Add support for specific times to throughput tests

[arlake228]

BWCTL, regular-testing and pScheduler all support running a test at a specific time. We should add this feature to the meshconfig as well. This is prompted by the following request on 7/12/16:

We’d like to schedule our throughput tests to run at specific times of day (instead of intervals). I was excited to find the time_slot Directive here:
http://docs.perfsonar.net/config_regular_testing.html#config-regular-testing-schedules

I cannot see this functionality here though:
http://docs.perfsonar.net/config_mesh.html#config-mesh-test-spec

Is it supported by the mesh config and if so, how do I use it? In addition to time_slot, I understand that support for the type of schedule is also required...
(I tried putting time_slot in our mesh conf file but build_json gave me an “unknown attribute” error)

Thanks very much,

Roderick

[HakanCalimFau]

Is it ok when we do it like this:
<test_spec bwctl_time_slot>
type perfsonarbuoy/bwctl
tool bwctl/iperf3
protocol tcp
time_slot 01:00
time_slot 05:00
time_slot 15:00
time_slot *:35
duration 20
</test_spec>

Do we need other parameters too?

[HakanCalimFau]

sorry begining and ending tag is missing. How can I insert this?

[arlake228]

time_slot is not supported in the MeshConfig, only regular_testing, hence the issue.

[HakanCalimFau]

I know. I am asking if this isue is important I can start with implementation of this issue. The above code is only a suggestion how to doit in mesh config.

[rodsterD]

Hi! Roderick (requester) here. Is anyone working on this at the moment? If not, can I give it a shot?

[rodsterD]

Ok. I see some related commits. Thanks Hakan for working on this!
How complete is the implementation? I can either help complete it and/or test...

[arlake228]

Hi roderick, this issue is a little bit complicated by the fact that we will have an RC of 4.0 in a couple weeks and it completely changes our scheduling infrastructure. Regular testing and BWCTL are going away entirely and will be replaced by something called pScheduler. The MeshConfig still exists and interacts with pScheduler. When we do the RC, chances are that pScheduler won't have the time slot feature yet, but i think we have some options in terms of how we can get it in the final for you. See perfsonar/pscheduler#104 for an issue on getting this added.

[rodsterD]

Thanks! The new issue for pScheduler makes sense and that implementation or the temporary mesh config workaround will work for me too.