1 .. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
3 .. (c) Cisco Systems, Inc
9 This section covers a few examples on how to run NFVbench with multiple different settings.
10 Below are shown the most common and useful use-cases and explained some fields from a default config file.
12 How to change any NFVbench run configuration (CLI)
13 --------------------------------------------------
14 NFVbench always starts with a default configuration which can further be refined (overridden) by the user from the CLI or from REST requests.
16 At first have a look at the default config:
20 nfvbench --show-default-config
22 It is sometimes useful derive your own configuration from a copy of the default config:
26 nfvbench --show-default-config > nfvbench.cfg
28 At this point you can edit the copy by:
30 - removing any parameter that is not to be changed (since NFVbench will always load the default configuration, default values are not needed)
31 - edit the parameters that are to be changed changed
33 A run with the new confguration can then simply be requested using the -c option and by using the actual path of the configuration file
34 as seen from inside the container (in this example, we assume the current directory is mapped to /tmp/nfvbench in the container):
38 nfvbench -c /tmp/nfvbench/nfvbench.cfg
40 The same -c option also accepts any valid yaml or json string to override certain parameters without having to create a configuration file.
42 NFVbench provides many configuration options as optional arguments. For example the number of flows can be specified using the --flow-count option.
44 The flow count option can be specified in any of 3 ways:
46 - by providing a confguration file that has the flow_count value to use (-c myconfig.yaml and myconfig.yaml contains 'flow_count: 100k')
47 - by passing that yaml paremeter inline (-c "flow_count: 100k") or (-c "{flow_count: 100k}")
48 - by using the flow count optional argument (--flow-count 100k)
50 Showing the running configuration
51 ---------------------------------
53 Because configuration parameters can be overriden, it is sometimes useful to show the final configuration (after all oevrrides are done) by using the --show-config option.
54 This final configuration is also called the "running" configuration.
56 For example, this will only display the running configuration (without actually running anything):
60 nfvbench -c "{flow_count: 100k, debug: true}" --show-config
63 Connectivity and Configuration Check
64 ------------------------------------
66 NFVbench allows to test connectivity to devices used with the selected packet path.
67 It runs the whole test, but without actually sending any traffic.
68 It is also a good way to check if everything is configured properly in the configuration file and what versions of components are used.
70 To verify everything works without sending any traffic, use the --no-traffic option:
78 * ``--no-traffic`` or ``-0`` : sending traffic from traffic generator is skipped
82 ------------------------------------
84 NFVbench allows to restart TRex traffic generator between runs.
85 It runs the whole test, but restart TRex instance before generating new traffic.
87 To force restart, use the --restart option:
95 * ``--restart`` : restart traffic generator (TRex)
101 Fixed rate run is the most basic type of NFVbench usage. It can be used to measure the drop rate with a fixed transmission rate of packets.
103 This example shows how to run the PVP packet path (which is the default packet path) with multiple different settings:
107 nfvbench -c nfvbench.cfg --no-cleanup --rate 100000pps --duration 30 --interval 15 --json results.json
111 * ``-c nfvbench.cfg`` : path to the config file
112 * ``--no-cleanup`` : resources (networks, VMs, attached ports) are not deleted after test is finished
113 * ``--rate 100000pps`` : defines rate of packets sent by traffic generator
114 * ``--duration 30`` : specifies how long should traffic be running in seconds
115 * ``--interval 15`` : stats are checked and shown periodically (in seconds) in this interval when traffic is flowing
116 * ``--json results.json`` : collected data are stored in this file after run is finished
118 .. note:: It is your responsibility to clean up resources if needed when ``--no-cleanup`` parameter is used. You can use the nfvbench_cleanup helper script for that purpose.
120 The ``--json`` parameter makes it easy to store NFVbench results. The --show-summary (or -ss) option can be used to display the results in a json results file in a text tabular format:
124 nfvbench --show-summary results.json
127 This example shows how to specify a different packet path:
131 nfvbench -c nfvbench.cfg --rate 1Mbps --inter-node --service-chain PVVP
135 * ``-c nfvbench.cfg`` : path to the config file
136 * ``--rate 1Mbps`` : defines rate of packets sent by traffic generator
137 * ``--inter-node`` : VMs are created on different compute nodes, works only with PVVP flow
138 * ``--service-chain PVVP`` or ``-sc PVVP`` : specifies the type of service chain (or packet path) to use
140 .. note:: When parameter ``--inter-node`` is not used or there aren't enough compute nodes, VMs are on the same compute node.
