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.. _agenda:
Agenda
======
An agenda specifies what is to be done during a Workload Automation run,
including which workloads will be run, with what configuration, which
augmentations will be enabled, etc. Agenda syntax is designed to be both
succinct and expressive.
Agendas are specified using YAML_ notation. It is recommended that you
familiarize yourself with the linked page.
.. _YAML: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML
Specifying which workloads to run
---------------------------------
The central purpose of an agenda is to specify what workloads to run. A
minimalist agenda contains a single entry at the top level called "workloads"
that maps onto a list of workload names to run:
.. code-block:: yaml
workloads:
- dhrystone
- memcpy
- rt_app
This specifies a WA run consisting of ``dhrystone`` followed by ``memcpy``, followed by
``rt_app`` workloads, and using the augmentations specified in
config.yaml (see :ref:`configuration-specification` section).
.. note:: If you're familiar with YAML, you will recognize the above as a single-key
associative array mapping onto a list. YAML has two notations for both
associative arrays and lists: block notation (seen above) and also
in-line notation. This means that the above agenda can also be
written in a single line as ::
workloads: [dhrystone, memcpy, rt-app]
(with the list in-lined), or ::
{workloads: [dhrystone, memcpy, rt-app]}
(with both the list and the associative array in-line). WA doesn't
care which of the notations is used as they all get parsed into the
same structure by the YAML parser. You can use whatever format you
find easier/clearer.
Multiple iterations
-------------------
There will normally be some variability in workload execution when running on a
real device. In order to quantify it, multiple iterations of the same workload
are usually performed. You can specify the number of iterations for each
workload by adding ``iterations`` field to the workload specifications (or
"specs"):
.. code-block:: yaml
workloads:
- name: dhrystone
iterations: 5
- name: memcpy
iterations: 5
- name: cyclictest
iterations: 5
Now that we're specifying both the workload name and the number of iterations in
each spec, we have to explicitly name each field of the spec.
It is often the case that, as in in the example above, you will want to run all
workloads for the same number of iterations. Rather than having to specify it
for each and every spec, you can do with a single entry by adding `iterations`
to your ``config`` section in your agenda:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
workloads:
- dhrystone
- memcpy
- cyclictest
If the same field is defined both in config section and in a spec, then the
value in the spec will overwrite the value. For example, suppose we
wanted to run all our workloads for five iterations, except cyclictest which we
want to run for ten (e.g. because we know it to be particularly unstable). This
can be specified like this:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
workloads:
- dhrystone
- memcpy
- name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
Again, because we are now specifying two fields for cyclictest spec, we have to
explicitly name them.
Configuring Workloads
---------------------
Some workloads accept configuration parameters that modify their behaviour. These
parameters are specific to a particular workload and can alter the workload in
any number of ways, e.g. set the duration for which to run, or specify a media
file to be used, etc. The vast majority of workload parameters will have some
default value, so it is only necessary to specify the name of the workload in
order for WA to run it. However, sometimes you want more control over how a
workload runs.
For example, by default, dhrystone will execute 10 million loops across four
threads. Suppose your device has six cores available and you want the workload to
load them all. You also want to increase the total number of loops accordingly
to 15 million. You can specify this using dhrystone's parameters:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
workloads:
- name: dhrystone
params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- memcpy
- name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
.. note:: You can find out what parameters a workload accepts by looking it up
in the :ref:`Workloads` section or using WA itself with "show"
command::
wa show dhrystone
see the :ref:`Invocation` section for details.
In addition to configuring the workload itself, we can also specify
configuration for the underlying device which can be done by setting runtime
parameters in the workload spec. Explicit runtime parameters have been exposed for
configuring cpufreq, hotplug and cpuidle. For more detailed information on Runtime
Parameters see the :ref:`runtime parameters <runtime-parameters>` section. For
example, suppose we want to ensure the maximum score for our benchmarks, at the
expense of power consumption so we want to set the cpufreq governor to
"performance" and enable all of the cpus on the device, (assuming there are 8
cpus available), which can be done like this:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
workloads:
- name: dhrystone
runtime_params:
governor: performance
num_cores: 8
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- memcpy
- name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
I've renamed ``params`` to ``workload_params`` for clarity,
but that wasn't strictly necessary as ``params`` is interpreted as
``workload_params`` inside a workload spec.
