report: update to vpp performance release notes
[csit.git] / docs / report / vpp_performance_tests / csit_release_notes.rst
index c9df547..4f986eb 100644 (file)
+.. _vpp_performance_tests_release_notes:
+
 Release Notes
 =============
 
 Changes in |csit-release|
 -------------------------
 
-#. **VPP Performance Tests**
-
-   - **MRR Throughput**: MRR (Maximum Receive Rate) test code has now
-     configurable trial duration and number of consecutive executions.
-     Coverage of MRR tests has been extended across more test
-     scenarios. MRR tests are used for continuous performance trending
-     and for comparison between VPP releases.
-
-   - **MLRsearch Throughput**: MLRsearch algorithm has been introduced
-     for all NDR and PDR throughput tests. All tests that previously
-     used binary search got converted to MLRsearch. Coverage of NDR/PDR
-     tests has been extended across more test scenarios.
-
-   - **L2patch Tests**: Tests measure performance of VPP L2patch, the
-     fastest L2 forwarding path implemented in VPP, that cross-links
-     RX and TX of two physical interfaces.
-
-   - **2-Node Tests**: A new baseline set of 2-node tests covering base
-     ip4, ip6, l2patch, l2bd, l2xc, running on new Xeon Skylake
-     testbeds.
-
-   - **Generated tests**: Simplified and unified test structure, semi-
-     autogenerated by generator script. Test generator is currently
-     able to create test combinations with various frame size and
-     cores combinations. All existing test cases were converted to new
-     format.
-
-   - **Simultaneous Multi-Threading**: SMT-aware detection of server
-     processor operation mode (HyperThreading enabled/disabled) with
-     associated compute resource configuration including thread
-     affinity, number of Rx queues and DPDK I/O mbufs. Tests are
-     automatically tagged during execution to indicate executed thread
-     configuration.
-
-   - **Intel Xeon Skylake Support**: Support for 2-Node and 3-Node
-     physical testbed topologies based on the new SuperMirco servers
-     each with two Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum processors. Full
-     Ansible playbooks refactor for quick server (re)installation and
-     reference pointers of configuration.
-
-#. **Presentation and Analytics Layer**
-
-   - **Performance trending**: Further improved continuous performance
-     trending with anomaly detection and analysis.
-
-#. **Test Framework Optimizations**
-
-   - **General Code Housekeeping**: Ongoing RF keywords optimizations,
-     removal of redundant RF keywords.
-
-Performance Changes
--------------------
-
-Relative performance changes in measured NDR, PDR and MRR packet
-throughput in |csit-release| are calculated against the test results
-from |csit-release-1| report, for tests running on 3-Node Intel Xeon
-Haswell testbeds (3n-hsw) in 1-core, 2-core and 4-core (MRR only)
-configurations.
-
-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 repeatability, 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 repeatability vary between the test cases.
-
-NDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-NDR throughput changes between releases are available in CSV and pretty
-ASCII formats:
-
-  - `CSV 1t1c NDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-ndr.csv>`_,
-  - `CSV 2t2c NDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-ndr.csv>`_,
-  - `ASCII 1t1c NDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-ndr.txt>`_,
-  - `ASCII 2t2c NDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-ndr.txt>`_.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-hsw`_,
-    with RF result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-PDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-PDR throughput changes between releases are available in CSV and pretty
-ASCII formats:
-
-  - `CSV 1t1c PDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-pdr.csv>`_,
-  - `CSV 2t2c PDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-pdr.csv>`_,
-  - `ASCII 1t1c PDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-pdr.txt>`_,
-  - `ASCII 2t2c PDR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-pdr.txt>`_.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-hsw`_,
-    with RF result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-MRR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-MRR throughput changes between releases are available in CSV and pretty
-ASCII formats:
-
-  - `CSV 1t1c MRR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `CSV 2t2c MRR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `CSV 4t4c MRR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-4t4c-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `ASCII 1t1c MRR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-1t1c-mrr.txt>`_,
-  - `ASCII 2t2c MRR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-2t2c-mrr.txt>`_,
-  - `ASCII 4t4c MRR changes <../_static/vpp/performance-changes-4t4c-mrr.txt>`_.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-hsw`_,
-    with RF result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-Skx vs. Hsw Comparison
-----------------------
-
-Relative performance comparison in measured NDR, PDR and MRR packet
-throughput is calculated for tests executed on 3-Node Skylake (3n-skx)
-and 3-Node Haswell (3n-hsw) physical testbed types in 1-core
-configurations.
-
-NDR Comparison
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-NDR comparison between testbed types is available in CSV and pretty
-ASCII formats:
-
-  - `CSV 1c NDR comparison <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-ndr.csv>`_,
-  - `ASCII 1c NDR comparison <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-ndr.txt>`_.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-hsw`_ and
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-skx`_
-    with RF result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-PDR Comparison
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-PDR comparison between testbed types is available in CSV and pretty
-ASCII formats:
+#. VPP PERFORMANCE TESTS
 
