path: root/Documentation/vfio-mediated-device.txt

/*
 * VFIO Mediated devices
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2016, NVIDIA CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
 *     Author: Neo Jia <cjia@nvidia.com>
 *             Kirti Wankhede <kwankhede@nvidia.com>
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.
 */

Virtual Function I/O (VFIO) Mediated devices[1]
===============================================

The number of use cases for virtualizing DMA devices that do not have built-in
SR_IOV capability is increasing. Previously, to virtualize such devices,
developers had to create their own management interfaces and APIs, and then
integrate them with user space software. To simplify integration with user space
software, we have identified common requirements and a unified management
interface for such devices.

The VFIO driver framework provides unified APIs for direct device access. It is
an IOMMU/device-agnostic framework for exposing direct device access to user
space in a secure, IOMMU-protected environment. This framework is used for
multiple devices, such as GPUs, network adapters, and compute accelerators. With
direct device access, virtual machines or user space applications have direct
access to the physical device. This framework is reused for mediated devices.

The mediated core driver provides a common interface for mediated device
management that can be used by drivers of different devices. This module
provides a generic interface to perform these operations:

* Create and destroy a mediated device
* Add a mediated device to and remove it from a mediated bus driver
* Add a mediated device to and remove it from an IOMMU group

The mediated core driver also provides an interface to register a bus driver.
For example, the mediated VFIO mdev driver is designed for mediated devices and
supports VFIO APIs. The mediated bus driver adds a mediated device to and
removes it from a VFIO group.

The following high-level block diagram shows the main components and interfaces
in the VFIO mediated driver framework. The diagram shows NVIDIA, Intel, and IBM
devices as examples, as these devices are the first devices to use this module.

     +---------------+
     |               |
     | +-----------+ |  mdev_register_driver() +--------------+
     | |           | +<------------------------+              |
     | |  mdev     | |                         |              |
     | |  bus      | +------------------------>+ vfio_mdev.ko |<-> VFIO user
     | |  driver   | |     probe()/remove()    |              |    APIs
     | |           | |                         +--------------+
     | +-----------+ |
     |               |
     |  MDEV CORE    |
     |   MODULE      |
     |   mdev.ko     |
     | +-----------+ |  mdev_register_device() +--------------+
     | |           | +<------------------------+              |
     | |           | |                         |  nvidia.ko   |<-> physical
     | |           | +------------------------>+              |    device
     | |           | |        callbacks        +--------------+
     | | Physical  | |
     | |  device   | |  mdev_register_device() +--------------+
     | | interface | |<------------------------+              |
     | |           | |                         |  i915.ko     |<-> physical
     | |           | +------------------------>+              |    device
     | |           | |        callbacks        +--------------+
     | |           | |
     | |           | |  mdev_register_device() +--------------+
     | |           | +<------------------------+              |
     | |           | |                         | ccw_device.ko|<-> physical
     | |           | +------------------------>+              |    device
     | |           | |        callbacks        +--------------+
     | +-----------+ |
     +---------------+


Registration Interfaces
=======================

The mediated core driver provides the following types of registration
interfaces:

* Registration interface for a mediated bus driver
* Physical device driver interface

Registration Interface for a Mediated Bus Driver
------------------------------------------------

The registration interface for a mediated bus driver provides the following
structure to represent a mediated device's driver:

     /*
      * struct mdev_driver [2] - Mediated device's driver
      * @name: driver name
      * @probe: called when new device created
      * @remove: called when device removed
      * @driver: device driver structure
      */
     struct mdev_driver {
	     const char *name;
	     int  (*probe)  (struct device *dev);
	     void (*remove) (struct device *dev);
	     struct device_driver    driver;
     };

A mediated bus driver for mdev should use this structure in the function calls
to register and unregister itself with the core driver:

* Register:

  extern int  mdev_register_driver(struct mdev_driver *drv,
				   struct module *owner);

* Unregister:

  extern void mdev_unregister_driver(struct mdev_driver *drv);

The mediated bus driver is responsible for adding mediated devices to the VFIO
group when devices are bound to the driver and removing mediated devices from
the VFIO when devices are unbound from the driver.


