Chapter 16. Creating a performance profile
Learn about the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) and how you can use it to create a performance profile.
Currently, disabling CPU load balancing is not supported by cgroup v2. As a result, you might not get the desired behavior from performance profiles if you have cgroup v2 enabled. Enabling cgroup v2 is not recommended if you are using performance profiles.
16.1. About the Performance Profile Creator
The Performance Profile Creator (PPC) is a command-line tool, delivered with the Node Tuning Operator, used to create the performance profile. The tool consumes must-gather
data from the cluster and several user-supplied profile arguments. The PPC generates a performance profile that is appropriate for your hardware and topology.
The tool is run by one of the following methods:
-
Invoking
podman
- Calling a wrapper script
16.1.1. Gathering data about your cluster using the must-gather command
The Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool requires must-gather
data. As a cluster administrator, run the must-gather
command to capture information about your cluster.
In earlier versions of OpenShift Container Platform, the Performance Addon Operator provided automatic, low latency performance tuning for applications. In OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 and later, this functionality is part of the Node Tuning Operator. However, you must still use the performance-addon-operator-must-gather
image when running the must-gather
command.
Prerequisites
-
Access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. -
Access to the Performance Addon Operator
must gather
image. -
The OpenShift CLI (
oc
) installed.
Procedure
Optional: Verify that a matching machine config pool exists with a label:
$ oc describe mcp/worker-rt
Example output
Name: worker-rt Namespace: Labels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role=worker-rt
If a matching label does not exist add a label for a machine config pool (MCP) that matches with the MCP name:
$ oc label mcp <mcp_name> machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role=<mcp_name>
-
Navigate to the directory where you want to store the
must-gather
data. Run
must-gather
on your cluster:$ oc adm must-gather --image=<PAO_must_gather_image> --dest-dir=<dir>
NoteThe
must-gather
command must be run with theperformance-addon-operator-must-gather
image. The output can optionally be compressed. Compressed output is required if you are running the Performance Profile Creator wrapper script.Example
$ oc adm must-gather --image=registry.redhat.io/openshift4/performance-addon-operator-must-gather-rhel8:v4.12 --dest-dir=<path_to_must-gather>/must-gather
Create a compressed file from the
must-gather
directory:$ tar cvaf must-gather.tar.gz must-gather/
16.1.2. Running the Performance Profile Creator using podman
As a cluster administrator, you can run podman
and the Performance Profile Creator to create a performance profile.
Prerequisites
-
Access to the cluster as a user with the
cluster-admin
role. - A cluster installed on bare-metal hardware.
-
A node with
podman
and OpenShift CLI (oc
) installed. - Access to the Node Tuning Operator image.
Procedure
Check the machine config pool:
$ oc get mcp
Example output
NAME CONFIG UPDATED UPDATING DEGRADED MACHINECOUNT READYMACHINECOUNT UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT AGE master rendered-master-acd1358917e9f98cbdb599aea622d78b True False False 3 3 3 0 22h worker-cnf rendered-worker-cnf-1d871ac76e1951d32b2fe92369879826 False True False 2 1 1 0 22h
Use Podman to authenticate to
registry.redhat.io
:$ podman login registry.redhat.io
Username: <username> Password: <password>
Optional: Display help for the PPC tool:
$ podman run --rm --entrypoint performance-profile-creator registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.12 -h
Example output
A tool that automates creation of Performance Profiles Usage: performance-profile-creator [flags] Flags: --disable-ht Disable Hyperthreading -h, --help help for performance-profile-creator --info string Show cluster information; requires --must-gather-dir-path, ignore the other arguments. [Valid values: log, json] (default "log") --mcp-name string MCP name corresponding to the target machines (required) --must-gather-dir-path string Must gather directory path (default "must-gather") --offlined-cpu-count int Number of offlined CPUs --per-pod-power-management Enable Per Pod Power Management --power-consumption-mode string The power consumption mode. [Valid values: default, low-latency, ultra-low-latency] (default "default") --profile-name string Name of the performance profile to be created (default "performance") --reserved-cpu-count int Number of reserved CPUs (required) --rt-kernel Enable Real Time Kernel (required) --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa Split the Reserved CPUs across NUMA nodes --topology-manager-policy string Kubelet Topology Manager Policy of the performance profile to be created. [Valid values: single-numa-node, best-effort, restricted] (default "restricted") --user-level-networking Run with User level Networking(DPDK) enabled
Run the Performance Profile Creator tool in discovery mode:
NoteDiscovery mode inspects your cluster using the output from
must-gather
. The output produced includes information on:- The NUMA cell partitioning with the allocated CPU ids
- Whether hyperthreading is enabled
Using this information you can set appropriate values for some of the arguments supplied to the Performance Profile Creator tool.
$ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v <path_to_must-gather>/must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.12 --info log --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather
NoteThis command uses the performance profile creator as a new entry point to
podman
. It maps themust-gather
data for the host into the container image and invokes the required user-supplied profile arguments to produce themy-performance-profile.yaml
file.The
-v
option can be the path to either:-
The
must-gather
output directory -
An existing directory containing the
must-gather
decompressed tarball
The
info
option requires a value which specifies the output format. Possible values are log and JSON. The JSON format is reserved for debugging.Run
podman
:$ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v /must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.12 --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=4 --rt-kernel=true --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa=false --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather --power-consumption-mode=ultra-low-latency --offlined-cpu-count=6 > my-performance-profile.yaml
NoteThe Performance Profile Creator arguments are shown in the Performance Profile Creator arguments table. The following arguments are required:
-
reserved-cpu-count
-
mcp-name
-
rt-kernel
The
mcp-name
argument in this example is set toworker-cnf
based on the output of the commandoc get mcp
. For single-node OpenShift use--mcp-name=master
.-
Review the created YAML file:
$ cat my-performance-profile.yaml
Example output
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: name: performance spec: cpu: isolated: 2-39,48-79 offlined: 42-47 reserved: 0-1,40-41 machineConfigPoolSelector: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: worker-cnf nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: "" numa: topologyPolicy: restricted realTimeKernel: enabled: true workloadHints: highPowerConsumption: true realTime: true
Apply the generated profile:
$ oc apply -f my-performance-profile.yaml
16.1.2.1. How to run podman
to create a performance profile
The following example illustrates how to run podman
to create a performance profile with 20 reserved CPUs that are to be split across the NUMA nodes.
Node hardware configuration:
- 80 CPUs
- Hyperthreading enabled
- Two NUMA nodes
- Even numbered CPUs run on NUMA node 0 and odd numbered CPUs run on NUMA node 1
Run podman
to create the performance profile:
$ podman run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator -v /must-gather:/must-gather:z registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.12 --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=20 --rt-kernel=true --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa=true --must-gather-dir-path /must-gather > my-performance-profile.yaml
The created profile is described in the following YAML:
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: name: performance spec: cpu: isolated: 10-39,50-79 reserved: 0-9,40-49 nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: "" numa: topologyPolicy: restricted realTimeKernel: enabled: true
In this case, 10 CPUs are reserved on NUMA node 0 and 10 are reserved on NUMA node 1.
16.1.3. Running the Performance Profile Creator wrapper script
The performance profile wrapper script simplifies the running of the Performance Profile Creator (PPC) tool. It hides the complexities associated with running podman
and specifying the mapping directories and it enables the creation of the performance profile.
Prerequisites
- Access to the Node Tuning Operator image.
-
Access to the
must-gather
tarball.
