79c0f397fe
Signed-off-by: Haozhong Zhang <haozhong.zhang@intel.com> Reviewed-by: Xiao Guangrong <guangrong.xiao@linux.intel.com> Reviewed-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
125 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
125 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
QEMU Virtual NVDIMM
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===================
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This document explains the usage of virtual NVDIMM (vNVDIMM) feature
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which is available since QEMU v2.6.0.
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The current QEMU only implements the persistent memory mode of vNVDIMM
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device and not the block window mode.
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Basic Usage
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-----------
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The storage of a vNVDIMM device in QEMU is provided by the memory
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backend (i.e. memory-backend-file and memory-backend-ram). A simple
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way to create a vNVDIMM device at startup time is done via the
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following command line options:
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-machine pc,nvdimm
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-m $RAM_SIZE,slots=$N,maxmem=$MAX_SIZE
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-object memory-backend-file,id=mem1,share=on,mem-path=$PATH,size=$NVDIMM_SIZE
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-device nvdimm,id=nvdimm1,memdev=mem1
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Where,
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- the "nvdimm" machine option enables vNVDIMM feature.
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- "slots=$N" should be equal to or larger than the total amount of
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normal RAM devices and vNVDIMM devices, e.g. $N should be >= 2 here.
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- "maxmem=$MAX_SIZE" should be equal to or larger than the total size
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of normal RAM devices and vNVDIMM devices, e.g. $MAX_SIZE should be
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>= $RAM_SIZE + $NVDIMM_SIZE here.
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- "object memory-backend-file,id=mem1,share=on,mem-path=$PATH,size=$NVDIMM_SIZE"
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creates a backend storage of size $NVDIMM_SIZE on a file $PATH. All
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accesses to the virtual NVDIMM device go to the file $PATH.
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"share=on/off" controls the visibility of guest writes. If
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"share=on", then guest writes will be applied to the backend
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file. If another guest uses the same backend file with option
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"share=on", then above writes will be visible to it as well. If
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"share=off", then guest writes won't be applied to the backend
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file and thus will be invisible to other guests.
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- "device nvdimm,id=nvdimm1,memdev=mem1" creates a virtual NVDIMM
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device whose storage is provided by above memory backend device.
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Multiple vNVDIMM devices can be created if multiple pairs of "-object"
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and "-device" are provided.
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For above command line options, if the guest OS has the proper NVDIMM
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driver, it should be able to detect a NVDIMM device which is in the
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persistent memory mode and whose size is $NVDIMM_SIZE.
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Note:
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1. Prior to QEMU v2.8.0, if memory-backend-file is used and the actual
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backend file size is not equal to the size given by "size" option,
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QEMU will truncate the backend file by ftruncate(2), which will
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corrupt the existing data in the backend file, especially for the
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shrink case.
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QEMU v2.8.0 and later check the backend file size and the "size"
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option. If they do not match, QEMU will report errors and abort in
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order to avoid the data corruption.
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2. QEMU v2.6.0 only puts a basic alignment requirement on the "size"
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option of memory-backend-file, e.g. 4KB alignment on x86. However,
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QEMU v.2.7.0 puts an additional alignment requirement, which may
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require a larger value than the basic one, e.g. 2MB on x86. This
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change breaks the usage of memory-backend-file that only satisfies
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the basic alignment.
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QEMU v2.8.0 and later remove the additional alignment on non-s390x
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architectures, so the broken memory-backend-file can work again.
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Label
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-----
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QEMU v2.7.0 and later implement the label support for vNVDIMM devices.
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To enable label on vNVDIMM devices, users can simply add
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"label-size=$SZ" option to "-device nvdimm", e.g.
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-device nvdimm,id=nvdimm1,memdev=mem1,label-size=128K
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Note:
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1. The minimal label size is 128KB.
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2. QEMU v2.7.0 and later store labels at the end of backend storage.
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If a memory backend file, which was previously used as the backend
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of a vNVDIMM device without labels, is now used for a vNVDIMM
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device with label, the data in the label area at the end of file
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will be inaccessible to the guest. If any useful data (e.g. the
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meta-data of the file system) was stored there, the latter usage
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may result guest data corruption (e.g. breakage of guest file
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system).
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Hotplug
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-------
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QEMU v2.8.0 and later implement the hotplug support for vNVDIMM
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devices. Similarly to the RAM hotplug, the vNVDIMM hotplug is
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accomplished by two monitor commands "object_add" and "device_add".
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For example, the following commands add another 4GB vNVDIMM device to
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the guest:
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(qemu) object_add memory-backend-file,id=mem2,share=on,mem-path=new_nvdimm.img,size=4G
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(qemu) device_add nvdimm,id=nvdimm2,memdev=mem2
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Note:
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1. Each hotplugged vNVDIMM device consumes one memory slot. Users
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should always ensure the memory option "-m ...,slots=N" specifies
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enough number of slots, i.e.
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N >= number of RAM devices +
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number of statically plugged vNVDIMM devices +
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number of hotplugged vNVDIMM devices
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2. The similar is required for the memory option "-m ...,maxmem=M", i.e.
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M >= size of RAM devices +
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size of statically plugged vNVDIMM devices +
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size of hotplugged vNVDIMM devices
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