vmm: add per-zone mergeable option to --memory-zone

Add a `mergeable` field to `MemoryZoneConfig` so that KSM page merging
can be enabled selectively per memory zone rather than globally for all
guest RAM.

Previously, `MADV_MERGEABLE` was only controllable via the top-level
`--memory mergeable=on` flag, which applied uniformly to all regions.
With this change, users can leave boot memory unmerged while enabling
KSM only on hotplug zones:

  --memory size=0,hotplug_method=virtio-mem
  --memory-zone id=boot,size=512M,shared=on,mergeable=off
  --memory-zone id=hotplug,size=256M,hotplug_size=1G,shared=off,mergeable=on

The `MemoryZone` runtime struct now carries the `mergeable` flag so
that both `allocate_address_space` and `add_ram_region` can apply
per-zone `MADV_MERGEABLE` instead of the global `self.mergeable`.
The top-level `--memory mergeable=on` path continues to work unchanged:
the default zone is synthesised from `MemoryConfig` and inherits its
`mergeable` value.

AI/LLM disclosure: this patch was co-authored with
GitHub Copilot and Claude Code (Opus 4.6).

Signed-off-by: JP Kobryn <inwardvessel@gmail.com>
This commit is contained in:
JP Kobryn
2026-04-08 18:52:01 -07:00
committed by Rob Bradford
parent 3a23e2f841
commit bdc7a6947d
4 changed files with 145 additions and 11 deletions

View File

@@ -214,11 +214,12 @@ struct MemoryZoneConfig {
hotplug_size: Option<u64>,
hotplugged_size: Option<u64>,
prefault: bool,
mergeable: bool,
}
```
```
--memory-zone <memory-zone> User defined memory zone parameters "size=<guest_memory_region_size>,file=<backing_file>,shared=on|off,hugepages=on|off,hugepage_size=<hugepage_size>,host_numa_node=<node_id>,id=<zone_identifier>,hotplug_size=<hotpluggable_memory_size>,hotplugged_size=<hotplugged_memory_size>,prefault=on|off"
--memory-zone <memory-zone> User defined memory zone parameters "size=<guest_memory_region_size>,file=<backing_file>,shared=on|off,hugepages=on|off,hugepage_size=<hugepage_size>,host_numa_node=<node_id>,id=<zone_identifier>,hotplug_size=<hotpluggable_memory_size>,hotplugged_size=<hotplugged_memory_size>,prefault=on|off,mergeable=on|off"
```
This parameter expects one or more occurrences, allowing for a list of memory
@@ -422,6 +423,34 @@ _Example_
--memory-zone id=mem0,size=1G,prefault=on
```
### `mergeable`
Specifies if the pages from this memory zone must be marked as _mergeable_,
enabling Kernel Same-page Merging (KSM) for this zone.
This is the per-zone equivalent of the top-level `--memory mergeable=on` option.
It allows KSM to be enabled selectively — for example, enabling it only on a
hotplug zone while leaving boot memory unaffected:
```
--memory size=2G,mergeable=off
--memory-zone id=hotplug,size=0,hotplug_size=8G,mergeable=on
```
For KSM to have any effect, the host kernel must have KSM enabled:
```
echo 1 > /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/run
```
By default this option is turned off.
_Example_
```
--memory size=0
--memory-zone id=mem0,size=1G,mergeable=on
```
## NUMA settings
`NumaConfig` or what is known as `--numa` from the CLI perspective has been