-  - `CSV 1c PDR comparison <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-pdr.csv>`_,
-  - `ASCII 1c PDR comparison <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-pdr.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 performance job 3n-hsw`_ and
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-skx`_
-    with RF result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_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.
 
-MRR Comparison
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+#. TEST FRAMEWORK
 
-MRR comparison between testbed types is available in CSV and pretty
-ASCII formats:
+   - **CSIT test environment** version has been updated to ver. 8, see
+     :ref:`test_environment_versioning`.
 
-  - `CSV 1c MRR comparison <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `ASCII 1c MRR comparison <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-mrr.txt>`_.
+   - **CSIT in AWS environment**: Completed CSIT automation support for
+     AWS c5n instances environment, including weekly performance 
+     trending tests execution.
 
-.. note::
+   - **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.
 
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-hsw`_ and
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-skx`_
-    with RF result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
+   - **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:
 
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-| # | 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-1361                               | High failure rate of api call sw_interface_set_flags [admin-up|link-up].                                                        |
-|   | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1361>`_  | Failure rate: 30-40% of tests failing due to interfaces not in link-up state after API call sw_interface_set_flags.             |
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 3 | `CSIT-1234                              | VPP IPSecHW scale interface mode 1core, low NDR and PDR 64B throughput in 3n-hsw testbeds, in CSIT-18.07 vs. CSIT-18.04.        |
-|   | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1234>`_ | ip4ipsecscale1000tnl-ip4base-int 1core CSIT-18.07/18.04 relative change: NDR -31%, PDR -32%, MRR -38%.                          |
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 4 | `CSIT-1242                              | VPP xl710 ip4base test 1core, low NDR and PDR 64B throughput in 3n-hsw testbeds, in CSIT-18.07 vs. CSIT-18.04.                  |
-|   | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1242>`_ | xl710 ip4base 1core CSIT-18.07/18.04 relative change: NDR -29%, high stdev.                                                     |
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 5 | `CSIT-1243                              | VPP nat44 base test 2core, low NDR and PDR 64B throughput in 3n-skx testbeds, compared to 3n-hsw testbeds.                      |
-|   | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1243>`_ | ip4base-nat44 2core 3n-skx/3n-hsw relative change: NDR -19%, PDR -22%.                                                          |
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 6 | `CSIT-1244                              | VPP lispip4 base test 2core, low NDR and PDR 64B throughput in 3n-skx testbeds, compared to 3n-hsw testbeds.                    |
-|   | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1244>`_ | ip4lispip4-ip4base 2core 3n-skx/3n-hsw relative change: NDR -11%, PDR -18%.                                                     |
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 7 | `CSIT-1245                              | VPP srv6proxy-stat and srv6proxy-masq, much higher NDR and PDR 78B throughput in 3n-hsw testbeds, in CSIT-18.07 vs. CSIT-18.04. |
-|   | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1245>`_ | Due to wrong test suite configuration in dynamic-proxy mode. Artefact of suite code refactoring.                                |
-+---+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| #  | 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>`_  |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+