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Tsirkin" , Ani Sinha , Xiao Guangrong , Daniel Henrique Barboza , Greg Kurz , Eric Blake , Markus Armbruster , Eduardo Habkost Subject: [PATCH v3 09/11] docs: Start documenting VM templating Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2023 17:34:09 +0200 Message-ID: <20230823153412.832081-10-david@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: <20230823153412.832081-1-david@redhat.com> References: <20230823153412.832081-1-david@redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 3.1 on 10.11.54.3 Received-SPF: pass (zohomail.com: domain of gnu.org designates 209.51.188.17 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.51.188.17; envelope-from=qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org; helo=lists.gnu.org; Received-SPF: pass client-ip=170.10.133.124; envelope-from=david@redhat.com; helo=us-smtp-delivery-124.mimecast.com X-Spam_score_int: -20 X-Spam_score: -2.1 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.1 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIMWL_WL_HIGH=-0.001, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE=-0.0001, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H4=0.001, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL=0.001, SPF_HELO_NONE=0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: qemu-devel@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org Sender: qemu-devel-bounces+importer=patchew.org@nongnu.org X-ZohoMail-DKIM: pass (identity @redhat.com) X-ZM-MESSAGEID: 1692805069966100007 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Let's add some details about VM templating, focusing on the VM memory configuration only. There is much more to VM templating (VM state? block devices?), but I leave that as future work. Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand Reviewed-by: Philippe Mathieu-Daud=C3=A9 --- MAINTAINERS | 1 + docs/system/index.rst | 1 + docs/system/vm-templating.rst | 125 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 127 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/system/vm-templating.rst diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS index 6111b6b4d9..096acb71a5 100644 --- a/MAINTAINERS +++ b/MAINTAINERS @@ -2954,6 +2954,7 @@ M: Igor Mammedov S: Maintained F: backends/hostmem*.c F: include/sysemu/hostmem.h +F: docs/system/vm-templating.rst T: git https://gitlab.com/ehabkost/qemu.git machine-next =20 Cryptodev Backends diff --git a/docs/system/index.rst b/docs/system/index.rst index 3605bbe1ce..28abcf2b17 100644 --- a/docs/system/index.rst +++ b/docs/system/index.rst @@ -38,3 +38,4 @@ or Hypervisor.Framework. security multi-process confidential-guest-support + vm-templating diff --git a/docs/system/vm-templating.rst b/docs/system/vm-templating.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..28905a1eeb --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/system/vm-templating.rst @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ +QEMU VM templating +=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D + +This document explains how to use VM templating in QEMU. + +For now, the focus is on VM memory aspects, and not about how to save and +restore other VM state (i.e., migrate-to-file with ``x-ignore-shared``). + +Overview +-------- + +With VM templating, a single template VM serves as the starting point for +new VMs. This allows for fast and efficient replication of VMs, resulting +in fast startup times and reduced memory consumption. + +Conceptually, the VM state is frozen, to then be used as a basis for new +VMs. The Copy-On-Write mechanism in the operating systems makes sure that +new VMs are able to read template VM memory; however, any modifications +stay private and don't modify the original template VM or any other +created VM. + +!!! Security Alert !!! +---------------------- + +When effectively cloning VMs by VM templating, hardware identifiers +(such as UUIDs and NIC MAC addresses), and similar data in the guest OS +(such as machine IDs, SSH keys, certificates) that are supposed to be +*unique* are no longer unique, which can be a security concern. + +Please be aware of these implications and how to mitigate them for your +use case, which might involve vmgenid, hot(un)plug of NIC, etc.. + +Memory configuration +-------------------- + +In order to create the template VM, we have to make sure that VM memory +ends up in a file, from where it can be reused for the new VMs: + +Supply VM RAM via memory-backend-file, with ``share=3Don`` (modifications = go +to the file) and ``readonly=3Doff`` (open the file writable). Note that +``readonly=3Doff`` is implicit. + +In the following command-line example, a 2GB VM is created, whereby VM RAM +is to be stored in the ``template`` file. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| [...] -m 2g \\ + -object memory-backend-file,id=3Dpc.ram,mem-path=3Dtemplate,size= =3D2g,share=3Don,... \\ + -machine q35,memory-backend=3Dpc.ram + +If multiple memory backends are used (vNUMA, DIMMs), configure all +memory backends accordingly. + +Once the VM is in the desired state, stop the VM and save other VM state, +leaving the current state of VM RAM reside in the file. + +In order to have a new VM be based on a template VM, we have to +configure VM RAM to be based on a template VM RAM file; however, the VM +should not be able to modify file content. + +Supply VM RAM via memory-backend-file, with ``share=3Doff`` (modifications +stay private), ``readonly=3Don`` (open the file readonly) and ``rom=3Doff`` +(don't make the memory readonly for the VM). Note that ``share=3Doff`` is +implicit and that other VM state has to be restored separately. + +In the following command-line example, a 2GB VM is created based on the +existing 2GB file ``template``. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| [...] -m 2g \\ + -object memory-backend-file,id=3Dpc.ram,mem-path=3Dtemplate,size= =3D2g,readonly=3Don,rom=3Doff,... \\ + -machine q35,memory-backend=3Dpc.ram + +If multiple memory backends are used (vNUMA, DIMMs), configure all +memory backends accordingly. + +Note that ``-mem-path`` cannot be used for VM templating when creating the +template VM or when starting new VMs based on a template VM. + +Incompatible features +--------------------- + +Some features are incompatible with VM templating, as the underlying file +cannot be modified to discard VM RAM, or to actually share memory with +another process. + +vhost-user and multi-process QEMU +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +vhost-user and multi-process QEMU are incompatible with VM templating. +These technologies rely on shared memory, however, the template VMs +don't actually share memory (``share=3Doff``), even though they are +file-based. + +virtio-balloon +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +virtio-balloon inflation and "free page reporting" cannot discard VM RAM +and will repeatedly report errors. While virtio-balloon can be used +for template VMs (e.g., report VM RAM stats), "free page reporting" +should be disabled and the balloon should not be inflated. + +virtio-mem +~~~~~~~~~~ + +virtio-mem cannot discard VM RAM that is managed by the virtio-mem +device. virtio-mem will fail early when realizing the device. To use +VM templating with virtio-mem, either hotplug virtio-mem devices to the +new VM, or don't supply any memory to the template VM using virtio-mem +(requested-size=3D0), not using a template VM file as memory backend for t= he +virtio-mem device. + +VM migration +~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +For VM migration, "x-release-ram" similarly relies on discarding of VM +RAM on the migration source to free up migrated RAM, and will +repeatedly report errors. + +Postcopy live migration fails discarding VM RAM on the migration +destination early and refuses to activate postcopy live migration. Note +that postcopy live migration usually only works on selected filesystems +(shmem/tmpfs, hugetlbfs) either way. --=20 2.41.0