Chapter 7. Validating single-node OpenShift cluster tuning for vDU application workloads
Before you can deploy virtual distributed unit (vDU) applications, you need to tune and configure the cluster host firmware and various other cluster configuration settings. Use the following information to validate the cluster configuration to support vDU workloads.
Additional resources
7.1. Recommended firmware configuration for vDU cluster hosts
Use the following table as the basis to configure the cluster host firmware for vDU applications running on OpenShift Container Platform 4.16.
The following table is a general recommendation for vDU cluster host firmware configuration. Exact firmware settings will depend on your requirements and specific hardware platform. Automatic setting of firmware is not handled by the zero touch provisioning pipeline.
Firmware setting | Configuration | Description |
---|---|---|
HyperTransport (HT) | Enabled | HyperTransport (HT) bus is a bus technology developed by AMD. HT provides a high-speed link between the components in the host memory and other system peripherals. |
UEFI | Enabled | Enable booting from UEFI for the vDU host. |
CPU Power and Performance Policy | Performance | Set CPU Power and Performance Policy to optimize the system for performance over energy efficiency. |
Uncore Frequency Scaling | Disabled | Disable Uncore Frequency Scaling to prevent the voltage and frequency of non-core parts of the CPU from being set independently. |
Uncore Frequency | Maximum | Sets the non-core parts of the CPU such as cache and memory controller to their maximum possible frequency of operation. |
Performance P-limit | Disabled | Disable Performance P-limit to prevent the Uncore frequency coordination of processors. |
Enhanced Intel® SpeedStep Tech | Enabled | Enable Enhanced Intel SpeedStep to allow the system to dynamically adjust processor voltage and core frequency that decreases power consumption and heat production in the host. |
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology | Enabled | Enable Turbo Boost Technology for Intel-based CPUs to automatically allow processor cores to run faster than the rated operating frequency if they are operating below power, current, and temperature specification limits. |
Intel Configurable TDP | Enabled | Enables Thermal Design Power (TDP) for the CPU. |
Configurable TDP Level | Level 2 | TDP level sets the CPU power consumption required for a particular performance rating. TDP level 2 sets the CPU to the most stable performance level at the cost of power consumption. |
Energy Efficient Turbo | Disabled | Disable Energy Efficient Turbo to prevent the processor from using an energy-efficiency based policy. |
Hardware P-States | Enabled or Disabled |
Enable OS-controlled P-States to allow power saving configurations. Disable |
Package C-State | C0/C1 state | Use C0 or C1 states to set the processor to a fully active state (C0) or to stop CPU internal clocks running in software (C1). |
C1E | Disabled | CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) is a power saving feature in Intel chips. Disabling C1E prevents the operating system from sending a halt command to the CPU when inactive. |
Processor C6 | Disabled | C6 power-saving is a CPU feature that automatically disables idle CPU cores and cache. Disabling C6 improves system performance. |
Sub-NUMA Clustering | Disabled | Sub-NUMA clustering divides the processor cores, cache, and memory into multiple NUMA domains. Disabling this option can increase performance for latency-sensitive workloads. |
Enable global SR-IOV and VT-d settings in the firmware for the host. These settings are relevant to bare-metal environments.
Enable both C-states
and OS-controlled P-States
to allow per pod power management.
7.2. Recommended cluster configurations to run vDU applications
Clusters running virtualized distributed unit (vDU) applications require a highly tuned and optimized configuration. The following information describes the various elements that you require to support vDU workloads in OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 clusters.
7.2.1. Recommended cluster MachineConfig CRs for single-node OpenShift clusters
Check that the MachineConfig
custom resources (CRs) that you extract from the ztp-site-generate
container are applied in the cluster. The CRs can be found in the extracted out/source-crs/extra-manifest/
folder.
The following MachineConfig
CRs from the ztp-site-generate
container configure the cluster host:
MachineConfig CR | Description |
---|---|
| Configures the container mount namespace and kubelet configuration. |
|
Loads the SCTP kernel module. These |
| Configures kdump crash reporting for the cluster. |
| Configures SR-IOV kernel arguments in the cluster. |
|
Disables |
| Disables the automatic CRI-O cache wipe following cluster reboot. |
| Configures the one-time check and adjustment of the system clock by the Chrony service. |
|
Enables the |
| Enables cgroups v1 during cluster installation and when generating RHACM cluster policies. |
In OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 and later, you configure workload partitioning with the cpuPartitioningMode
field in the SiteConfig
CR.
