T-Rex traffic generator is a tool design the benchmark platforms with realistic traffic. This is a work-in-progress product, which is under constant developement, new features are added and support for more router’s fuctionality is achieved.
T-Rex control plane is under developement, and a phase 1 is planned to be published soon (Apr 2015).
This document will shortly describe the planned control plane for T-Rex, which is planned to be more scalable and support automation more intuitively.
T-Rex control plane is based on a JSON RPC transactions between clients and server.
Each T-Rex machine will have a server running on it, closely interacting with T-Rex (clients do not approach T-Rex directly).
As future feature, and as multiple T-Rexes might run on the same machine, single server shall serve all T-Rexes running a machine.
The client is a Python based application that created TRexClient instances.
Using class methods, the client interacts with T-Rex server, and enable it to perform the following commands:
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Start T-Rex run (custom parameters supported).
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Stop T-Rex run.
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Check what is the T-Rex status (possible states:
Idle, Starting, Running). -
Poll (by customize sampling) the server and get live results from T-Rex while still running.
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Get custom T-Rex stats based on a window of saved history of latest N polling results.
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Exmaple #1: Checking T-Rex status and Launching T-Rex The following program checks T-Rex status, and later on launches it, querying its status along different time slots.
import time
trex = CTRexClient('trex-name')
print "Before Running, T-Rex status is: ", trex.is_running() # (1)
print "Before Running, T-Rex status is: ", trex.get_running_status() # (2)
ret = trex.start_trex( c = 2, # (3)
m = 0.1,
d = 20,
f = 'avl/sfr_delay_10_1g.yaml',
nc = True,
p = True,
l = 1000)
print "After Starting, T-Rex status is: ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status()
time.sleep(10) # (4)
print "Is T-Rex running? ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status() # (5)-
is_running()returns a boolean and checks if T-Rex is running or not. -
get_running_status()returns a Python dictionary with T-Rex state, along with a verbose field containing extra info, if available. -
T-Rex lanching. All types of inputs are supported. Some fields (such as f and c are mandatory).
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Going to sleep for few seconds, allowing T-Rex to start.
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Checking out with T-Rex status again, printing both a boolean return value and a full status.
This code will prompt the following output, assuming a server was launched on the T-Rex machine.
Connecting to T-Rex @ http://trex-dan:8090/ ...
Before Running, T-Rex status is: False
Before Running, T-Rex status is: {u'state': <TRexStatus.Idle: 1>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Idle'}
<1> (1)
After Starting, T-Rex status is: False {u'state': <TRexStatus.Starting: 2>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is starting'}
<1> (1)
Is T-Rex running? True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
<1> (1)
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When looking at T-Rex status, both an enum status (
Idle, Starting, Running) and verbose output are available.-
Exmaple #2: Checking T-Rex status and Launching T-Rex with BAD PARAMETERS The following program checks T-Rex status, and later on launches it with wrong input (mdf is not legal option), hence T-Rex run will not start and a message will be available.
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import time
trex = CTRexClient('trex-name')
print "Before Running, T-Rex status is: ", trex.is_running() # (1)
print "Before Running, T-Rex status is: ", trex.get_running_status() # (2)
ret = trex.start_trex( c = 2, # (3)
#<4> mdf = 0.1,
d = 20,
f = 'avl/sfr_delay_10_1g.yaml',
nc = True,
p = True,
l = 1000)
print "After Starting, T-Rex status is: ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status()
time.sleep(10) # (5)
print "Is T-Rex running? ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status() # (6)-
is_running()returns a boolean and checks if T-Rex is running or not. -
get_running_status()returns a Python dictionary with T-Rex state, along with a verbose field containing extra info, if available. -
T-Rex lanching. All types of inputs are supported. Some fields (such as f and c are mandatory).
-
Wrong parameter (mdf) injected.
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Going to sleep for few seconds, allowing T-Rex to start.
-
Checking out with T-Rex status again, printing both a boolean return value and a full status.
This code will prompt the following output, assuming a server was launched on the T-Rex machine.
Connecting to T-Rex @ http://trex-dan:8090/ ...
Before Running, T-Rex status is: False
Before Running, T-Rex status is: {u'state': <TRexStatus.Idle: 1>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Idle'}
<1> (1)
After Starting, T-Rex status is: False {u'state': <TRexStatus.Starting: 2>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is starting'}
<1> (1)
Is T-Rex running? False {u'state': <TRexStatus.Idle: 1>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex run failed due to wrong input parameters, or due to reachability issues.'}
<2> (2)
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When looking at T-Rex status, both an enum status (
Idle, Starting, Running) and verbose output are available. -
After T-Rex lanuching failed, a message indicating the failure reason. However, T-Rex is back Idle, ready to handle another launching request.
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Exmaple #3: Launching T-Rex, monitor live data and stopping on demand The following program will launch T-Rex, and while it runs poll the server (every 5 seconds) for running inforamtion, such as latency, drops, and other extractable parameters.
Then, after some criteria was met, T-Rex execution is terminated, enabeling others to use the resource instead of waiting for the entire execution to finish.
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print "Before Running, T-Rex status is: ", trex.get_running_status()
print "Starting T-Rex..."
ret = trex.start_trex( c = 2,
mdf = 0.1,
d = 100,
f = 'avl/sfr_delay_10_1g.yaml',
nc = True,
p = True,
l = 1000)
print "After Starting, T-Rex status is: ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status()
print "sleeping 20 secs.."
time.sleep(20)
for i in range(5):
print "Is T-Rex running? ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status() #(1)
#<2> received_info = trex.get_running_info()
#<3> # Custom data processing is done here
#<4> time.sleep(5)
print "Terminating T-Rex..."
#<5> ret = trex.stop_trex()
print "After stopping, T-Rex status is: ", trex.is_running(), trex.get_running_status() #(6)-
Running queries is still optional, although not mandatory in order to get stats.
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get_running_info()will return the latest data dump available from T-Rex.
Some aditional data manipulation and queries are under developement, including manipulation over number of dumps, which is useful for avoiding "spikes" of singular behavior. -
Data processing. This is fully customizable for the relevant test initiated.
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The sampling rate is flexibale and can be configured depending on the desired output.
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T-Rex termination.
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Post-termination check for status.
This code will prompt the following output, assuming a server was launched on the T-Rex machine.
Connecting to T-Rex @ http://trex-dan:8090/ ...
Before Running, T-Rex status is: False
Before Running, T-Rex status is: {u'state': <TRexStatus.Idle: 1>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Idle'}
Starting T-Rex...
After Starting, T-Rex status is: False {u'state': <TRexStatus.Starting: 2>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is starting'}
<1> Is T-Rex running? True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
<1> Is T-Rex running? True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
<1> Is T-Rex running? True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
<1> Is T-Rex running? True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
<1> Is T-Rex running? True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
Before terminating, T-Rex status is: True {u'state': <TRexStatus.Running: 3>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex is Running'}
Terminating T-Rex...
#<2> After stopping, T-Rex status is: False {u'state': <TRexStatus.Idle: 1>, u'verbose': u'T-Rex finished (terminated).'}
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Polling T-Rex status while in a data polling loop.
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After termination, we can see that T-Rex is back idle, also the
verbosefield shows the stop reason