Epyc VM to VM networking slow

JamesG

These latest 8.3 update speeds are still slower than a 13 year-old Xeon E3 1230.

Seneram

I can unfortunately share that from ongoing ticket investigations in this, It is far more deeply rooted than something that a patch of going from one major kernel to another will "just fix" There are multiple leads being investigated and multiple vendors involved.

olivierlambert

I'd like to check something to see if it's coherent with our tests, by using 2x similar VMs (4vCPUs/4G RAM):

iperf monothread speed on a "fresh" Debian 10 install (4.19 kernel)
the same bench with 5.10.0 kernel from backports (add deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free in your source list and then apt install linux-image-5.10, don't forget to reboot to be on that kernel)

Do you see a performance diff between those?

john.c

@olivierlambert said in Epyc VM to VM networking slow:

I'd like to check something to see if it's coherent with our tests, by using 2x similar VMs (4vCPUs/4G RAM):

iperf monothread speed on a "fresh" Debian 10 install (4.19 kernel)

the same bench with 5.10.0 kernel from backports (add deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free in your source list and then apt install linux-image-5.10, don't forget to reboot to be on that kernel)

Do you see a performance diff between those?

FYI, getting a Debian 10 backports or non-backports packages are going to now be extremely difficult. The Debian Linux 10 LTS has reached EOL. Now currently in ELTS from the beginning of this month until 30/06/2029, though covering only a subset of the packages.

https://www.debian.org/News/2024/20240615

olivierlambert

I had no issue to test it quickly. The thing is for the sake of testing and try to identify a potential regression, not for production usage or whatnot.

olivierlambert

I identified a specific regression in a Debian kernel build since 5.10, we are investigating the "why" (starting from this exact build: https://snapshot.debian.org/package/linux/5.10.92-1/)

probain

@olivierlambert
Would it be possible for you to either offer a ISO to download? Or maybe seed one? I really want to help test this. But I'm getting lost with how Debian provides their legacy images and this jig-boo (intentionally misspelled)

G-Ork

May someone could graph their vm.
Comparing a slow vm with a full speed could bring light into darknes.

https://www.brendangregg.com/Articles/Linux_Kernel_Performance_Flame_Graphs.pdf

olivierlambert

@probain Debian 10 is available in the XOA Hub.

probain

@olivierlambert
I wasn't aware. Thanks! Downloading for doing a test, right away

Test done:

				Run1	Run2	Run3
Sender:   Debian10 kernel 4.19	4.81Gb	4.81Gb	4.83Gb
Reveiver: Debian10 kernel 4.19

Sender:   Debian10 kernel 5.10	5.13Gb	5.02Gb	5.12Gb
Reveiver: Debian10 kernel 4.19

Sender:   Debian10 kernel 5.10	4.98Gb	5.02Gb	4.97Gb
Reveiver: Debian10 kernel 5.10

sender runs 'iperf -c <IP-to-receiver> -t 60'

Kernel 4.19 = 4.19.0-6-amd64
Kernel 5.10 = 5.10.0-0.deb10.24-amd64

CPU 4 cores (AMD EPYC 7302P)
RAM 4GB

Created from XOA-hub

olivierlambert

Thanks @probain , now can you try iperf -s in the Dom0 and iperf -c <IP dom0> in the Debian guest?

probain

@olivierlambert
vm -> dom0 results in "no route to host": firewall?

Results will be shown for dom0 -> vm. Listed by each kernel installed on vm.

Just as earlier. VM is installed via XOA Hub, with 4 CPU and 4GB RAM. Host CPU running on AMD EPYC 7302P.

VM kernel ver.	Run1	Run2	Run3
kernel 4.19.0	8.47Gb	8.82Gb	8.43Gb
kernel 5.10.0	7.12Gb	7.07Gb	7.11Gb

olivierlambert

yes disable the fw first (only in a testing lab obviously) with iptables -F

probain

@olivierlambert how do I restore the iptables again afterwards? Other than reboot ofc

Update: Tests done

vm -> dom0

		Run1	Run2	Run3
kernel 4.19.0	5.84Gb	5.77Gb	5.85Gb
kernel 5.10.0	1.25Gb	1.26Gb	1.28

Specs are just as previous post.

olivierlambert

Thanks so at least it confirms something we are also spotting in here. We found the exact commit.

G-Ork

Here are the opterons with dropped firewall:

source	destination	OS	Kernel	Speed Average
vm	dom	debian 10	4.19.0-6-amd64	6.57 Gbits/sec
dom	vm	debian 10	4.19.0-6-amd64	1.79 Gbits/sec
vm	dom	truenas	6.6.20	2.01 Gbits/sec
dom	vm	truenas	6.6.20	1.82 Gbits/sec
host	vm	debian 10	4.19.0-6-amd64	5.32 Gbits/sec
host	vm	truenas	6.6.20	1.92 Gbits/sec
host	dom	debian	4.19.0+1	8.97 Gbits/sec

G-Ork

@probain said in Epyc VM to VM networking slow:

I restore the iptables again afterwards? Other than reboot

this worked for me

action	command
save	iptables-save > firewall.conf
flush	iptables -F
restore	cat firewall.conf \| iptables-restore

sluflyer06

Here's a little test I just ran between VM's over SMB on my Threadripper 7960x build on a Supermicro H13SRA-TF motherboard, def not too bad, these VM's are on different SR's.

Seneram

@sluflyer06 This test does not say anything other than that you have a 10G nic and we already knew that the limit for latest gen amd's are just above 10G. If you insert an 25 G nic then you can only use half of that capacity likely and for some of us that are using this in actual datacenters that is a pretty critical issue.even more so when it seems the limit is shared per host so that 4 VMs running on same host if the limit is 12gbit means you get 3 gbit per vm. And when you realize lots of us may have 20-40 VMs per server that all use a decent portion of network it is suddenly really scary whenn you realize that is 300-600 mbit per server.

Or even worse when you realize that for those that have earlier gens of amd platform where the limit is 2-4 gbit ish.. now you re looking at 100-200 mbit per vm which suddenly is not very unobtainable for even a smaller provider during peak use times.

It is great that the issue is not triggered for you as your bottleneck is elsewhere, but it is a very serious issue for several of us.

With that said, Vates is handling it as good as anyone could request and i thank them for the attention given and the dedication to solving it.

It is a NASTY bug and very situational for it to have been discovered.

sluflyer06

@Seneram ah well excuse my ignorance then, I thought people said the limits were much lower. I can see what you are saying and the big issue with that.