report: update vpp rls notes with trex latency measurement issue for FVL NICs
[csit.git] / docs / report / vpp_performance_tests / csit_release_notes.rst
index 6ac7fcd..f4e5f25 100644 (file)
+.. _vpp_performance_tests_release_notes:
+
 Release Notes
 =============
 
 Changes in |csit-release|
 -------------------------
 
-#. **VPP performance tests**
-
-   - *MRR tests* - 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.
-
-   - *MLR tests* - NDR and PDR tests measure the packet forwarding rate using
-     MLRsearch library by traffic generator. All tests that previously used
-     binary search were converted to MLRsearch.
-
-   - *L2patch tests* - Tests measure performance of L2patch, cross linking
-     RX and TX of two physical interfaces.
-
-   - *2-node tests* - Baseline set of 2-node tests covering base ip4, ip6,
-     l2patch, l2bd, l2xc.
-
-   - *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 multithreading* - SMT-aware automatic detection and
-     resource configuration including thread affinity, number of rx queues and
-     DPDK I/O mbufs. Tests are automatically tagged during execution indicating
-     configuration.
-
-   - *Intel Skylake* - Topologies consisting of 2-node and 3-node using
-     SuperMirco servers each equipped 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* - 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**
-
-   - *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 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 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 job 3n-hsw`_,
-    with Robot Framework result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
-
-PDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-PDR 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 job 3n-hsw`_,
-    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:
-
-  - `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>`_.
-
-.. note::
+#. VPP PERFORMANCE TESTS
 
-    Test results have been generated by
-    `FD.io test executor vpp performance job 3n-hsw`_,
-    with Robot Framework result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
+   - **AF_XDP**: Added af_xdp driver support for all test cases. Test
+     results will be added in sub-sequent CSIT-2106 report.
 
-Comparison Across Testbeds
---------------------------
+   - **GTPU tunnel**: Added GTPU HW Offload IPv4 routing tests.
 
-Relative performance changes in measured packet throughputon 3-Node Skx testbed
-are calculated against the results measured on 3-Node Hsw testbed.
+   - **Intel Xeon Ice Lake**: Added initial test data for these
+     platforms. Current CSIT-2106 report data for Intel Xeon Ice Lake
+     comes from an external source (Intel labs running CSIT code on
+     "8360Y D Stepping" and "6338N" processors). For details about the
+     physical setup see :ref:`tested_physical_topologies`. Tested
+     VPP and CSIT versions are pre-release, VPP
+     21.06-rc0~779-gd640ae52f.
 
-NDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
+   - **MLRsearch improvements**: Added support for multiple packet
+     throughput rates in a single search, each rate is associated
+     with a distinct Packet Loss Ratio (PLR) criterion. Previously
+     only Non Drop Rate (NDR) (PLR=0) and single Partial Drop Rate
+     (PDR) (PLR<0.5%) were supported. Implemented number of
+     optimizations improving rate discovery efficiency.
 
-NDR changes between testbeds are available in a
-CSV and pretty ASCII formats:
+   - **Reduction of tests**: Removed obsolete VPP use cases and
+     superfluous test combinations from continuous and report test
+     executions, including:
 
-  - `csv format for ndr <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-ndr.csv>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for ndr <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-ndr.txt>`_.
+     - All vts tests, obsolete use cases.
+     - dot1q tests apart from dot1q-l2bd, superfluous combinations.
+     - -100flows, -100kflows in all acl tests.
+     - nat44 tests
 
-.. note::
+       - -pps tests, replaced by -tput tests.
+       - h1-p1-s1 single session tests, unessential combination.
+       - h4096-p63-s258048 tests, unessential scale combination.
 
-    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 Robot Framework result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
+     - ipsec tests
 
-PDR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
+       - ethip4ipsectptlispgpe.
+       - policy-aes128gcm.
+       - policy-aes128cbc-hmac256sha.
+       - policy-aes128cbc-hmac512sha.
+       - int-aes128cbc-hmac256sha.
+       - scale of
 
-PDR throughput changes between testbeds are available in a
-CSV and pretty ASCII formats:
+         - 400tnlsw.
+         - 5000tnlsw.
+         - 20000tnlsw.
+         - 60000tnlsw.
 
-  - `csv format for pdr <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-pdr.csv>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for pdr <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-pdr.txt>`_.
+#. TEST FRAMEWORK
 
-.. note::
+   - **Telemetry retouch**: Refactored telemetry retrieval from DUTs and
+     SUTs. Included VPP perfmon plugin telemetry with all perfmon
+     bundles available in VPP release.
 
-    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 Robot Framework result
-    files csit-vpp-perf-|srelease|-\*.zip
-    `archived here <../_static/archive/>`_.
+   - **Upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS**: Re-installed base operating system
+     to Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS. Upgrade included also baseline Docker
+     containers used for spawning topology.
 
-MRR Changes
-~~~~~~~~~~~
+   - **TRex upgrade v2.86 to v2.88**: Included move to DPDK 21.02 and
+     changed the way egress low latency queues are used in FVL NICs.
+     This broke latency measurements for majority of FVL NICs in
+     CSIT. Latency values look better after upgrading FVL FW on TRex
+     servers, but still somewhat higher than before the TRex upgrade.
+     Tracked by `CSIT-1790 <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1790>`_.
 
-MRR throughput changes between testbeds are available in a
-CSV and pretty ASCII formats:
+   - **CSIT test environment** version has been updated to ver. 7, see
+     :ref:`test_environment_versioning`.
 
-  - `csv format for mrr <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-mrr.csv>`_,
-  - `pretty ASCII format for mrr <../_static/vpp/performance-compare-testbeds-3n-hsw-3n-skx-mrr.txt>`_.
+   - **CSIT in AWS environment**: Added CSIT support for AWS c5n
+     instances environment. Test results will be added in sub-sequent
+     CSIT-2106 report.
 
-.. note::
+   - **CSIT PAPI support**: Due to issues with PAPI performance, VAT is
+     still used in CSIT for all 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 Robot Framework 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:
 
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| # | 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 | High failure rate of api call                   | VPP-1361   | Failure rate: 30-40% of tests failing due to interfaces not     |
-|   | sw_interface_set_flags [admin-up|link-up]       |            | in link-up state after API call sw_interface_set_flags.         |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-| 3 | Scale IPSecHW Interface mode throughput         | CSIT-1234  | IPSec throughput regression: NDR -28%..-31%, PDR -28%..-31%,    |
-|   | regression.                                     |            | MRR -40%. Affects IPSec HW Scale 1000tnl tests with Int mode.   |
-+---+-------------------------------------------------+------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| #  | JiraID                                  | Issue Description                                                                                         |
++====+=========================================+===========================================================================================================+
+|  1 | `CSIT-1782                              | Multicore AVF tests are failing when trying to create interface.                                          |
+|    | <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-1790                              | Broken TRex latency measurements with TRex v2.88, DPDK 21.02 and FVL FW 6.01.                             |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/CSIT-1790>`_ | High latency O(5msec) for all VPP and testpmd/l3fwd test cases for FVL NICs with FW 6.01.                 |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+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, both slow path and fast path.             |
+|    | <https://jira.fd.io/browse/VPP-1972>`_  |                                                                                                           |
++----+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+