report: update to vpp performance release notes
[csit.git] / docs / report / vpp_performance_tests / csit_release_notes.rst
index 1954ad1..4f986eb 100644 (file)
+.. _vpp_performance_tests_release_notes:
+
 Release Notes
 =============
 
-Changes in CSIT |release|
+Changes in |csit-release|
 -------------------------
 
-#. **VPP performance tests**
-
-   - *MRR tests* - New Maximum Receive Rate tests measure the packet
-     forwarding rate under the maximum load offered by traffic
-     generator over a set trial duration, regardless of packet loss.
-     MRR tests are used for continuous performance trending and for
-     comparison between releases.
-
-   - *Service Chaining with SRv6* - New SRv6 (Segment Routing IPv6) proxy
-     tests measure performance of SRv6 Endpoint fronting SR-unaware
-     appliance via masquerading (End.AM), dynamic proxy (End.AD) or
-     static proxy (End.AS) SR functions.
-
-#. **Presentation and Analytics Layer**
-
-   - *Performance trending* - Added continuous performance trending and
-     analysis. New Performance Trending and Performance Analysis jobs
-     executed regular throughput tests, with results being subsequently
-     analysed and trend and anomalies summarized and presented in VPP
-     Performance Dashboard and trendline graphs.
-
-#. **Test Framework Optimizations**
-
-   - *Performance tests efficiency* - Qemu build/install optimizations,
-     warmup phase handling, vpp restart handling. Resulted in improved
-     stability and reduced total execution time by 30% for single pkt
-     size e.g. 64B/78B.
-
-   - *General code housekeeping* - ongoing RF keywords optimizations,
-     removal of redundant RF keywords.
-
-Performance Changes
--------------------
-
-Relative performance changes in measured packet throughput in CSIT
-|release| are calculated against the results from CSIT |release-1|
-report. Listed mean and standard deviation values are computed based on
-a series of the same tests executed against respective VPP releases to
-verify test results repeatibility, with percentage change calculated for
-mean values. Note that the standard deviation is quite high for a small
-number of packet throughput tests, what indicates poor test results
-repeatability and makes the relative change of mean throughput value not
-fully representative for these tests. The root causes behind poor
-results repeatibility vary between the test cases.
-
-NDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-NDR small packet throughput changes between releases are available in a
-CSV and pretty ASCII formats:
-
-  - `csv format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-ndr.csv>`_,
-  - `csv format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-ndr.csv>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-ndr.txt>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-ndr.txt>`_.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance jobs`_ with Robot Framework result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-PDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-NDR small packet throughput changes between releases are available in a
-CSV and pretty ASCII formats:
-
-  - `csv format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-pdr.csv>`_,
-  - `csv format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-pdr.csv>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-pdr.txt>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-pdr.txt>`_.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance jobs`_ with Robot Framework result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-MRR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-MRR small packet throughput changes between releases are available in a
-CSV and pretty ASCII formats:
+#. VPP PERFORMANCE TESTS
 
-  - `csv format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `csv format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `csv format for 4t4c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-4t4c-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 1t1c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-mrr.txt>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 2t2c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-mrr.txt>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for 4t4c <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-4t4c-mrr.txt>`_.
+   - **Intel Xeon Ice Lake**: Performance test data for these platforms
+     continues to be provided by external Intel benchmarking labs
+     executing |csit-release| tests. For details about the physical
+     setup see :ref:`tested_physical_topologies`.
 
-.. note::
+   - **AWS EC2 c5n**: Performance test data for AWS c5n instances has
+     been added to report for ip4, ip6 and ipsec tests.
 
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp mrr jobs <https://jenkins.fd.io/view/csit/job/csit-vpp-perf-mrr-daily-master/>`_
-    with Robot Framework result files csit-vpp-perf-mrr-daily-master__*__output.xml.gz
-    `archived here <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/_static/archive/>`_.
+   - **Reduction of tests**: Removed certain test variations executed
+     iteratively for the report (as well as in daily and weekly
+     trending) due to physical testbeds overload.
 
-Comparison Across Testbeds
---------------------------
+#. TEST FRAMEWORK
 
-.. warning::
+   - **CSIT test environment** version has been updated to ver. 8, see
+     :ref:`test_environment_versioning`.
 
-    TODO: Add:
+   - **CSIT in AWS environment**: Completed CSIT automation support for
+     AWS c5n instances environment, including weekly performance 
+     trending tests execution.
 
-    Table 1.
-    Test Case     3-Node Hsw    3-Node Skx    Skx vs. Hsw Delta [%]
+   - **CSIT PAPI support**: Due to issues with PAPI performance, and
+     deprecation of VAT, CLI is used in CSIT for many VPP scale tests.
+     See known issues below.
 
-    Table 2.
-    Test Case     3-Node Skx    2-Node Skx    2-Node vs. 3-Node Delta [%]
+   - **General Code Housekeeping**: Ongoing code optimizations and bug
+     fixes.
 
