Fermilab Farm Testing Software
Farm Burn-In/Evaluation Tests
fermitest-full-1-7.i386.rpm *
We have set a standard to have each group of our farms undergo a 30 day burn in
test. We also use this same test to evaluate a systems performance and how well
it handles stress.
During this test we try to simulate a standard working farm enviroment.
This covers three main areas: CPU, Dsk, and Network. In the standard working
farm, all three of these areas are used to their utmost. So if a machine isn't
able to handle this stress for 30 days, it certainly isn't going to last for 2
to 3 years
fermitest-full installation and use
Is the full suite of tests that are described below, as well as some
utilities to help in the analyzing of the results. For it's proper use and
installation you need to follow each of the individual instructions for the
tests below. All of the results of the tests are put in /root/test
CPU Load
fermitest-seti-3.0-1.i386.rpm **
SetiAtHome
: runs constantly
We chose the SetiAtHome program because of two reasons. First.
It uses as much CPU as it can. Second, it is similar
to what the farms will be doing, which is going through a bunch of data,
and looking for interesting points. We have the rpm setup so that it will use
two CPU's. Using this test on a single processor machine will not be efficient.
fermitest-seti installation and use
You do need a network connection to the internet. Beyond that no setup is
required.
Hard Drive Load
fermitest-bonnie-1-2.i386.rpm *
Bonnie : runs once per hour for each drive
We need the hard drive to be able to have a consistent throughput for
the harddrives. They need to be able to keep up with the network,
while at the same time, be able to give the CPU the data that it needs. The
bonnie-test, tests each drive by writting and reading a 1 Gig file to the drive,
and timing how long it takes.
fermitest-bonnie installation and use
You have to have whichever drives you want tested, mounted and in the
/etc/fstab, as /local/stage[1-6]. You can have up to 6 areas tested. Beyond
this, everything is automatic. An example /etc/fstab entry is below.
...
/dev/hdc1 /local/stage1 ...
/dev/hdd1 /local/stage2 ...
/dev/hda6 /local/stage3 ...
...
Network Load
fermitest-net-1-4.i386.rpm *
NetTest : runs once per hour
NetTest is a Fermi-Made program. It essensially transfers a file as big as
you wish to the machine being tested. In order to not be affected by hard drive
performance, the file is never actually written or read to hard drive. For our
tests we simulate a transfer of a 2 Gig file. You only need one machine acting
as server, and the rest run as clients. You might want to rotate the machine
that acts as server since it really gets a workout.
fermitest-net installation and use
Client: You need network access to the server, no other setup is needed.
Server: You need to edit the file /root/test/nettest/nodelist. With one
entry per line, put the nodename, or IP address, of the machines you want to
test in the nodelist file. You then need to put an entry into your crontab to
run /root/bin/net-test as often as you wish. For our tests we run it once an
hour.
* The rpm's have been unlinked from here for the simple reason that they have
been changing too often lately, and keeping the web page up to date, in addition
to keeping all of the rpm's up to date has proved to use more time than I have.
If you want the latest fermitest's please e-mail me and I'll be happy to send
them to you.
** The SetiAtHome rpm was pulled off this site as the License for SetiAtHome
clearly states that Distribution is prohibited. If you are one of our test
vendors and need this software, please contact me.
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July 20, 2000