7.2.2. Recommended cluster Operators
The following Operators are required for clusters running virtualized distributed unit (vDU) applications and are a part of the baseline reference configuration:
- Node Tuning Operator (NTO). NTO packages functionality that was previously delivered with the Performance Addon Operator, which is now a part of NTO.
- PTP Operator
- SR-IOV Network Operator
- Red Hat OpenShift Logging Operator
- Local Storage Operator
7.2.3. Recommended cluster kernel configuration
Always use the latest supported real-time kernel version in your cluster. Ensure that you apply the following configurations in the cluster:
Ensure that the following
additionalKernelArgs
are set in the cluster performance profile:apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile # ... spec: additionalKernelArgs: - "rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0" - "efi=runtime" - "vfio_pci.enable_sriov=1" - "vfio_pci.disable_idle_d3=1" - "module_blacklist=irdma" # ...
Optional: Set the CPU frequency under the
hardwareTuning
field:You can use hardware tuning to tune CPU frequencies for reserved and isolated core CPUs. For FlexRAN like applications, hardware vendors recommend that you run CPU frequencies below the default provided frequencies. It is highly recommended that, before setting any frequencies, you refer to the hardware vendor’s guidelines for maximum frequency settings for your processor generation. This example shows the frequencies for reserved and isolated CPUs for Sapphire Rapid hardware:
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: name: openshift-node-performance-profile spec: cpu: isolated: "2-19,22-39" reserved: "0-1,20-21" hugepages: defaultHugepagesSize: 1G pages: - size: 1G count: 32 realTimeKernel: enabled: true hardwareTuning: isolatedCpuFreq: 2500000 reservedCpuFreq: 2800000
Ensure that the
performance-patch
profile in theTuned
CR configures the correct CPU isolation set that matches theisolated
CPU set in the relatedPerformanceProfile
CR, for example:apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1 kind: Tuned metadata: name: performance-patch namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator annotations: ran.openshift.io/ztp-deploy-wave: "10" spec: profile: - name: performance-patch # The 'include' line must match the associated PerformanceProfile name, for example: # include=openshift-node-performance-${PerformanceProfile.metadata.name} # When using the standard (non-realtime) kernel, remove the kernel.timer_migration override from the [sysctl] section data: | [main] summary=Configuration changes profile inherited from performance created tuned include=openshift-node-performance-openshift-node-performance-profile [scheduler] group.ice-ptp=0:f:10:*:ice-ptp.* group.ice-gnss=0:f:10:*:ice-gnss.* group.ice-dplls=0:f:10:*:ice-dplls.* [service] service.stalld=start,enable service.chronyd=stop,disable # ...
7.2.4. Checking the realtime kernel version
Always use the latest version of the realtime kernel in your OpenShift Container Platform clusters. If you are unsure about the kernel version that is in use in the cluster, you can compare the current realtime kernel version to the release version with the following procedure.
Prerequisites
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You are logged in as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges. -
You have installed
podman
.
Procedure
Run the following command to get the cluster version:
$ OCP_VERSION=$(oc get clusterversion version -o jsonpath='{.status.desired.version}{"\n"}')
Get the release image SHA number:
$ DTK_IMAGE=$(oc adm release info --image-for=driver-toolkit quay.io/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release:$OCP_VERSION-x86_64)
Run the release image container and extract the kernel version that is packaged with cluster’s current release:
$ podman run --rm $DTK_IMAGE rpm -qa | grep 'kernel-rt-core-' | sed 's#kernel-rt-core-##'
Example output
4.18.0-305.49.1.rt7.121.el8_4.x86_64
This is the default realtime kernel version that ships with the release.
NoteThe realtime kernel is denoted by the string
.rt
in the kernel version.
Verification
Check that the kernel version listed for the cluster’s current release matches actual realtime kernel that is running in the cluster. Run the following commands to check the running realtime kernel version:
Open a remote shell connection to the cluster node:
$ oc debug node/<node_name>
Check the realtime kernel version:
sh-4.4# uname -r
Example output
4.18.0-305.49.1.rt7.121.el8_4.x86_64
7.3. Checking that the recommended cluster configurations are applied
You can check that clusters are running the correct configuration. The following procedure describes how to check the various configurations that you require to deploy a DU application in OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 clusters.
