Avi Vantage on Cisco CSP 5000 - Sizing Guidelines
This document provides Cisco CSP 5000 sizing guidelines for deploying Avi Vantage.
Overview
Cisco CSP is a NFV platform based on Intel x86 and the KVM hypervisor. The Avi Controller and Service Engines can be deployed on Cisco CSP.
Cisco CSP is generally available as a 2-socket server, with configurable options for CPU, memory, disk, and network interface cards. The following sections discuss the sizing guidelines for common deployment scenarios.
Deploying Avi Service Engines on Cisco CSP 5000
Avi Service Engines (SEs) are deployed as virtual machines (VMs) on Cisco CSP. The performance of the SEs depends on the number of vCPUs per SE VM (for throughput and SSL TPS) and memory (for concurrent connections). For optimal performance, SE VMs must be deployed on Cisco CSP with SRIOV enabled.
The following table outlines the core allocation for CSP:
| CSP Model | Total cores available | Cores reserved for OS | Available cores |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSP 5216 | 16 | 2 | 14 |
| CSP 5228 | 28 | 4 | 24 |
| CSP 5436 | 36 | 4 | 32 |
| CSP 5444 | 44 | 4 | 40 |
| CSP 5436 | 56 | 4 | 52 |
Avi Vantage Performance on Cisco CSP 5000
The following table outlines Avi SE performance on Cisco CSP, Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6152 CPU @ 2.10GHz, with hyper-threading disabled, and a 10-Gbps NIC with SRIOV enabled.
- Hardware – Cisco CSP 5444
- Software – CSP software - CSP Version 2.4.0
- Avi Vantage version – 18.2.3
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE VM Size | CPS | Throughput | RPS | Throughput |
| 2 vcpu, 4 gig (no dedicated dispatcher) | 60000 | 7 Gbps | 100000 | 7 Gbps |
| 4 vcpu, 4 gig (dedicated dispatcher) | 125000 | 9 Gbps | 175000 | 8.5 Gbps |
| 8 vcpu, 8 gig (dedicated dispatcher) | 150000 | 9 Gbps | 350000 | 9 Gbps |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| SE VM Size | CPS | Throughput | RPS | Throughput |
| 2 vcpu, 4 gig (no dedicated dispatcher) | 4000 | 3 Gbps | 1500 | 3 Gbps |
| 4 vcpu, 4 gig (dedicated dispatcher) | 9000 | 5 Gbps | 3200 | 5 Gbps |
| 8 vcpu, 8 gig (dedicated dispatcher) | 18000 | 9 Gbps | 7000 | 9 Gbps |
Notes:
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In general, the SSL/TLS performance (both throughput and TPS) scales linearly with the number of vCPUs. For example, 4-vCPU SE can provide a performance twice the capacity as listed in the table above.
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Dedicated dispatcher CPU – Selecting this option dedicates the core that handles packet receive/transmit from/to the data network to just the dispatching function. This option is most applicable for an SE that has three or more vCPUs.
Deploying Avi Controller on Cisco CSP 5000
In addition to Avi SEs, Avi Controller can also be deployed (as a VM) on Cisco CSP 5000. Avi Controller VM sizing is based on the system scale as outlined in the Avi Controller Sizing article.
Depending on the network design, the Avi Controller cluster can be deployed on dedicated Cisco CSP, or can share Cisco CSP with Avi SEs.
Recommended Cisco CSP Specifications
The following are the recommended Cisco CSP 5000 specification for various deployment scenarios:
| Scale | CSP Model | Memory | Storage | NICs | Max Avi SE performance+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra small | CSP5216 | 256 GB | 3 TB SSD | 1x 40G NICs | 20 Gbps SSL 25K SSL TPS |
| Small | CSP5228 | 256 GB | 3 TB SSD | 1x 40G NICs | 30 Gbps SSL 50K SSL TPS |
| Medium | CSP5436 | 256 GB | 3 TB SSD | 2x 40G NICs | 40 Gbps SSL 70K SSL TPS |
| Large* | CSP5444 | 512 GB | 6 TB SSD | 2x 40G NICs | 50 Gbps SSL 90K SSL TPS |
| Extra Large* | CSP5456 | 512 GB | 6 TB SSD | 2x 40G NICs | 65 Gbps SSL 115K SSL TPS |
+Max Avi SE performance assumes all available vCPUs on the CSP are used for Avi SEs. If the Avi Controller is deployed on the same CSP, the maximum SE performance depends on the total number of vCPUs available for Avi SEs. The SSL numbers are for ECC TPS. These numbers are with SR-IOV configured on the NIC. Maximum throughput is achieved with vCPU/NIC affinity.
*This configuration is recommended when Cisco CSP is used to deploy multiple NFV solutions. For instance, Avi Vantage, virtual ASA, etc.
Creating Logical interfaces on Service Engine
The following table discusses the interfaces that can be created on a Service Engine:
| Logical interface | Limit |
|---|---|
| Maximum number of vNICs attached to Avi Vantage's SE VNF | 23 (out of which vNIC0 would be used for Avi SE management) |
| Maximum number of vLANs on Avi SE | 200 |
| Maximum number of vLANs per SRIOV passthrough interface | 64 |