MinIperf

What is MinIperf?

MinIperf is an iperf compatible server based on Mini-OS. It is intended for network performance measurments involving TCP.

Building MinIperf

Preparations

It is recommended that you create a target directory first (e.g., ~/workspace). It will be used to store all required sources and builds for MinIperf.

export WORKSPACE=$HOME/workspace
mkdir -p $WORKSPACE
cd $WORKSPACE

I recommend to add this export line to your shell profile (e.g., via .bashrc if you are using bash).

Download and Build Xen (here: 4.4)

Please follow Xen's build instructions - it should be something like the following:

git clone git://xenbits.xen.org/xen.git
cd xen
git checkout stable-4.4
./configure
make xen tools
cd ..

Note: If Xen is not installed on your system yet, please install it as well. You might need to restart your computer. After that, please ensure that you set the following environment variables set (I also recommend to add this to your shell profile):

export XEN_ROOT=$WORKSPACE/xen

Download dependencies

Our toolchain is required to comile and link the MinIperf VM binary:

git clone  git://github.com/sysml/toolchain.git

Also, Mini-OS, the base OS for MinIperf, is required:

git clone  git://github.com/sysml/mini-os.git

After that, please ensure that you set the following environment variables (I also recommend to add this to your shell profile):

export TOOLCHAIN_ROOT=$WORKSPACE/toolchain
export MINIOS_ROOT=$WORKSPACE/mini-os

Build toolchain

Please follow the build procedure as described in 'toolchain/README'. In principle it should be:

cd toolchain
make
cd ..

Download and Build MinIperf

Clone the MinIperf repository

git clone  git://github.com/sysml/miniperf.git
cd miniperf

Configure (optional)

You can configure your build by enabling/disabling features in MinIperf. This can be done by placing a file called .config.mk in your MinIperf source directory. You can have a look in Config.mk which is the managed configuration file (do not change this one).

Build

make

Getting Started

Create a Xen Guest Configuration

In order to boot MinIperf, create a Xen guest configuration file. You can use the following example as a basis and save it under miniperf.cfg:

kernel        = 'build/miniperf_x86_64'
vcpus         = '1'
memory        = '64'

name          = 'miniperf'
extra         = '-i 192.168.0.2/24 -g 192.168.0.1 -d 192.168.0.1'

vif           = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:ba:be:12,bridge=virbr0' ]

For now, just a single VIF is supported by MinIperf. The extra option in the configuration specifies the parameters that you pass to the guest. Possible options for MinIperf are listed in the last paragraph.

Boot the VM

The VM is booted with the xl command:

xl create -c miniperf.cfg

When your networking setup is correct, you should be able now to run an iperf test:

iperf -i 1 -r -c 192.168.0.2

You should also be able to ping it:

ping 192.168.0.2

MinIperf Parameters

-i [IPv4/Route prefix] Host IP address in CIDR notation
                       (if not specified, DHCP client is enabled)
-g [IPv4]              Gateway IP address
-d [Num]               Interval for debug output (milliseconds)
-a [hwaddr]/[IPv4]     Static ARP entry
                       (multiple tokens possible)