Re: DPDK and energy efficiency

[Brian Knight via NANOG <nanog () nanog org>]

On 2021-03-05 12:22, Etienne-Victor Depasquale wrote:

> Sure, here goes:
>
> https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-BJ9FCT6K9/

Thanks for sharing these results.  We run DPDK workloads (Cisco nee 
Viptela vEdge Cloud) on ESXI.  Fwiw, a quick survey of a few of our Dell 
R640s running mostly vEdge workloads shows the PS output wattage is 
about 60% higher than a non-vEdge workload: 420W vs 260W.  PS input 
amperage is 2.0A@208V vs 1.4A, a 42% difference.  Processor type is Xeon 
6152.  Stats obtained from the iDRAC lights-out management module.

vEdge does not do any limiting of polling by default, and afaik the 
software has no support for any kind of limiting.  It will poll the 
network driver on every core assigned to the VM for max performance, 
except for one core which is assigned to the control plane.

I'm usually more concerned about the lack of available CPU cores.  The 
CPU usage forces us not to oversubscribe the VM hosts, which means we 
must provision vEdges less densely and buy more gear sooner.  Plus, the 
increased power demand means we can fit about 12 vEdge servers per 
cabinet instead of 17.  (Power service is 30A 208V, maximum of 80% 
usage.)

OTOH, I face far fewer questions about vEdge Cloud performance problems 
than I do on other virtual platforms.


> Cheers,
>
> Etienne


Thanks again,

-Brian