Adjunct Processor (AP) facility

Introduction

The Adjunct Processor (AP) facility is an IBM Z cryptographic facility comprised of three AP instructions and from 1 up to 256 PCIe cryptographic adapter cards. The AP devices provide cryptographic functions to all CPUs assigned to a linux system running in an IBM Z system LPAR.

The AP adapter cards are exposed via the AP bus. The motivation for vfio-ap is to make AP cards available to KVM guests using the VFIO mediated device framework. This implementation relies considerably on the s390 virtualization facilities which do most of the hard work of providing direct access to AP devices.

AP Architectural Overview

To facilitate the comprehension of the design, let’s start with some definitions:

  • AP adapter

    An AP adapter is an IBM Z adapter card that can perform cryptographic functions. There can be from 0 to 256 adapters assigned to an LPAR. Adapters assigned to the LPAR in which a linux host is running will be available to the linux host. Each adapter is identified by a number from 0 to 255; however, the maximum adapter number is determined by machine model and/or adapter type. When installed, an AP adapter is accessed by AP instructions executed by any CPU.

    The AP adapter cards are assigned to a given LPAR via the system’s Activation Profile which can be edited via the HMC. When the linux host system is IPL’d in the LPAR, the AP bus detects the AP adapter cards assigned to the LPAR and creates a sysfs device for each assigned adapter. For example, if AP adapters 4 and 10 (0x0a) are assigned to the LPAR, the AP bus will create the following sysfs device entries:

    /sys/devices/ap/card04
/sys/devices/ap/card0a

    Symbolic links to these devices will also be created in the AP bus devices sub-directory:

    /sys/bus/ap/devices/[card04]
/sys/bus/ap/devices/[card04]

  • AP domain

    An adapter is partitioned into domains. An adapter can hold up to 256 domains depending upon the adapter type and hardware configuration. A domain is identified by a number from 0 to 255; however, the maximum domain number is determined by machine model and/or adapter type.. A domain can be thought of as a set of hardware registers and memory used for processing AP commands. A domain can be configured with a secure private key used for clear key encryption. A domain is classified in one of two ways depending upon how it may be accessed:

    • Usage domains are domains that are targeted by an AP instruction to process an AP command.

    • Control domains are domains that are changed by an AP command sent to a usage domain; for example, to set the secure private key for the control domain.

    The AP usage and control domains are assigned to a given LPAR via the system’s Activation Profile which can be edited via the HMC. When a linux host system is IPL’d in the LPAR, the AP bus module detects the AP usage and control domains assigned to the LPAR. The domain number of each usage domain and adapter number of each AP adapter are combined to create AP queue devices (see AP Queue section below). The domain number of each control domain will be represented in a bitmask and stored in a sysfs file /sys/bus/ap/ap_control_domain_mask. The bits in the mask, from most to least significant bit, correspond to domains 0-255.

  • AP Queue

    An AP queue is the means by which an AP command is sent to a usage domain inside a specific adapter. An AP queue is identified by a tuple comprised of an AP adapter ID (APID) and an AP queue index (APQI). The APQI corresponds to a given usage domain number within the adapter. This tuple forms an AP Queue Number (APQN) uniquely identifying an AP queue. AP instructions include a field containing the APQN to identify the AP queue to which the AP command is to be sent for processing.

    The AP bus will create a sysfs device for each APQN that can be derived from the cross product of the AP adapter and usage domain numbers detected when the AP bus module is loaded. For example, if adapters 4 and 10 (0x0a) and usage domains 6 and 71 (0x47) are assigned to the LPAR, the AP bus will create the following sysfs entries:

    /sys/devices/ap/card04/04.0006
/sys/devices/ap/card04/04.0047
/sys/devices/ap/card0a/0a.0006
/sys/devices/ap/card0a/0a.0047

    The following symbolic links to these devices will be created in the AP bus devices subdirectory:

    /sys/bus/ap/devices/[04.0006]
/sys/bus/ap/devices/[04.0047]
/sys/bus/ap/devices/[0a.0006]
/sys/bus/ap/devices/[0a.0047]

  • AP Instructions:

    There are three AP instructions:

    • NQAP: to enqueue an AP command-request message to a queue

    • DQAP: to dequeue an AP command-reply message from a queue

    • PQAP: to administer the queues

    AP instructions identify the domain that is targeted to process the AP command; this must be one of the usage domains. An AP command may modify a domain that is not one of the usage domains, but the modified domain must be one of the control domains.

AP and SIE

Let’s now take a look at how AP instructions executed on a guest are interpreted by the hardware.

A satellite control block called the Crypto Control Block (CRYCB) is attached to our main hardware virtualization control block. The CRYCB contains an AP Control Block (APCB) that has three fields to identify the adapters, usage domains and control domains assigned to the KVM guest:

  • The AP Mask (APM) field is a bit mask that identifies the AP adapters assigned to the KVM guest. Each bit in the mask, from left to right, corresponds to an APID from 0-255. If a bit is set, the corresponding adapter is valid for use by the KVM guest.