Prerequisites
- You have deployed a cluster and tuned it for vDU workloads.
-
You have installed the OpenShift CLI (
oc
). -
You have logged in as a user with
cluster-admin
privileges.
Procedure
Check that the default OperatorHub sources are disabled. Run the following command:
$ oc get operatorhub cluster -o yaml
Example output
spec: disableAllDefaultSources: true
Check that all required
CatalogSource
resources are annotated for workload partitioning (PreferredDuringScheduling
) by running the following command:$ oc get catalogsource -A -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{" -- "}{.metadata.annotations.target\.workload\.openshift\.io/management}{"\n"}{end}'
Example output
certified-operators -- {"effect": "PreferredDuringScheduling"} community-operators -- {"effect": "PreferredDuringScheduling"} ran-operators 1 redhat-marketplace -- {"effect": "PreferredDuringScheduling"} redhat-operators -- {"effect": "PreferredDuringScheduling"}
- 1
CatalogSource
resources that are not annotated are also returned. In this example, theran-operators
CatalogSource
resource is not annotated and does not have thePreferredDuringScheduling
annotation.
NoteIn a properly configured vDU cluster, only a single annotated catalog source is listed.
Check that all applicable OpenShift Container Platform Operator namespaces are annotated for workload partitioning. This includes all Operators installed with core OpenShift Container Platform and the set of additional Operators included in the reference DU tuning configuration. Run the following command:
$ oc get namespaces -A -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{" -- "}{.metadata.annotations.workload\.openshift\.io/allowed}{"\n"}{end}'
Example output
default -- openshift-apiserver -- management openshift-apiserver-operator -- management openshift-authentication -- management openshift-authentication-operator -- management
ImportantAdditional Operators must not be annotated for workload partitioning. In the output from the previous command, additional Operators should be listed without any value on the right side of the
--
separator.Check that the
ClusterLogging
configuration is correct. Run the following commands:Validate that the appropriate input and output logs are configured:
$ oc get -n openshift-logging ClusterLogForwarder instance -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: logging.openshift.io/v1 kind: ClusterLogForwarder metadata: creationTimestamp: "2022-07-19T21:51:41Z" generation: 1 name: instance namespace: openshift-logging resourceVersion: "1030342" uid: 8c1a842d-80c5-447a-9150-40350bdf40f0 spec: inputs: - infrastructure: {} name: infra-logs outputs: - name: kafka-open type: kafka url: tcp://10.46.55.190:9092/test pipelines: - inputRefs: - audit name: audit-logs outputRefs: - kafka-open - inputRefs: - infrastructure name: infrastructure-logs outputRefs: - kafka-open ...
Check that the curation schedule is appropriate for your application:
$ oc get -n openshift-logging clusterloggings.logging.openshift.io instance -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: logging.openshift.io/v1 kind: ClusterLogging metadata: creationTimestamp: "2022-07-07T18:22:56Z" generation: 1 name: instance namespace: openshift-logging resourceVersion: "235796" uid: ef67b9b8-0e65-4a10-88ff-ec06922ea796 spec: collection: logs: fluentd: {} type: fluentd curation: curator: schedule: 30 3 * * * type: curator managementState: Managed ...
