Add more tests #2
Open
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Summary
This PR introduces a reworked version of the original 48-hour benchmark to better align with our system’s CPU isolation model and Intel CAT best practices. The goal is to produce accurate, reproducible results while avoiding MSR-level interactions that may negatively affect performance.
Background & Motivation
The previously shared 48-hour benchmark appeared to be optimized for a specific use-case that does not fully align with our environment:
The original test setup uses the first four online cores as noisy neighbors, implying that the test core must be core #4. This contradicts our ECI bootstrap scripts, which isolate cores 1 and 3 (even though we apply a custom GRUB command line). This misalignment explains inconsistencies observed in our benchmark results.
The original implementation interfaces with MSRs directly. Intel’s libpqos documentation discourages explicit MSR manipulation and recommends relying on the RDT APIs instead. Direct MSR access can unintentionally influence performance measurements.
What This PR Changes
Introduces two controlled experiment layouts to evaluate the performance impact of Intel CAT:
These experiments allow us to more clearly quantify Intel CAT’s influence on real-time workloads under different resource-allocation configurations.
Expected Outcome
This redesigned benchmark provides a more accurate and representative evaluation of CAT behavior in our environment, reduces low-level MSR side effects, and supports future reproducible experimentation.