.. _test_environment: Test Environment ================ Physical Testbeds ----------------- FD.io CSIT performance tests are executed in physical testbeds hosted by :abbr:`LF (Linux Foundation)` for FD.io project. Two physical testbed topology types are used: - **3-Node Topology**: Consisting of two servers acting as SUTs (Systems Under Test) and one server as TG (Traffic Generator), all connected in ring topology. - **2-Node Topology**: Consisting of one server acting as SUTs and one server as TG both connected in ring topology. Tested SUT servers are based on a range of processors including Intel Xeon Haswell-SP, Intel Xeon Skylake-SP, Arm, Intel Atom. More detailed description is provided in :ref:`tested_physical_topologies`. Tested logical topologies are described in :ref:`tested_logical_topologies`. Server Specifications --------------------- Complete technical specifications of compute servers used in CSIT physical testbeds are maintained on FD.io wiki pages: `CSIT/Testbeds: Xeon Hsw, VIRL `_ and `CSIT Testbeds: Xeon Skx, Arm, Atom `_. Pre-Test Server Calibration --------------------------- Number of SUT server sub-system runtime parameters have been identified as impacting data plane performance tests. Calibrating those parameters is part of FD.io CSIT pre-test activities, and includes measuring and reporting following: #. System level core jitter – measure duration of core interrupts by Linux in clock cycles and how often interrupts happen. Using `CPU core jitter tool `_. #. Memory bandwidth – measure bandwidth with `Intel MLC tool `_. #. Memory latency – measure memory latency with Intel MLC tool. #. Cache latency at all levels (L1, L2, and Last Level Cache) – measure cache latency with Intel MLC tool. Measured values of listed parameters are especially important for repeatable zero packet loss throughput measurements across multiple system instances. Generally they come useful as a background data for comparing data plane performance results across disparate servers. Following sections include measured calibration data for Intel Xeon Haswell and Intel Xeon Skylake testbeds.