Physical Device Driver Interface
--------------------------------

The physical device driver interface provides the mdev_parent_ops[3] structure
to define the APIs to manage work in the mediated core driver that is related
to the physical device.

The structures in the mdev_parent_ops structure are as follows:

* dev_attr_groups: attributes of the parent device
* mdev_attr_groups: attributes of the mediated device
* supported_config: attributes to define supported configurations

The functions in the mdev_parent_ops structure are as follows:

* create: allocate basic resources in a driver for a mediated device
* remove: free resources in a driver when a mediated device is destroyed

The callbacks in the mdev_parent_ops structure are as follows:

* open: open callback of mediated device
* close: close callback of mediated device
* ioctl: ioctl callback of mediated device
* read : read emulation callback
* write: write emulation callback
* mmap: mmap emulation callback

A driver should use the mdev_parent_ops structure in the function call to
register itself with the mdev core driver:

extern int  mdev_register_device(struct device *dev,
                                 const struct mdev_parent_ops *ops);

However, the mdev_parent_ops structure is not required in the function call
that a driver should use to unregister itself with the mdev core driver:

extern void mdev_unregister_device(struct device *dev);


Mediated Device Management Interface Through sysfs
==================================================

The management interface through sysfs enables user space software, such as
libvirt, to query and configure mediated devices in a hardware-agnostic fashion.
This management interface provides flexibility to the underlying physical
device's driver to support features such as:

* Mediated device hot plug
* Multiple mediated devices in a single virtual machine
* Multiple mediated devices from different physical devices

Links in the mdev_bus Class Directory
-------------------------------------
The /sys/class/mdev_bus/ directory contains links to devices that are registered
with the mdev core driver.

Directories and files under the sysfs for Each Physical Device
--------------------------------------------------------------

|- [parent physical device]
|--- Vendor-specific-attributes [optional]
|--- [mdev_supported_types]
|     |--- [<type-id>]
|     |   |--- create
|     |   |--- name
|     |   |--- available_instances
|     |   |--- device_api
|     |   |--- description
|     |   |--- [devices]
|     |--- [<type-id>]
|     |   |--- create
|     |   |--- name
|     |   |--- available_instances
|     |   |--- device_api
|     |   |--- description
|     |   |--- [devices]
|     |--- [<type-id>]
|          |--- create
|          |--- name
|          |--- available_instances
|          |--- device_api
|          |--- description
|          |--- [devices]

* [mdev_supported_types]

  The list of currently supported mediated device types and their details.

  [<type-id>], device_api, and available_instances are mandatory attributes
  that should be provided by vendor driver.

* [<type-id>]

  The [<type-id>] name is created by adding the the device driver string as a
  prefix to the string provided by the vendor driver. This format of this name
  is as follows:

	sprintf(buf, "%s-%s", dev_driver_string(parent->dev), group->name);

* device_api

  This attribute should show which device API is being created, for example,
  "vfio-pci" for a PCI device.

* available_instances

  This attribute should show the number of devices of type <type-id> that can be
  created.

* [device]

  This directory contains links to the devices of type <type-id> that have been
created.

* name

  This attribute should show human readable name. This is optional attribute.

* description

  This attribute should show brief features/description of the type. This is
  optional attribute.

Directories and Files Under the sysfs for Each mdev Device
----------------------------------------------------------

|- [parent phy device]
|--- [$MDEV_UUID]
         |--- remove
         |--- mdev_type {link to its type}
         |--- vendor-specific-attributes [optional]

* remove (write only)
Writing '1' to the 'remove' file destroys the mdev device. The vendor driver can
fail the remove() callback if that device is active and the vendor driver
doesn't support hot unplug.

Example:
	# echo 1 > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/$mdev_UUID/remove

Mediated device Hot plug:
------------------------

Mediated devices can be created and assigned at runtime. The procedure to hot
plug a mediated device is the same as the procedure to hot plug a PCI device.