  • The AP Queue Mask (AQM) field is a bit mask identifying the AP usage domains assigned to the KVM guest. Each bit in the mask, from left to right, corresponds to an AP queue index (APQI) from 0-255. If a bit is set, the corresponding queue is valid for use by the KVM guest.

  • The AP Domain Mask field is a bit mask that identifies the AP control domains assigned to the KVM guest. The ADM bit mask controls which domains can be changed by an AP command-request message sent to a usage domain from the guest. Each bit in the mask, from left to right, corresponds to a domain from 0-255. If a bit is set, the corresponding domain can be modified by an AP command-request message sent to a usage domain.

If you recall from the description of an AP Queue, AP instructions include an APQN to identify the AP queue to which an AP command-request message is to be sent (NQAP and PQAP instructions), or from which a command-reply message is to be received (DQAP instruction). The validity of an APQN is defined by the matrix calculated from the APM and AQM; it is the Cartesian product of all assigned adapter numbers (APM) with all assigned queue indexes (AQM). For example, if adapters 1 and 2 and usage domains 5 and 6 are assigned to a guest, the APQNs (1,5), (1,6), (2,5) and (2,6) will be valid for the guest.

The APQNs can provide secure key functionality - i.e., a private key is stored on the adapter card for each of its domains - so each APQN must be assigned to at most one guest or to the linux host:

Example 1: Valid configuration:
------------------------------
Guest1: adapters 1,2  domains 5,6
Guest2: adapter  1,2  domain 7

This is valid because both guests have a unique set of APQNs:
   Guest1 has APQNs (1,5), (1,6), (2,5), (2,6);
   Guest2 has APQNs (1,7), (2,7)

Example 2: Valid configuration:
------------------------------
Guest1: adapters 1,2 domains 5,6
Guest2: adapters 3,4 domains 5,6

This is also valid because both guests have a unique set of APQNs:
   Guest1 has APQNs (1,5), (1,6), (2,5), (2,6);
   Guest2 has APQNs (3,5), (3,6), (4,5), (4,6)

Example 3: Invalid configuration:
--------------------------------
Guest1: adapters 1,2  domains 5,6
Guest2: adapter  1    domains 6,7

This is an invalid configuration because both guests have access to
APQN (1,6).

The Design

The design introduces three new objects:

  1. AP matrix device

  2. VFIO AP device driver (vfio_ap.ko)

  3. VFIO AP mediated pass-through device

The VFIO AP device driver

The VFIO AP (vfio_ap) device driver serves the following purposes:

  1. Provides the interfaces to secure APQNs for exclusive use of KVM guests.

  2. Sets up the VFIO mediated device interfaces to manage a vfio_ap mediated device and creates the sysfs interfaces for assigning adapters, usage domains, and control domains comprising the matrix for a KVM guest.

  3. Configures the APM, AQM and ADM in the APCB contained in the CRYCB referenced by a KVM guest’s SIE state description to grant the guest access to a matrix of AP devices

Reserve APQNs for exclusive use of KVM guests

The following block diagram illustrates the mechanism by which APQNs are reserved:

                              +------------------+
               7 remove       |                  |
         +--------------------> cex4queue driver |
         |                    |                  |
         |                    +------------------+
         |
         |
         |                    +------------------+          +----------------+
         |  5 register driver |                  | 3 create |                |
         |   +---------------->   Device core    +---------->  matrix device |
         |   |                |                  |          |                |
         |   |                +--------^---------+          +----------------+
         |   |                         |
         |   |                         +-------------------+
         |   | +-----------------------------------+       |
         |   | |      4 register AP driver         |       | 2 register device
         |   | |                                   |       |
+--------+---+-v---+                      +--------+-------+-+
|                  |                      |                  |
|      ap_bus      +--------------------- >  vfio_ap driver  |
|                  |       8 probe        |                  |
+--------^---------+                      +--^--^------------+
6 edit   |                                   |  |
  apmask |     +-----------------------------+  | 11 mdev create
  aqmask |     |           1 modprobe           |
+--------+-----+---+           +----------------+-+         +----------------+
|                  |           |                  |10 create|     mediated   |
|      admin       |           | VFIO device core |--------->     matrix     |
|                  +           |                  |         |     device     |
+------+-+---------+           +--------^---------+         +--------^-------+
       | |                              |                            |
       | | 9 create vfio_ap-passthrough |                            |
       | +------------------------------+                            |
       +-------------------------------------------------------------+
                   12  assign adapter/domain/control domain

The process for reserving an AP queue for use by a KVM guest is:

  1. The administrator loads the vfio_ap device driver

  2. The vfio-ap driver during its initialization will register a single ‘matrix’ device with the device core. This will serve as the parent device for all vfio_ap mediated devices used to configure an AP matrix for a guest.

