docs: Document the throttle block filter

This filter was added back in 2017 for QEMU 2.11 but it was never
properly documented, so let's explain how it works and add a couple of
examples.

Signed-off-by: Alberto Garcia <berto@igalia.com>
Message-Id: <20200921173016.27935-1-berto@igalia.com>
Signed-off-by: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 107 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/docs/throttle.txt b/docs/throttle.txt
index cd4e109d39..b5b78b7326 100644
--- a/docs/throttle.txt
+++ b/docs/throttle.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 The QEMU throttling infrastructure
 ==================================
-Copyright (C) 2016 Igalia, S.L.
+Copyright (C) 2016,2020 Igalia, S.L.
 Author: Alberto Garcia <berto@igalia.com>
 
 This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or
@@ -253,3 +253,109 @@ up. After those 60 seconds the bucket will have leaked 60 x 100 =
 
 Also, due to the way the algorithm works, longer burst can be done at
 a lower I/O rate, e.g. 1000 IOPS during 120 seconds.
+
+
+The 'throttle' block filter
+---------------------------
+Since QEMU 2.11 it is possible to configure the I/O limits using a
+'throttle' block filter. This filter uses the exact same throttling
+infrastructure described above but can be used anywhere in the node
+graph, allowing for more flexibility.
+
+The user can create an arbitrary number of filters and each one of
+them must be assigned to a group that contains the actual I/O limits.
+Different filters can use the same group so the limits are shared as
+described earlier in "Applying I/O limits to groups of disks".
+
+A group can be created using the object-add QMP function:
+
+   { "execute": "object-add",
+     "arguments": {
+       "qom-type": "throttle-group",
+       "id": "group0",
+       "props": {
+         "limits" : {
+           "iops-total": 1000
+           "bps-write": 2097152
+         }
+       }
+     }
+   }
+
+throttle-group has a 'limits' property (of type ThrottleLimits as
+defined in qapi/block-core.json) which can be set on creation or later
+with 'qom-set'.
+
+A throttle-group can also be created with the -object command line
+option but at the moment there is no way to pass a 'limits' parameter
+that contains a ThrottleLimits structure. The solution is to set the
+individual values directly, like in this example:
+
+   -object throttle-group,id=group0,x-iops-total=1000,x-bps-write=2097152
+
+Note however that this is not a stable API (hence the 'x-' prefixes) and
+will disappear when -object gains support for structured options and
+enables use of 'limits'.
+
+Once we have a throttle-group we can use the throttle block filter,
+where the 'file' property must be set to the block device that we want
+to filter:
+
+   { "execute": "blockdev-add",
+     "arguments": {
+        "options":  {
+           "driver": "qcow2",
+           "node-name": "disk0",
+           "file": {
+              "driver": "file",
+              "filename": "/path/to/disk.qcow2"
+           }
+        }
+     }
+   }
+
+   { "execute": "blockdev-add",
+     "arguments": {
+        "driver": "throttle",
+        "node-name": "throttle0",
+        "throttle-group": "group0",
+        "file": "disk0"
+     }
+   }
+
+A similar setup can also be done with the command line, for example:
+
+   -drive driver=throttle,throttle-group=group0,
+          file.driver=qcow2,file.file.filename=/path/to/disk.qcow2
+
+The scenario described so far is very simple but the throttle block
+filter allows for more complex configurations. For example, let's say
+that we have three different drives and we want to set I/O limits for
+each one of them and an additional set of limits for the combined I/O
+of all three drives.
+
+First we would define all throttle groups, one for each one of the
+drives and one that would apply to all of them:
+
+   -object throttle-group,id=limits0,x-iops-total=2000
+   -object throttle-group,id=limits1,x-iops-total=2500
+   -object throttle-group,id=limits2,x-iops-total=3000
+   -object throttle-group,id=limits012,x-iops-total=4000
+
+Now we can define the drives, and for each one of them we use two
+chained throttle filters: the drive's own filter and the combined
+filter.
+
+   -drive driver=throttle,throttle-group=limits012,
+          file.driver=throttle,file.throttle-group=limits0
+          file.file.driver=qcow2,file.file.file.filename=/path/to/disk0.qcow2
+   -drive driver=throttle,throttle-group=limits012,
+          file.driver=throttle,file.throttle-group=limits1
+          file.file.driver=qcow2,file.file.file.filename=/path/to/disk1.qcow2
+   -drive driver=throttle,throttle-group=limits012,
+          file.driver=throttle,file.throttle-group=limits2
+          file.file.driver=qcow2,file.file.file.filename=/path/to/disk2.qcow2
+
+In this example the individual drives have IOPS limits of 2000, 2500
+and 3000 respectively but the total combined I/O can never exceed 4000
+IOPS.