[dpdk-dev] [RFC PATCH 0/4] testpmd: simulating noisy host environment

[Victor Kaplansky]

Hi,

o   testpmd is already the primary tool used by both DPDK developers, testers
    and for performance evaluations. Performances reports are available on
    dpdk.org for each DPDK releases, on various NICs, so it is a common
    baseline.


o   testpmd is being used not only for NIC testing, but as a switch replacement
    on the host, by OPNFV VSPerf and FD.io CSIT

o   A single tool to cover all testing scenarios makes a lot of sense. It 
    will make testpmd even more popular on communities using DPDK and surely
    promote DPDK.

I fully understand the desire to keep testpmd as simple as possible, and we can
address this by making the additional functionality as modular as possible in
the source code. Or, if you prefer, we can create another tool even more basic
then current testpmd just as an example for educational purposes.

What do you say?


----- Original Message -----
> From: "Thomas Monjalon" <thomas at monjalon.net>
> To: "Bruce Richardson" <bruce.richardson at intel.com>, "Victor Kaplansky" <vkaplans at redhat.com>
> Cc: dev at dpdk.org, "jingjing wu" <jingjing.wu at intel.com>, "Amnon Ilan" <ailan at redhat.com>, "Tim Irnich"
> <tim.irnich at ericsson.com>, "Georg Kunz" <georg.kunz at ericsson.com>, "Gabor Halász" <gabor.halasz at ericsson.com>,
> "Mechthild Buescher" <mechthild.buescher at ericsson.com>
> Sent: Thursday, November 9, 2017 11:13:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC PATCH 0/4] testpmd: simulating noisy host environment
> 
> 31/10/2017 11:13, Bruce Richardson:
> > On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 02:41:05AM -0400, Victor Kaplansky wrote:
> > > 
> > > This RFC patch propose enhancements to testpmd to simulate
> > > more realistic behavior of a guest machine engaged in receiving
> > > and sending packets performing Virtual Network Function (VNF).
> > > 
> > > The goal is to enable simple of measuring performance impact on cache and
> > > memory footprint utilization from various VNF co-located on the
> > > same host machine.
> > > 
> > > This series of patches adds the new command line switches to
> > > testpmd:
> > > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > while I think this functionality is of use, I don't think it should go
> > into testpmd. Testpmd is designed for testing NIC PMDs, and not as a
> > general test tool, and is already complicated enough with lots of
> > commandline options. For the task of testing VNF use-cases, I think a
> > new separate app or example would be better.
> 
> Not sure.
> If we need to mix the VNF simulation options with the NIC features
> options (implemented in testpmd), then testpmd would be a good fit.
> 
> Please Victor, give your arguments to make the discussion progressing.
>