-.. _test_environment:
-
Test Environment
================
-CSIT performance tests are executed on physical testbeds hosted by
-:abbr:`LF (Linux Foundation)` for FD.io project. Each testbed consists of
-either one (2-node) or two (3-node) servers acting as Systems Under Test (SUT)
-and one server acting as Traffic Generator (TG).
+Environment Versioning
+----------------------
+
+In order to determine any benchmark anomalies (progressions,
+regressions) between releases of a specific data-plane DUT application
+(e.g. VPP, DPDK), the DUT needs to be tested in the same test
+environment, to avoid test environment changes impacting the results and
+clouding the picture.
+
+In order to enable test system evolution, a mirror scheme is required to
+determine benchmarking anomalies between releases of specific test
+system like CSIT. This is achieved by testing the same DUT application
+version between releases of CSIT test system.
+
+CSIT test environment versioning scheme ensures integrity of all the
+test system components, including their HW revisions, compiled SW code
+versions and SW source code, within a specific CSIT version. Components
+included in the CSIT environment versioning include:
+
+- Server hosts hardware firmware and BIOS (motherboard, processsor,
+ NIC(s), accelerator card(s)).
+- Server host Linux operating system versions.
+- Server host Linux configuration.
+- TRex Traffic Generator version, drivers and configuration.
+- CSIT framework code.
+
+Following is the list of CSIT versions to date:
+
+- Ver. 1 associated with CSIT rls1908 git branch as of 2019-08-21.
+- Ver. 2 associated with CSIT rls2001 git branch as of 2020-03-27.
+- Ver. 3 interim associated with master branch as of 2020-xx-xx.
+- Ver. 4 associated with CSIT rls2005 git branch as of 2020-06-24.
+
+To identify performance changes due to VPP code changes from v20.01.0 to
+v20.05.0, both have been tested in CSIT environment ver. 4 and compared
+against each other. All substantial progressions has been marked up with
+RCA analysis. See Current vs Previous Release and Known Issues.
+
+CSIT environment ver. 4 has been evaluated against the ver. 2 by
+benchmarking VPP v20.01.0 in both environment versions.
+
+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, Intel Xeon Cascade Lake-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 Specification and Configuration
---------------------------------------
+Server Specifications
+---------------------
-Complete specification and configuration of compute servers used in CSIT
-physical testbeds is maintained on wiki page `CSIT testbed - Server HW
-Configuration (Haswell) <https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/CSIT_LF_testbed>`_ and
-`CSIT testbed - Server HW Configuration (Skylake/ARM)
-<https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/fdio_csit_lab_ext_lld_draft>`_.
+Complete technical specifications of compute servers used in CSIT
+physical testbeds are maintained in FD.io CSIT repository:
+`FD.io CSIT testbeds - Xeon Cascade Lake`_,
+`FD.io CSIT testbeds - Xeon Skylake, Arm, Atom`_ and
+`FD.io CSIT Testbeds - Xeon Haswell`_.
Code Review / csit.git / blobdiff