-CSIT Release Notes\r
-==================\r
-\r
-Changes in CSIT |release|\r
--------------------------\r
-\r
-#. **Added VPP performance tests**\r
-\r
- - **MRR tests** : New MRR tests measure the packet forwarding rate\r
- under the maximum load offered by traffic generator over a set\r
- trial duration, regardless of packet loss. Maximum load for\r
- specified Ethernet frame size is set to the bi-directional link\r
- rate. MRR tests are used for continuous performance trending and\r
- for comparison between releases.\r
-\r
- - **SRv6** : Initial SRv6 (Segment Routing IPv6) tests verifying\r
- performance of IPv6 and SRH (Segment Routing Header)\r
- encapsulation, decapsulation, lookups and rewrites based on\r
- configured End and End.DX6 SRv6 egress functions.\r
-\r
-#. **Presentation and Analytics Layer (PAL)**\r
-\r
- - Added continuous performance measuring, trending and anomaly\r
- detection. Includes new PAL code and Jenkins jobs for Performance\r
- Trending (PT) and Performance Analysis (PA) producing performance\r
- trending dashboard and trendline graphs with summary and drill-\r
- down views across all specified tests that can be reviewed and\r
- inspected regularly by FD.io developers and users community.\r
-\r
-#. **Test Framework Optimizations**\r
-\r
- - **Performance tests efficiency** : Qemu build/install\r
- optimizations, warmup phase handling, vpp restart handling.\r
- Resulted in improved stability and reduced total execution time by\r
- 30% for single pkt size e.g. 64B/78B.\r
-\r
- - **General code housekeeping** : ongoing RF keywords\r
- optimizations, removal of redundant RF keywords.\r
-\r
-Performance Changes\r
--------------------\r
-\r
-Relative performance changes in measured packet throughput in CSIT\r
-|release| are calculated against the results from CSIT |release-1|\r
-report. Listed mean and standard deviation values are computed based on\r
-a series of the same tests executed against respective VPP releases to\r
-verify test results repeatibility, with percentage change calculated for\r
-mean values. Note that the standard deviation is quite high for a small\r
-number of packet throughput tests, what indicates poor test results\r
-repeatability and makes the relative change of mean throughput value not\r
-fully representative for these tests. The root causes behind poor\r
-results repeatibility vary between the test cases.\r
-\r
-NDR Throughput Changes\r
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r
-\r
-NDR small packet throughput changes between releases are available in a CSV and\r
-pretty ASCII formats:\r
-\r
- - `csv format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-ndr-1t1c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `csv format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-ndr-2t2c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-ndr-1t1c-full.txt>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-ndr-2t2c-full.txt>`_.\r
-\r
-PDR Throughput Changes\r
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r
-\r
-NDR small packet throughput changes between releases are available in a CSV and\r
-pretty ASCII formats:\r
-\r
- - `csv format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-pdr-1t1c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `csv format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-pdr-2t2c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-pdr-1t1c-full.txt>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-pdr-2t2c-full.txt>`_.\r
-\r
-Measured improvements are in line with VPP code optimizations listed in\r
-`VPP-18.01 release notes\r
-<https://docs.fd.io/vpp/18.01/release_notes_1801.html>`_.\r
-\r
-MRR Throughput Changes\r
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\r
-\r
-MRR changes between releases are available in a CSV and\r
-pretty ASCII formats:\r
-\r
- - `csv format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-mrr-1t1c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `csv format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-mrr-2t2c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `csv format for 4t4c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-mrr-4t4c-full.csv>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-mrr-1t1c-full.txt>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-mrr-2t2c-full.txt>`_,\r
- - `pretty ASCII format for 4t4c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-mrr-4t4c-full.txt>`_.\r
-\r
-Known Issues\r
-------------\r
-\r
-<to be updated before rls1804 release>\r
-\r
