Run vDNS VNF/CNF tests and collect results

[lixuna]

Tasks:

• [x] physical hardware specs
• [x] Add environment specs
• [x] Add software specs for testing (eg. kernel, KVM and docker version)
• [x] Add information regarding running the tests (eg. clear the system cache then run this command)
• [x] Add test results including attachments and details
• [ ] add/remove cores to see the difference in results for
  • [x] CNF test
  • [x] VNF test
  • [x] summarize differences seen (eg. affect on memory, cpu utilization, throughput)
• [x] summarize overall results

Details:

• [x] Physical server info (eg. cpu, memory, disk)
• [x] Host OS used
• [x] kernel version
• [x] Host OS settings like hugepages
• [x] KVM version
• [x] libvirt version
• [x] VM settings
• [x] vagrant version

[taylor]

Physical server details:

• Server at Packet.net
• Type: c1.xlarge.x86
• HARDWARE
  • CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2640 v4 @ 2.40GHz
  • RAM: 128GB
  • DISK: 2 x 120GB SSD, 1 x 1.6TB NVME
  • NIC: 2 x 10Gbps Bonded Ports
• Facility: SJC1

From lscpu and Packet.net system overview

Packet instance id 2f11ef1a-7e5f-4a01-a89c-1f612eccdeaf

[taylor]

Ubuntu: Kernel version: 4.15.0-20-generic

root@cnfdev06:~/cnfs/comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker/vDNS/build# uname -a                                                                                                                 
Linux cnfdev06.cncf.ci 4.15.0-20-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 24 06:16:15 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

root@cnfdev06:~/cnfs/comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker/vDNS/build# cat /etc/os-release                                                                                                      
NAME="Ubuntu"                                                                                                                                                                              
VERSION="18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)"                                                                                                                                                        
ID=ubuntu                                                                                                                                                                                  
ID_LIKE=debian                                                                                                                                                                             
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04 LTS"                                                                                                                                                             
VERSION_ID="18.04"                                                                                                                                                                         
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"                                                                                                                                                         
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"                                                                                                                                                     
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"                                                                                                                                        
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"                                                                                                        
VERSION_CODENAME=bionic                                                                                                                                                                    
UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic 

[taylor]

Moved detailed check list to top of issue

[taylor]

libvirt version: 4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3 vagrant version: 2.1.1

root@cnfdev07:~/cnfs# vagrant --version
Vagrant 2.1.1

root@cnfdev06:~/cnfs/comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker/vDNS/build# dpkg -l |grep virt                                                                                                      
ii  libsys-virt-perl                      4.0.0-1                              amd64        Perl module providing an extension for the libvirt library                                    
ii  libvirt-bin                           4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        programs for the libvirt library                                                              
ii  libvirt-clients                       4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        Programs for the libvirt library                                                              
ii  libvirt-daemon                        4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        Virtualization daemon                                                                         
ii  libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-rbd     4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        Virtualization daemon RBD storage driver                                                      
ii  libvirt-daemon-system                 4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        Libvirt daemon configuration files                                                            
ii  libvirt-dev:amd64                     4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        development files for the libvirt library                                                     
ii  libvirt0:amd64                        4.0.0-1ubuntu8.3                     amd64        library for interfacing with different virtualization systems   

[michaelspedersen]

Some additional info on libvirt and virtualization:

root@cnfdev07:~# virsh version
Compiled against library: libvirt 4.0.0
Using library: libvirt 4.0.0
Using API: QEMU 4.0.0
Running hypervisor: QEMU 2.11.1

[taylor]

CPU info:

root@cnfdev07:~/cnfs# lscpu                                                                                                                                                
Architecture:        x86_64                                                                                                                                                
CPU op-mode(s):      32-bit, 64-bit                                                                                                                                        
Byte Order:          Little Endian                                                                                                                                         
CPU(s):              40                                                                                                                                                    
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-39                                                                                                                                                  
Thread(s) per core:  2                                                                                                                                                     
Core(s) per socket:  10                                                                                                                                                    
Socket(s):           2                                                                                                                                                     
NUMA node(s):        2                                                                                                                                                     
Vendor ID:           GenuineIntel                                                                                                                                          
CPU family:          6                                                                                                                                                     
Model:               79                                                                                                                                                    
Model name:          Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2640 v4 @ 2.40GHz                                                                                                             
Stepping:            1                                                                                                                                                     
CPU MHz:             1201.651                                                                                                                                              
CPU max MHz:         3400.0000                                                                                                                                             
CPU min MHz:         1200.0000                                                                                                                                             
BogoMIPS:            4800.17                                                                                                                                               
Virtualization:      VT-x                                                                                                                                                  
L1d cache:           32K                                                                                                                                                   
L1i cache:           32K                                                                                                                                                   
L2 cache:            256K                                                                                                                                                  
L3 cache:            25600K                                                                                                                                                
NUMA node0 CPU(s):   0-9,20-29                                                                                                                                             
NUMA node1 CPU(s):   10-19,30-39                                                                                                                                           
Flags:               fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm c
onstant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pc
id dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault epb cat_l3 cdp_l3 invpcid_single pti intel_ppin tpr_shadow vnmi fl
expriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm cqm rdt_a rdseed adx smap intel_pt xsaveopt cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_lo
cal dtherm ida arat pln pts  