-Throughput Trending
--------------------
+#. PRESENTATION AND ANALYTICS LAYER
 
-In addition to reporting throughput changes between VPP releases, CSIT
-provides continuous performance trending for VPP master branch:
+   - **Graphs improvements**: Updated Packet Latency graphs,
+     see :ref:`latency_methodology`.
 
-#. `VPP Performance Dashboard <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/introduction/index.html>`_
-   - per VPP test case throughput trend, trend compliance and summary of
-   detected anomalies.
+.. raw:: latex
 
-#. `Trending Methodology <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/methodology/index.html>`_
-   - throughput test metrics, trend calculations and anomaly
-   classification (progression, regression, outlier).
+    \clearpage
 
-#. `Trendline Graphs <https://docs.fd.io/csit/master/trending/trending/index.html>`_
-   - per VPP build MRR throughput measurements against the trendline
-   with anomaly highlights, with associated CSIT test jobs.
+.. _vpp_known_issues:
 
 Known Issues
 ------------
 
-List of known issues in CSIT |release| for VPP performance tests:
-
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| # | Issue                                           | Jira ID    | Description                                                     |
-+===+=================================================+============+=================================================================+
-| 1 | Sporadic (1 in 200) NDR discovery test failures | CSIT-570   | DPDK reporting rx-errors, indicating L1 issue. Suspected issue  |
-|   | on x520.                                        |            | with HW combination of X710-X520 in LF testbeds. Not observed   |
-|   |                                                 |            | outside of LF testbeds.                                         |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 2 | Lower than expected NDR throughput of DPDK      | CSIT-571   | Suspected NIC firmware or DPDK driver issue affecting NDR and   |
-|   | testpmd and VPP L2 path NDR throughput with     |            | PDR throughput on XL710 and X710 NICs.                          |
-|   | xl710 and x710 NICs, compared to x520 NICs.     |            |                                                                 |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 3 | Tagged Ethernet dot1q and dot1ad L2 path        | CSIT-1066  | Tagged Ethernet dot1q and dot1ad L2 path throughput regression: |
-|   | throughput regression.                          |            | NDR -2%..-5%, PDR -2%..-6%, MRR. Affects l2xc and l2bd          |
-|   |                                                 |            | performance tests.                                              |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 4 | IPSec (software, no QAT HW) throughput          | CSIT-1064  | IPSec throughput regression: NDR -3%..-8%, PDR -2%..-8%, MRR    |
-|   | regression.                                     |            | -3%..-7%. Affects IPSec SW tests, QAT HW tests not affected.    |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 5 | High failure rate of creating working container | CSIT-1065  | About 20% of orchestrated container topology tests failing data |
-|   | topologies with K8s/Ligato orchestration.       |            | plane verification indicating configuration issue. Suspected    |
-|   |                                                 |            | issue with Ligato vpp-agent.                                    |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+List of known issues in |csit-release| for VPP performance tests:
+
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| #  | JiraID                                  | Issue Description                                                                                         |
++====+=========================================+===========================================================================================================+
+|  1 | `CSIT-1782                              | Multicore AVF tests are failing when trying to create interface. The issue persists after FVL FW upgrade. |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1782>`_ |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  2 | `CSIT-1763                              | Adapt ramp-up phase of nat44 tests for different frame sizes.                                             |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1763>`_ | Currently ramp-up phase rate and duration values are correctly set for tests with 64B frame size.         |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  3 | `CSIT-1671                              | 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-1671>`_ | longer to program VPP). This needs to be addressed on the PAPI side.                                      |
+|    +-----------------------------------------+ The usual PAPI library spends too much time parsing arguments, so even with async processing (hundreds of |
+|    | `VPP-1763                               | commands in flight over socket), the VPP configuration for large scale tests (millions of messages) takes |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1763>`_  | too long.                                                                                                 |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  4 | `CSIT-1789                              | AVF driver does not perform RSS in a deterministic way.                                                   |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1789>`_ | This increases standard deviation of tests with small number of flows (mainly ipsec).                     |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  5 | `CSIT-1780                              | IPSEC SW async scheduler MRR tests failing with no traffic forwarded.                                     |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1780>`_ |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  6 | `CSIT-1786                              | IP4 and IP6 scale tests failing with no traffic forwarded.                                                |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1786>`_ | Issue reported to VPP devs.                                                                               |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  7 | `CSIT-1785                              | NAT44ED tests failing to establish all TCP sessions.                                                      |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1785>`_ |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|  8 | `CSIT-1791                              | Performance regression in RDMA tests, due to CSIT environment changes.                                    |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1791>`_ |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+Root Cause Analysis for Performance Changes
+-------------------------------------------
+
+List of RCAs in |csit-release| for VPP performance changes:
+
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| #  | JiraID                                  | Issue Description                                                                                         |
++====+=========================================+===========================================================================================================+
+|  1 | `VPP-1972                               | One VPP change has decreased performance of NAT44ed processing, mostly slow path.                         |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1972>`_  |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+