  3. The /sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix device is created by the device core

  4. The vfio_ap device driver will register with the AP bus for AP queue devices of type 10 and higher (CEX4 and newer). The driver will provide the vfio_ap driver’s probe and remove callback interfaces. Devices older than CEX4 queues are not supported to simplify the implementation by not needlessly complicating the design by supporting older devices that will go out of service in the relatively near future, and for which there are few older systems around on which to test.

  5. The AP bus registers the vfio_ap device driver with the device core

  6. The administrator edits the AP adapter and queue masks to reserve AP queues for use by the vfio_ap device driver.

  7. The AP bus removes the AP queues reserved for the vfio_ap driver from the default zcrypt cex4queue driver.

  8. The AP bus probes the vfio_ap device driver to bind the queues reserved for it.

  9. The administrator creates a passthrough type vfio_ap mediated device to be used by a guest

  10. The administrator assigns the adapters, usage domains and control domains to be exclusively used by a guest.

Set up the VFIO mediated device interfaces

The VFIO AP device driver utilizes the common interfaces of the VFIO mediated device core driver to:

  • Register an AP mediated bus driver to add a vfio_ap mediated device to and remove it from a VFIO group.

  • Create and destroy a vfio_ap mediated device

  • Add a vfio_ap mediated device to and remove it from the AP mediated bus driver

  • Add a vfio_ap mediated device to and remove it from an IOMMU group

The following high-level block diagram shows the main components and interfaces of the VFIO AP mediated device driver:

+-------------+
|             |
| +---------+ | mdev_register_driver() +--------------+
| |  Mdev   | +<-----------------------+              |
| |  bus    | |                        | vfio_mdev.ko |
| | driver  | +----------------------->+              |<-> VFIO user
| +---------+ |    probe()/remove()    +--------------+    APIs
|             |
|  MDEV CORE  |
|   MODULE    |
|   mdev.ko   |
| +---------+ | mdev_register_parent() +--------------+
| |Physical | +<-----------------------+              |
| | device  | |                        |  vfio_ap.ko  |<-> matrix
| |interface| +----------------------->+              |    device
| +---------+ |       callback         +--------------+
+-------------+

During initialization of the vfio_ap module, the matrix device is registered with an ‘mdev_parent_ops’ structure that provides the sysfs attribute structures, mdev functions and callback interfaces for managing the mediated matrix device.

  • sysfs attribute structures:

    supported_type_groups

    The VFIO mediated device framework supports creation of user-defined mediated device types. These mediated device types are specified via the ‘supported_type_groups’ structure when a device is registered with the mediated device framework. The registration process creates the sysfs structures for each mediated device type specified in the ‘mdev_supported_types’ sub-directory of the device being registered. Along with the device type, the sysfs attributes of the mediated device type are provided.

    The VFIO AP device driver will register one mediated device type for passthrough devices:

    /sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/mdev_supported_types/vfio_ap-passthrough

    Only the read-only attributes required by the VFIO mdev framework will be provided:

    ... name
... device_api
... available_instances
... device_api

    Where:

    • name:

      specifies the name of the mediated device type

    • device_api:

      the mediated device type’s API

    • available_instances:

      the number of vfio_ap mediated passthrough devices that can be created

    • device_api:

      specifies the VFIO API

    mdev_attr_groups

    This attribute group identifies the user-defined sysfs attributes of the mediated device. When a device is registered with the VFIO mediated device framework, the sysfs attribute files identified in the ‘mdev_attr_groups’ structure will be created in the vfio_ap mediated device’s directory. The sysfs attributes for a vfio_ap mediated device are:

    assign_adapter / unassign_adapter:

    Write-only attributes for assigning/unassigning an AP adapter to/from the vfio_ap mediated device. To assign/unassign an adapter, the APID of the adapter is echoed into the respective attribute file.

    assign_domain / unassign_domain:

    Write-only attributes for assigning/unassigning an AP usage domain to/from the vfio_ap mediated device. To assign/unassign a domain, the domain number of the usage domain is echoed into the respective attribute file.

    matrix:

    A read-only file for displaying the APQNs derived from the Cartesian product of the adapter and domain numbers assigned to the vfio_ap mediated device.

    guest_matrix:

    A read-only file for displaying the APQNs derived from the Cartesian product of the adapter and domain numbers assigned to the APM and AQM fields respectively of the KVM guest’s CRYCB. This may differ from the the APQNs assigned to the vfio_ap mediated device if any APQN does not reference a queue device bound to the vfio_ap device driver (i.e., the queue is not in the host’s AP configuration).

    assign_control_domain / unassign_control_domain:

    Write-only attributes for assigning/unassigning an AP control domain to/from the vfio_ap mediated device. To assign/unassign a control domain, the ID of the domain to be assigned/unassigned is echoed into the respective attribute file.

    control_domains:

    A read-only file for displaying the control domain numbers assigned to the vfio_ap mediated device.

    ap_config:

    A read/write file that, when written to, allows all three of the vfio_ap mediated device’s ap matrix masks to be replaced in one shot. Three masks are given, one for adapters, one for domains, and one for control domains. If the given state cannot be set then no changes are made to the vfio-ap mediated device.

