generator for linux,HOWTO for the linux packet generator

HOWTO for the linux packet generator¶

Enable CONFIG_NET_PKTGEN to compile and build pktgen either in-kernel

or as a module. A module is preferred; modprobe pktgen if needed. Once

running, pktgen creates a thread for each CPU with affinity to that CPU.

Monitoring and controlling is done via /proc. It is easiest to select a

suitable sample script and configure that.

On a dual CPU:

ps aux | grep pkt

root 129 0.3 0.0 0 0 ? SW 2003 523:20 [kpktgend_0]

root 130 0.3 0.0 0 0 ? SW 2003 509:50 [kpktgend_1]

For monitoring and control pktgen creates:

/proc/net/pktgen/pgctrl

/proc/net/pktgen/kpktgend_X

/proc/net/pktgen/ethX

Tuning NIC for max performance¶

The default NIC settings are (likely) not tuned for pktgen’s artificial

overload type of benchmarking, as this could hurt the normal use-case.

Specifically increasing the TX ring buffer in the NIC:

# ethtool -G ethX tx 1024

A larger TX ring can improve pktgen’s performance, while it can hurt

in the general case, 1) because the TX ring buffer might get larger

than the CPU’s L1/L2 cache, 2) because it allows more queueing in the

NIC HW layer (which is bad for bufferbloat).

One should hesitate to conclude that packets/descriptors in the HW

TX ring cause delay. Drivers usually delay cleaning up the

ring-buffers for various performance reasons, and packets stalling

the TX ring might just be waiting for cleanup.

This cleanup issue is specifically the case for the driver ixgbe

(Intel 82599 chip). This driver (ixgbe) combines TX+RX ring cleanups,

and the cleanup interval is affected by the ethtool –coalesce setting

of parameter “rx-usecs”.

For ixgbe use e.g. “30” resulting in approx 33K interrupts/sec (1/30*10^6):

# ethtool -C ethX rx-usecs 30

Kernel threads¶

Pktgen creates a thread for each CPU with affinity to that CPU.

Which is controlled through procfile /proc/net/pktgen/kpktgend_X.

Example: /proc/net/pktgen/kpktgend_0:

Running:

Stopped: eth4@0

Result: OK: add_device=eth4@0

Most important are the devices assigned to the thread.

The two basic thread commands are:

add_device DEVICE@NAME – adds a single device

rem_device_all – remove all associated devices

When adding a device to a thread, a corresponding procfile is created

which is used for configuring this device. Thus, device names need to

be unique.

To support adding the same device to multiple threads, which is useful

with multi queue NICs, the device naming scheme is extended with “@”:

device@something

The part after “@” can be anything, but it is custom to use the thread

number.

Viewing devices¶

The Params section holds configured information. The Current section

holds running statistics. The Result is printed after a run or after

interruption. Example:

/proc/net/pktgen/eth4@0

Params: count 100000 min_pkt_size: 60 max_pkt_size: 60

frags: 0 delay: 0 clone_skb: 64 ifname: eth4@0

flows: 0 flowlen: 0

queue_map_min: 0 queue_map_max: 0

dst_min: 192.168.81.2 dst_max:

src_min: src_max:

src_mac: 90:e2:ba:0a:56:b4 dst_mac: 00:1b:21:3c:9d:f8

udp_src_min: 9 udp_src_max: 109 udp_dst_min: 9 udp_dst_max: 9

src_mac_count: 0 dst_mac_count: 0

Flags: UDPSRC_RND NO_TIMESTAMP QUEUE_MAP_CPU

Current:

pkts-sofar: 100000 errors: 0

started: 623913381008us stopped: 623913396439us idle: 25us

seq_num: 100001 cur_dst_mac_offset: 0 cur_src_mac_offset: 0

cur_saddr: 192.168.8.3 cur_daddr: 192.168.81.2

cur_udp_dst: 9 cur_udp_src: 42

cur_queue_map: 0

flows: 0

Result: OK: 15430(c15405+d25) usec, 100000 (60byte,0frags)

6480562pps 3110Mb/sec (3110669760bps) errors: 0

Configuring devices¶

This is done via the /proc interface, and most easily done via pgset

as defined in the sample scripts.