Runtime parameters do not automatically reset at the end of workload spec
execution, so all subsequent iterations will also be affected unless they
explicitly change the parameter (in the example above, performance governor will
also be used for ``memcpy`` and ``cyclictest``. There are two ways around this:
either set ``reboot_policy`` WA setting (see :ref:`configuration-specification`
section) such that the device gets rebooted between spec executions, thus being
returned to its initial state, or set the default runtime parameter values in
the ``config`` section of the agenda so that they get set for every spec that
doesn't explicitly override them.
If additional configuration of the device is required which are not exposed via
the built in runtime parameters, you can write a value to any file exposed on
the device using ``sysfile_values``, for example we could have also performed
the same configuration manually (assuming we have a big.LITTLE system and our
cores 0-3 and 4-7 are in 2 separate DVFS domains and so setting the governor for
cpu0 and cpu4 will affect all our cores) e.g.
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
workloads:
- name: dhrystone
runtime_params:
sysfile_values:
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor: performance
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu4/cpufreq/scaling_governor: performance
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu4/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu5/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu6/online: 1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu7/online: 1
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- memcpy
- name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
Here, we're specifying a ``sysfile_values`` runtime parameter for the device.
The value for this parameter is a mapping (an associative array, in YAML) of
file paths onto values that should be written into those files. Runtime
parameters will depend on the specifics of the device used (e.g. its CPU cores
configuration).
APK Workloads
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WA has various resource getters that can be configured to locate APK files but
for most people APK files should be kept in the
``$WA_USER_DIRECTORY/dependencies/SOME_WORKLOAD/`` directory. (by default
``~/.workload_automation/dependencies/SOME_WORKLOAD/``). The
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``WA_USER_DIRECTORY`` environment variable can be used to change the location of
this folder. The APK files need to be put into the corresponding directories for
the workload they belong to. The name of the file can be anything but as
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explained below may need to contain certain pieces of information.
All ApkWorkloads have parameters that affect the way in which APK files are
resolved, ``exact_abi``, ``force_install`` and ``prefer_host_package``. Their
exact behaviours are outlined below.
.. confval:: exact_abi
If this setting is enabled WA's resource resolvers will look for the devices
ABI with any native code present in the apk. By default this setting is
disabled since most apks will work across all devices. You may wish to enable
this feature when working with devices that support multiple ABI's (like
64-bit devices that can run 32-bit APK files) and are specifically trying to
test one or the other.
.. confval:: force_install
If this setting is enabled WA will *always* use the APK file on the host, and
re-install it on every iteration. If there is no APK on the host that is a
suitable version and/or ABI for the workload WA will error when
``force_install`` is enabled.
.. confval:: prefer_host_package
This parameter is used to specify a preference over host or target versions
of the app. When set to ``True`` WA will prefer the host side version of the
APK. It will check if the host has the APK and if the host APK meets the
version requirements of the workload. If does and the target already has same
version nothing will be done, other wise it will overwrite the targets app
with the host version. If the hosts is missing the APK or it does not meet
version requirements WA will fall back to the app on the target if it has the
app and it is of a suitable version. When this parameter is set to ``false``
WA will prefer to use the version already on the target if it meets the
workloads version requirements. If it does not it will fall back to search
the host for the correct version. In both modes if neither the host nor
target have a suitable version, WA will error and not run the workload.
Some workloads will also feature the follow parameters which will alter the way
their APK files are resolved.
.. confval:: version
This parameter is used to specify which version of uiautomation for the
workload is used. In some workloads e.g. ``geekbench`` multiple versions with
drastically different UI's are supported. A APKs version will be
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automatically extracted therefore it is possible to have multiple apks for
different versions of a workload present on the host and select between which
is used for a particular job by specifying the relevant version in your
:ref:`agenda <agenda>`.
.. confval:: variant_name
Some workloads use variants of APK files, this is usually the case with web
browser APK files, these work in exactly the same way as the version.