    The format of the data written to ap_config is as follows: {amask},{dmask},{cmask}n

    n is a newline character.

    amask, dmask, and cmask are masks identifying which adapters, domains, and control domains should be assigned to the mediated device.

    The format of a mask is as follows: 0xNN..NN

    Where NN..NN is 64 hexadecimal characters representing a 256-bit value. The leftmost (highest order) bit represents adapter/domain 0.

    For an example set of masks that represent your mdev’s current configuration, simply cat ap_config.

    Setting an adapter or domain number greater than the maximum allowed for the system will result in an error.

    This attribute is intended to be used by automation. End users would be better served using the respective assign/unassign attributes for adapters, domains, and control domains.

  • functions:

    create:

    allocates the ap_matrix_mdev structure used by the vfio_ap driver to:

    • Store the reference to the KVM structure for the guest using the mdev

    • Store the AP matrix configuration for the adapters, domains, and control domains assigned via the corresponding sysfs attributes files

    • Store the AP matrix configuration for the adapters, domains and control domains available to a guest. A guest may not be provided access to APQNs referencing queue devices that do not exist, or are not bound to the vfio_ap device driver.

    remove:

    deallocates the vfio_ap mediated device’s ap_matrix_mdev structure. This will be allowed only if a running guest is not using the mdev.

  • callback interfaces

    open_device:

    The vfio_ap driver uses this callback to register a VFIO_GROUP_NOTIFY_SET_KVM notifier callback function for the matrix mdev devices. The open_device callback is invoked by userspace to connect the VFIO iommu group for the matrix mdev device to the MDEV bus. Access to the KVM structure used to configure the KVM guest is provided via this callback. The KVM structure, is used to configure the guest’s access to the AP matrix defined via the vfio_ap mediated device’s sysfs attribute files.

    close_device:

    unregisters the VFIO_GROUP_NOTIFY_SET_KVM notifier callback function for the matrix mdev device and deconfigures the guest’s AP matrix.

    ioctl:

    this callback handles the VFIO_DEVICE_GET_INFO and VFIO_DEVICE_RESET ioctls defined by the vfio framework.

Configure the guest’s AP resources

Configuring the AP resources for a KVM guest will be performed when the VFIO_GROUP_NOTIFY_SET_KVM notifier callback is invoked. The notifier function is called when userspace connects to KVM. The guest’s AP resources are configured via its APCB by:

  • Setting the bits in the APM corresponding to the APIDs assigned to the vfio_ap mediated device via its ‘assign_adapter’ interface.

  • Setting the bits in the AQM corresponding to the domains assigned to the vfio_ap mediated device via its ‘assign_domain’ interface.

  • Setting the bits in the ADM corresponding to the domain dIDs assigned to the vfio_ap mediated device via its ‘assign_control_domains’ interface.

The linux device model precludes passing a device through to a KVM guest that is not bound to the device driver facilitating its pass-through. Consequently, an APQN that does not reference a queue device bound to the vfio_ap device driver will not be assigned to a KVM guest’s matrix. The AP architecture, however, does not provide a means to filter individual APQNs from the guest’s matrix, so the adapters, domains and control domains assigned to vfio_ap mediated device via its sysfs ‘assign_adapter’, ‘assign_domain’ and ‘assign_control_domain’ interfaces will be filtered before providing the AP configuration to a guest:

  • The APIDs of the adapters, the APQIs of the domains and the domain numbers of the control domains assigned to the matrix mdev that are not also assigned to the host’s AP configuration will be filtered.

  • Each APQN derived from the Cartesian product of the APIDs and APQIs assigned to the vfio_ap mdev is examined and if any one of them does not reference a queue device bound to the vfio_ap device driver, the adapter will not be plugged into the guest (i.e., the bit corresponding to its APID will not be set in the APM of the guest’s APCB).

The CPU model features for AP

The AP stack relies on the presence of the AP instructions as well as three facilities: The AP Facilities Test (APFT) facility; the AP Query Configuration Information (QCI) facility; and the AP Queue Interruption Control facility. These features/facilities are made available to a KVM guest via the following CPU model features:

  1. ap: Indicates whether the AP instructions are installed on the guest. This feature will be enabled by KVM only if the AP instructions are installed on the host.

  2. apft: Indicates the APFT facility is available on the guest. This facility can be made available to the guest only if it is available on the host (i.e., facility bit 15 is set).

  3. apqci: Indicates the AP QCI facility is available on the guest. This facility can be made available to the guest only if it is available on the host (i.e., facility bit 12 is set).

  4. apqi: Indicates AP Queue Interruption Control faclity is available on the guest. This facility can be made available to the guest only if it is available on the host (i.e., facility bit 65 is set).