146 Parameter ``--rate`` accepts different types of values:
148 * packets per second (pps, kpps, mpps), e.g. ``1000pps`` or ``10kpps``
149 * load percentage (%), e.g. ``50%``
150 * bits per second (bps, kbps, Mbps, Gbps), e.g. ``1Gbps``, ``1000bps``
151 * NDR/PDR (ndr, pdr, ndr_pdr), e.g. ``ndr_pdr``
153 NDR/PDR is the default rate when not specified.
158 The NDR and PDR test is used to determine the maximum throughput performance of the system under test
159 following guidelines defined in RFC-2544:
161 * NDR (No Drop Rate): maximum packet rate sent without dropping any packet
162 * PDR (Partial Drop Rate): maximum packet rate sent while allowing a given maximum drop rate
164 The NDR search can also be relaxed to allow some very small amount of drop rate (lower than the PDR maximum drop rate).
165 NFVbench will measure the NDR and PDR values by driving the traffic generator through multiple iterations
166 at different transmission rates using a binary search algorithm.
168 The configuration file contains section where settings for NDR/PDR can be set.
172 # NDR/PDR configuration
174 # Drop rates represent the ratio of dropped packet to the total number of packets sent.
175 # Values provided here are percentages. A value of 0.01 means that at most 0.01% of all
176 # packets sent are dropped (or 1 packet every 10,000 packets sent)
178 # No Drop Rate; Default to 0.001%
180 # Partial Drop Rate; NDR should always be less than PDR
182 # The accuracy of NDR and PDR load percentiles; The actual load percentile that match NDR
183 # or PDR should be within `load_epsilon` difference than the one calculated.
186 Because NDR/PDR is the default ``--rate`` value, it is possible to run NFVbench simply like this:
190 nfvbench -c nfvbench.cfg
192 Other possible run options:
196 nfvbench -c nfvbench.cfg --duration 120 --json results.json
200 * ``-c nfvbench.cfg`` : path to the config file
201 * ``--duration 120`` : specifies how long should be traffic running in each iteration
202 * ``--json results.json`` : collected data are stored in this file after run is finished
208 NFVbench allows to run multiple chains at the same time. For example it is possible to stage the PVP service chain N-times,
209 where N can be as much as your compute power can scale. With N = 10, NFVbench will spawn 10 VMs as a part of 10 simultaneous PVP chains.
211 The number of chains is specified by ``--service-chain-count`` or ``-scc`` flag with a default value of 1.
212 For example to run NFVbench with 3 PVP chains:
216 nfvbench -c nfvbench.cfg --rate 10000pps -scc 3
218 It is not necessary to specify the service chain type (-sc) because PVP is set as default. The PVP service chains will have 3 VMs in 3 chains with this configuration.
219 If ``-sc PVVP`` is specified instead, there would be 6 VMs in 3 chains as this service chain has 2 VMs per chain.
220 Both **single run** or **NDR/PDR** can be run as multichain. Running multichain is a scenario closer to a real life situation than runs with a single chain.
226 NFVbench always generates L3 packets from the traffic generator but allows the user to specify how many flows to generate.
227 A flow is identified by a unique src/dest MAC IP and port tuple that is sent by the traffic generator. Flows are
228 generated by ranging the IP adresses but using a small fixed number of MAC addresses.
230 The number of flows will be spread roughly even between chains when more than 1 chain is being tested.
231 For example, for 11 flows and 3 chains, number of flows that will run for each chain will be 3, 4, and 4 flows respectively.
233 The number of flows is specified by ``--flow-count`` or ``-fc`` flag, the default value is 2 (1 flow in each direction).
