Re: [PATCH 0/3] x86: clear vmcss on all cpus when doing kdump ifnecessary

From: Avi Kivity
Date: Mon Oct 15 2012 - 11:43:41 EST


On 10/12/2012 08:40 AM, Zhang Yanfei wrote:
> Currently, kdump just makes all the logical processors leave VMX operation by
> executing VMXOFF instruction, so any VMCSs active on the logical processors may
> be corrupted. But, sometimes, we need the VMCSs to debug guest images contained
> in the host vmcore. To prevent the corruption, we should VMCLEAR the VMCSs before
> executing the VMXOFF instruction.

How have you verified that VMXOFF doesn't flush cached VMCSs already?

>
> The patch set provides an alternative way to clear VMCSs related to guests
> on all cpus when host is doing kdump.
>

I'm not sure the sysctl is really necessary. The only reason to turn if
off is if the corruption is so severe that the loaded vmcs list itself
causes a crash. I think it should be rare enough that we can do it
unconditionally.

--
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function
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