Procedure
Create a file on your local machine named, for example,
run-perf-profile-creator.sh
:$ vi run-perf-profile-creator.sh
Paste the following code into the file:
#!/bin/bash readonly CONTAINER_RUNTIME=${CONTAINER_RUNTIME:-podman} readonly CURRENT_SCRIPT=$(basename "$0") readonly CMD="${CONTAINER_RUNTIME} run --entrypoint performance-profile-creator" readonly IMG_EXISTS_CMD="${CONTAINER_RUNTIME} image exists" readonly IMG_PULL_CMD="${CONTAINER_RUNTIME} image pull" readonly MUST_GATHER_VOL="/must-gather" NTO_IMG="registry.redhat.io/openshift4/ose-cluster-node-tuning-operator:v4.12" MG_TARBALL="" DATA_DIR="" usage() { print "Wrapper usage:" print " ${CURRENT_SCRIPT} [-h] [-p image][-t path] -- [performance-profile-creator flags]" print "" print "Options:" print " -h help for ${CURRENT_SCRIPT}" print " -p Node Tuning Operator image" print " -t path to a must-gather tarball" ${IMG_EXISTS_CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" && ${CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" -h } function cleanup { [ -d "${DATA_DIR}" ] && rm -rf "${DATA_DIR}" } trap cleanup EXIT exit_error() { print "error: $*" usage exit 1 } print() { echo "$*" >&2 } check_requirements() { ${IMG_EXISTS_CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" || ${IMG_PULL_CMD} "${NTO_IMG}" || \ exit_error "Node Tuning Operator image not found" [ -n "${MG_TARBALL}" ] || exit_error "Must-gather tarball file path is mandatory" [ -f "${MG_TARBALL}" ] || exit_error "Must-gather tarball file not found" DATA_DIR=$(mktemp -d -t "${CURRENT_SCRIPT}XXXX") || exit_error "Cannot create the data directory" tar -zxf "${MG_TARBALL}" --directory "${DATA_DIR}" || exit_error "Cannot decompress the must-gather tarball" chmod a+rx "${DATA_DIR}" return 0 } main() { while getopts ':hp:t:' OPT; do case "${OPT}" in h) usage exit 0 ;; p) NTO_IMG="${OPTARG}" ;; t) MG_TARBALL="${OPTARG}" ;; ?) exit_error "invalid argument: ${OPTARG}" ;; esac done shift $((OPTIND - 1)) check_requirements || exit 1 ${CMD} -v "${DATA_DIR}:${MUST_GATHER_VOL}:z" "${NTO_IMG}" "$@" --must-gather-dir-path "${MUST_GATHER_VOL}" echo "" 1>&2 } main "$@"
Add execute permissions for everyone on this script:
$ chmod a+x run-perf-profile-creator.sh
Optional: Display the
run-perf-profile-creator.sh
command usage:$ ./run-perf-profile-creator.sh -h
Expected output
Wrapper usage: run-perf-profile-creator.sh [-h] [-p image][-t path] -- [performance-profile-creator flags] Options: -h help for run-perf-profile-creator.sh -p Node Tuning Operator image 1 -t path to a must-gather tarball 2 A tool that automates creation of Performance Profiles Usage: performance-profile-creator [flags] Flags: --disable-ht Disable Hyperthreading -h, --help help for performance-profile-creator --info string Show cluster information; requires --must-gather-dir-path, ignore the other arguments. [Valid values: log, json] (default "log") --mcp-name string MCP name corresponding to the target machines (required) --must-gather-dir-path string Must gather directory path (default "must-gather") --offlined-cpu-count int Number of offlined CPUs --per-pod-power-management Enable Per Pod Power Management --power-consumption-mode string The power consumption mode. [Valid values: default, low-latency, ultra-low-latency] (default "default") --profile-name string Name of the performance profile to be created (default "performance") --reserved-cpu-count int Number of reserved CPUs (required) --rt-kernel Enable Real Time Kernel (required) --split-reserved-cpus-across-numa Split the Reserved CPUs across NUMA nodes --topology-manager-policy string Kubelet Topology Manager Policy of the performance profile to be created. [Valid values: single-numa-node, best-effort, restricted] (default "restricted") --user-level-networking Run with User level Networking(DPDK) enabled
NoteThere two types of arguments:
-
Wrapper arguments namely
-h
,-p
and-t
- PPC arguments
-
Wrapper arguments namely
Run the performance profile creator tool in discovery mode:
NoteDiscovery mode inspects your cluster using the output from
must-gather
. The output produced includes information on:- The NUMA cell partitioning with the allocated CPU IDs
- Whether hyperthreading is enabled
Using this information you can set appropriate values for some of the arguments supplied to the Performance Profile Creator tool.
