| Independent Guest Virtual Machine (IGVM) support | 
 | ================================================ | 
 |  | 
 | IGVM files are designed to encapsulate all the information required to launch a | 
 | virtual machine on any given virtualization stack in a deterministic way. This | 
 | allows the cryptographic measurement of initial guest state for Confidential | 
 | Guests to be calculated when the IGVM file is built, allowing a relying party to | 
 | verify the initial state of a guest via a remote attestation. | 
 |  | 
 | Although IGVM files are designed with Confidential Computing in mind, they can | 
 | also be used to configure non-confidential guests. Multiple platforms can be | 
 | defined by a single IGVM file, allowing a single IGVM file to configure a | 
 | virtual machine that can run on, for example, TDX, SEV and non-confidential | 
 | hosts. | 
 |  | 
 | QEMU supports IGVM files through the user-creatable ``igvm-cfg`` object. This | 
 | object is used to define the filename of the IGVM file to process. A reference | 
 | to the object is added to the ``-machine`` to configure the virtual machine | 
 | to use the IGVM file for configuration. | 
 |  | 
 | Confidential platform support is provided through the use of | 
 | the ``ConfidentialGuestSupport`` object. If the virtual machine provides an | 
 | instance of this object then this is used by the IGVM loader to configure the | 
 | isolation properties of the directives within the file. | 
 |  | 
 | Further Information on IGVM | 
 | --------------------------- | 
 |  | 
 | Information about the IGVM format, including links to the format specification | 
 | and documentation for the Rust and C libraries can be found at the project | 
 | repository: | 
 |  | 
 | https://github.com/microsoft/igvm | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | Supported Platforms | 
 | ------------------- | 
 |  | 
 | Currently, IGVM files can be provided for Confidential Guests on host systems | 
 | that support AMD SEV, SEV-ES and SEV-SNP with KVM. IGVM files can also be | 
 | provided for non-confidential guests. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | Limitations when using IGVM with AMD SEV, SEV-ES and SEV-SNP | 
 | ------------------------------------------------------------ | 
 |  | 
 | IGVM files configure the initial state of the guest using a set of directives. | 
 | Not every directive is supported by every Confidential Guest type. For example, | 
 | AMD SEV does not support encrypted save state regions, therefore setting the | 
 | initial CPU state using IGVM for SEV is not possible. When an IGVM file contains | 
 | directives that are not supported for the active platform, an error is generated | 
 | and the guest launch is aborted. | 
 |  | 
 | The table below describes the list of directives that are supported for SEV, | 
 | SEV-ES, SEV-SNP and non-confidential platforms. | 
 |  | 
 | .. list-table:: SEV, SEV-ES, SEV-SNP & non-confidential Supported Directives | 
 |    :widths: 35 65 | 
 |    :header-rows: 1 | 
 |  | 
 |    * - IGVM directive | 
 |      - Notes | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_PAGE_DATA | 
 |      - ``NORMAL`` zero, measured and unmeasured page types are supported. Other | 
 |        page types result in an error. | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_PARAMETER_AREA | 
 |      - | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_PARAMETER_INSERT | 
 |      - | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_VP_COUNT_PARAMETER | 
 |      - The guest parameter page is populated with the CPU count. | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_ENVIRONMENT_INFO_PARAMETER | 
 |      - The ``memory_is_shared`` parameter is set to 1 in the guest parameter | 
 |        page. | 
 |  | 
 | .. list-table:: Additional SEV, SEV-ES & SEV_SNP Supported Directives | 
 |    :widths: 25 75 | 
 |    :header-rows: 1 | 
 |  | 
 |    * - IGVM directive | 
 |      - Notes | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_MEMORY_MAP | 
 |      - The memory map page is populated using entries from the E820 table. | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_REQUIRED_MEMORY | 
