Performance Monitoring on Intel Machines

Download and install Media:Pmcdriver.zip

After install ensure /dev/msrdrv is present. If not, create the node manually using the command

 sudo mknod /dev/msrdrv c 223 0

223 and 0 are the major and minor numbers as defined in msrdrv.h file

This install the kernel driver msrdrv which contains all the system calls needed for reading the performance monitoring counters in Intel machines. The user program can just send and receive data from this driver.

So, in the user program just do the following:

1. Load the driver

fd = loadDriver();

2. Send data to driver

ioctl(fd, IOCTL_MSR_CMDS, (long long)msr_start);

3. After the execution of the needed code, read the content of the MSR registers:

ioctl(fd, IOCTL_MSR_CMDS, (long long)msr_stop);

4. Close the driver

closeDriver(fd);

The below function and structure definitions must be placed in the user code.

 static int loadDriver()
{
   int fd;
   fd = open("/dev/" DEV_NAME, O_RDWR);
   if (fd == -1) {
       perror("Failed to open /dev/" DEV_NAME);
   }
   return fd;
}
static void closeDriver(int fd)
{
   int e;
   e = close(fd);
   if (e == -1) {
       perror("Failed to close fd");
   }
}

struct MsrInOut msr_start[] = {
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x38f, 0x00, 0x00 },       // ia32_perf_global_ctrl: disable 4 PMCs & 3 FFCs
       { MSR_WRITE, 0xc1, 0x00, 0x00 },        // ia32_pmc0: zero value (35-5)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0xc2, 0x00, 0x00 },        // ia32_pmc1: zero value (35-5)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0xc3, 0x00, 0x00 },        // ia32_pmc2: zero value (35-5)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0xc4, 0x00, 0x00 },        // ia32_pmc3: zero value (35-5)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x309, 0x00, 0x00 },       // ia32_fixed_ctr0: zero value (35-17)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x30a, 0x00, 0x00 },       // ia32_fixed_ctr1: zero value (35-17)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x30b, 0x00, 0x00 },       // ia32_fixed_ctr2: zero value (35-17)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x186, 0x004101c2, 0x00 }, // ia32_perfevtsel1, UOPS_RETIRED.ALL (19-28)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x187, 0x0041010e, 0x00 }, // ia32_perfevtsel0, UOPS_ISSUED.ANY (19.22)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x188, 0x01c1010e, 0x00 }, // ia32_perfevtsel2, UOPS_ISSUED.ANY-stalls (19-22)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x189, 0x004101a2, 0x00 }, // ia32_perfevtsel3, RESOURCE_STALLS.ANY (19-27)
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x38d, 0x222, 0x00 },      // ia32_perf_fixed_ctr_ctrl: ensure 3 FFCs enabled
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x38f, 0x0f, 0x07 },       // ia32_perf_global_ctrl: enable 4 PMCs & 3 FFCs
       { MSR_STOP, 0x00, 0x00 }
   };

   struct MsrInOut msr_stop[] = {
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x38f, 0x00, 0x00 },       // ia32_perf_global_ctrl: disable 4 PMCs & 3 FFCs
       { MSR_WRITE, 0x38d, 0x00, 0x00 },       // ia32_perf_fixed_ctr_ctrl: clean up FFC ctrls
       { MSR_READ, 0xc1, 0x00 },               // ia32_pmc0: read value (35-5)
       { MSR_READ, 0xc2, 0x00 },               // ia32_pmc1: read value (35-5)
       { MSR_READ, 0xc3, 0x00 },               // ia32_pmc2: read value (35-5)
       { MSR_READ, 0xc4, 0x00 },               // ia32_pmc3: read value (35-5)
       { MSR_READ, 0x309, 0x00 },              // ia32_fixed_ctr0: read value (35-17)
       { MSR_READ, 0x30a, 0x00 },              // ia32_fixed_ctr1: read value (35-17)
       { MSR_READ, 0x30b, 0x00 },              // ia32_fixed_ctr2: read value (35-17)
       { MSR_STOP, 0x00, 0x00 }
   };

Also, do the following includes

#include "msrdrv.h" (Present in the downloaded pmcdriver folder)
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>

A test implementation is given in monitor/msrtest.c inside the downloaded folder

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