You need to specify PGDEV environment variable to use functions from sample

scripts, i.e.:

export PGDEV=/proc/net/pktgen/eth4@0

source samples/pktgen/functions.sh

Examples:

pg_ctrl start starts injection.

pg_ctrl stop aborts injection. Also, ^C aborts generator.

pgset "clone_skb 1" sets the number of copies of the same packet

pgset "clone_skb 0" use single SKB for all transmits

pgset "burst 8" uses xmit_more API to queue 8 copies of the same

packet and update HW tx queue tail pointer once.

"burst 1" is the default

pgset "pkt_size 9014" sets packet size to 9014

pgset "frags 5" packet will consist of 5 fragments

pgset "count 200000" sets number of packets to send, set to zero

for continuous sends until explicitly stopped.

pgset "delay 5000" adds delay to hard_start_xmit(). nanoseconds

pgset "dst 10.0.0.1" sets IP destination address

(BEWARE! This generator is very aggressive!)

pgset "dst_min 10.0.0.1" Same as dst

pgset "dst_max 10.0.0.254" Set the maximum destination IP.

pgset "src_min 10.0.0.1" Set the minimum (or only) source IP.

pgset "src_max 10.0.0.254" Set the maximum source IP.

pgset "dst6 fec0::1" IPV6 destination address

pgset "src6 fec0::2" IPV6 source address

pgset "dstmac 00:00:00:00:00:00" sets MAC destination address

pgset "srcmac 00:00:00:00:00:00" sets MAC source address

pgset "queue_map_min 0" Sets the min value of tx queue interval

pgset "queue_map_max 7" Sets the max value of tx queue interval, for multiqueue devices

To select queue 1 of a given device,

use queue_map_min=1 and queue_map_max=1

pgset "src_mac_count 1" Sets the number of MACs we'll range through.

The 'minimum' MAC is what you set with srcmac.

pgset "dst_mac_count 1" Sets the number of MACs we'll range through.

The 'minimum' MAC is what you set with dstmac.

pgset "flag [name]" Set a flag to determine behaviour. Current flags

are: IPSRC_RND # IP source is random (between min/max)

IPDST_RND # IP destination is random

UDPSRC_RND, UDPDST_RND,

MACSRC_RND, MACDST_RND

TXSIZE_RND, IPV6,

MPLS_RND, VID_RND, SVID_RND

FLOW_SEQ,

QUEUE_MAP_RND # queue map random

QUEUE_MAP_CPU # queue map mirrors smp_processor_id()

UDPCSUM,

IPSEC # IPsec encapsulation (needs CONFIG_XFRM)

NODE_ALLOC # node specific memory allocation

NO_TIMESTAMP # disable timestamping

pgset 'flag ![name]' Clear a flag to determine behaviour.

Note that you might need to use single quote in

interactive mode, so that your shell wouldn't expand

the specified flag as a history command.

pgset "spi [SPI_VALUE]" Set specific SA used to transform packet.

pgset "udp_src_min 9" set UDP source port min, If < udp_src_max, then

cycle through the port range.

pgset "udp_src_max 9" set UDP source port max.

pgset "udp_dst_min 9" set UDP destination port min, If < udp_dst_max, then

cycle through the port range.

pgset "udp_dst_max 9" set UDP destination port max.

pgset "mpls 0001000a,0002000a,0000000a" set MPLS labels (in this example

outer label=16,middle label=32,

inner label=0 (IPv4 NULL)) Note that

there must be no spaces between the

arguments. Leading zeros are required.

Do not set the bottom of stack bit,

that's done automatically. If you do

set the bottom of stack bit, that

indicates that you want to randomly

generate that address and the flag

MPLS_RND will be turned on. You

can have any mix of random and fixed

labels in the label stack.

pgset "mpls 0" turn off mpls (or any invalid argument works too!)

pgset "vlan_id 77" set VLAN ID 0-4095

pgset "vlan_p 3" set priority bit 0-7 (default 0)

pgset "vlan_cfi 0" set canonical format identifier 0-1 (default 0)

pgset "svlan_id 22" set SVLAN ID 0-4095

pgset "svlan_p 3" set priority bit 0-7 (default 0)

pgset "svlan_cfi 0" set canonical format identifier 0-1 (default 0)

pgset "vlan_id 9999" > 4095 remove vlan and svlan tags

pgset "svlan 9999" > 4095 remove svlan tag

pgset "tos XX" set former IPv4 TOS field (e.g. "tos 28" for AF11 no ECN, default 00)

pgset "traffic_class XX" set former IPv6 TRAFFIC CLASS (e.g. "traffic_class B8" for EF no ECN, default 00)

pgset "rate 300M" set rate to 300 Mb/s

pgset "ratep 1000000" set rate to 1Mpps

pgset "xmit_mode netif_receive" RX inject into stack netif_receive_skb()

Works with "burst" but not with "clone_skb".