Note: If the user chooses to specify a CPU model different than the ‘host’ model to QEMU, the CPU model features and facilities need to be turned on explicitly; for example:

/usr/bin/qemu-system-s390x ... -cpu z13,ap=on,apqci=on,apft=on,apqi=on

A guest can be precluded from using AP features/facilities by turning them off explicitly; for example:

/usr/bin/qemu-system-s390x ... -cpu host,ap=off,apqci=off,apft=off,apqi=off

Note: If the APFT facility is turned off (apft=off) for the guest, the guest will not see any AP devices. The zcrypt device drivers on the guest that register for type 10 and newer AP devices - i.e., the cex4card and cex4queue device drivers - need the APFT facility to ascertain the facilities installed on a given AP device. If the APFT facility is not installed on the guest, then no adapter or domain devices will get created by the AP bus running on the guest because only type 10 and newer devices can be configured for guest use.

Example

Let’s now provide an example to illustrate how KVM guests may be given access to AP facilities. For this example, we will show how to configure three guests such that executing the lszcrypt command on the guests would look like this:

Guest1

CARD.DOMAIN

TYPE

MODE

05

CEX5C

CCA-Coproc

05.0004

CEX5C

CCA-Coproc

05.00ab

CEX5C

CCA-Coproc

06

CEX5A

Accelerator

06.0004

CEX5A

Accelerator

06.00ab

CEX5A

Accelerator

Guest2

CARD.DOMAIN

TYPE

MODE

05

CEX5C

CCA-Coproc

05.0047

CEX5C

CCA-Coproc

05.00ff

CEX5C

CCA-Coproc

Guest3

CARD.DOMAIN

TYPE

MODE

06

CEX5A

Accelerator

06.0047

CEX5A

Accelerator

06.00ff

CEX5A

Accelerator

These are the steps:

  1. Install the vfio_ap module on the linux host. The dependency chain for the vfio_ap module is: * iommu * s390 * zcrypt * vfio * vfio_mdev * vfio_mdev_device * KVM

    To build the vfio_ap module, the kernel build must be configured with the following Kconfig elements selected: * IOMMU_SUPPORT * S390 * AP * VFIO * KVM

    If using make menuconfig select the following to build the vfio_ap module:

    -> Device Drivers
   -> IOMMU Hardware Support
      select S390 AP IOMMU Support
   -> VFIO Non-Privileged userspace driver framework
      -> Mediated device driver frramework
         -> VFIO driver for Mediated devices
-> I/O subsystem
   -> VFIO support for AP devices

  2. Secure the AP queues to be used by the three guests so that the host can not access them. To secure them, there are two sysfs files that specify bitmasks marking a subset of the APQN range as usable only by the default AP queue device drivers. All remaining APQNs are available for use by any other device driver. The vfio_ap device driver is currently the only non-default device driver. The location of the sysfs files containing the masks are:

    /sys/bus/ap/apmask
/sys/bus/ap/aqmask

    The ‘apmask’ is a 256-bit mask that identifies a set of AP adapter IDs (APID). Each bit in the mask, from left to right, corresponds to an APID from 0-255. If a bit is set, the APID belongs to the subset of APQNs marked as available only to the default AP queue device drivers.

    The ‘aqmask’ is a 256-bit mask that identifies a set of AP queue indexes (APQI). Each bit in the mask, from left to right, corresponds to an APQI from 0-255. If a bit is set, the APQI belongs to the subset of APQNs marked as available only to the default AP queue device drivers.

    The Cartesian product of the APIDs corresponding to the bits set in the apmask and the APQIs corresponding to the bits set in the aqmask comprise the subset of APQNs that can be used only by the host default device drivers. All other APQNs are available to the non-default device drivers such as the vfio_ap driver.

    Take, for example, the following masks:

    apmask:
0x7d00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

aqmask:
0x8000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

    The masks indicate:

    • Adapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are available for use by the host default device drivers.

    • Domain 0 is available for use by the host default device drivers

    • The subset of APQNs available for use only by the default host device drivers are:

      (1,0), (2,0), (3,0), (4.0), (5,0) and (7,0)

    • All other APQNs are available for use by the non-default device drivers.

    The APQN of each AP queue device assigned to the linux host is checked by the AP bus against the set of APQNs derived from the Cartesian product of APIDs and APQIs marked as available to the default AP queue device drivers. If a match is detected, only the default AP queue device drivers will be probed; otherwise, the vfio_ap device driver will be probed.

    By default, the two masks are set to reserve all APQNs for use by the default AP queue device drivers. There are two ways the default masks can be changed:

    1. The sysfs mask files can be edited by echoing a string into the respective sysfs mask file in one of two formats:

      • An absolute hex string starting with 0x - like “0x12345678” - sets the mask. If the given string is shorter than the mask, it is padded with 0s on the right; for example, specifying a mask value of 0x41 is the same as specifying:

        0x4100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

        Keep in mind that the mask reads from left to right, so the mask above identifies device numbers 1 and 7 (01000001).

        If the string is longer than the mask, the operation is terminated with an error (EINVAL).