IDs and Labels
--------------
It is possible to list multiple specs with the same workload in an agenda. You
may wish to do this if you want to run a workload with different parameter values
or under different runtime configurations of the device. The workload name
therefore does not uniquely identify a spec. To be able to distinguish between
different specs (e.g. in reported results), each spec has an ID which is unique
to all specs within an agenda (and therefore with a single WA run). If an ID
isn't explicitly specified using ``id`` field (note that the field name is in
lower case), one will be automatically assigned to the spec at the beginning of
the WA run based on the position of the spec within the list. The first spec
*without an explicit ID* will be assigned ID ``1``, the second spec *without an
explicit ID* will be assigned ID ``2``, and so forth.
Numerical IDs aren't particularly easy to deal with, which is why it is
recommended that, for non-trivial agendas, you manually set the ids to something
more meaningful (or use labels -- see below). An ID can be pretty much anything
that will pass through the YAML parser. The only requirement is that it is
unique to the agenda. However, is usually better to keep them reasonably short
(they don't need to be *globally* unique), and to stick with alpha-numeric
characters and underscores/dashes. While WA can handle other characters as well,
getting too adventurous with your IDs may cause issues further down the line
when processing WA output (e.g. when uploading them to a database that may have
its own restrictions).
In addition to IDs, you can also specify labels for your workload specs. These
are similar to IDs but do not have the uniqueness restriction. If specified,
labels will be used by some output processes instead of (or in addition to) the
workload name. For example, the ``csv`` output processor will put the label in the
"workload" column of the CSV file.
It is up to you how you chose to use IDs and labels. WA itself doesn't expect
any particular format (apart from uniqueness for IDs). Below is the earlier
example updated to specify explicit IDs and label dhrystone spec to reflect
parameters used.
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: performance
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
- id: 03_cycl
name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
.. _classifiers:
Classifiers
------------
Classifiers can be used in 2 distinct ways, the first use is being supplied in
an agenda as a set of key-value pairs which can be used to help identify sub-
tests of a run, for example if you have multiple sections in your agenda running
your workloads at different frequencies you might want to set a classifier
specifying which frequencies are being used. These can then be utilized later,
for example with the ``csv`` :ref:`output processor <output-processors>` with
``use_all_classifiers`` set to ``True`` and this will add additional columns to
the output file for each of the classifier keys that have been specified
allowing for quick comparison.
An example agenda is shown here:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
augmentations:
- csv
iterations: 1
device: generic_android
csv:
use_all_classifiers: True
sections:
- id: max_speed
runtime_parameters:
frequency: 1700000
classifiers:
freq: 1700000
- id: min_speed
runtime_parameters:
frequency: 200000
classifiers:
freq: 200000
workloads:
- name: recentfling
The other way that they can used is by being automatically added by some
workloads to identify their results metrics and artifacts. For example some
workloads perform multiple tests with the same execution run and therefore will
use metrics to differentiate between them, For example the ``recentfling``
workload will use classifiers to distinguish between which loop a particular
result is for or whether it is an average across all loops ran.
The output from the agenda above will produce a csv file similar to what is
shown below. Some columns have been omitted for clarity however as can been seen
the custom **frequency** classifier column has been added and populated, along
with the **loop** classifier added by the workload.
::
id | workload | metric | freq | loop | value ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | 90th Percentile | 1700000 | 1 | 8 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | 95th Percentile | 1700000 | 1 | 9 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | 99th Percentile | 1700000 | 1 | 16 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank | 1700000 | 1 | 11 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank% | 1700000 | 1 | 1 ‖
# ...
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank | 1700000 | 3 | 1 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank% | 1700000 | 3 | 0 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average 90th Percentqile | 1700000 | Average | 7 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average 95th Percentile | 1700000 | Average | 8 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average 99th Percentile | 1700000 | Average | 14 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average Jank | 1700000 | Average | 6 ‖
max_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average Jank% | 1700000 | Average | 0 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | 90th Percentile | 200000 | 1 | 7 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | 95th Percentile | 200000 | 1 | 8 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | 99th Percentile | 200000 | 1 | 14 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank | 200000 | 1 | 5 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank% | 200000 | 1 | 0 ‖
