[Make-wifi-fast] Flent test hardware

[Pete Heist]

> On Nov 4, 2017, at 6:25 PM, Sebastian Moeller <moeller0 at gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Hi Pete,
> 
>> or “ethtool -i eth0”,
> 
> user at work-horse:~$ ethtool -i eth0
> driver: tg3
> version: 3.137
> firmware-version: 5720-v1.37 NCSI v1.3.12.0
> expansion-rom-version: 
> bus-info: 0000:03:00.0
> supports-statistics: yes
> supports-test: yes
> supports-eeprom-access: yes
> supports-register-dump: yes
> supports-priv-flags: no
> 
> user at work-horse:~$ ethtool -k eth0
> Features for eth0:
> rx-checksumming: on
> tx-checksumming: on
> 	tx-checksum-ipv4: on
> 	tx-checksum-ip-generic: off [fixed]
> 	tx-checksum-ipv6: on
> 	tx-checksum-fcoe-crc: off [fixed]
> 	tx-checksum-sctp: off [fixed]
> scatter-gather: on
> 	tx-scatter-gather: on
> 	tx-scatter-gather-fraglist: off [fixed]
> tcp-segmentation-offload: on
> 	tx-tcp-segmentation: on
> 	tx-tcp-ecn-segmentation: on
> 	tx-tcp-mangleid-segmentation: off
> 	tx-tcp6-segmentation: on
> udp-fragmentation-offload: off [fixed]
> generic-segmentation-offload: on
> generic-receive-offload: on
> large-receive-offload: off [fixed]
> rx-vlan-offload: on [fixed]
> tx-vlan-offload: on [fixed]
> ntuple-filters: off [fixed]
> receive-hashing: off [fixed]
> highdma: on
> rx-vlan-filter: off [fixed]
> vlan-challenged: off [fixed]
> tx-lockless: off [fixed]
> netns-local: off [fixed]
> tx-gso-robust: off [fixed]
> tx-fcoe-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-gre-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-gre-csum-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-ipxip4-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-ipxip6-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-udp_tnl-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-udp_tnl-csum-segmentation: off [fixed]
> tx-gso-partial: off [fixed]
> tx-sctp-segmentation: off [fixed]
> fcoe-mtu: off [fixed]
> tx-nocache-copy: off
> loopback: off [fixed]
> rx-fcs: off [fixed]
> rx-all: off [fixed]
> tx-vlan-stag-hw-insert: off [fixed]
> rx-vlan-stag-hw-parse: off [fixed]
> rx-vlan-stag-filter: off [fixed]
> l2-fwd-offload: off [fixed]
> busy-poll: off [fixed]
> hw-tc-offload: off [fixed]

It’s tg3 indeed, super, thanks. I may have to be disabling some of those offloads, but that’s typical.

>> or similar? If so, I see BQL support in that code,
> 
> 	I believe sometime in the past I confirmed BQL working, but my memory is hazy and this might have been a different machine…

I’m sure it works, from what I see in tg3.c. Support was added in Nov. 2011 by people with experience doing this, and it uses the multi-queue interfaces also. It looks good.

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/298376d3e8f00147548c426959ce79efc47b669a <https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/298376d3e8f00147548c426959ce79efc47b669a>

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/5cb917bc4f3882ecee87064483111023086757d3 <https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/5cb917bc4f3882ecee87064483111023086757d3>

>> I see a Gen 10 available here for slightly more with the same BCM5720 NIC, and a AMD Opteron X3216 instead, plus 8 gigs of RAM, which I don’t need really, but I can search more for similar hardware: https://www.alza.cz/hpe-proliant-microserver-gen10-d5127723.htm?o=1 <https://www.alza.cz/hpe-proliant-microserver-gen10-d5127723.htm?o=1>
> 
> 	Then gen10 microserver while newer comes with a soldered in pre-ZEN amd cpu and seems less extensible then the gen8, but then the gen10 probly is also a decent machine.

There is a difference in TDP (35W for gen 8 and 15W for gen 10), which I might appreciate in the smaller space I have for it, otherwise the CPU benchmark differences look minimal. As is often the case, the new generation may be as much about lowering costs as anything else. The Czech retailer I use only has the gen 10 now, so I’ll probably choose it if only because of that.

I wonder if this would be enough of a machine to run both the client and server, one on each NIC, then I could use a USB NIC for management. Have you tried this with Flent? There would be no time sync issue. :) I would not be surprised if this affects the results on higher counts of streams though, or I might be missing other reasons why this is a bad idea.

I’ll go for at least one of these, but still deciding if to have an early Christmas and go for two…

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