-Here is the list of known issues in CSIT |release| for VPP performance tests:\r
-\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| # | Issue | Jira ID | Description |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| 1 | Vic1385 and Vic1227 low performance. | VPP-664 | Low NDR performance. |\r
-| | | | |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| 2 | Sporadic (1 in 200) NDR discovery test failures | CSIT-570 | DPDK reporting rx-errors, indicating L1 issue. Suspected issue |\r
-| | on x520. | | with HW combination of X710-X520 in LF testbeds. Not observed |\r
-| | | | outside of LF testbeds. |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| 3 | Lower than expected NDR throughput with | CSIT-571 | Suspected NIC firmware or DPDK driver issue affecting NDR and |\r
-| | xl710 and x710 NICs, compared to x520 NICs. | | PDR throughput. Applies to XL710 and X710 NICs. |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| 4 | rls1801 plugin related performance regression | CSIT-925 | With all plugins loaded NDR, PDR and MaxRates vary |\r
-| | | | intermittently from 3% to 5% across multiple test executions. |\r
-| | | | Requires plugin code bisecting. |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| 5 | rls1801 generic small performance regression | CSIT-926 | Generic performance regression of discovered NDR, PDR and |\r
-| | ip4base, l2xcbase, l2bdbase | | MaxRates of -3%..-1% vs. rls1710, affects ip4base, l2xcbase, |\r
-| | | | l2bdbase test suites. Not detected by CSIT performance trending |\r
-| | | | scheme as it was masked out by another issue CSIT-925. |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
-| 6 | rls1801 substantial NDR/PDR regression for | CSIT-928 | NDR regression of -7%..-15%, PDR regression of -3%..-15% |\r
-| | IPSec tunnel scale with HW QAT crypto-dev | | compared to rls1710. |\r
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+\r
+Release Notes
+=============
+
+Changes in |csit-release|
+-------------------------
+
+#. VPP PERFORMANCE TESTS
+
+ - **Intel Xeon 2n-skx, 3n-skx and 2n-clx testbeds**: VPP performance
+ test data is not included in this report version. This is due to
+ the lower performance and behaviour inconsistency of these
+ systems following the upgrade of processor microcode packages
+ (skx ucode 0x2000064, clx ucode 0x500002c), done as part of
+ updating Ubuntu 18.04 LTS kernel version. Tested VPP and DPDK
+ applications (L3fwd) are affected. Skx and Clx test data will be
+ added in subsequent maintenance report version(s) once the issue
+ is resolved. See :ref:`vpp_known_issues`.
+
+ - **Service density 2n-skx tests**: Added new NF density tests with
+ IPsec encryption between DUTs.
+
+ - **AVF tests**: Full test coveraged based on code changes in CSIT
+ core layer (driver/interface awareness) and generated by suite
+ generator (Intel Fortville NICs only).
+
+ - **Hoststack tests**: Major refactor of VPP Hoststack TCP/IP
+ performance tests using WRK generator talking to the VPP HTTP
+ static server plugin measuring connections per second and
+ requests per second. Added new iperf3 with LDPreload tests,
+ iperf3/LDPreload tests with packet loss induced via the VPP NSIM
+ (Network Simulator) plugin, and QUIC/UDP/IP transport tests.
+ All of the new tests measure goodput through the VPP Hoststack
+ from client to server.
+
+ - **Latency HDRHistogram**: Added High Dynamic Range Histogram
+ latency measurements based on the new capability in TRex traffic
+ generator. HDRH latency data presented in latency packet
+ percentile graphs and in detailed results tables.
+
+ - **Mellanox CX556A-EDAT tests**: Added tests with Mellanox
+ ConnectX5-2p100GE NICs in 2n-clx testbeds using VPP native rdma
+ driver.
+
+ - **IPsec reconfiguration tests**: Added tests measuring the impact
+ of IPsec tunnels creations and removals.
+
+ - **Load Balancer tests**: Added VPP performance tests for Maglev,
+ L3DSR (Direct Server Return), Layer 4 Load Balancing NAT Mode.
+
+#. TEST FRAMEWORK
+
+ - **CSIT Python3 support**: Full migration of CSIT from Python2.7 to
+ Python3.6. This change includes library migration, PIP dependency
+ upgrade, CSIT container images, infrastructure packages
+ ugrade/installation.
+
+ - **CSIT PAPI support**: Finished conversion of CSIT VAT L1 keywords
+ to PAPI L1 KWs in CSIT using VPP Python bindings (VPP PAPI).
+ Redesign of key components of PAPI Socket Executor and PAPI
+ history. Due to issues with PAPI performance, VAT is still used
+ in CSIT for all VPP scale tests. See known issues below.
