>> I running a VM(RHEL-5.5) on KVM hypervisor(linux-3.8 + QEMU-1.4.1), >> and direct-assign intel 82576 VF to the VM. When TX/RX packets on VM to the >> other host via iperf tool, top tool result on VM shown that the %si is too >> high, approximately 95% ~ 100%, but from the view of host, the VM's total >> CPU usage is about 20% - 30%. And the throughput rate is approximately >> 200Mb/s, far from the line rate 1Gb/s, And, I found the hardirq rate is >> lower than normal by running "watch -d -n 1 cat /proc/interrupts", I think >> it's caused by the too high %si, because the NIC's hardirq was disabled >> during the softirq process. >> Then, I direct-assign the intel 82576 to the VM, the same case happened too. >> I found the intel 82576 and intel 82576 VF's interrupt mode are both >> PCI-MSI-X. >> >> And, >> I rmmod the igb driver, and, re-insmod the igb driver(igb-4.1.2) with the >> parameter IntMode=0/1(0:legacy, 1:MSI, 2:MSI-x), the problem then gone, the >> %si is approximately 20% -30%, and the throughput rate came to the line >> rate, about 940Mb/s. >> I update the VM to RHEL-6.1, the problem disappeared too. >> And, I found a very strange thing, the VM's 82576VF's irq routing is set one >> time on Vf's one interrupt received, so frequently. > >RHEL 5.5 is a very old update. Can you try RHEL 5.9? > >In any case, this looks a lot like a bug in the version of the driver that was >included in RHEL5.5; you should contact Red Hat support services if you can >still reproduce it with the latest RHEL5 update. > >Paolo
One patch has been proposed to QEMU, shown as below, [PATCH] [KVM] Needless to update msi route when only msi-x entry "control" section changed With regard to old version linux guest(e.g., rhel-5.5), in ISR processing, mask and unmask msi-x vector every time, which result in VMEXIT, then QEMU will invoke kvm_irqchip_update_msi_route() to ask KVM hypervisor to update the VM irq routing table. In KVM hypervisor, synchronizing RCU needed after updating routing table, so much time consumed for waiting in wait_rcu_gp(). So CPU usage in VM is so high, while from the view of host, VM's total CPU usage is so low. Masking/unmasking msi-x vector only set msi-x entry "control" section, needless to update VM irq routing table. hw/i386/kvm/pci-assign.c | 3 +++ 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+) --- a/hw/i386/kvm/pci-assign.c 2013-05-04 15:53:18.000000000 +0800 +++ b/hw/i386/kvm/pci-assign.c 2013-05-04 15:50:46.000000000 +0800 @@ -1576,6 +1576,8 @@ static void assigned_dev_msix_mmio_write MSIMessage msg; int ret; + /* Needless to update msi route when only msi-x entry "control" section changed */ + if ((addr & (PCI_MSIX_ENTRY_SIZE - 1)) != PCI_MSIX_ENTRY_VECTOR_CTRL){ msg.address = entry->addr_lo | ((uint64_t)entry->addr_hi << 32); msg.data = entry->data; @@ -1585,6 +1587,7 @@ static void assigned_dev_msix_mmio_write if (ret) { error_report("Error updating irq routing entry (%d)", ret); } + } } } } Thanks, Zhang Haoyu -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/