234 To run NFVbench with 3 chains and 100 flows, use the following command:
238 nfvbench -c nfvbench.cfg --rate 10000pps -scc 3 -fc 100
240 Note that from a vswitch point of view, the
241 number of flows seen will be higher as it will be at least 4 times the number of flows sent by the traffic generator
242 (add flow to VM and flow from VM).
244 IP addresses generated can be controlled with the following NFVbench configuration options:
248 ip_addrs: ['10.0.0.0/8', '20.0.0.0/8']
249 ip_addrs_step: 0.0.0.1
250 tg_gateway_ip_addrs: ['1.1.0.100', '2.2.0.100']
251 tg_gateway_ip_addrs_step: 0.0.0.1
252 gateway_ip_addrs: ['1.1.0.2', '2.2.0.2']
253 gateway_ip_addrs_step: 0.0.0.1
255 ``ip_addrs`` are the start of the 2 ip address ranges used by the traffic generators as the packets source and destination packets
256 where each range is associated to virtual devices simulated behind 1 physical interface of the traffic generator.
257 These can also be written in CIDR notation to represent the subnet.
259 ``tg_gateway_ip_addrs`` are the traffic generator gateway (virtual) ip addresses, all traffic to/from the virtual devices go through them.
261 ``gateway_ip_addrs`` are the 2 gateway ip address ranges of the VMs used in the external chains. They are only used with external chains and must correspond to their public IP address.
263 The corresponding ``step`` is used for ranging the IP addresses from the `ip_addrs``, ``tg_gateway_ip_addrs`` and ``gateway_ip_addrs`` base addresses.
264 0.0.0.1 is the default step for all IP ranges. In ``ip_addrs``, 'random' can be configured which tells NFVBench to generate random src/dst IP pairs in the traffic stream.
267 Traffic Configuration via CLI
268 -----------------------------
270 While traffic configuration can be modified using the configuration file, it can be inconvenient to have to change the configuration file everytime
271 you need to change a traffic configuration option. Traffic configuration options can be overridden with a few CLI options.
273 Here is an example of configuring traffic via CLI:
277 nfvbench --rate 10kpps --service-chain-count 2 -fs 64 -fs IMIX -fs 1518 --unidir
279 This command will run NFVbench with a unidirectional flow for three packet sizes 64B, IMIX, and 1518B.
283 * ``--rate 10kpps`` : defines rate of packets sent by traffic generator (total TX rate)
284 * ``-scc 2`` or ``--service-chain-count 2`` : specifies number of parallel chains of given flow to run (default to 1)
285 * ``-fs 64`` or ``--frame-size 64``: add the specified frame size to the list of frame sizes to run
286 * ``--unidir`` : run traffic with unidirectional flow (default to bidirectional flow)
292 NFVbench will dicover the MAC addresses to use for generated frames using:
293 - either OpenStack discovery (find the MAC of an existing VM) in the case of PVP and PVVP service chains
294 - or using dynamic ARP discovery (find MAC from IP) in the case of external chains.
295 - In case of L3 chain with SDN-GW or router between traffic generator and loop VM ARP is needed to discover SDN-GW mac addresses, use ``--loop-vm-arp`` flag or ``loop_vm_arp: true`` in config file.
297 Status and Cleanup of NFVbench Resources
298 ----------------------------------------
300 The --status option will display the status of NFVbench and list any NFVbench resources. You need to pass the OpenStack RC
301 file in order to connect to OpenStack.
305 # nfvbench --status -r /tmp/nfvbench/openrc
306 2018-04-09 17:05:48,682 INFO Version: 1.3.2.dev1
307 2018-04-09 17:05:48,683 INFO Status: idle
308 2018-04-09 17:05:48,757 INFO Discovering instances nfvbench-loop-vm...
309 2018-04-09 17:05:49,252 INFO Discovering flavor nfvbench.medium...
310 2018-04-09 17:05:49,281 INFO Discovering networks...
311 2018-04-09 17:05:49,365 INFO No matching NFVbench resources found
314 The Status can be either "idle" or "busy (run pending)".
316 The --cleanup option will first discover resources created by NFVbench and prompt if you want to proceed with cleaning them up.
