Setup & Configure a SUT

The System Under Test (SUT) is the system on which benchmarks are executed. Fastpath communicates with the SUT over SSH to configure it (e.g. install the kernel to be benchmarked, reboot, configure kernel command line and sysctls, etc). Then it invokes benchmarks by pulling and running Docker containers on the SUT.

Fastpath’s requirements for the SUT are as follows:

  • Must use grub to boot the kernel and kernel must be stored at /boot

  • A minimal set of shell utilities must be available

  • Docker must be installed

  • A user account must be available which is a member of the “docker” and “sudo” groups

  • The user account must have its public key setup such that it can SSH into the SUT without the need for a password

  • The user account must be configured for passwordless sudo usage

Ubuntu is well tested with Fastpath and is known to meet the first 2 requirements out of the box: Using Ubuntu as the SUT’s operating system is recommended for this reason.

Install Docker

This example assumes Ubuntu is installed on the SUT. Refer to distribution documentation if using a different distro. The apt version of Docker is preferred as issues have been observed with the snap version:

sudo apt-get install docker.io
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Create User Account

This example assumes Ubuntu is installed on the SUT. Refer to distribution documentation if using a different distro. This shows how to create a dedicated user account on the SUT that can be used by fastpath. You are free to use an existing account as long as it meets the stated requirements.

First, on the SUT, create a group and user account, which is a member of the docker and sudo groups. Then configure the user for passwordless sudo. Finally set a password for the user:

sudo groupadd fpuser
sudo useradd -g fpuser -m fpuser
sudo usermod --shell /bin/bash fpuser
sudo usermod -a -G docker fpuser
sudo usermod -a -G sudo fpuser
echo "fpuser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/fpuser
sudo passwd fpuser
<enter desired password>

Next, on the system that will run Fastpath, create a public/private key pair for the user and install the public key on the SUT. This can be performed with a combination of ssh-keygen and ssh-copy-id.

Warning

The private key must be kept secure as it can be used to access the SUT with root privileges.

You can validate the setup by running the Fastpath fingerprint command. If it successfully outputs all the HW and SW details, you have succeeded:

fastpath sut fingerprint --user fpuser [--port <id>] [--keyfile <filename>] <SUT hostname or IP>