path: root/docs/guides/quickstart.rst

Getting Started with 'vsperf'
=============================

Hardware Requirements
---------------------

VSPERF requires one of the following traffic generators to run tests:

- IXIA traffic generator (IxNetwork hardware) and a machine that runs the IXIA client software
- Spirent traffic generator (TestCenter hardware chassis or TestCenter virtual in a VM) and a
VM to run the Spirent Virtual Deployment Service image, formerly known as "Spirent LabServer".

Both test configurations, above, also require a CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core) host.

vSwitch Requirements
--------------------

The vSwitch must support Open Flow 1.3 or greater.

Installation
------------

Follow the `installation instructions <installation.html>`__ to install.

IXIA Setup
----------

On the CentOS 7 system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You need to install IxNetworkTclClient$(VER\_NUM)Linux.bin.tgz.

On the IXIA client software system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Find the IxNetwork TCL server app (start -> All Programs -> IXIA ->
IxNetwork -> IxNetwork\_$(VER\_NUM) -> IxNetwork TCL Server)

Right click on IxNetwork TCL Server, select properties - Under shortcut tab in
the Target dialogue box make sure there is the argument "-tclport xxxx"
where xxxx is your port number (take note of this port number you will
need it for the 10\_custom.conf file).

|Alt text|

Hit Ok and start the TCL server application

Spirent Setup
-------------

Spirent installation files and instructions are available on the
Spirent support website at:

http://support.spirent.com

Select a version of Spirent TestCenter software to utilize. This example
will use Spirent TestCenter v4.57 as an example. Substitute the appropriate
version in place of 'v4.57' in the examples, below.

On the CentOS 7 System
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Download and install the following:

Spirent TestCenter Application, v4.57 for 64-bit Linux Client

Spirent Virtual Deployment Service (VDS)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spirent VDS is required for both TestCenter hardware and virtual
chassis in the vsperf environment. For installation, select the version
that matches the Spirent TestCenter Application version. For v4.57,
the matching VDS version is 1.0.55. Download either the ova (VMware)
or qcow2 (QEMU) image and create a VM with it. Initialize the VM
according to Spirent installation instructions.

Using Spirent TestCenter Virtual (STCv)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

STCv is available in both ova (VMware) and qcow2 (QEMU) formats. For
VMware, download:

Spirent TestCenter Virtual Machine for VMware, v4.57 for Hypervisor - VMware ESX.ESXi

Virtual test port performance is affected by the hypervisor configuration. For
best practice results in deploying STCv, the following is suggested:

- Create a single VM with two test ports rather than two VMs with one port each
- Set STCv in DPDK mode
- Give STCv 2*n + 1 cores, where n = the number of ports. For vsperf, cores = 5.
- Turning off hyperthreading and pinning these cores will improve performance
- Give STCv 2 GB of RAM

To get the highest performance and accuracy, Spirent TestCenter hardware is
recommended. vsperf can run with either stype test ports.

Cloning and building src dependencies
-------------------------------------

In order to run VSPERF, you will need to download DPDK and OVS. You can
do this manually and build them in a preferred location, or you could
use vswitchperf/src. The vswitchperf/src directory contains makefiles
that will allow you to clone and build the libraries that VSPERF depends
on, such as DPDK and OVS. To clone and build simply:

  .. code-block:: console

    cd src
    make

VSPERF can be used with OVS without DPDK support. In this case you have
to specify path to the kernel sources by WITH\_LINUX parameter:

  .. code-block:: console

     cd src
     make WITH_LINUX=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

To build DPDK and OVS for PVP and PVVP testing with vhost_user as the guest
access method, use:

  .. code-block:: console

     make VHOST_USER=y

To delete a src subdirectory and its contents to allow you to re-clone simply
use:

  .. code-block:: console

     make clobber

Configure the ``./conf/10_custom.conf`` file
--------------------------------------------

The supplied ``10_custom.conf`` file must be modified, as it contains
configuration items for which there are no reasonable default values.

The configuration items that can be added is not limited to the initial
contents. Any configuration item mentioned in any .conf file in
``./conf`` directory can be added and that item will be overridden by
the custom configuration value.

Using a custom settings file
----------------------------

Alternatively a custom settings file can be passed to ``vsperf`` via the
``--conf-file`` argument.