      • Individual bits in the mask can be switched on and off by specifying each bit number to be switched in a comma separated list. Each bit number string must be prepended with a (‘+’) or minus (‘-’) to indicate the corresponding bit is to be switched on (‘+’) or off (‘-‘). Some valid values are:

        • “+0” switches bit 0 on

        • “-13” switches bit 13 off

        • “+0x41” switches bit 65 on

        • “-0xff” switches bit 255 off

        The following example:

        +0,-6,+0x47,-0xf0

        Switches bits 0 and 71 (0x47) on

        Switches bits 6 and 240 (0xf0) off

        Note that the bits not specified in the list remain as they were before the operation.

    2. The masks can also be changed at boot time via parameters on the kernel command line like this:

      ap.apmask=0xffff ap.aqmask=0x40

      This would create the following masks:

      apmask:
0xffff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

aqmask:
0x4000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

      Resulting in these two pools:

      default drivers pool:    adapter 0-15, domain 1
alternate drivers pool:  adapter 16-255, domains 0, 2-255

    Note: Changing a mask such that one or more APQNs will be taken from a vfio_ap mediated device (see below) will fail with an error (EBUSY). A message is logged to the kernel ring buffer which can be viewed with the ‘dmesg’ command. The output identifies each APQN flagged as ‘in use’ and identifies the vfio_ap mediated device to which it is assigned; for example:

    Userspace may not re-assign queue 05.0054 already assigned to 62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804 Userspace may not re-assign queue 04.0054 already assigned to cef03c3c-903d-4ecc-9a83-40694cb8aee4

Securing the APQNs for our example

To secure the AP queues 05.0004, 05.0047, 05.00ab, 05.00ff, 06.0004, 06.0047, 06.00ab, and 06.00ff for use by the vfio_ap device driver, the corresponding APQNs can be removed from the default masks using either of the following commands:

echo -5,-6 > /sys/bus/ap/apmask

echo -4,-0x47,-0xab,-0xff > /sys/bus/ap/aqmask

Or the masks can be set as follows:

echo 0xf9ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff \
> apmask

echo 0xf7fffffffffffffffeffffffffffffffffffffffffeffffffffffffffffffffe \
> aqmask

This will result in AP queues 05.0004, 05.0047, 05.00ab, 05.00ff, 06.0004, 06.0047, 06.00ab, and 06.00ff getting bound to the vfio_ap device driver. The sysfs directory for the vfio_ap device driver will now contain symbolic links to the AP queue devices bound to it:

/sys/bus/ap
... [drivers]
...... [vfio_ap]
......... [05.0004]
......... [05.0047]
......... [05.00ab]
......... [05.00ff]
......... [06.0004]
......... [06.0047]
......... [06.00ab]
......... [06.00ff]

Keep in mind that only type 10 and newer adapters (i.e., CEX4 and later) can be bound to the vfio_ap device driver. The reason for this is to simplify the implementation by not needlessly complicating the design by supporting older devices that will go out of service in the relatively near future and for which there are few older systems on which to test.

The administrator, therefore, must take care to secure only AP queues that can be bound to the vfio_ap device driver. The device type for a given AP queue device can be read from the parent card’s sysfs directory. For example, to see the hardware type of the queue 05.0004:

cat /sys/bus/ap/devices/card05/hwtype

The hwtype must be 10 or higher (CEX4 or newer) in order to be bound to the vfio_ap device driver.

  1. Create the mediated devices needed to configure the AP matrixes for the three guests and to provide an interface to the vfio_ap driver for use by the guests:

    /sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/
--- [mdev_supported_types]
------ [vfio_ap-passthrough] (passthrough vfio_ap mediated device type)
--------- create
--------- [devices]

    To create the mediated devices for the three guests:

    uuidgen > create
uuidgen > create
uuidgen > create

or

echo $uuid1 > create
echo $uuid2 > create
echo $uuid3 > create

    This will create three mediated devices in the [devices] subdirectory named after the UUID written to the create attribute file. We call them $uuid1, $uuid2 and $uuid3 and this is the sysfs directory structure after creation:

    /sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/
--- [mdev_supported_types]
------ [vfio_ap-passthrough]
--------- [devices]
------------ [$uuid1]
--------------- assign_adapter
--------------- assign_control_domain
--------------- assign_domain
--------------- matrix
--------------- unassign_adapter
--------------- unassign_control_domain
--------------- unassign_domain

------------ [$uuid2]
--------------- assign_adapter
--------------- assign_control_domain
--------------- assign_domain
--------------- matrix
--------------- unassign_adapter
----------------unassign_control_domain
----------------unassign_domain

------------ [$uuid3]
--------------- assign_adapter
--------------- assign_control_domain
--------------- assign_domain
--------------- matrix
--------------- unassign_adapter
----------------unassign_control_domain
----------------unassign_domain
    Note *: The vfio_ap mdevs do not persist across reboots unless the

    mdevctl tool is used to create and persist them.

