (good for migration)
- support memory table and not just an offset (needed for kvm)

common virtio related code has been put in a separate file vhost.c and
can be made into a separate module if/when more backends appear.  I used
Rusty's lguest.c as the source for developing this part : this supplied
me with witty comments I wouldn't be able to write myself.

What it is not: vhost net is not a bus, and not a generic new system
call. No assumptions are made on how guest performs hypercalls.
Userspace hypervisors are supported as well as kvm.

How it works: Basically, we connect virtio frontend (configured by
userspace) to a backend. The backend could be a network device, or a tap
device.  Backend is also configured by userspace, including vlan/mac
etc.

Status: This works for me, and I haven't see any crashes.
Compared to userspace, people reported improved latency (as I save up to
4 system calls per packet), as well as better bandwidth and CPU
utilization.

Features that I plan to look at in the future:
- mergeable buffers
- zero copy
- scalability tuning: figure out the best threading model to use

Note on RCU usage (this is also documented in vhost.h, near
private_pointer which is the value protected by this variant of RCU):
what is happening is that the rcu_dereference() is being used in a
workqueue item.  The role of rcu_read_lock() is taken on by the start of
execution of the workqueue item, of rcu_read_unlock() by the end of
execution of the workqueue item, and of synchronize_rcu() by
flush_workqueue()/flush_work(). In the future we might need to apply
some gcc attribute or sparse annotation to the function passed to
INIT_WORK(). Paul's ack below is for this RCU usage.

(Includes fixes by Alan Cox <alan@linux.intel.com>,
David L Stevens <dlstevens@us.ibm.com>,
Chris Wright <chrisw@redhat.com>)

Acked-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Acked-by: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
2010-01-15 01:43:29 -08:00

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#
# KVM configuration
#
source "virt/kvm/Kconfig"
menuconfig VIRTUALIZATION
bool "Virtualization"
depends on HAVE_KVM || X86
default y
---help---
Say Y here to get to see options for using your Linux host to run other
operating systems inside virtual machines (guests).
This option alone does not add any kernel code.
If you say N, all options in this submenu will be skipped and disabled.
if VIRTUALIZATION
config KVM
tristate "Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) support"
depends on HAVE_KVM
# for device assignment:
depends on PCI
select PREEMPT_NOTIFIERS
select MMU_NOTIFIER
select ANON_INODES
select HAVE_KVM_IRQCHIP
select HAVE_KVM_EVENTFD
select KVM_APIC_ARCHITECTURE
select USER_RETURN_NOTIFIER
---help---
Support hosting fully virtualized guest machines using hardware
virtualization extensions. You will need a fairly recent
processor equipped with virtualization extensions. You will also
need to select one or more of the processor modules below.
This module provides access to the hardware capabilities through
a character device node named /dev/kvm.
To compile this as a module, choose M here: the module
will be called kvm.
If unsure, say N.
config KVM_INTEL
tristate "KVM for Intel processors support"
depends on KVM
---help---
Provides support for KVM on Intel processors equipped with the VT
extensions.
To compile this as a module, choose M here: the module
will be called kvm-intel.
config KVM_AMD
tristate "KVM for AMD processors support"
depends on KVM
---help---
Provides support for KVM on AMD processors equipped with the AMD-V
(SVM) extensions.
To compile this as a module, choose M here: the module
will be called kvm-amd.
# OK, it's a little counter-intuitive to do this, but it puts it neatly under
# the virtualization menu.
source drivers/vhost/Kconfig
source drivers/lguest/Kconfig
source drivers/virtio/Kconfig
endif # VIRTUALIZATION