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authorJens Freimann <jfreimann@redhat.com>2019-10-29 12:49:04 +0100
committerMichael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>2019-10-29 18:55:26 -0400
commit9711cd0dfc3fa414f7f64935713c07134ae67971 (patch)
treecc180bd2ccfad9e75644df4a068cabfc82a3c2a1 /docs
parentea45cb8d84d25c3a3103932def12558de1bbe208 (diff)
net/virtio: add failover support
This patch adds support to handle failover device pairs of a virtio-net device and a (vfio-)pci device, where the virtio-net acts as the standby device and the (vfio-)pci device as the primary. The general idea is that we have a pair of devices, a (vfio-)pci and a emulated (virtio-net) device. Before migration the vfio device is unplugged and data flows to the emulated device, on the target side another (vfio-)pci device is plugged in to take over the data-path. In the guest the net_failover module will pair net devices with the same MAC address. To achieve this we need: 1. Provide a callback function for the should_be_hidden DeviceListener. It is called when the primary device is plugged in. Evaluate the QOpt passed in to check if it is the matching primary device. It returns if the device should be hidden or not. When it should be hidden it stores the device options in the VirtioNet struct and the device is added once the VIRTIO_NET_F_STANDBY feature is negotiated during virtio feature negotiation. If the virtio-net devices are not realized at the time the (vfio-)pci devices are realized, we need to connect the devices later. This way we make sure primary and standby devices can be specified in any order. 2. Register a callback for migration status notifier. When called it will unplug its primary device before the migration happens. 3. Register a callback for the migration code that checks if a device needs to be unplugged from the guest. Signed-off-by: Jens Freimann <jfreimann@redhat.com> Message-Id: <20191029114905.6856-11-jfreimann@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
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+========================
+QEMU virtio-net standby (net_failover)
+========================
+
+This document explains the setup and usage of virtio-net standby feature which
+is used to create a net_failover pair of devices.
+
+The general idea is that we have a pair of devices, a (vfio-)pci and a
+virtio-net device. Before migration the vfio device is unplugged and data flows
+through the virtio-net device, on the target side another vfio-pci device is
+plugged in to take over the data-path. In the guest the net_failover kernel
+module will pair net devices with the same MAC address.
+
+The two devices are called primary and standby device. The fast hardware based
+networking device is called the primary device and the virtio-net device is the
+standby device.
+
+Restrictions
+------------
+
+Currently only PCIe devices are allowed as primary devices, this restriction
+can be lifted in the future with enhanced QEMU support. Also, only networking
+devices are allowed as primary device. The user needs to ensure that primary
+and standby devices are not plugged into the same PCIe slot.
+
+Usecase
+-------
+
+ Virtio-net standby allows easy migration while using a passed-through fast
+ networking device by falling back to a virtio-net device for the duration of
+ the migration. It is like a simple version of a bond, the difference is that it
+ requires no configuration in the guest. When a guest is live-migrated to
+ another host QEMU will unplug the primary device via the PCIe based hotplug
+ handler and traffic will go through the virtio-net device. On the target
+ system the primary device will be automatically plugged back and the
+ net_failover module registers it again as the primary device.
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+ The primary device can be hotplugged or be part of the startup configuration
+
+ -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet1,id=net1,mac=52:54:00:6f:55:cc, \
+ bus=root2,failover=on
+
+ With the parameter failover=on the VIRTIO_NET_F_STANDBY feature will be enabled.
+
+ -device vfio-pci,host=5e:00.2,id=hostdev0,bus=root1,failover_pair_id=net1
+
+ failover_pair_id references the id of the virtio-net standby device. This
+ is only for pairing the devices within QEMU. The guest kernel module
+ net_failover will match devices with identical MAC addresses.
+
+Hotplug
+-------
+
+ Both primary and standby device can be hotplugged via the QEMU monitor. Note
+ that if the virtio-net device is plugged first a warning will be issued that it
+ couldn't find the primary device.
+
+Migration
+---------
+
+ A new migration state wait-unplug was added for this feature. If failover primary
+ devices are present in the configuration, migration will go into this state.
+ It will wait until the device unplug is completed in the guest and then move into
+ active state. On the target system the primary devices will be automatically hotplugged
+ when the feature bit was negotiated for the virtio-net standby device.