Default xmit_mode is "start_xmit".

Sample scripts¶

A collection of tutorial scripts and helpers for pktgen is in the

samples/pktgen directory. The helper parameters.sh file support easy

and consistent parameter parsing across the sample scripts.

Usage example and help:

./pktgen_sample01_simple.sh -i eth4 -m 00:1B:21:3C:9D:F8 -d 192.168.8.2

Usage::

./pktgen_sample01_simple.sh [-vx] -i ethX

-i : ($DEV) output interface/device (required)

-s : ($PKT_SIZE) packet size

-d : ($DEST_IP) destination IP

-m : ($DST_MAC) destination MAC-addr

-t : ($THREADS) threads to start

-c : ($SKB_CLONE) SKB clones send before alloc new SKB

-b : ($BURST) HW level bursting of SKBs

-v : ($VERBOSE) verbose

-x : ($DEBUG) debug

The global variables being set are also listed. E.g. the required

interface/device parameter “-i” sets variable $DEV. Copy the

pktgen_sampleXX scripts and modify them to fit your own needs.

The old scripts:

pktgen.conf-1-2 # 1 CPU 2 dev

pktgen.conf-1-1-rdos # 1 CPU 1 dev w. route DoS

pktgen.conf-1-1-ip6 # 1 CPU 1 dev ipv6

pktgen.conf-1-1-ip6-rdos # 1 CPU 1 dev ipv6 w. route DoS

pktgen.conf-1-1-flows # 1 CPU 1 dev multiple flows.

Interrupt affinity¶

Note that when adding devices to a specific CPU it is a good idea to

also assign /proc/irq/XX/smp_affinity so that the TX interrupts are bound

to the same CPU. This reduces cache bouncing when freeing skbs.

Plus using the device flag QUEUE_MAP_CPU, which maps the SKBs TX queue

to the running threads CPU (directly from smp_processor_id()).

Enable IPsec¶

Default IPsec transformation with ESP encapsulation plus transport mode

can be enabled by simply setting:

pgset "flag IPSEC"

pgset "flows 1"

To avoid breaking existing testbed scripts for using AH type and tunnel mode,

you can use “pgset spi SPI_VALUE” to specify which transformation mode

to employ.

Current commands and configuration options¶

Pgcontrol commands:

start

stop

reset

Thread commands:

add_device

rem_device_all

Device commands:

count

clone_skb

burst

debug

frags

delay

src_mac_count

dst_mac_count

pkt_size

min_pkt_size

max_pkt_size

queue_map_min

queue_map_max

skb_priority

tos (ipv4)

traffic_class (ipv6)

mpls

udp_src_min

udp_src_max

udp_dst_min

udp_dst_max

node

flag

IPSRC_RND

IPDST_RND

UDPSRC_RND

UDPDST_RND

MACSRC_RND

MACDST_RND

TXSIZE_RND

IPV6

MPLS_RND

VID_RND

SVID_RND

FLOW_SEQ

QUEUE_MAP_RND

QUEUE_MAP_CPU

UDPCSUM

IPSEC

NODE_ALLOC

NO_TIMESTAMP

spi (ipsec)

dst_min

dst_max

src_min

src_max

dst_mac

src_mac

clear_counters

src6

dst6

dst6_max

dst6_min

flows

flowlen

rate

ratep

xmit_mode

vlan_cfi

vlan_id

vlan_p

svlan_cfi

svlan_id

svlan_p

References:

tp://robur.slu.se/pub/Linux/net-development/pktgen-testing/examples/

Thanks to:

Grant Grundler for testing on IA-64 and parisc, Harald Welte, Lennert Buytenhek

Stephen Hemminger, Andi Kleen, Dave Miller and many others.

Good luck with the linux net-development.