 |      - Ensures memory is available in the guest at the specified range. | 
 |  | 
 | .. list-table:: Additional SEV-ES & SEV-SNP Supported Directives | 
 |    :widths: 25 75 | 
 |    :header-rows: 1 | 
 |  | 
 |    * - IGVM directive | 
 |      - Notes | 
 |    * - IGVM_VHT_VP_CONTEXT | 
 |      - Setting of the initial CPU state for the boot CPU and additional CPUs is | 
 |        supported with limitations on the fields that can be provided in the | 
 |        VMSA. See below for details on which fields are supported. | 
 |  | 
 | Initial CPU state with VMSA | 
 | --------------------------- | 
 |  | 
 | The initial state of guest CPUs can be defined in the IGVM file for AMD SEV-ES | 
 | and SEV-SNP. The state data is provided as a VMSA structure as defined in Table | 
 | B-4 in the AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual, Volume 2 [1]. | 
 |  | 
 | The IGVM VMSA is translated to CPU state in QEMU which is then synchronized | 
 | by KVM to the guest VMSA during the launch process where it contributes to the | 
 | launch measurement. See :ref:`amd-sev` for details on the launch process and | 
 | guest launch measurement. | 
 |  | 
 | It is important that no information is lost or changed when translating the | 
 | VMSA provided by the IGVM file into the VSMA that is used to launch the guest. | 
 | Therefore, QEMU restricts the VMSA fields that can be provided in the IGVM | 
 | VMSA structure to the following registers: | 
 |  | 
 | RAX, RCX, RDX, RBX, RBP, RSI, RDI, R8-R15, RSP, RIP, CS, DS, ES, FS, GS, SS, | 
 | CR0, CR3, CR4, XCR0, EFER, PAT, GDT, IDT, LDTR, TR, DR6, DR7, RFLAGS, X87_FCW, | 
 | MXCSR. | 
 |  | 
 | When processing the IGVM file, QEMU will check if any fields other than the | 
 | above are non-zero and generate an error if this is the case. | 
 |  | 
 | KVM uses a hardcoded GPA of 0xFFFFFFFFF000 for the VMSA. When an IGVM file | 
 | defines initial CPU state, the GPA for each VMSA must match this hardcoded | 
 | value. | 
 |  | 
 | Firmware Images with IGVM | 
 | ------------------------- | 
 |  | 
 | When an IGVM filename is specified for a Confidential Guest Support object it | 
 | overrides the default handling of system firmware: the firmware image, such as | 
 | an OVMF binary should be contained as a payload of the IGVM file and not | 
 | provided as a flash drive or via the ``-bios`` parameter. The default QEMU | 
 | firmware is not automatically populated into the guest memory space. | 
 |  | 
 | If an IGVM file is provided along with either the ``-bios`` parameter or pflash | 
 | devices then an error is displayed and the guest startup is aborted. | 
 |  | 
 | Running a guest configured using IGVM | 
 | ------------------------------------- | 
 |  | 
 | To run a guest configured with IGVM you firstly need to generate an IGVM file | 
 | that contains a guest configuration compatible with the platform you are | 
 | targeting. | 
 |  | 
 | The ``buildigvm`` tool [2] is an example of a tool that can be used to generate | 
 | IGVM files for non-confidential X86 platforms as well as for SEV, SEV-ES and | 
 | SEV-SNP confidential platforms. | 
 |  | 
 | Example using this tool to generate an IGVM file for AMD SEV-SNP:: | 
 |  | 
 |     buildigvm --firmware /path/to/OVMF.fd --output sev-snp.igvm \ | 
 |               --cpucount 4 sev-snp | 
 |  | 
 | To run a guest configured with the generated IGVM you need to add an | 
 | ``igvm-cfg`` object and refer to it from the ``-machine`` parameter: | 
 |  | 
 | Example (for AMD SEV):: | 
 |  | 
 |     qemu-system-x86_64 \ | 
 |         <other parameters> \ | 
 |         -machine ...,confidential-guest-support=sev0,igvm-cfg=igvm0 \ | 
 |         -object sev-guest,id=sev0,cbitpos=47,reduced-phys-bits=1 \ | 
 |         -object igvm-cfg,id=igvm0,file=/path/to/sev-snp.igvm | 
 |  | 
 | References | 
 | ---------- | 
 |  | 
 | [1] AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual, Volume 2: System Programming | 
 |   Rev 3.41 | 
 |   https://www.amd.com/content/dam/amd/en/documents/processor-tech-docs/programmer-references/24593.pdf | 
 |  | 
 | [2] ``buildigvm`` - A tool to build example IGVM files containing OVMF firmware | 
 |   https://github.com/roy-hopkins/buildigvm |