CSIT/csit2001 plan

Introduction

This page tracks release information for FD.io CSIT-2001. It is updated regularly by hand. Real-time information is available in FD.io CSIT code repository and auto-generated docs.

Release Milestones

Milestone	Date	Deliverables
F0	2020-01-08	Test case keywords code complete. Only low-risk changes accepted.
RC1	2020-01-15 (F0+7)	Code complete. Pull first release branch. Only bug fixes accepted in release branch. Date aligned with VPP RC1. Start dry-runs to identify CSIT gaps on less frequently run tests.
RC2	2020-01-22 (RC1+7)	Dry-run testing begins of VPP RC2, performance and functional. Date aligned with VPP RC2.
CSIT Release	2020-01-29 (RC2+7)	CSIT release complete. VPP release testing starts. Date aligned with VPP Formal Release.
Report Publish	2020-02-12 (Rls+14)	CSIT report published for VPP release.

Release Deliverables

Name	Status	Jira Category	Description
VPP API checks	WIP	Framework	Improving VPP API change process to make it more reliable and reduce the false positive.
VAT to PAPI	Done	Framework	Complete VAT to PAPI migration - address the API execution efficiency for scale tests. TODO performance tests of fib scale still on VAT.
Python migration	Done	Framework	Python 2.7 to 3.x migration, .md analysis and migration plan coming in gerrit.
Performance bisection	WIP	Framework	Job for bisecting performance regressions (leveraging per patch perf test work).
Data backend	Next Release	Framework	A standalone test data processing backend - datastore, analytics/query engine. Stop relying on Nexus as results file store.
HDRhistogram	Done	Framework	Making use of HDRhistogram in TRex, and higher resolution of latency data for performance tests.
Reconf tests	WIP	Methodology	Reconf tests methodology - see if any methodology improvements required based on feedback, add more test cases.
Perfmon	Next Release	Framework	Per vpp node efficiency - today storing elog capturing thread barriers - for perfmon we are missing an API to catch two values for the run, we would need to check if this got resolved.
Per packet path telemetry	Next Release	Tools	Start with a new telemetry approach - per packet path analysis, similarly how it's done in NFVbench, see how this could be applied to NFV density tests and actually all other tests.
Emails with regressions	Done	Presentation	Trending regressions - add announce emails to csit-report.
Improved anomaly detection	WIP	Methodology	Anomaly detection - still seeing some noise, more data doesn't seem to be helping, no pattern. Need more inside knowledge, white-box, need more telemetry data from tests to see if any correlation can be found. Affects trending anomaly detection, per patch perf, perf bisecting.
IPsec in container	Done	Performance	vhost/memif - adding vpp-in-container with ipsec.
More Arm testbeds for vpp_device	WIP	Device	Testbeds - Arm - adding more ThunderX machines for vpp_device to run csit-vpp and vpp-csit device tests.
More vpp_device tests	WIP	Device	Add more vpp_device tests for better VPP API coverage, as those are executed per vpp patch and per csit patch
Arm vpp_Device per VPP patch voting	WIP	CI process	Productize per VPP patch (with voting?) vpp-csit device tests for Arm.
HostStack Tests	WIP	Performance	New Performance Tests - Iperf3+LDP with WRK, Nginx+VCL with WRK, Quic Transport
Name	Status	Jira Category	Description

Jira Task Tracking

All CSIT release deliverables should be tracked in FDio CSIT Jira using one of the following Jira Epic categories:

Framework
CI process
Performance
Device
Methodology
Telemetry
Tools
Presentation
Honeycomb
Aarch64

Multi-Release Work Areas

Work Area	Description
Xeon Skx testbeds	Make Skylake performance test coverage complete: i) Boost tests in 2-Node setups, complete 3-Node setups; ii) Complete Memif/Container and Vhost-user/VM with latest QEMU; iii) Push vpp-dev to Ubuntu 18.04.
Arm testbeds	Introduce Arm performance tests.
Atom testbeds	Introduce Denverton and Rangeley performance tests.
Better vhost, memif coverage	Produce more complete test data for NFV service density: i) Scaled-out Vhost-user/VM and Memif/Container tests; ii) Test the same packet paths and NF topologies: service chains, service pipelines; iii) See if we can isolate the actual cost of Vhostuser-virtio and Memif-Memif virtual interfaces based on the test and system telemetry. iv) Test with VM and Containers running on a single Processor (single socket) with no core oversubscription and with. v) Extend the test over two Processors to quantify impact of UPI latency (and bandwidth).
VPP per patch performance tests	Productise per VPP patch performance tests with change detection, prepare for voting: i) Improve detection accuracy and precision; ii) Nail down current results variance; iii) Apply improvements to continuous trending and (future) git auto-bisection.
Trending Improved Detection	Make trending job use new Burst MRR trending tests for better anomaly detection: i) Currently postponed, as the algorithm detects performance changes not related to VPP code. ii) We need heavy workarounds or way more predictable SUT behavior.
More VPP telemetry reported and analysed	API based consumption of VPP telemetry including existing general counters, and future extended per node counters.
Evolve throughput search	Build upon MLRsearch and PLRsearch experience vs. ordinary binary search: i) Compare MLRsearch with PLRsearch soak test results.
General enhancements	General CSIT and VPP performance test and infrastructure enhancements: i) Productize VPP_Device container-based functional tests in 1-Node Skylake testbeds, assist with the same for Arm; ii) Add proper packet latency measurements with T-Rex HDRhistogram, push T-Rex to productize HDRh'gram; iii) Start using the new VPP stats infra for per test counters and "gauges" collection incl. "show runtime", instead of VPP show CLI; iv) Start migration from VAT to VPP Python API; v) Nail down "broken"/not-performing VPP data plane feature arcs (incl. multi-threading) indicated by CSIT-18.10 results data.

External Dependencies

1. No known external dependencies.