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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
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| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/virt/hyperv/overview.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Fix error output of boot instance creation failure
Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
strsep(). Print the saved name instead.
While at it, print the error code of the failure.
- Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams
Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
histogram and crash the kernel.
Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
data.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test
The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
returned.
- Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size
If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
buffer sub-buffer size.
- Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory
In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.
Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
upon creation.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code
The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.
- Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure
On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
using it.
In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
not free the parent's descriptor.
- Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
failed replacement leaves it at -1.
But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.
- Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error
Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/virt/hyperv/overview.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/virt/hyperv/overview.rst | 207 |
1 files changed, 207 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/virt/hyperv/overview.rst b/Documentation/virt/hyperv/overview.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..77408a89d --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/virt/hyperv/overview.rst @@ -0,0 +1,207 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +Overview +======== +The Linux kernel contains a variety of code for running as a fully +enlightened guest on Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. Hyper-V +consists primarily of a bare-metal hypervisor plus a virtual machine +management service running in the parent partition (roughly +equivalent to KVM and QEMU, for example). Guest VMs run in child +partitions. In this documentation, references to Hyper-V usually +encompass both the hypervisor and the VMM service without making a +distinction about which functionality is provided by which +component. + +Hyper-V runs on x86/x64 and arm64 architectures, and Linux guests +are supported on both. The functionality and behavior of Hyper-V is +generally the same on both architectures unless noted otherwise. + +Linux Guest Communication with Hyper-V +-------------------------------------- +Linux guests communicate with Hyper-V in four different ways: + +* Implicit traps: As defined by the x86/x64 or arm64 architecture, + some guest actions trap to Hyper-V. Hyper-V emulates the action and + returns control to the guest. This behavior is generally invisible + to the Linux kernel. + +* Explicit hypercalls: Linux makes an explicit function call to + Hyper-V, passing parameters. Hyper-V performs the requested action + and returns control to the caller. Parameters are passed in + processor registers or in memory shared between the Linux guest and + Hyper-V. On x86/x64, hypercalls use a Hyper-V specific calling + sequence. On arm64, hypercalls use the ARM standard SMCCC calling + sequence. + +* Synthetic register access: Hyper-V implements a variety of + synthetic registers. On x86/x64 these registers appear as MSRs in + the guest, and the Linux kernel can read or write these MSRs using + the normal mechanisms defined by the x86/x64 architecture. On + arm64, these synthetic registers must be accessed using explicit + hypercalls. + +* VMBus: VMBus is a higher-level software construct that is built on + the other 3 mechanisms. It is a message passing interface between + the Hyper-V host and the Linux guest. It uses memory that is shared + between Hyper-V and the guest, along with various signaling + mechanisms. + +The first three communication mechanisms are documented in the +`Hyper-V Top Level Functional Spec (TLFS)`_. The TLFS describes +general Hyper-V functionality and provides details on the hypercalls +and synthetic registers. The TLFS is currently written for the +x86/x64 architecture only. + +.. _Hyper-V Top Level Functional Spec (TLFS): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/tlfs/tlfs + +VMBus is not documented. This documentation provides a high-level +overview of VMBus and how it works, but the details can be discerned +only from the code. + +Sharing Memory +-------------- +Many aspects are communication between Hyper-V and Linux are based +on sharing memory. Such sharing is generally accomplished as +follows: + +* Linux allocates memory from its physical address space using + standard Linux mechanisms. + +* Linux tells Hyper-V the guest physical address (GPA) of the + allocated memory. Many shared areas are kept to 1 page so that a + single GPA is sufficient. Larger shared areas require a list of + GPAs, which usually do not need to be contiguous in the guest + physical address space. How Hyper-V is told about the GPA or list + of GPAs varies. In some cases, a single GPA is written to a + synthetic register. In other cases, a GPA or list of GPAs is sent + in a VMBus message. + +* Hyper-V translates the GPAs into "real" physical memory addresses, + and creates a virtual mapping that it can use to access the memory. + +* Linux can later revoke sharing it has previously established by + telling Hyper-V to set the shared GPA to zero. + +Hyper-V operates with a page size of 4 Kbytes. GPAs communicated to +Hyper-V may be in the form of page numbers, and always describe a +range of 4 Kbytes. Since the Linux guest page size on x86/x64 is +also 4 Kbytes, the mapping from guest page to Hyper-V page is 1-to-1. +On arm64, Hyper-V supports guests with 4/16/64 Kbyte pages as +defined by the arm64 architecture. If Linux is using 16 or 64 +Kbyte pages, Linux code must be careful to communicate with Hyper-V +only in terms of 4 Kbyte pages. HV_HYP_PAGE_SIZE and related macros +are used in code that communicates with Hyper-V so that it works +correctly in all configurations. + +As described in the TLFS, a few memory pages shared between Hyper-V +and the Linux guest are "overlay" pages. With overlay pages, Linux +uses the usual approach of allocating guest memory and telling +Hyper-V the GPA of the allocated memory. But Hyper-V then replaces +that physical memory page with a page it has allocated, and the +original physical memory page is no longer accessible in the guest +VM. Linux may access the memory normally as if it were the memory +that it originally allocated. The "overlay" behavior is visible +only because the contents of the page (as seen by Linux) change at +the time that Linux originally establishes the sharing and the +overlay page is inserted. Similarly, the contents change if Linux +revokes the sharing, in which case Hyper-V removes the overlay page, +and the guest page originally allocated by Linux becomes visible +again. + +Before Linux does a kexec to a kdump kernel or any other kernel, +memory shared with Hyper-V should be revoked. Hyper-V could modify +a shared page or remove an overlay page after the new kernel is +using the page for a different purpose, corrupting the new kernel. +Hyper-V does not provide a single "set everything" operation to +guest VMs, so Linux code must individually revoke all sharing before +doing kexec. See hv_kexec_handler() and hv_crash_handler(). But +the crash/panic path still has holes in cleanup because some shared +pages are set using per-CPU synthetic registers and there's no +mechanism to revoke the shared pages for CPUs other than the CPU +running the panic path. + +CPU Management +-------------- +Hyper-V does not have a ability to hot-add or hot-remove a CPU +from a running VM. However, Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V and +earlier versions may provide guests with ACPI tables that indicate +more CPUs than are actually present in the VM. As is normal, Linux +treats these additional CPUs as potential hot-add CPUs, and reports +them as such even though Hyper-V will never actually hot-add them. +Starting in Windows Server 2022 Hyper-V, the ACPI tables reflect +only the CPUs actually present in the VM, so Linux does not report +any hot-add CPUs. + +A Linux guest CPU may be taken offline using the normal Linux +mechanisms, provided no VMBus channel interrupts are assigned to +the CPU. See the section on VMBus Interrupts for more details +on how VMBus channel interrupts can be re-assigned to permit +taking a CPU offline. + +32-bit and 64-bit +----------------- +On x86/x64, Hyper-V supports 32-bit and 64-bit guests, and Linux +will build and run in either version. While the 32-bit version is +expected to work, it is used rarely and may suffer from undetected +regressions. + +On arm64, Hyper-V supports only 64-bit guests. + +Endian-ness +----------- +All communication between Hyper-V and guest VMs uses Little-Endian +format on both x86/x64 and arm64. Big-endian format on arm64 is not +supported by Hyper-V, and Linux code does not use endian-ness macros +when accessing data shared with Hyper-V. + +Versioning +---------- +Current Linux kernels operate correctly with older versions of +Hyper-V back to Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. Support for running +on the original Hyper-V release in Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 +has been removed. + +A Linux guest on Hyper-V outputs in dmesg the version of Hyper-V +it is running on. This version is in the form of a Windows build +number and is for display purposes only. Linux code does not +test this version number at runtime to determine available features +and functionality. Hyper-V indicates feature/function availability +via flags in synthetic MSRs that Hyper-V provides to the guest, +and the guest code tests these flags. + +VMBus has its own protocol version that is negotiated during the +initial VMBus connection from the guest to Hyper-V. This version +number is also output to dmesg during boot. This version number +is checked in a few places in the code to determine if specific +functionality is present. + +Furthermore, each synthetic device on VMBus also has a protocol +version that is separate from the VMBus protocol version. Device +drivers for these synthetic devices typically negotiate the device +protocol version, and may test that protocol version to determine +if specific device functionality is present. + +Code Packaging +-------------- +Hyper-V related code appears in the Linux kernel code tree in three +main areas: + +1. drivers/hv + +2. arch/x86/hyperv and arch/arm64/hyperv + +3. individual device driver areas such as drivers/scsi, drivers/net, + drivers/clocksource, etc. + +A few miscellaneous files appear elsewhere. See the full list under +"Hyper-V/Azure CORE AND DRIVERS" and "DRM DRIVER FOR HYPERV +SYNTHETIC VIDEO DEVICE" in the MAINTAINERS file. + +The code in #1 and #2 is built only when CONFIG_HYPERV is set. +Similarly, the code for most Hyper-V related drivers is built only +when CONFIG_HYPERV is set. + +Most Hyper-V related code in #1 and #3 can be built as a module. +The architecture specific code in #2 must be built-in. Also, +drivers/hv/hv_common.c is low-level code that is common across +architectures and must be built-in. |