Translation APIs for Mediated Devices
=====================================

The following APIs are provided for translating user pfn to host pfn in a VFIO
driver:

extern int vfio_pin_pages(struct device *dev, unsigned long *user_pfn,
                          int npage, int prot, unsigned long *phys_pfn);

extern int vfio_unpin_pages(struct device *dev, unsigned long *user_pfn,
                            int npage);

These functions call back into the back-end IOMMU module by using the pin_pages
and unpin_pages callbacks of the struct vfio_iommu_driver_ops[4]. Currently
these callbacks are supported in the TYPE1 IOMMU module. To enable them for
other IOMMU backend modules, such as PPC64 sPAPR module, they need to provide
these two callback functions.

Using the Sample Code
=====================

mtty.c in samples/vfio-mdev/ directory is a sample driver program to
demonstrate how to use the mediated device framework.

The sample driver creates an mdev device that simulates a serial port over a PCI
card.

1. Build and load the mtty.ko module.

   This step creates a dummy device, /sys/devices/virtual/mtty/mtty/

   Files in this device directory in sysfs are similar to the following:

   # tree /sys/devices/virtual/mtty/mtty/
      /sys/devices/virtual/mtty/mtty/
      |-- mdev_supported_types
      |   |-- mtty-1
      |   |   |-- available_instances
      |   |   |-- create
      |   |   |-- device_api
      |   |   |-- devices
      |   |   `-- name
      |   `-- mtty-2
      |       |-- available_instances
      |       |-- create
      |       |-- device_api
      |       |-- devices
      |       `-- name
      |-- mtty_dev
      |   `-- sample_mtty_dev
      |-- power
      |   |-- autosuspend_delay_ms
      |   |-- control
      |   |-- runtime_active_time
      |   |-- runtime_status
      |   `-- runtime_suspended_time
      |-- subsystem -> ../../../../class/mtty
      `-- uevent

2. Create a mediated device by using the dummy device that you created in the
   previous step.

   # echo "83b8f4f2-509f-382f-3c1e-e6bfe0fa1001" >	\
              /sys/devices/virtual/mtty/mtty/mdev_supported_types/mtty-2/create

3. Add parameters to qemu-kvm.

   -device vfio-pci,\
    sysfsdev=/sys/bus/mdev/devices/83b8f4f2-509f-382f-3c1e-e6bfe0fa1001

4. Boot the VM.

   In the Linux guest VM, with no hardware on the host, the device appears
   as  follows:

   # lspci -s 00:05.0 -xxvv
   00:05.0 Serial controller: Device 4348:3253 (rev 10) (prog-if 02 [16550])
           Subsystem: Device 4348:3253
           Physical Slot: 5
           Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
   Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
           Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
   <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
           Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
           Region 0: I/O ports at c150 [size=8]
           Region 1: I/O ports at c158 [size=8]
           Kernel driver in use: serial
   00: 48 43 53 32 01 00 00 02 10 02 00 07 00 00 00 00
   10: 51 c1 00 00 59 c1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
   20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 48 43 53 32
   30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0a 01 00 00

   In the Linux guest VM, dmesg output for the device is as follows:

   serial 0000:00:05.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKA] -> GSI 10 (level, high) -> IRQ
10
   0000:00:05.0: ttyS1 at I/O 0xc150 (irq = 10) is a 16550A
   0000:00:05.0: ttyS2 at I/O 0xc158 (irq = 10) is a 16550A


5. In the Linux guest VM, check the serial ports.

   # setserial -g /dev/ttyS*
   /dev/ttyS0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
   /dev/ttyS1, UART: 16550A, Port: 0xc150, IRQ: 10
   /dev/ttyS2, UART: 16550A, Port: 0xc158, IRQ: 10

6. Using a minicom or any terminal enulation program, open port /dev/ttyS1 or
   /dev/ttyS2 with hardware flow control disabled.

7. Type data on the minicom terminal or send data to the terminal emulation
   program and read the data.

   Data is loop backed from hosts mtty driver.

8. Destroy the mediated device that you created.

   # echo 1 > /sys/bus/mdev/devices/83b8f4f2-509f-382f-3c1e-e6bfe0fa1001/remove

References
==========

[1] See Documentation/vfio.txt for more information on VFIO.
[2] struct mdev_driver in include/linux/mdev.h
[3] struct mdev_parent_ops in include/linux/mdev.h
[4] struct vfio_iommu_driver_ops in include/linux/vfio.h