Methodology

Abstract

This chapter describes the methodology implemented by the Yardstick project for verifying the NFVI from the perspective of a VNF.

ETSI-NFV

The document ETSI GS NFV-TST001, “Pre-deployment Testing; Report on Validation of NFV Environments and Services”, recommends methods for pre-deployment testing of the functional components of an NFV environment.

The Yardstick project implements the methodology described in chapter 6, “Pre- deployment validation of NFV infrastructure”.

The methodology consists in decomposing the typical VNF work-load performance metrics into a number of characteristics/performance vectors, which each can be represented by distinct test-cases.

The methodology includes five steps:

  • Step1: Define Infrastruture - the Hardware, Software and corresponding

    configuration target for validation; the OPNFV infrastructure, in OPNFV community labs.

  • Step2: Identify VNF type - the application for which the

    infrastructure is to be validated, and its requirements on the underlying infrastructure.

  • Step3: Select test cases - depending on the workload that represents the

    application for which the infrastruture is to be validated, the relevant test cases amongst the list of available Yardstick test cases.

  • Step4: Execute tests - define the duration and number of iterations for the

    selected test cases, tests runs are automated via OPNFV Jenkins Jobs.

  • Step5: Collect results - using the common API for result collection.

See also

Yardsticktst for material on alignment ETSI TST001 and Yardstick.

Metrics

The metrics, as defined by ETSI GS NFV-TST001, are shown in Table1, Table2 and Table3.

In OPNFV Brahmaputra release, generic test cases covering aspects of the listed metrics are available; further OPNFV releases will provide extended testing of these metrics. The view of available Yardstick test cases cross ETSI definitions in Table1, Table2 and Table3 is shown in Table4. It shall be noticed that the Yardstick test cases are examples, the test duration and number of iterations are configurable, as are the System Under Test (SUT) and the attributes (or, in Yardstick nomemclature, the scenario options).

Table 1 - Performance/Speed Metrics

Category Performance/Speed
Compute
  • Latency for random memory access
  • Latency for cache read/write operations
  • Processing speed (instructions per second)
  • Throughput for random memory access (bytes per second)
Network
  • Throughput per NFVI node (frames/byte per second)
  • Throughput provided to a VM (frames/byte per second)
  • Latency per traffic flow
  • Latency between VMs
  • Latency between NFVI nodes
  • Packet delay variation (jitter) between VMs
  • Packet delay variation (jitter) between NFVI nodes
Storage
  • Sequential read/write IOPS
  • Random read/write IOPS
  • Latency for storage read/write operations
  • Throughput for storage read/write operations

Table 2 - Capacity/Scale Metrics

Category Capacity/Scale
Compute
  • Number of cores and threads- Available memory size
  • Cache size
  • Processor utilization (max, average, standard deviation)
  • Memory utilization (max, average, standard deviation)
  • Cache utilization (max, average, standard deviation)
Network
  • Number of connections
  • Number of frames sent/received
  • Maximum throughput between VMs (frames/byte per second)
  • Maximum throughput between NFVI nodes (frames/byte per second)
  • Network utilization (max, average, standard deviation)
  • Number of traffic flows
Storage
  • Storage/Disk size
  • Capacity allocation (block-based, object-based)
  • Block size
  • Maximum sequential read/write IOPS
  • Maximum random read/write IOPS
  • Disk utilization (max, average, standard deviation)

Table 3 - Availability/Reliability Metrics

Category Availability/Reliability
Compute
  • Processor availability (Error free processing time)
  • Memory availability (Error free memory time)
  • Processor mean-time-to-failure
  • Memory mean-time-to-failure
  • Number of processing faults per second
Network
  • NIC availability (Error free connection time)
  • Link availability (Error free transmission time)
  • NIC mean-time-to-failure
  • Network timeout duration due to link failure
  • Frame loss rate
Storage
  • Disk availability (Error free disk access time)
  • Disk mean-time-to-failure
  • Number of failed storage read/write operations per second

Table 4 - Yardstick Generic Test Cases

Category Performance/Speed Capacity/Scale Availability/Reliability
Compute TC003 [1] TC004 [1] TC014 TC024 TC003 [1] TC004 [1] TC010 TC012 TC013 [1] TC015 [1]
Network TC002 TC011 TC001 TC008 TC009 TC016 [1] TC018 [1]
Storage TC005 TC005 TC017 [1]

Note

The description in this OPNFV document is intended as a reference for users to understand the scope of the Yardstick Project and the deliverables of the Yardstick framework. For complete description of the methodology, refer to the ETSI document.

Footnotes

[1](1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) To be included in future deliveries.