Benchmark XanMod and Clear kernels on Clear Linux

bench_xanmod_and_clear_kernels.txt

Benchmark XanMod and Clear kernels on Clear Linux, September 22, 2023

Discovery made:

   Using XanMod RT, I compared PREEMPT_RT vs PREEMPT_DYNAMIC knobs.
   See comparison data at the end of this document.

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I tested with sched autogroup enabled in /etc/clr-power-tweaks.conf

   /proc/sys/kernel/sched_autogroup_enabled 1

how I benchmarked

   run the commands in terminals 1 through 4 in parallel
   run the commands in terminals 5 and 6 serially, one at a time

run as a normal user in terminals 1 and 2

   Term1:  numactl -C  0-31 ./hackbench -P -f 4 -g 4 -l 2000000
   Term2:  numactl -C 32-63 ./hackbench -P -f 4 -g 4 -l 2000000

become super-user in terminals 3 and 4

   Term3:  ./cyclictest --smp -p98 -m -D 20 -q
   Term4:  sync; echo 3 >/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches; time ls -R /usr

os scheduler responsiveness (the total response time was captured)

   Term5:  python3 responsiveness.py -i1 -p60 --np 4 -t 30

capture the time to build a kernel

   Term6:  time ./xm-build lts-default in /tmp directory


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Clear 6.1.53-1313.ltscurrent

   hackbench1  15.758s, 15.630s, 16.127s
   hackbench2  16.731s, 16.553s, 16.835s
   cyclictest  7900, 330, 358
   ls -R /usr  11.164s, 11.128s, 11.187s (no bg_jobs 9.641s)
   os latency  0.100391, 0.102956, 0.232901
   bld kernel  real 7m18.723s, user 128m9.374s, sys 11m38.517s

XanMod 6.1.54-100.xmlts-default

   hackbench1  14.716s, 14.627s, 14.597s
   hackbench2  15.213s, 15.225s, 15.132s
   cyclictest  376, 342, 333
   ls -R /usr  12.104s, 12.015s, 11.949s (no bg_jobs 9.688s)
   os latency  0.059826, 0.058776, 0.058987
   bld kernel  real 7m17.296s, user 127m27.707s, sys 11m40.550s


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Clear 6.1.53-1313.ltsdesktop (enabled preempt and rcu_boost)

   hackbench1  18.222s, 17.704s, 17.994s
   hackbench2  18.520s, 18.394s, 18.453s
   cyclictest  135, 94, 137
   ls -R /usr  11.800s, 11.775s, 11.800s (no bg_jobs 10.040s)
   os latency  0.116172, 0.243947, 0.274625
   bld kernel  real 7m30.694s, user 128m50.351s, sys 14m4.006s

XanMod 6.1.54-100.xmlts-preempt

   hackbench1  17.498s, 17.507s, 17.546s
   hackbench2  18.231s, 18.286s, 18.309s
   cyclictest  105, 95, 219
   ls -R /usr  12.996s, 12.898s, 12.904s (no bg_jobs 10.037s)
   os latency  0.063351, 0.058836, 0.057628
   bld kernel  real 7m29.838s, user 128m54.715s, sys 14m2.734s


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Clear 6.1.38-105.preempt_rt (note: PREEMPT_RT not enabled in Clear)

   hackbench1  13.195s, 13.278s, 13.272s
   hackbench2  13.913s, 13.842s, 13.848s
   cyclictest  825, 377, 6327
   ls -R /usr  12.346s, 12.239s, 12.302s (no bg_jobs 9.923s)
   os latency  0.070464, 0.063389, 0.064956
   bld kernel  real 7m22.703s, user 131m55.665s, sys 12m25.750s

XanMod 6.1.54-100.xmrt-default

   hackbench1  12.807s, 12.786s, 12.730s
   hackbench2  13.426s, 13.417s, 13.373s
   cyclictest  541, 928, 471
   ls -R /usr  12.137s, 12.030s, 11.992s (no bg_jobs 9.679s)
   os latency  0.067352, 0.062054, 0.063270
   bld kernel  real 7m19.116s, user 130m41.808s, sys 11m56.475s


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Clear 6.1.38-105.preempt_rt (enabled preempt_rt and rcu_boost)

   hackbench1  46.392s, 46.675s, 46.537s
   hackbench2  43.884s, 44.022s, 43.820s
   cyclictest  34, 36, 35
   ls -R /usr  15.146s, 15.178s, 15.149s (no bg_jobs 11.114s)
   os latency  0.060291, 0.052961, 0.050324
   bld kernel  real 8m54.285s, user 157m15.273s, sys 22m43.648s

XanMod 6.1.54-100.xmrt-preempt_rt (PREEMPT_RT knobs)

   hackbench1  45.855s, 46.120s, 46.071s
   hackbench2  44.068s, 44.471s, 44.429s
   cyclictest  46, 39, 38
   ls -R /usr  15.070s, 15.000s, 15.002s (no bg_jobs 10.780s)
   os latency  0.057868, 0.053071, 0.054575
   bld kernel  real 8m49.644s, user 156m28.683s, sys 21m55.323s

XanMod 6.1.54-101.xmrt-preempt (PREEMPT_DYNAMIC knobs)

   hackbench1  14.711s, 14.800s, 14.845s
   hackbench2  15.468s, 15.351s, 15.509s
   cyclictest  89, 164, 94
   ls -R /usr  12.186s, 12.088s, 12.023s (no bg_jobs 9.594s)
   os latency  0.068495, 0.065514, 0.061632
   bld kernel  real 7m29.736s, user 133m14.289s, sys 14m27.194s