321 # nfvbench --cleanup -r /tmp/nfvbench/openrc
322 2018-04-09 16:58:00,204 INFO Version: 1.3.2.dev1
323 2018-04-09 16:58:00,205 INFO Status: idle
324 2018-04-09 16:58:00,279 INFO Discovering instances nfvbench-loop-vm...
325 2018-04-09 16:58:00,829 INFO Discovering flavor nfvbench.medium...
326 2018-04-09 16:58:00,876 INFO Discovering networks...
327 2018-04-09 16:58:00,960 INFO Discovering ports...
328 2018-04-09 16:58:01,012 INFO Discovered 6 NFVbench resources:
329 +----------+-------------------+--------------------------------------+
330 | Type | Name | UUID |
331 |----------+-------------------+--------------------------------------|
332 | Instance | nfvbench-loop-vm0 | b039b858-777e-467e-99fb-362f856f4a94 |
333 | Flavor | nfvbench.medium | a027003c-ad86-4f24-b676-2b05bb06adc0 |
334 | Network | nfvbench-net0 | bca8d183-538e-4965-880e-fd92d48bfe0d |
335 | Network | nfvbench-net1 | c582a201-8279-4309-8084-7edd6511092c |
336 | Port | | 67740862-80ac-4371-b04e-58a0b0f05085 |
337 | Port | | b5db95b9-e419-4725-951a-9a8f7841e66a |
338 +----------+-------------------+--------------------------------------+
339 2018-04-09 16:58:01,013 INFO NFVbench will delete all resources shown...
340 Are you sure? (y/n) y
341 2018-04-09 16:58:01,865 INFO Deleting instance nfvbench-loop-vm0...
342 2018-04-09 16:58:02,058 INFO Waiting for 1 instances to be fully deleted...
343 2018-04-09 16:58:02,182 INFO 1 yet to be deleted by Nova, retries left=6...
344 2018-04-09 16:58:04,506 INFO 1 yet to be deleted by Nova, retries left=5...
345 2018-04-09 16:58:06,636 INFO 1 yet to be deleted by Nova, retries left=4...
346 2018-04-09 16:58:08,701 INFO Deleting flavor nfvbench.medium...
347 2018-04-09 16:58:08,729 INFO Deleting port 67740862-80ac-4371-b04e-58a0b0f05085...
348 2018-04-09 16:58:09,102 INFO Deleting port b5db95b9-e419-4725-951a-9a8f7841e66a...
349 2018-04-09 16:58:09,620 INFO Deleting network nfvbench-net0...
350 2018-04-09 16:58:10,357 INFO Deleting network nfvbench-net1...
353 The --force-cleanup option will do the same but without prompting for confirmation.
355 Service mode for TRex
356 ---------------------
358 The ``--service-mode`` option allows you to capture traffic on a TRex window during the NFVBench test. Thus, you will be
359 able to capture packets generated by TRex to observe many information on it.
365 nfvbench ``--service-mode``
367 .. note:: It is preferable to define the minimum rate (2002 pps) to have a better capture
369 In another bash window, you should connect to the TRex console doing :
373 cd /opt/trex/vX.XX/ #use completion here to find your corresponding TRex version
375 capture start monitor --rx [port number] -v
377 Start this capture once you have started the NFVBench test, and you will observe packets on the TRex console :
381 #26342 Port: 0 ◀── RX
385 Type: UDP, Size: 66 B, TS: 26.30 [sec]
389 dst = a0:36:9f:7a:58:8e
390 src = fa:16:3e:57:8f:df
417 load = "xx\xab'\x01\x00?s\x00\x00\xbci\xf0_{U~\x00"
421 Check on the NFVBench window that the following log appears just before the testing phase :
425 2019-10-21 09:38:51,532 INFO Starting to generate traffic...
426 2019-10-21 09:38:51,532 INFO Running traffic generator
427 2019-10-21 09:38:51,541 INFO ``Service mode is enabled``
428 2019-10-21 09:38:52,552 INFO TX: 2004; RX: 2003; Est. Dropped: 1; Est. Drop rate: 0.0499%
429 2019-10-21 09:38:53,559 INFO TX: 4013; RX: 4011; Est. Dropped: 2; Est. Drop rate: 0.0498%