Check that the web console is disabled (
managementState: Removed
) by running the following command:$ oc get consoles.operator.openshift.io cluster -o jsonpath="{ .spec.managementState }"
Example output
Removed
Check that
chronyd
is disabled on the cluster node by running the following commands:$ oc debug node/<node_name>
Check the status of
chronyd
on the node:sh-4.4# chroot /host
sh-4.4# systemctl status chronyd
Example output
● chronyd.service - NTP client/server Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: inactive (dead) Docs: man:chronyd(8) man:chrony.conf(5)
Check that the PTP interface is successfully synchronized to the primary clock using a remote shell connection to the
linuxptp-daemon
container and the PTP Management Client (pmc
) tool:Set the
$PTP_POD_NAME
variable with the name of thelinuxptp-daemon
pod by running the following command:$ PTP_POD_NAME=$(oc get pods -n openshift-ptp -l app=linuxptp-daemon -o name)
Run the following command to check the sync status of the PTP device:
$ oc -n openshift-ptp rsh -c linuxptp-daemon-container ${PTP_POD_NAME} pmc -u -f /var/run/ptp4l.0.config -b 0 'GET PORT_DATA_SET'
Example output
sending: GET PORT_DATA_SET 3cecef.fffe.7a7020-1 seq 0 RESPONSE MANAGEMENT PORT_DATA_SET portIdentity 3cecef.fffe.7a7020-1 portState SLAVE logMinDelayReqInterval -4 peerMeanPathDelay 0 logAnnounceInterval 1 announceReceiptTimeout 3 logSyncInterval 0 delayMechanism 1 logMinPdelayReqInterval 0 versionNumber 2 3cecef.fffe.7a7020-2 seq 0 RESPONSE MANAGEMENT PORT_DATA_SET portIdentity 3cecef.fffe.7a7020-2 portState LISTENING logMinDelayReqInterval 0 peerMeanPathDelay 0 logAnnounceInterval 1 announceReceiptTimeout 3 logSyncInterval 0 delayMechanism 1 logMinPdelayReqInterval 0 versionNumber 2
Run the following
pmc
command to check the PTP clock status:$ oc -n openshift-ptp rsh -c linuxptp-daemon-container ${PTP_POD_NAME} pmc -u -f /var/run/ptp4l.0.config -b 0 'GET TIME_STATUS_NP'
Example output
sending: GET TIME_STATUS_NP 3cecef.fffe.7a7020-0 seq 0 RESPONSE MANAGEMENT TIME_STATUS_NP master_offset 10 1 ingress_time 1657275432697400530 cumulativeScaledRateOffset +0.000000000 scaledLastGmPhaseChange 0 gmTimeBaseIndicator 0 lastGmPhaseChange 0x0000'0000000000000000.0000 gmPresent true 2 gmIdentity 3c2c30.ffff.670e00
Check that the expected
master offset
value corresponding to the value in/var/run/ptp4l.0.config
is found in thelinuxptp-daemon-container
log:$ oc logs $PTP_POD_NAME -n openshift-ptp -c linuxptp-daemon-container
Example output
phc2sys[56020.341]: [ptp4l.1.config] CLOCK_REALTIME phc offset -1731092 s2 freq -1546242 delay 497 ptp4l[56020.390]: [ptp4l.1.config] master offset -2 s2 freq -5863 path delay 541 ptp4l[56020.390]: [ptp4l.0.config] master offset -8 s2 freq -10699 path delay 533
Check that the SR-IOV configuration is correct by running the following commands:
Check that the
disableDrain
value in theSriovOperatorConfig
resource is set totrue
:$ oc get sriovoperatorconfig -n openshift-sriov-network-operator default -o jsonpath="{.spec.disableDrain}{'\n'}"
Example output
true
Check that the
SriovNetworkNodeState
sync status isSucceeded
by running the following command:$ oc get SriovNetworkNodeStates -n openshift-sriov-network-operator -o jsonpath="{.items[*].status.syncStatus}{'\n'}"
Example output
Succeeded
Verify that the expected number and configuration of virtual functions (
Vfs
) under each interface configured for SR-IOV is present and correct in the.status.interfaces
field. For example:$ oc get SriovNetworkNodeStates -n openshift-sriov-network-operator -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: v1 items: - apiVersion: sriovnetwork.openshift.io/v1 kind: SriovNetworkNodeState ... status: interfaces: ... - Vfs: - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.0 vendor: "8086" vfID: 0 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.1 vendor: "8086" vfID: 1 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.2 vendor: "8086" vfID: 2 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.3 vendor: "8086" vfID: 3 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.4 vendor: "8086" vfID: 4 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.5 vendor: "8086" vfID: 5 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.6 vendor: "8086" vfID: 6 - deviceID: 154c driver: vfio-pci pciAddress: 0000:3b:0a.7 vendor: "8086" vfID: 7
Check that the cluster performance profile is correct. The
cpu
andhugepages
sections will vary depending on your hardware configuration. Run the following command:$ oc get PerformanceProfile openshift-node-performance-profile -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: performance.openshift.io/v2 kind: PerformanceProfile metadata: creationTimestamp: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" finalizers: - foreground-deletion generation: 1 name: openshift-node-performance-profile resourceVersion: "33558" uid: 217958c0-9122-4c62-9d4d-fdc27c31118c spec: additionalKernelArgs: - idle=poll - rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0 - efi=runtime cpu: isolated: 2-51,54-103 reserved: 0-1,52-53 hugepages: defaultHugepagesSize: 1G pages: - count: 32 size: 1G machineConfigPoolSelector: pools.operator.machineconfiguration.openshift.io/master: "" net: userLevelNetworking: true nodeSelector: node-role.kubernetes.io/master: "" numa: topologyPolicy: restricted realTimeKernel: enabled: true status: conditions: - lastHeartbeatTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" status: "True" type: Available - lastHeartbeatTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" status: "True" type: Upgradeable - lastHeartbeatTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" status: "False" type: Progressing - lastHeartbeatTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" lastTransitionTime: "2022-07-19T21:51:31Z" status: "False" type: Degraded runtimeClass: performance-openshift-node-performance-profile tuned: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator/openshift-node-performance-openshift-node-performance-profile
NoteCPU settings are dependent on the number of cores available on the server and should align with workload partitioning settings.