[michaelspedersen]

Container environment:

• Network:
  • Single subnet, 40.30.20.0/24 "dns-net"
  • Manually created and attached to containers
• vDNS:
  • Created through Docker
  • Privileged
  • Limited to 4 cores (--cpus 4 --cpuset-cpus 5-8)

VM environment:

• Network:
  • Single subnet, 40.30.20.0/24
  • Created at runtime by Vagrant
• vDNS:
  • Created through Vagrant (libvirt)
  • Privileged
  • 4 cores
  • 8Gb memory
  • 1Gb storage
  • No modifications to kernel parameters, i.e. isolcpus, nohz_full and rcu_nocbs

[michaelspedersen]

Container test:

• Run test:
  • Path: comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker
  • Command: ./vDNS_container_test.sh <packets per second, per iteration>
• Steps performed:
  • [vDNS] Build base-image (vdns) if necessary
  • [vDNS] Create network (dns-net) if necessary
  • [vDNS] Create vDNS container (vDNS) if necessary
  • [vDNS] Connect network (dns-net) to container (vDNS)
  • [vDNS] Start container (vDNS)
  • [vDNSgen] Build base-image (vdnsgen) if necessary
  • [vDNSgen] Create network (dns-net) if necessary (for standalone use)
  • [vDNSgen] Create/Run container (vDNSgen) if necessary
  • [vDNSgen] Connect network (dns-net) to container (vDNSgen)
  • [vDNSgen] Apply configuration to container (vDNSgen)
  • [vDNSgen] Run performance (throughput) test in container (vDNSgen)
• Cleanup:
  • Remove containers: docker rm <vDNS/vDNSgen> <-f>
  • Remove images: docker image rm <vdns/vdnsgen>
  • Remove network: docker network rm dns-net

VM test:

• Run test:
  • Path: comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker
  • Command: ./vDNS_vm_test.sh <packets per second, per iteration>
• Prerequisites:
  • Build vDNS base-image "box" (vdns) with configuration applied
  • Path: comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker/vDNS/build
  • Command: ./build_vm.sh
• Steps performed:
  • [vDNS] Provision VM (vDNS) using base-image (vdns)
  • [vDNSgen] Build image (vdnsgen), provision and configure VM (vDNSgen)
  • [vDNSgen] Run performance (throughput) test in VM (vDNSgen)
• Cleanup:
  • Run commands in vDNS/vDNSgen directories comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker/<vDNS/vDNSgen>
  • Remove VMs: vagrant destroy -f
  • [vDNS] Remove base-image "box": vagrant box remove vDNS

[michaelspedersen]

Output (using 4 core vDNS):

• Container:
  • Throughput: ~172K packets per second
  • RSS (Resident Set Size, memory): ~33.93 MB
• VM:
  • Throughput: ~140K packets per second
  • RSS: ~888.5 MB

Notes:

• Throughput is based on the maximum seen across multiple tests (small variations were seen across runs).
• RSS values are collected from statistics available in Docker (container) and Libvirt (VM)
  • Container: cat /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/docker/<vDNS container ID>/memory.stat | grep rss (byte)
  • VM: virsh dommemstat <vDNS VM ID> | grep rss (kibibyte)

[taylor]

Packet generator VM uses hugepages as a requirement for DPDK portion of VPP.

We are allocating 2048kB pages.

https://github.com/cncf/cnfs/blob/master/comparison/box-by-box-kvm-docker/install_docker_prereqs.sh#L24

   echo 2048 > /sys/devices/system/node/${i}/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages
   mount -t hugetlbfs -o pagesize=2M none /dev/hugepages

[taylor]

CPU core isolation

• pinned for container (sees all cpus)
• KVM is selecting cores for VM and cores for host

[michaelspedersen]

[Container] vDNS Additional Results

• 2 core vDNS

  • RSS: 33.54 MB
  • Throughput: ~100K pps

• 1 core vDNS

  • RSS: 33.54 MB
  • Throughput: ~54K pps

[VM] vDNS Additional Results

• 2 core vDNS

  • RSS: 865.41 MB
  • Throughput: ~106K pps

• 1 core vDNS

  • RSS: 862.95 MB
  • Throughput: ~53K pps

---

Performance (throughput) between VNF and CNF using 1-2 cores is very similar for the vDNS NF. The biggest difference is in the RSS (memory usage), where CNF uses a lot less memory (great with current prices on RAM)

Also, somewhat as expected, there is a slight drop-off in performance when adding more cores.

To draw some sort of conclusion:

If your primary and most expensive resource is CPU cores, then it might be better to spawn additional VNFs/CNFs with a lower number of cores, e.g. 2.

If on the other hand you are more worried about memory, it is possible to scale the number of cores used in a single VNF/CNF to gain a very reasonable performance increase, without having to worry about additional memory being used