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Date:      Thu, 16 Aug 2018 09:28:05 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd-rwg@pdx.rh.CN85.dnsmgr.net>
To:        "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd-rwg@pdx.rh.CN85.dnsmgr.net>
Cc:        Matt Churchyard <matt.churchyard@userve.net>, "freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org" <freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Checking bhyve supported features (sysctls)
Message-ID:  <201808161628.w7GGS52P054505@pdx.rh.CN85.dnsmgr.net>
In-Reply-To: <201808161613.w7GGDaNB054438@pdx.rh.CN85.dnsmgr.net>

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> 
> Text manually wrapped to 80, any broken quoting is my fault - rwg
> 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > I'm looking for better ways to check for  bhyve support / available
> > > features without trying to scan through dmesg output.
> > 
> > >Yes, it would be very good to remove that, as it usually tries
> > >to grep a non-existent file /var/run/dmesg.boot that is not
> > >created until after vm_bhyve has been called from /usr/local/etc/rc.d
> > >when you have things set to autostartup >in /etc/rc.conf
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > I notice that the following 2 sysctl's appear to be set to 1 as soon 
> > > as the vmm module is loaded
> > > 
> > > hw.vmm.vmx.initialized: 1
> > > hw.vmm.vmx.cap.unrestricted_guest: 1
> > > 
> > > Will these be available on both Intel & AMD processors as a way
> > > to determine if the module has loaded successfully and can run guests?
> > > 
> > > I also see the below sysctl related to iommu.
> > > 
> > > hw.vmm.iommu.initialized
> > > 
> > > Again, will this be set to 1 as soon as the module is loaded if
> > > iommu is supported, or only when it is used?
> > > There also seems to be a vmm.amdvi.enable sysctl.
> > > Would both these need checking or is vmm.iommu enough to
> > > determine support on any processor.
> > 
> > >Probalby the safest way for a shell script to decide if bhyve is
> > >up and running is to stat /dev/vmm, if that exists then the modules
> > >have loaded and initialized and bhyve should be ready to process guests.
> > 
> > Hmm, I don't get /dev/vmm unless I actually have running guests.
> 
> I'll investigate that, I was pretty sure that you should get this
> as soon as the vmm.ko module is finished initialzing, but you might
> be right in that it takes a first vm to cause its creation.
> Confirmed, /dev/vmm does not exist until the first vm
> is created.
> 
> > 
> > >sysctl's mentiond above would be a poor way to make this determination.
> > 
> > It would be nice if sysctls were better documented.
> 
> Agreed.
> 
> > If vmx.initialized is set once vmm has successfully loaded, I can't see a better way of checking for bhyve support (assuming it's not Intel specific). This entry definitely exists and is set to 0 if you load the module on a non-supported system, and set to 1 as soon as vmm loads on my Intel test system.
> 
> Given its undocumented status you would be relying on an
> undocumented feature that could change in either name or
> behavior, and that is not desirable.
> 
> Let me see if I can come up with something else.

I looked at the code for bhyvectl, bhyveload and
byhve.  They do not actually try to decide if vmm
is supported or not, they simply process the error
from a vm_create() or vm_open() call and exit
with an error code if they can not handle it
(some of the code can handle a vm_create failure
if infact we are trying to create a vm that
already exists).

If you want to maintain full compatibility a similiar
stratergy may be in order.

Why is it that vm-bhyve specifically needs to know
if the kernel has vmm support or not?
Cant it just be written to handle the errors returned
if the supported functions do not exist?


-- 
Rod Grimes                                                 rgrimes@freebsd.org



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