Physical Testbeds

All FD.io CSIT performance test results included in this report are executed on the physical testbeds hosted by LF FD.io project, unless otherwise noted.

Two physical server topology types are used:

  • 2-Node Topology: Consists of one server acting as a System Under Test (SUT) and one server acting as a Traffic Generator (TG), with both servers connected into a ring topology. Used for executing tests that require frame encapsulations supported by TG.
  • 3-Node Topology: Consists of two servers acting as a Systems Under Test (SUTs) and one server acting as a Traffic Generator (TG), with all servers connected into a ring topology. Used for executing tests that require frame encapsulations not supported by TG e.g. certain overlay tunnel encapsulations and IPsec. Number of native Ethernet, IPv4 and IPv6 encapsulation tests are also executed on these testbeds, for comparison with 2-Node Topology.

Current FD.io production testbeds are built with SUT servers based on the following processor architectures:

  • Intel Xeon: Skylake Platinum 8180 and Haswell-SP E5-2699v3.
  • Intel Atom: Denverton C3858.
  • ARM: TaiShan 2280, hip07-d05.

Server SUT performance depends on server and processor type, hence results for testbeds based on different servers must be reported separately, and compared if appropriate.

Complete technical specifications of compute servers used in CSIT physical testbeds are maintained in FD.io CSIT repository: https://git.fd.io/csit/tree/docs/lab/testbed_specifications.md.

Following is the description of existing production testbeds.

2-Node Xeon Skylake (2n-skx)

Four 2n-skx testbeds are in operation in FD.io labs. Each 2n-skx testbed is built with two SuperMicro SYS-7049GP-TRT servers, each in turn equipped with two Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum 8180 processors (38.5 MB Cache, 2.50 GHz, 28 cores). 2n-skx physical topology is shown below.

testbed-2n-skx

SUT servers are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: xxv710-DA2 2p25GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: mcx556a-edat ConnectX5 2p100GE Mellanox. (Not used yet.)
  4. NIC-4: empty, future expansion.
  5. NIC-5: empty, future expansion.
  6. NIC-6: empty, future expansion.

TG servers run T-Rex application and are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: xxv710-DA2 2p25GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: mcx556a-edat ConnectX5 2p100GE Mellanox. (Not used yet.)
  4. NIC-4: empty, future expansion.
  5. NIC-5: empty, future expansion.
  6. NIC-6: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel. (For self-tests.)

All Intel Xeon Skylake servers run with Intel Hyper-Threading enabled, doubling the number of logical cores exposed to Linux, with 56 logical cores and 28 physical cores per processor socket.

3-Node Xeon Skylake (3n-skx)

Two 3n-skx testbeds are in operation in FD.io labs. Each 3n-skx testbed is built with three SuperMicro SYS-7049GP-TRT servers, each in turn equipped with two Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum 8180 processors (38.5 MB Cache, 2.50 GHz, 28 cores). 3n-skx physical topology is shown below.

testbed-3n-skx

SUT1 and SUT2 servers are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: xxv710-DA2 2p25GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: empty, future expansion.
  4. NIC-4: empty, future expansion.
  5. NIC-5: empty, future expansion.
  6. NIC-6: empty, future expansion.

TG servers run T-Rex application and are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: xxv710-DA2 2p25GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: empty, future expansion.
  4. NIC-4: empty, future expansion.
  5. NIC-5: empty, future expansion.
  6. NIC-6: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel. (For self-tests.)

All Intel Xeon Skylake servers run with Intel Hyper-Threading enabled, doubling the number of logical cores exposed to Linux, with 56 logical cores and 28 physical cores per processor socket.

3-Node Xeon Haswell (3n-hsw)

Three 3n-hsw testbeds are in operation in FD.io labs. Each 3n-hsw testbed is built with three Cisco UCS-c240m3 servers, each in turn equipped with two Intel Xeon Haswell-SP E5-2699v3 processors (45 MB Cache, 2.3 GHz, 18 cores). 3n-hsw physical topology is shown below.

testbed-3n-hsw

SUT1 and SUT2 servers are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: VIC 1385 2p40GE Cisco.
  2. NIC-2: NIC x520 2p10GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: empty.
  4. NIC-4: NIC xl710-QDA2 2p40GE Intel.
  5. NIC-5: NIC x710-DA2 2p10GE Intel.
  6. NIC-6: QAT 8950 50G (Walnut Hill) Intel.

TG servers run T-Rex application and are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: NIC xl710-QDA2 2p40GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: NIC x710-DA2 2p10GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: empty.
  4. NIC-4: NIC xl710-QDA2 2p40GE Intel.
  5. NIC-5: NIC x710-DA2 2p10GE Intel.
  6. NIC-6: NIC x710-DA2 2p10GE Intel. (For self-tests.)

All Intel Xeon Haswell servers run with Intel Hyper-Threading disabled, making the number of logical cores exposed to Linux match the number of 18 physical cores per processor socket.

2-Node Atom Denverton (2n-dnv)

2n-dnv testbed is built with: i) one Intel S2600WFT server acting as TG and equipped with two Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum 8180 processors (38.5 MB Cache, 2.50 GHz, 28 cores), and ii) one SuperMicro SYS-E300-9A server acting as SUT and equipped with one Intel Atom C3858 processor (12 MB Cache, 2.00 GHz, 12 cores). 2n-dnv physical topology is shown below.

testbed-2n-dnv

SUT server have four internal 10G NIC port:

  1. P-1: x553 copper port.
  2. P-2: x553 copper port.
  3. P-3: x553 fiber port.
  4. P-4: x553 fiber port.

TG server run T-Rex software traffic generator and are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x550-T2 2p10GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: x550-T2 2p10GE Intel.
  3. NIC-3: x520-DA2 2p10GE Intel.
  4. NIC-4: x520-DA2 2p10GE Intel.

The 2n-dnv testbed is in operation in Intel SH labs.

3-Node Atom Denverton (3n-dnv)

One 3n-dnv testbed is built with: i) one SuperMicro SYS-7049GP-TRT server acting as TG and equipped with two Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum 8180 processors (38.5 MB Cache, 2.50 GHz, 28 cores), and ii) one SuperMicro SYS-E300-9A server acting as SUT and equipped with one Intel Atom C3858 processor (12 MB Cache, 2.00 GHz, 12 cores). 3n-dnv physical topology is shown below.

testbed-3n-dnv

SUT1 and SUT2 servers are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x553 2p10GE fiber Intel.
  2. NIC-2: x553 2p10GE copper Intel.

TG servers run T-Rex application and are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel.

3-Node ARM TaiShan (3n-tsh)

One 3n-tsh testbed is built with: i) one SuperMicro SYS-7049GP-TRT server acting as TG and equipped with two Intel Xeon Skylake Platinum 8180 processors (38.5 MB Cache, 2.50 GHz, 28 cores), and ii) one Huawei TaiShan 2280 server acting as SUT and equipped with one hip07-d05 processor (64* ARM Cortex-A72). 3n-tsh physical topology is shown below.

testbed-3n-tsh

SUT1 and SUT2 servers are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: connectx4 2p25GE Mellanox.
  2. NIC-2: x520 2p10GE Intel.

TG servers run T-Rex application and are populated with the following NIC models:

  1. NIC-1: x710-DA4 4p10GE Intel.
  2. NIC-2: xxv710-DA2 2p25GE Intel.