xref: /qemu/docs/bypass-iommu.txt (revision 785ea711)
1BYPASS IOMMU PROPERTY
2=====================
3
4Description
5===========
6Traditionally, there is a global switch to enable/disable vIOMMU. All
7devices in the system can only support go through vIOMMU or not, which
8is not flexible. We introduce this bypass iommu property to support
9coexist of devices go through vIOMMU and devices not. This is useful to
10passthrough devices with no-iommu mode and devices go through vIOMMU in
11the same virtual machine.
12
13PCI host bridges have a bypass_iommu property. This property is used to
14determine whether the devices attached on the PCI host bridge will bypass
15virtual iommu. The bypass_iommu property is valid only when there is a
16virtual iommu in the system, it is implemented to allow some devices to
17bypass vIOMMU. When bypass_iommu property is not set for a host bridge,
18the attached devices will go through vIOMMU by default.
19
20Usage
21=====
22The bypass iommu feature support PXB host bridge and default main host
23bridge, we add a bypass_iommu property for PXB and default_bus_bypass_iommu
24for machine. Note that default_bus_bypass_iommu is available only when
25the 'q35' machine type on x86 architecture and the 'virt' machine type
26on AArch64. Other machine types do not support bypass iommu for default
27root bus.
28
291. The following is the bypass iommu options:
30 (1) PCI expander bridge
31     qemu -device pxb-pcie,bus_nr=0x10,addr=0x1,bypass_iommu=true
32 (2) Arm default host bridge
33     qemu -machine virt,iommu=smmuv3,default_bus_bypass_iommu=true
34 (3) X86 default root bus bypass iommu:
35     qemu -machine q35,default_bus_bypass_iommu=true
36
372. Here is the detailed qemu command line for 'virt' machine with PXB on
38AArch64:
39
40qemu-system-aarch64 \
41 -machine virt,kernel_irqchip=on,iommu=smmuv3,default_bus_bypass_iommu=true \
42 -device pxb-pcie,bus_nr=0x10,id=pci.10,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x3.0x1 \
43 -device pxb-pcie,bus_nr=0x20,id=pci.20,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x3.0x2,bypass_iommu=true \
44
45And we got:
46 - a default host bridge which bypass SMMUv3
47 - a pxb host bridge which go through SMMUv3
48 - a pxb host bridge which bypass SMMUv3
49
503. Here is the detailed qemu command line for 'q35' machine with PXB on
51x86 architecture:
52
53qemu-system-x86_64 \
54 -machine q35,accel=kvm,default_bus_bypass_iommu=true \
55 -device pxb-pcie,bus_nr=0x10,id=pci.10,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x3 \
56 -device pxb-pcie,bus_nr=0x20,id=pci.20,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x4,bypass_iommu=true \
57 -device intel-iommu \
58
59And we got:
60 - a default host bridge which bypass iommu
61 - a pxb host bridge which go through iommu
62 - a pxb host bridge which bypass iommu
63
64Limitations
65===========
66There might be potential security risk when devices bypass iommu, because
67devices might send malicious dma request to virtual machine if there is no
68iommu isolation. So it would be necessary to only bypass iommu for trusted
69device.
70
71Implementation
72==============
73The bypass iommu feature includes:
74 - Address space
75   Add bypass iommu property check of PCI Host and do not get iommu address
76   space for devices bypass iommu.
77 - Arm SMMUv3 support
78   We traverse all PCI root bus and get bus number ranges, then build explicit
79   RID mapping for devices which do not bypass iommu.
80 - X86 IOMMU support
81   To support Intel iommu, we traverse all PCI host bridge and get information
82   of devices which do not bypass iommu, then fill the DMAR drhd struct with
83   explicit device scope info. To support AMD iommu, add check of bypass iommu
84   when traverse the PCI hsot bridge.
85 - Machine and PXB options
86   We add bypass iommu options in machine option for default root bus, and add
87   option for PXB also. Note that the default value of bypass iommu is false,
88   so that the devices will by default go through iommu if there exist one.
89
90