  2. The administrator now needs to configure the matrixes for the mediated devices $uuid1 (for Guest1), $uuid2 (for Guest2) and $uuid3 (for Guest3).

    This is how the matrix is configured for Guest1:

    echo 5 > assign_adapter
echo 6 > assign_adapter
echo 4 > assign_domain
echo 0xab > assign_domain

    Control domains can similarly be assigned using the assign_control_domain sysfs file.

    If a mistake is made configuring an adapter, domain or control domain, you can use the unassign_xxx files to unassign the adapter, domain or control domain.

    To display the matrix configuration for Guest1:

    cat matrix

    To display the matrix that is or will be assigned to Guest1:

    cat guest_matrix

    This is how the matrix is configured for Guest2:

    echo 5 > assign_adapter
echo 0x47 > assign_domain
echo 0xff > assign_domain

    This is how the matrix is configured for Guest3:

    echo 6 > assign_adapter
echo 0x47 > assign_domain
echo 0xff > assign_domain

    In order to successfully assign an adapter:

    • The adapter number specified must represent a value from 0 up to the maximum adapter number configured for the system. If an adapter number higher than the maximum is specified, the operation will terminate with an error (ENODEV).

      Note: The maximum adapter number can be obtained via the sysfs

      /sys/bus/ap/ap_max_adapter_id attribute file.

    • Each APQN derived from the Cartesian product of the APID of the adapter being assigned and the APQIs of the domains previously assigned:

      • Must only be available to the vfio_ap device driver as specified in the sysfs /sys/bus/ap/apmask and /sys/bus/ap/aqmask attribute files. If even one APQN is reserved for use by the host device driver, the operation will terminate with an error (EADDRNOTAVAIL).

      • Must NOT be assigned to another vfio_ap mediated device. If even one APQN is assigned to another vfio_ap mediated device, the operation will terminate with an error (EBUSY).

      • Must NOT be assigned while the sysfs /sys/bus/ap/apmask and sys/bus/ap/aqmask attribute files are being edited or the operation may terminate with an error (EBUSY).

    In order to successfully assign a domain:

    • The domain number specified must represent a value from 0 up to the maximum domain number configured for the system. If a domain number higher than the maximum is specified, the operation will terminate with an error (ENODEV).

      Note: The maximum domain number can be obtained via the sysfs

      /sys/bus/ap/ap_max_domain_id attribute file.

    • Each APQN derived from the Cartesian product of the APQI of the domain being assigned and the APIDs of the adapters previously assigned:

    • Must only be available to the vfio_ap device driver as specified in the sysfs /sys/bus/ap/apmask and /sys/bus/ap/aqmask attribute files. If even one APQN is reserved for use by the host device driver, the operation will terminate with an error (EADDRNOTAVAIL).

    • Must NOT be assigned to another vfio_ap mediated device. If even one APQN is assigned to another vfio_ap mediated device, the operation will terminate with an error (EBUSY).

    • Must NOT be assigned while the sysfs /sys/bus/ap/apmask and sys/bus/ap/aqmask attribute files are being edited or the operation may terminate with an error (EBUSY).

    In order to successfully assign a control domain:

    • The domain number specified must represent a value from 0 up to the maximum domain number configured for the system. If a control domain number higher than the maximum is specified, the operation will terminate with an error (ENODEV).

  3. Start Guest1:

    /usr/bin/qemu-system-s390x ... -cpu host,ap=on,apqci=on,apft=on,apqi=on \
   -device vfio-ap,sysfsdev=/sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/$uuid1 ...

  1. Start Guest2:

    /usr/bin/qemu-system-s390x ... -cpu host,ap=on,apqci=on,apft=on,apqi=on \
   -device vfio-ap,sysfsdev=/sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/$uuid2 ...

  1. Start Guest3:

    /usr/bin/qemu-system-s390x ... -cpu host,ap=on,apqci=on,apft=on,apqi=on \
   -device vfio-ap,sysfsdev=/sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/$uuid3 ...

When the guest is shut down, the vfio_ap mediated devices may be removed.

Using our example again, to remove the vfio_ap mediated device $uuid1:

/sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/
   --- [mdev_supported_types]
   ------ [vfio_ap-passthrough]
   --------- [devices]
   ------------ [$uuid1]
   --------------- remove

echo 1 > remove

This will remove all of the matrix mdev device’s sysfs structures including the mdev device itself. To recreate and reconfigure the matrix mdev device, all of the steps starting with step 3 will have to be performed again. Note that the remove will fail if a guest using the vfio_ap mdev is still running.

It is not necessary to remove a vfio_ap mdev, but one may want to remove it if no guest will use it during the remaining lifetime of the linux host. If the vfio_ap mdev is removed, one may want to also reconfigure the pool of adapters and queues reserved for use by the default drivers.

Hot plug/unplug support:

An adapter, domain or control domain may be hot plugged into a running KVM guest by assigning it to the vfio_ap mediated device being used by the guest if the following conditions are met:

  • The adapter, domain or control domain must also be assigned to the host’s AP configuration.