hugepages
configuration is server and application dependent.Check that the
PerformanceProfile
was successfully applied to the cluster by running the following command:$ oc get performanceprofile openshift-node-performance-profile -o jsonpath="{range .status.conditions[*]}{ @.type }{' -- '}{@.status}{'\n'}{end}"
Example output
Available -- True Upgradeable -- True Progressing -- False Degraded -- False
Check the
Tuned
performance patch settings by running the following command:$ oc get tuneds.tuned.openshift.io -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator performance-patch -o yaml
Example output
apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1 kind: Tuned metadata: creationTimestamp: "2022-07-18T10:33:52Z" generation: 1 name: performance-patch namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator resourceVersion: "34024" uid: f9799811-f744-4179-bf00-32d4436c08fd spec: profile: - data: | [main] summary=Configuration changes profile inherited from performance created tuned include=openshift-node-performance-openshift-node-performance-profile [bootloader] cmdline_crash=nohz_full=2-23,26-47 1 [sysctl] kernel.timer_migration=1 [scheduler] group.ice-ptp=0:f:10:*:ice-ptp.* [service] service.stalld=start,enable service.chronyd=stop,disable name: performance-patch recommend: - machineConfigLabels: machineconfiguration.openshift.io/role: master priority: 19 profile: performance-patch
- 1
- The cpu list in
cmdline=nohz_full=
will vary based on your hardware configuration.
Check that cluster networking diagnostics are disabled by running the following command:
$ oc get networks.operator.openshift.io cluster -o jsonpath='{.spec.disableNetworkDiagnostics}'
Example output
true
Check that the
Kubelet
housekeeping interval is tuned to slower rate. This is set in thecontainerMountNS
machine config. Run the following command:$ oc describe machineconfig container-mount-namespace-and-kubelet-conf-master | grep OPENSHIFT_MAX_HOUSEKEEPING_INTERVAL_DURATION
Example output
Environment="OPENSHIFT_MAX_HOUSEKEEPING_INTERVAL_DURATION=60s"
Check that Grafana and
alertManagerMain
are disabled and that the Prometheus retention period is set to 24h by running the following command:$ oc get configmap cluster-monitoring-config -n openshift-monitoring -o jsonpath="{ .data.config\.yaml }"
Example output
grafana: enabled: false alertmanagerMain: enabled: false prometheusK8s: retention: 24h
Use the following commands to verify that Grafana and
alertManagerMain
routes are not found in the cluster:$ oc get route -n openshift-monitoring alertmanager-main
$ oc get route -n openshift-monitoring grafana
Both queries should return
Error from server (NotFound)
messages.
Check that there is a minimum of 4 CPUs allocated as
reserved
for each of thePerformanceProfile
,Tuned
performance-patch, workload partitioning, and kernel command line arguments by running the following command:$ oc get performanceprofile -o jsonpath="{ .items[0].spec.cpu.reserved }"
Example output
0-3
NoteDepending on your workload requirements, you might require additional reserved CPUs to be allocated.