Re: [dpdk-dev] L3fwd mode in testpmd

[Honnappa Nagarahalli <Honnappa.Nagarahalli@arm.com>]

<snip>

> > >
> > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Mar 11, 2021 at 12:01 AM Honnappa
> > > > > > > > > > > Nagarahalli <Honnappa.Nagarahalli@arm.com> wrote:
> > > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > > Hello,
> > > > > > > > > > > >         Performance of L3fwd example application
> > > > > > > > > > > > is one of the key
> > > > > > > > > > > benchmarks in DPDK. However, the application does
> > > > > > > > > > > not have many debugging statistics to understand the
> > > > > > > > > > > performance issues. We have added L3fwd as another
> > > > > > > > > > > mode/stream to testpmd which provides
> > > > > > > > > enough
> > > > > > > > > > > statistics at various levels. This has allowed us to
> > > > > > > > > > > debug the performance issues effectively.
> > > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > > There is more work to be done to get it to
> > > > > > > > > > > > upstreamable state. I am
> > > > > > > > > > > wondering if such a patch is helpful for others and
> > > > > > > > > > > if the community would be interested in taking a
> > > > > > > > > > > look. Please let me know
> > > > > > > > what you think.
> > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > We are using app/proc-info/ to attach and analyze
> > > > > > > > > > > the
> > > > performance.
> > > > > > > > > > > That helps to analyze the unmodified application. I
> > > > > > > > > > > think, if something is missing in proc-info app, in
> > > > > > > > > > > my opinion it is better to enhance proc-info so that
> > > > > > > > > > > it can help other third-party
> > > > > > applications.
> > > > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > > > Just my 2c.
> > > > > > > > > > Thanks Jerin. We will explore that.
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > > I agree it is dangerous to rely too much on testpmd for
> everything.
> > > > > > > > > Please tell us what in testpmd could be useful out of it.
> > > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Things that are very helpful in testpmd are: 1) HW
> > > > > > > > statistics from the NIC 2) Forwarding stats 3) Burst stats
> > > > > > > > (indication of headroom
> > > > > > > > availability) 4) Easy to set parameters like RX and TX
> > > > > > > > queue depths (among others) without having to recompile.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > [Kathleen Capella]
> > > > > > > Thank you for the suggestion of app/proc-info. I've tried it
> > > > > > > out with l3fwd and see that it does have the HW stats from
> > > > > > > the NIC and the forwarding
> > > > > > stats.
> > > > > > > However, it does not have the burst stats testpmd offers,
> > > > > > > nor the
> > > > > >
> > > > > > One option to see such  level of debugging would be to have
> > > > > > - Create a memzone in the primary process
> > > > > > - Application under test can update the stats in memzone based
> > > > > > on the code flow
> > > > > > - proc-info can read the counters updated by application under
> > > > > > test using the memzone object got through
> rte_memzone_lookup()
> > > > > Agreed. Currently, using app/proc-info does not provide this
> > > > > ability. We
> > > > cannot add this capability to app/proc-info as these stats would
> > > > be specific to L3fwd application.
> > > >
> > > > I meant creating generic counter-read/write infra via memzone to
> > > > not make it as l3fwd specific.
> > > Currently, app/proc-info is able to print the stats as they are standardized
> via the API. But for statistics that are generated in the application, they are
> very specific to that application. For ex: burst stats in testpmd are very
> specific to it and another application might implement the same in a very
> different manner.
> > >
> > > In needs to be something like the app/proc-info just needs to be a dumb
> displaying utility and the application has to do all the heavy lifting of copying
> the exact display strings to the memory.
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Another approach will be using rte_trace()[1] for
> > > > > > debugging/tracing by adding tracepoints in l3fwd for such events.
> > > > > > It has a timestamp and the trace format is opensource trace
> > > > > > format(CTF(Common trace format)), so that we can use post
> > > > > > posting tools to analyze.
> > > > > > [1]
> > > > > > https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/prog_guide/trace_lib.html
> > > > > This is good for analyzing an incident. I think it is an
> > > > > overhead for
> > > > development purposes.
> > > >
> > > > Consider if one wants to add burst stats, one can add stats
> > > > increment under RTE_TRACE_POINT_FP, it will be emitted whenever
> > > > code flow through that path. Set of events of can be viewed in
> > > > trace viewer[1]. Would that be enough?
> > > > Adding traces to l3fwd can be upstreamed as it is useful for
> > > > others for debugging.
> > > >
> > > > [1]
> > > > https://github.com/jerinjacobk/share/blob/master/dpdk_trace.JPG
> > > This needs post processing of the trace info to derive the information, is it
> correct? For ex: for burst stats, there will be several traces generated
> collecting the number of packets returned by rte_eth_rx_burst which needs
> to be post processed.
> >
> > Or You can have an additional variable to acculate it.
> >
> > > Also, adding traces is equivalent to adding statistics in L3fwd.
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> > If the sole purpose only stats then it is better to add status in
> > l3fwd without performance impact. I thought some thing else.
> >
> > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > ability to easily change parameters without having to
> > > > > > > recompile, which helps reduce debugging time significantly.
> > > We will not be able to fix this above issue.
> >
> > It depends on what you want to debug. Trace can be disabled at runtime.
> 
> 
> DPDK has existing API's for application metrics but they are rarely used.
> 
> Why not implement rte_metrics in l3fwd and proc-info?
This discussion has ended up as a stats discussion. But, we also need to be able to change the configurable parameters easily.
If we implement the stats and ability to change the configurable parameters, then it is essentially bringing in some of the capabilities from testpmd to the sample application. I think that will result in lot more code in the sample application and will make it complicated.

Instead our proposal is to take L3fwd to testpmd and use all the infra code that testpmd provides. We see that this approach results in less amount of code added to DPDK overall.