+
+ - **Test Suite Generator**: Added capability to generate suites for
+ different drivers per NIC model including DPDK, AVF, RDMA.
+ Extended coverage for all tests.
+
+ - **General Code Housekeeping**: Ongoing RF keywords optimizations,
+ removal of redundant RF keywords and aligning of suite/test
+ setup/teardowns.
+
+#. TEST ENVIRONMENT
+
+ - **TRex Fortville NIC Performance**: Received FVL fix from Intel
+ resolving TRex low throughput issue. TRex per FVL NIC throughput
+ increased from ~27 Mpps to the nominal ~37 Mpps. For detail see
+ `CSIT-1503 <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1503>`_ and `TRex-519
+ <https://trex-tgn.cisco.com/youtrack/issue/trex-519>`_].
+
+ - **New Intel Xeon Cascadelake Testbeds**: Added performance tests
+ for 2-Node-Cascadelake (2n-clx) testbeds with x710, xxv710 and
+ cx556a-edat NIC cards.
+
+#. PRESENTATION AND ANALYTICS LAYER
+
+ - **Graphs layout improvements**: Improved performance graphs layout
+ for better readibility and maintenance: test grouping, axis
+ labels, descriptions, other informative decoration.
+
+ - **Latency graphs**: Min/Avg/Max group bar latency graphs are
+ replaced with packet latency percentile distributon at different
+ background packet loads based on TRex latency hdrhistogram
+ measurements.
+
+..
+ // Alternative Note for 1st Bullet when bad microcode Skx, Clx results are published
+ - **Intel Xeon 2n-skx, 3n-skx and 2n-clx testbeds**: VPP performance
+ test data is included in this report version, but it shows lower
+ performance and behaviour inconsistency of these systems
+ following the upgrade of processor microcode packages (skx ucode
+ 0x2000064, clx ucode 0x500002c) as part of updating Ubuntu 18.04
+ LTS kernel version. Tested VPP and DPDK applications (L3fwd) are
+ affected. Skx and Clx test data will be corrected in subsequent
+ maintenance report version(s) once the issue is resolved. See
+ :ref:`vpp_known_issues`.
+
+.. raw:: latex
+
+ \clearpage
+
+.. _vpp_known_issues:
+
+Known Issues
+------------
+
+List of known issues in |csit-release| for VPP performance tests:
+
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| # | JiraID | Issue Description |
++====+=========================================+===========================================================================================================+
+| 1 | `CSIT-570 | Sporadic (1 in 200) NDR discovery test failures on x520. DPDK reporting rx-errors, indicating L1 issue. |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-570>`_ | Suspected issue with HW combination of X710-X520 in LF testbeds. Not observed outside of LF testbeds. |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 2 | `VPP-662 | 9000B packets not supported by NICs VIC1227 and VIC1387. |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-662>`_ | |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 3 | `CSIT-1498 | Memif tests are sporadically failing on initialization of memif connection. |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1498>`_ | |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 4 | `VPP-1677 | 9000B ip4 nat44: VPP crash + coredump. |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1677>`_ | VPP crashes very often in case that NAT44 is configured and it has to process IP4 jumbo frames (9000B). |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 5 | `CSIT-1591 | All CSIT scale tests can not use PAPI due to much slower performance compared to VAT/CLI (it takes much |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1499>`_ | longer to program VPP). This needs to be addressed on the PAPI side. |
+| +-----------------------------------------+ |
+| | `VPP-1763 | |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1763>`_ | |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 6 | `VPP-1675 | IPv4 IPSEC 9000B packet tests are failing as no packet is forwarded. |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1675>`_ | Reason: chained buffers are not supported. |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 7 | `CSIT-1593 | IPv4 AVF 9000B packet tests are failing on 3n-skx while passing on 2n-skx. |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1593>`_ | |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| 8 | `CSIT-1675 | Intel Xeon 2n-skx, 3n-skx and 2n-clx testbeds behaviour and performance became inconsistent following |
+| | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1675>`_ | the upgrade to the latest Ubuntu 18.04 LTS kernel version (4.15.0-72-generic) and associated microcode |
+| | | packages (skx ucode 0x2000064, clx ucode 0x500002c). VPP as well as DPDK L3fwd tests are affected. |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+