NFVbench Server mode and NFVbench client API

HTTP Interface

<http-url>/echo (GET)

This request simply returns whatever content is sent in the body of the request (body should be in json format, only used for testing)

Example request:

curl -XGET '127.0.0.1:7555/echo' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"nfvbench": "test"}'
Response:
{
  "nfvbench": "test"
}

<http-url>/status (GET)

This request fetches the status of an asynchronous run. It will return in json format:

  • a request pending reply (if the run is still not completed)

  • an error reply if there is no run pending

  • or the complete result of the run

The client can keep polling until the run completes.

Example of return when the run is still pending:

{
  "error_message": "nfvbench run still pending",
  "status": "PENDING"
}

Example of return when the run completes:

{
  "result": {...}
  "status": "OK"
}

<http-url>/start_run (POST)

This request starts an NFVBench run with passed configurations. If no configuration is passed, a run with default configurations will be executed.

Example request: curl -XPOST ‘localhost:7556/start_run’ -H “Content-Type: application/json” -d @nfvbenchconfig.json

See “NFVbench configuration JSON parameter” below for details on how to format this parameter.

The request returns immediately with a json content indicating if there was an error (status=ERROR) or if the request was submitted successfully (status=PENDING). Example of return when the submission is successful:

{
  "error_message": "NFVbench run still pending",
  "request_id": "42cccb7effdc43caa47f722f0ca8ec96",
  "status": "PENDING"
}

If there is already an NFVBench running then it will return:

{
 "error_message": "there is already an NFVbench request running",
 "status": "ERROR"
}

NFVbench configuration JSON parameter

The NFVbench configuration describes the parameters of an NFVbench run and can be passed to the NFVbench server as a JSON document.

Default configuration

The simplest JSON document is the empty dictionary “{}” which indicates to use the default NFVbench configuration:

  • PVP

  • NDR-PDR measurement

  • 64 byte packets

  • 1 flow per direction

The entire default configuration can be viewed using the –show-json-config option on the cli:

# nfvbench --show-config
{
    "availability_zone": null,
    "compute_node_user": "root",
    "compute_nodes": null,
    "debug": false,
    "duration_sec": 60,
    "flavor": {
        "disk": 0,
        "extra_specs": {
            "hw:cpu_policy": "dedicated",
            "hw:mem_page_size": 2048
        },
        "ram": 8192,
        "vcpus": 2
    },
    "flavor_type": "nfv.medium",
    "flow_count": 1,
    "generic_poll_sec": 2,
    "generic_retry_count": 100,
    "inter_node": false,
    "internal_networks": {
        "left": {
            "name": "nfvbench-net0",
            "subnet": "nfvbench-subnet0",
            "cidr": "192.168.1.0/24",
        },
        "right": {
            "name": "nfvbench-net1",
            "subnet": "nfvbench-subnet1",
            "cidr": "192.168.2.0/24",
        },
        "middle": {
            "name": "nfvbench-net2",
            "subnet": "nfvbench-subnet2",
            "cidr": "192.168.3.0/24",
        }
    },
    "interval_sec": 10,
    "json": null,
    "loop_vm_name": "nfvbench-loop-vm",
    "measurement": {
        "NDR": 0.001,
        "PDR": 0.1,
        "load_epsilon": 0.1
    },
    "name": "(built-in default config)",
    "no_cleanup": false,
    "no_traffic": false,
    "openrc_file": "/tmp/nfvbench/openstack/openrc",
    "rate": "ndr_pdr",
    "service_chain": "PVP",
    "service_chain_count": 1,
    "sriov": false,
    "std_json": null,
    "traffic": {
        "bidirectional": true,
        "profile": "traffic_profile_64B"
    },
    "traffic_generator": {
        "default_profile": "trex-local",
        "gateway_ip_addrs": [
            "1.1.0.2",
            "2.2.0.2"
        ],
        "gateway_ip_addrs_step": "0.0.0.1",
        "generator_profile": [
            {
                "cores": 3,
                "interfaces": [
                    {
                        "pci": "0a:00.0",
                        "port": 0,
                        "switch_port": "Ethernet1/33",
                        "vlan": null
                    },
                    {
                        "pci": "0a:00.1",
                        "port": 1,
                        "switch_port": "Ethernet1/34",
                        "vlan": null
                    }
                ],
                "intf_speed": null,
                "ip": "127.0.0.1",
                "name": "trex-local",
                "tool": "TRex"
            }
        ],
        "host_name": "nfvbench_tg",
        "ip_addrs": [
            "10.0.0.0/8",
            "20.0.0.0/8"
        ],
        "ip_addrs_step": "0.0.0.1",
        "mac_addrs": [
            "00:10:94:00:0A:00",
            "00:11:94:00:0A:00"
        ],
        "step_mac": null,
        "tg_gateway_ip_addrs": [
            "1.1.0.100",
            "2.2.0.100"
        ],
        "tg_gateway_ip_addrs_step": "0.0.0.1"
    },
    "traffic_profile": [
        {
            "l2frame_size": [
                "64"
            ],
            "name": "traffic_profile_64B"
        },
        {
            "l2frame_size": [
                "IMIX"
            ],
            "name": "traffic_profile_IMIX"
        },
        {
            "l2frame_size": [
                "1518"
            ],
            "name": "traffic_profile_1518B"
        },
        {
            "l2frame_size": [
                "64",
                "IMIX",
                "1518"
            ],
            "name": "traffic_profile_3sizes"
        }
    ],
    "unidir_reverse_traffic_pps": 1,
    "vlan_tagging": true,
}

