docs: Move microvm.rst into the system manual

Now that target-i386.rst has a place to list documentation of
machines other than the 'pc' machine, we have a place we can
move the microvm documentation to.

Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>
Reviewed-by: Alex Bennée <alex.bennee@linaro.org>

2 files changed, 129 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/system/i386/microvm.rst b/docs/system/i386/microvm.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1675e37d3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/system/i386/microvm.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+'microvm' virtual platform (``microvm``)
+========================================
+
+``microvm`` is a machine type inspired by ``Firecracker`` and
+constructed after its machine model.
+
+It's a minimalist machine type without ``PCI`` nor ``ACPI`` support,
+designed for short-lived guests. microvm also establishes a baseline
+for benchmarking and optimizing both QEMU and guest operating systems,
+since it is optimized for both boot time and footprint.
+
+
+Supported devices
+-----------------
+
+The microvm machine type supports the following devices:
+
+- ISA bus
+- i8259 PIC (optional)
+- i8254 PIT (optional)
+- MC146818 RTC (optional)
+- One ISA serial port (optional)
+- LAPIC
+- IOAPIC (with kernel-irqchip=split by default)
+- kvmclock (if using KVM)
+- fw_cfg
+- Up to eight virtio-mmio devices (configured by the user)
+
+
+Limitations
+-----------
+
+Currently, microvm does *not* support the following features:
+
+- PCI-only devices.
+- Hotplug of any kind.
+- Live migration across QEMU versions.
+
+
+Using the microvm machine type
+------------------------------
+
+Machine-specific options
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+It supports the following machine-specific options:
+
+- microvm.x-option-roms=bool (Set off to disable loading option ROMs)
+- microvm.pit=OnOffAuto (Enable i8254 PIT)
+- microvm.isa-serial=bool (Set off to disable the instantiation an ISA serial port)
+- microvm.pic=OnOffAuto (Enable i8259 PIC)
+- microvm.rtc=OnOffAuto (Enable MC146818 RTC)
+- microvm.auto-kernel-cmdline=bool (Set off to disable adding virtio-mmio devices to the kernel cmdline)
+
+
+Boot options
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+By default, microvm uses ``qboot`` as its BIOS, to obtain better boot
+times, but it's also compatible with ``SeaBIOS``.
+
+As no current FW is able to boot from a block device using
+``virtio-mmio`` as its transport, a microvm-based VM needs to be run
+using a host-side kernel and, optionally, an initrd image.
+
+
+Running a microvm-based VM
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+By default, microvm aims for maximum compatibility, enabling both
+legacy and non-legacy devices. In this example, a VM is created
+without passing any additional machine-specific option, using the
+legacy ``ISA serial`` device as console::
+
+  $ qemu-system-x86_64 -M microvm \
+     -enable-kvm -cpu host -m 512m -smp 2 \
+     -kernel vmlinux -append "earlyprintk=ttyS0 console=ttyS0 root=/dev/vda" \
+     -nodefaults -no-user-config -nographic \
+     -serial stdio \
+     -drive id=test,file=test.img,format=raw,if=none \
+     -device virtio-blk-device,drive=test \
+     -netdev tap,id=tap0,script=no,downscript=no \
+     -device virtio-net-device,netdev=tap0
+
+While the example above works, you might be interested in reducing the
+footprint further by disabling some legacy devices. If you're using
+``KVM``, you can disable the ``RTC``, making the Guest rely on
+``kvmclock`` exclusively. Additionally, if your host's CPUs have the
+``TSC_DEADLINE`` feature, you can also disable both the i8259 PIC and
+the i8254 PIT (make sure you're also emulating a CPU with such feature
+in the guest).
+
+This is an example of a VM with all optional legacy features
+disabled::
+
+  $ qemu-system-x86_64 \
+     -M microvm,x-option-roms=off,pit=off,pic=off,isa-serial=off,rtc=off \
+     -enable-kvm -cpu host -m 512m -smp 2 \
+     -kernel vmlinux -append "console=hvc0 root=/dev/vda" \
+     -nodefaults -no-user-config -nographic \
+     -chardev stdio,id=virtiocon0 \
+     -device virtio-serial-device \
+     -device virtconsole,chardev=virtiocon0 \
+     -drive id=test,file=test.img,format=raw,if=none \
+     -device virtio-blk-device,drive=test \
+     -netdev tap,id=tap0,script=no,downscript=no \
+     -device virtio-net-device,netdev=tap0
+
+
+Triggering a guest-initiated shut down
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+As the microvm machine type includes just a small set of system
+devices, some x86 mechanisms for rebooting or shutting down the
+system, like sending a key sequence to the keyboard or writing to an
+ACPI register, doesn't have any effect in the VM.
+
+The recommended way to trigger a guest-initiated shut down is by
+generating a ``triple-fault``, which will cause the VM to initiate a
+reboot. Additionally, if the ``-no-reboot`` argument is present in the
+command line, QEMU will detect this event and terminate its own
+execution gracefully.
+
+Linux does support this mechanism, but by default will only be used
+after other options have been tried and failed, causing the reboot to
+be delayed by a small number of seconds. It's possible to instruct it
+to try the triple-fault mechanism first, by adding ``reboot=t`` to the
+kernel's command line.
diff --git a/docs/system/target-i386.rst b/docs/system/target-i386.rst
index 1612ddba90..22ba5ce2c0 100644
--- a/docs/system/target-i386.rst
+++ b/docs/system/target-i386.rst
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Board-specific documentation
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
 
+   i386/microvm
    i386/pc
 
 .. include:: cpu-models-x86.rst.inc