$ ./run-perf-profile-creator.sh -t /must-gather/must-gather.tar.gz -- --info=log
NoteThe
info
option requires a value which specifies the output format. Possible values are log and JSON. The JSON format is reserved for debugging.Check the machine config pool:
$ oc get mcp
Example output
NAME CONFIG UPDATED UPDATING DEGRADED MACHINECOUNT READYMACHINECOUNT UPDATEDMACHINECOUNT DEGRADEDMACHINECOUNT AGE master rendered-master-acd1358917e9f98cbdb599aea622d78b True False False 3 3 3 0 22h worker-cnf rendered-worker-cnf-1d871ac76e1951d32b2fe92369879826 False True False 2 1 1 0 22h
Create a performance profile:
$ ./run-perf-profile-creator.sh -t /must-gather/must-gather.tar.gz -- --mcp-name=worker-cnf --reserved-cpu-count=2 --rt-kernel=true > my-performance-profile.yaml
NoteThe Performance Profile Creator arguments are shown in the Performance Profile Creator arguments table. The following arguments are required:
-
reserved-cpu-count
-
mcp-name
-
rt-kernel
The
mcp-name
argument in this example is set toworker-cnf
based on the output of the commandoc get mcp
. For single-node OpenShift use--mcp-name=master
.-
Review the created YAML file:
$ cat my-performance-profile.yaml
Example output
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: name: performance spec: cpu: isolated: 1-39,41-79 reserved: 0,40 nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker-cnf: "" numa: topologyPolicy: restricted realTimeKernel: enabled: false
Apply the generated profile:
NoteInstall the Node Tuning Operator before applying the profile.
$ oc apply -f my-performance-profile.yaml
16.1.4. Performance Profile Creator arguments
Argument | Description |
---|---|
| Disable hyperthreading.
Possible values:
Default: Warning
If this argument is set to |
|
This captures cluster information and is used in discovery mode only. Discovery mode also requires the Possible values:
Default: |
|
MCP name for example |
| Must gather directory path. This parameter is required.
When the user runs the tool with the wrapper script |
| Number of offlined CPUs. Note This must be a natural number greater than 0. If not enough logical processors are offlined then error messages are logged. The messages are: Error: failed to compute the reserved and isolated CPUs: please ensure that reserved-cpu-count plus offlined-cpu-count should be in the range [0,1] Error: failed to compute the reserved and isolated CPUs: please specify the offlined CPU count in the range [0,1] |
| The power consumption mode. Possible values:
Default: |
|
Enable per pod power management. You cannot use this argument if you configured
Possible values:
Default: |
|
Name of the performance profile to create. Default: |
| Number of reserved CPUs. This parameter is required. Note This must be a natural number. A value of 0 is not allowed. |
| Enable real-time kernel. This parameter is required.
Possible values: |
| Split the reserved CPUs across NUMA nodes.
Possible values:
Default: |
| Kubelet Topology Manager policy of the performance profile to be created. Possible values:
Default: |
| Run with user level networking (DPDK) enabled.
Possible values:
Default: |
16.2. Reference performance profiles
16.2.1. A performance profile template for clusters that use OVS-DPDK on OpenStack
To maximize machine performance in a cluster that uses Open vSwitch with the Data Plane Development Kit (OVS-DPDK) on Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP), you can use a performance profile.
You can use the following performance profile template to create a profile for your deployment.
A performance profile template for clusters that use OVS-DPDK
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: name: cnf-performanceprofile spec: additionalKernelArgs: - nmi_watchdog=0 - audit=0 - mce=off - processor.max_cstate=1 - idle=poll - intel_idle.max_cstate=0 - default_hugepagesz=1GB - hugepagesz=1G - intel_iommu=on cpu: isolated: <CPU_ISOLATED> reserved: <CPU_RESERVED> hugepages: defaultHugepagesSize: 1G pages: - count: <HUGEPAGES_COUNT> node: 0 size: 1G nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: '' realTimeKernel: enabled: false globallyDisableIrqLoadBalancing: true
Insert values that are appropriate for your configuration for the CPU_ISOLATED
, CPU_RESERVED
, and HUGEPAGES_COUNT
keys.
To learn how to create and use performance profiles, see the "Creating a performance profile" page in the "Scalability and performance" section of the OpenShift Container Platform documentation.
16.3. Additional resources
-
For more information about the
must-gather
tool, see Gathering data about your cluster.