Common examples of JSON configuration

Use the default configuration but use 10000 flows per direction (instead of 1):

{ "flow_count": 10000 }

Use default confguration but with 10000 flows, “EXT” chain and IMIX packet size:

{
   "flow_count": 10000,
   "service_chain": "EXT",
    "traffic": {
        "profile": "traffic_profile_IMIX"
    },
}

A short run of 5 seconds at a fixed rate of 1Mpps (and everything else same as the default configuration):

{
   "duration": 5,
   "rate": "1Mpps"
}

Use the default configuration but force TRex restart:

{
   "restart": true
}

Example of interaction with the NFVbench server using HTTP and curl

HTTP requests can be sent directly to the NFVbench server from CLI using curl from any host that can connect to the server (here we run it from the local host).

This is a POST request to start a run using the default NFVbench configuration but with traffic generation disabled (“no_traffic” property is set to true):

[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]# curl -H "Accept: application/json" -H "Content-type: application/json" -X POST -d '{"no_traffic":true}' http://127.0.0.1:7555/start_run
{
  "error_message": "nfvbench run still pending",
  "status": "PENDING"
}
[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]#

This request will return immediately with status set to “PENDING” if the request was started successfully.

The status can be polled until the run completes. Here the poll returns a “PENDING” status, indicating the run is still not completed:

[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]# curl -G http://127.0.0.1:7555/status
{
  "error_message": "nfvbench run still pending",
  "status": "PENDING"
}
[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]#

Finally, the status request returns a “OK” status along with the full results (truncated here):

[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]# curl -G http://127.0.0.1:7555/status
{
  "result": {
    "benchmarks": {
      "network": {
        "service_chain": {
          "PVP": {
            "result": {
              "bidirectional": true,
              "compute_nodes": {
                "nova:sjc04-pod3-compute-4": {
                  "bios_settings": {
                    "Adjacent Cache Line Prefetcher": "Disabled",
                    "All Onboard LOM Ports": "Enabled",
                    "All PCIe Slots OptionROM": "Enabled",
                    "Altitude": "300 M",
...

    "date": "2017-03-31 22:15:41",
    "nfvbench_version": "0.3.5",
    "openstack_spec": {
      "encaps": "VxLAN",
      "vswitch": "VTS"
    }
  },
  "status": "OK"
}
[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]#

Example of interaction with the NFVbench server using a python CLI app (nfvbench_client)

The module client/client.py contains an example of python class that can be used to control the NFVbench server from a python app using HTTP.

The module client/nfvbench_client.py has a simple main application to control the NFVbench server from CLI. The “nfvbench_client” wrapper script can be used to invoke the client front end (this wrapper is pre-installed in the NFVbench container)

Example of invocation of the nfvbench_client front end, from the host (assume the name of the NFVbench container is “nfvbench”), use the default NFVbench configuration but do not generate traffic (no_traffic property set to true, the full json result is truncated here):

[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]# docker exec -it nfvbench nfvbench_client -c '{"no_traffic":true}' http://127.0.0.1:7555
{u'status': u'PENDING', u'error_message': u'nfvbench run still pending'}
{u'status': u'PENDING', u'error_message': u'nfvbench run still pending'}
{u'status': u'PENDING', u'error_message': u'nfvbench run still pending'}

{u'status': u'OK', u'result': {u'date': u'2017-03-31 22:04:59', u'nfvbench_version': u'0.3.5',
 u'config': {u'compute_nodes': None, u'compute_node_user': u'root', u'traffic_generator': {u'tg_gateway_ip_addrs': [u'1.1.0.100', u'2.2.0.100'], u'ip_addrs_step': u'0.0.0.1',
 u'step_mac': None, u'generator_profile': [{u'intf_speed': u'', u'interfaces': [{u'pci': u'0a:00.0', u'port': 0, u'vlan': 1998, u'switch_port': None},

...

[root@sjc04-pod3-mgmt ~]#