4 .. _test_environment_versioning:
9 CSIT test environment versioning has been introduced to track
10 modifications of the test environment.
12 Any benchmark anomalies (progressions, regressions) between releases of
13 a DUT application (e.g. VPP, DPDK), are determined by testing it in the
14 same test environment, to avoid test environment changes clouding the
17 A mirror approach is introduced to determine benchmarking anomalies due
18 to the test environment change. This is achieved by testing the same DUT
19 application version between releases of CSIT test system. This works
20 under the assumption that the behaviour of the DUT is deterministic
21 under the test conditions.
23 CSIT test environment versioning scheme ensures integrity of all the
24 test system components, including their HW revisions, compiled SW code
25 versions and SW source code, within a specific CSIT version. Components
26 included in the CSIT environment versioning include:
28 - **HW** Server hardware firmware and BIOS (motherboard, processsor,
29 NIC(s), accelerator card(s)), tracked in CSIT branch in
30 :file:`./docs/lab/<server_platform_name>_hw_bios_cfg.md`, e.g. `Xeon
32 <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/docs/lab/testbeds_sm_skx_hw_bios_cfg.md#n556>`_.
33 - **Linux** Server Linux OS version and configuration, tracked in CSIT
34 Reports in `SUT Settings
35 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#sut-settings-linux>`_
36 and `Pre-Test Server Calibration
37 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#pre-test-server-calibration>`_.
38 - **TRex** TRex Traffic Generator version, drivers and configuration
39 tracked in `TG Settings
40 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#tg-settings-trex>`_.
41 - **CSIT** CSIT framework code tracked in CSIT release branches.
43 Following is the list of CSIT versions to date:
45 - Ver. 1 associated with CSIT rls1908 branch (`HW
46 <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/docs/lab?h=rls1908>`_, `Linux
47 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1908/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#sut-settings-linux>`_,
49 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls1908/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#tg-settings-trex>`_,
50 `CSIT <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/?h=rls1908>`_).
51 - Ver. 2 associated with CSIT rls2001 branch (`HW
52 <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/docs/lab?h=rls2001>`_, `Linux
53 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls2001/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#sut-settings-linux>`_,
55 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls2001/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#tg-settings-trex>`_,
56 `CSIT <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/?h=rls2001>`_).
57 - Ver. 4 associated with CSIT rls2005 branch (`HW
58 <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/docs/lab?h=rls2005>`_, `Linux
59 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls2005/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#sut-settings-linux>`_,
61 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls2005/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#tg-settings-trex>`_,
62 `CSIT <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/?h=rls2005>`_).
63 - Ver. 5 associated with CSIT rls2009 branch (`HW
64 <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/docs/lab?h=rls2009>`_, `Linux
65 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls2009/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#sut-settings-linux>`_,
67 <https://docs.fd.io/csit/rls2009/report/vpp_performance_tests/test_environment.html#tg-settings-trex>`_,
68 `CSIT <https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/?h=rls2009>`_).
70 - The main change is TRex data-plane core resource adjustments:
71 `increase from 7 to 8 cores and pinning cores to interfaces <https://gerrit.fd.io/r/c/csit/+/28184>`_
72 for better TRex performance with symmetric traffic profiles.
75 To identify performance changes due to VPP code development from
76 v20.05.0 to v20.09.0, both have been tested in CSIT environment ver. 5
77 and compared against each other. All substantial progressions and
78 regressions have been marked up with RCA analysis. See
79 :ref:`vpp_throughput_comparisons` and :ref:`vpp_known_issues`.
81 CSIT environment ver. 5 has been evaluated against the ver. 4 by
82 benchmarking VPP v20.05.0 in both environment versions.
87 FD.io CSIT performance tests are executed in physical testbeds hosted by
88 :abbr:`LF (Linux Foundation)` for FD.io project. Two physical testbed
89 topology types are used:
91 - **3-Node Topology**: Consisting of two servers acting as SUTs
92 (Systems Under Test) and one server as TG (Traffic Generator), all
93 connected in ring topology.
94 - **2-Node Topology**: Consisting of one server acting as SUTs and one
95 server as TG both connected in ring topology.
97 Tested SUT servers are based on a range of processors including Intel
98 Xeon Haswell-SP, Intel Xeon Skylake-SP, Intel Xeon Cascade Lake-SP, Arm,
99 Intel Atom. More detailed description is provided in
100 :ref:`tested_physical_topologies`. Tested logical topologies are
101 described in :ref:`tested_logical_topologies`.
103 Server Specifications
104 ---------------------
106 Complete technical specifications of compute servers used in CSIT
107 physical testbeds are maintained in FD.io CSIT repository:
108 `FD.io CSIT testbeds - Xeon Cascade Lake`_,
109 `FD.io CSIT testbeds - Xeon Skylake, Arm, Atom`_ and
110 `FD.io CSIT Testbeds - Xeon Haswell`_.