# ...
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank | 200000 | 3 | 5 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Jank% | 200000 | 3 | 0 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average 90th Percentile | 200000 | Average | 7 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average 95th Percentile | 200000 | Average | 8 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average 99th Percentile | 200000 | Average | 13 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average Jank | 200000 | Average | 4 ‖
min_speed-wk1 | recentfling | Average Jank% | 200000 | Average | 0 ‖
.. _sections:
Sections
--------
It is a common requirement to be able to run the same set of workloads under
different device configurations. E.g. you may want to investigate impact of
changing a particular setting to different values on the benchmark scores, or to
quantify the impact of enabling a particular feature in the kernel. WA allows
this by defining "sections" of configuration with an agenda.
For example, suppose what we really want, is to measure the impact of using
interactive cpufreq governor vs the performance governor on the three
benchmarks. We could create another three workload spec entries similar to the
ones we already have and change the sysfile value being set to "interactive".
However, this introduces a lot of duplication; and what if we want to change
spec configuration? We would have to change it in multiple places, running the
risk of forgetting one.
A better way is to keep the three workload specs and define a section for each
governor:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
augmentations:
- ~cpufreq
- csv
sysfs_extractor:
paths: [/proc/meminfo]
csv:
use_all_classifiers: True
sections:
- id: perf
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: performance
- id: inter
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: interactive
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
augmentations: [sysfs_extractor]
A section, just like an workload spec, needs to have a unique ID. Apart from
that, a "section" is similar to the ``config`` section we've already seen --
everything that goes into a section will be applied to each workload spec.
Workload specs defined under top-level ``workloads`` entry will be executed for
each of the sections listed under ``sections``.
.. note:: It is also possible to have a ``workloads`` entry within a section,
in which case, those workloads will only be executed for that specific
section.
In order to maintain the uniqueness requirement of workload spec IDs, they will
be namespaced under each section by prepending the section ID to the spec ID
with a dash. So in the agenda above, we no longer have a workload spec
with ID ``01_dhry``, instead there are two specs with IDs ``perf-01-dhry`` and
``inter-01_dhry``.
Note that the ``config`` section still applies to every spec in the agenda. So
the precedence order is -- spec settings override section settings, which in
turn override global settings.
Output Processors and Instruments
----------------------------------
Output Processors
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Output processors, as the name suggests, handle the processing of output
generated form running workload specs. By default, WA enables a couple of basic
output processors (e.g. one generates a csv file with all scores reported by
workloads), which you can see in ``~/.workload_automation/config.yaml``. However,
WA has a number of other, more specialized, output processors (e.g. for
uploading to databases). You can list available output processors with
``wa list output_processors`` command. If you want to permanently enable a
output processor, you can add it to your ``config.yaml``. You can also enable a
output processor for a particular run by specifying it in the ``config`` section
in the agenda. As the name suggests, ``config`` section mirrors the structure of
``config.yaml``, and anything that can be specified in the latter, can also be
specified in the former.
As with workloads, output processors may have parameters that define their
behaviour. Parameters of output processors are specified a little differently,
however. Output processor parameter values are listed in the config section,
namespaced under the name of the output processor.
For example, suppose we want to be able to easily query the output generated by
the workload specs we've defined so far. We can use ``sqlite`` output processor
to have WA create an sqlite_ database file with the results. By default, this
file will be generated in WA's output directory (at the same level as
results.csv); but suppose we want to store the results in the same file for
every run of the agenda we do. This can be done by specifying an alternative
database file with ``database`` parameter of the output processor:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
augmentations:
- sqlite
sqlite:
database: ~/my_wa_results.sqlite
iterations: 5
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: performance
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
- id: 03_cycl
name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
A couple of things to observe here:
- There is no need to repeat the output processors listed in ``config.yaml``. The
processors listed in ``augmentations`` entry in the agenda will be used
*in addition to* those defined in the ``config.yaml``.
- The database file is specified under "sqlite" entry in the config section.
Note, however, that this entry alone is not enough to enable the output
processor, it must be listed in ``augmentations``, otherwise the "sqilte"
config entry will be ignored.