  .. code-block:: console

    ./vsperf --conf-file <path_to_settings_py> ...

Note that configuration passed in via the environment (``--load-env``)
or via another command line argument will override both the default and
your custom configuration files. This "priority hierarchy" can be
described like so (1 = max priority):

1. Command line arguments
2. Environment variables
3. Configuration file(s)

--------------

Executing tests
---------------

Before running any tests make sure you have root permissions by adding
the following line to /etc/sudoers:

  .. code-block:: console

    username ALL=(ALL)       NOPASSWD: ALL

username in the example above should be replaced with a real username.

To list the available tests:

  .. code-block:: console

    ./vsperf --list-tests

To run a group of tests, for example all tests with a name containing
'RFC2544':

  .. code-block:: console

    ./vsperf --conf-file=user_settings.py --tests="RFC2544"

To run all tests:

  .. code-block:: console

    ./vsperf --conf-file=user_settings.py

Some tests allow for configurable parameters, including test duration
(in seconds) as well as packet sizes (in bytes).

.. code:: bash

    ./vsperf --conf-file user_settings.py
        --tests RFC2544Tput
        --test-param "rfc2544_duration=10;packet_sizes=128"

For all available options, check out the help dialog:

  .. code-block:: console

    ./vsperf --help

Executing PVP and PVVP tests
----------------------------
To run tests using vhost-user as guest access method:

1. Set VHOST_METHOD and VNF of your settings file to:

  .. code-block:: console

   VHOST_METHOD='user'
   VNF = 'QemuDpdkVhost'

2. Recompile src for VHOST USER testing

  .. code-block:: console

     cd src
     make cleanse
     make VHOST_USER=y

3. Run test:

  .. code-block:: console

     ./vsperf --conf-file <path_to_settings_py>

To run tests using vhost-cuse as guest access method:

1. Set VHOST_METHOD and VNF of your settings file to:

  .. code-block:: console

     VHOST_METHOD='cuse'
     VNF = 'QemuDpdkVhostCuse'

2. Recompile src for VHOST USER testing

  .. code-block:: console

     cd src
     make cleanse
     make VHOST_USER=n

3. Run test:

  .. code-block:: console

     ./vsperf --conf-file <path_to_settings_py>

Executing PVP tests using Vanilla OVS
-------------------------------------
To run tests using Vanilla OVS:

1. Set the following variables:

  .. code-block:: console

   VSWITCH = 'OvsVanilla'
   VNF = 'QemuVirtioNet'

   VANILLA_TGEN_PORT1_IP = n.n.n.n
   VANILLA_TGEN_PORT1_MAC = nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn

   VANILLA_TGEN_PORT2_IP = n.n.n.n
   VANILLA_TGEN_PORT2_MAC = nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn

   VANILLA_BRIDGE_IP = n.n.n.n

   or use --test-param

   ./vsperf --conf-file user_settings.py
            --test-param "vanilla_tgen_tx_ip=n.n.n.n;
                          vanilla_tgen_tx_mac=nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn"


2. Recompile src for Vanilla OVS testing

  .. code-block:: console

     cd src
     make cleanse
     make WITH_LINUX=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

3. Run test:

  .. code-block:: console

     ./vsperf --conf-file <path_to_settings_py>

Code change verification by pylint
----------------------------------
Every developer participating in VSPERF project should run
pylint before his python code is submitted for review. Project
specific configuration for pylint is available at 'pylint.rc'.

Example of manual pylint invocation:

  .. code-block:: console

          pylint --rcfile ./pylintrc ./vsperf

GOTCHAs:
--------

OVS with DPDK and QEMU
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you encounter the following error: "before (last 100 chars):
'-path=/dev/hugepages,share=on: unable to map backing store for
hugepages: Cannot allocate memory\r\n\r\n" with the PVP or PVVP
deployment scenario, check the amount of hugepages on your system:

.. code:: bash

    cat /proc/meminfo | grep HugePages


By default the vswitchd is launched with 1Gb of memory, to  change
this, modify --socket-mem parameter in conf/02_vswitch.conf to allocate
an appropriate amount of memory:

.. code:: bash

    VSWITCHD_DPDK_ARGS = ['-c', '0x4', '-n', '4', '--socket-mem 1024,0']

--------------

.. |Alt text| image:: ../images/TCLServerProperties.png