xref: /openbmc/qemu/docs/system/multi-process.rst (revision ffe98631)
1Multi-process QEMU
2==================
3
4This document describes how to configure and use multi-process qemu.
5For the design document refer to docs/devel/qemu-multiprocess.
6
71) Configuration
8----------------
9
10multi-process is enabled by default for targets that enable KVM
11
12
132) Usage
14--------
15
16Multi-process QEMU requires an orchestrator to launch.
17
18Following is a description of command-line used to launch mpqemu.
19
20* Orchestrator:
21
22  - The Orchestrator creates a unix socketpair
23
24  - It launches the remote process and passes one of the
25    sockets to it via command-line.
26
27  - It then launches QEMU and specifies the other socket as an option
28    to the Proxy device object
29
30* Remote Process:
31
32  - QEMU can enter remote process mode by using the "remote" machine
33    option.
34
35  - The orchestrator creates a "remote-object" with details about
36    the device and the file descriptor for the device
37
38  - The remaining options are no different from how one launches QEMU with
39    devices.
40
41  - Example command-line for the remote process is as follows:
42
43      /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64                                        \
44      -machine x-remote                                                  \
45      -device lsi53c895a,id=lsi0                                         \
46      -drive id=drive_image2,file=/build/ol7-nvme-test-1.qcow2           \
47      -device scsi-hd,id=drive2,drive=drive_image2,bus=lsi0.0,scsi-id=0  \
48      -object x-remote-object,id=robj1,devid=lsi0,fd=4,
49
50* QEMU:
51
52  - Since parts of the RAM are shared between QEMU & remote process, a
53    memory-backend-memfd is required to facilitate this, as follows:
54
55    -object memory-backend-memfd,id=mem,size=2G
56
57  - A "x-pci-proxy-dev" device is created for each of the PCI devices emulated
58    in the remote process. A "socket" sub-option specifies the other end of
59    unix channel created by orchestrator. The "id" sub-option must be specified
60    and should be the same as the "id" specified for the remote PCI device
61
62  - Example commandline for QEMU is as follows:
63
64      -device x-pci-proxy-dev,id=lsi0,socket=3
65