  • Each APQN derived from the Cartesian product comprised of the APID of the adapter being assigned and the APQIs of the domains assigned must reference a queue device bound to the vfio_ap device driver.

  • To hot plug a domain, each APQN derived from the Cartesian product comprised of the APQI of the domain being assigned and the APIDs of the adapters assigned must reference a queue device bound to the vfio_ap device driver.

An adapter, domain or control domain may be hot unplugged from a running KVM guest by unassigning it from the vfio_ap mediated device being used by the guest.

Over-provisioning of AP queues for a KVM guest:

Over-provisioning is defined herein as the assignment of adapters or domains to a vfio_ap mediated device that do not reference AP devices in the host’s AP configuration. The idea here is that when the adapter or domain becomes available, it will be automatically hot-plugged into the KVM guest using the vfio_ap mediated device to which it is assigned as long as each new APQN resulting from plugging it in references a queue device bound to the vfio_ap device driver.

Driver Features

The vfio_ap driver exposes a sysfs file containing supported features. This exists so third party tools (like Libvirt and mdevctl) can query the availability of specific features.

The features list can be found here: /sys/bus/matrix/devices/matrix/features

Entries are space delimited. Each entry consists of a combination of alphanumeric and underscore characters.

Example: cat /sys/bus/matrix/devices/matrix/features guest_matrix dyn ap_config

the following features are advertised:

---------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Flag | Description | +==============+===============================================================+ | guest_matrix | guest_matrix attribute exists. It reports the matrix of | | | adapters and domains that are or will be passed through to a | | | guest when the mdev is attached to it. | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | dyn | Indicates hot plug/unplug of AP adapters, domains and control | | | domains for a guest to which the mdev is attached. | +------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | ap_config | ap_config interface for one-shot modifications to mdev config | +--------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+

Limitations

Live guest migration is not supported for guests using AP devices without intervention by a system administrator. Before a KVM guest can be migrated, the vfio_ap mediated device must be removed. Unfortunately, it can not be removed manually (i.e., echo 1 > /sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/$UUID/remove) while the mdev is in use by a KVM guest. If the guest is being emulated by QEMU, its mdev can be hot unplugged from the guest in one of two ways:

  1. If the KVM guest was started with libvirt, you can hot unplug the mdev via the following commands:

    virsh detach-device <guestname> <path-to-device-xml>

    For example, to hot unplug mdev 62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804 from the guest named ‘my-guest’:

    virsh detach-device my-guest ~/config/my-guest-hostdev.xml

    The contents of my-guest-hostdev.xml:

      <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='mdev' managed='no' model='vfio-ap'>
        <source>
          <address uuid='62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804'/>
        </source>
      </hostdev>


virsh qemu-monitor-command <guest-name> --hmp "device-del <device-id>"

For example, to hot unplug the vfio_ap mediated device identified on the
qemu command line with 'id=hostdev0' from the guest named 'my-guest':

virsh qemu-monitor-command my-guest --hmp "device_del hostdev0"

  1. A vfio_ap mediated device can be hot unplugged by attaching the qemu monitor to the guest and using the following qemu monitor command:

    (QEMU) device-del id=<device-id>

    For example, to hot unplug the vfio_ap mediated device that was specified on the qemu command line with ‘id=hostdev0’ when the guest was started:

    (QEMU) device-del id=hostdev0

After live migration of the KVM guest completes, an AP configuration can be restored to the KVM guest by hot plugging a vfio_ap mediated device on the target system into the guest in one of two ways:

  1. If the KVM guest was started with libvirt, you can hot plug a matrix mediated device into the guest via the following virsh commands:

    virsh attach-device <guestname> <path-to-device-xml>

    For example, to hot plug mdev 62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804 into the guest named ‘my-guest’:

    virsh attach-device my-guest ~/config/my-guest-hostdev.xml

    The contents of my-guest-hostdev.xml:

         <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='mdev' managed='no' model='vfio-ap'>
           <source>
             <address uuid='62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804'/>
           </source>
         </hostdev>


virsh qemu-monitor-command <guest-name> --hmp \
"device_add vfio-ap,sysfsdev=<path-to-mdev>,id=<device-id>"

   For example, to hot plug the vfio_ap mediated device
   62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804 into the guest named 'my-guest' with
   device-id hostdev0:

   virsh qemu-monitor-command my-guest --hmp \
   "device_add vfio-ap,\
   sysfsdev=/sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804,\
   id=hostdev0"

  1. A vfio_ap mediated device can be hot plugged by attaching the qemu monitor to the guest and using the following qemu monitor command:

    (qemu) device_add “vfio-ap,sysfsdev=<path-to-mdev>,id=<device-id>”

    For example, to plug the vfio_ap mediated device 62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804 into the guest with the device-id hostdev0:

    (QEMU) device-add “vfio-ap,sysfsdev=/sys/devices/vfio_ap/matrix/62177883-f1bb-47f0-914d-32a22e3a8804,id=hostdev0”