- The database file must be specified as an absolute path, however it may use
the user home specifier '~' and/or environment variables.
.. _sqlite: http://www.sqlite.org/
Instruments
^^^^^^^^^^^
WA can enable various "instruments" to be used during workload execution.
Instruments can be quite diverse in their functionality, but the majority of
instruments available in WA today are there to collect additional data (such as
trace) from the device during workload execution. You can view the list of
available instruments by using ``wa list instruments`` command. As with output
processors, a few are enabled by default in the ``config.yaml`` and additional
ones may be added in the same place, or specified in the agenda using
``augmentations`` entry.
For example, we can collect power events from trace cmd by using the ``trace-cmd``
instrument.
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
augmentations:
- trace-cmd
- csv
trace-cmd:
trace_events: ['power*']
iterations: 5
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: performance
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
- id: 03_cycl
name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
Instruments are not "free" and it is advisable not to have too many enabled at
once as that might skew results. For example, you don't want to have power
measurement enabled at the same time as event tracing, as the latter may prevent
cores from going into idle states and thus affecting the reading collected by
the former.
Instruments, like output processors, may be enabled (and disabled -- see below)
on per-spec basis. For example, suppose we want to collect /proc/meminfo from the
device when we run ``memcpy`` workload, but not for the other two. We can do that using
``sysfs_extractor`` instrument, and we will only enable it for ``memcpy``:
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
augmentations:
- trace-cmd
- csv
trace-cmd:
trace_events: ['power*']
iterations: 5
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: performance
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
augmentations: [sysfs_extractor]
- id: 03_cycl
name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
As with ``config`` sections, the ``augmentations`` entry in the spec needs only to
list additional instruments and does not need to repeat instruments specified
elsewhere.
.. note:: At present, it is only possible to enable/disable instruments on
per-spec base. It is *not* possible to provide configuration on
per-spec basis in the current version of WA (e.g. in our example, it
is not possible to specify different ``sysfs_extractor`` paths for
different workloads). This restriction may be lifted in future
versions of WA.
Disabling augmentations
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
As seen above, plugins specified with ``augmentations`` clauses get added to
those already specified previously. Just because an instrument specified in
``config.yaml`` is not listed in the ``config`` section of the agenda, does
not mean it will be disabled. If you do want to disable an instrument, you can
always remove/comment it out from ``config.yaml``. However that will be
introducing a permanent configuration change to your environment (one that can
be easily reverted, but may be just as easily forgotten). If you want to
temporarily disable a output processor or an instrument for a particular run,
you can do that in your agenda by prepending a tilde (``~``) to its name.
For example, let's say we want to disable ``cpufreq`` instrument enabled in our
``config.yaml`` (suppose we're going to send results via email and so want to
reduce to total size of the output directory):
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
iterations: 5
augmentations:
- ~cpufreq
- csv
sysfs_extractor:
paths: [/proc/meminfo]
csv:
use_all_classifiers: True
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: performance
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
augmentations: [sysfs_extractor]
- id: 03_cycl
name: cyclictest
iterations: 10
Other Configuration
-------------------
.. _configuration_in_agenda:
As mentioned previously, ``config`` section in an agenda can contain anything
that can be defined in ``config.yaml``. Certain configuration (e.g. ``run_name``)
makes more sense to define in an agenda than a config file. Refer to the
:ref:`configuration-specification` section for details.
.. code-block:: yaml
config:
project: governor_comparison
run_name: performance_vs_interactive
device: generic_android
reboot_policy: never
iterations: 5
augmentations:
- ~cpufreq
- csv
sysfs_extractor:
paths: [/proc/meminfo]
csv:
use_all_classifiers: True
sections:
- id: perf
runtime_params:
sysfile_values:
cpu0_governor: performance
- id: inter
runtime_params:
cpu0_governor: interactive
workloads:
- id: 01_dhry
name: dhrystone
label: dhrystone_15over6
workload_params:
threads: 6
mloops: 15
- id: 02_memc
name: memcpy
augmentations: [sysfs_extractor]
- id: 03_cycl
name: cyclictest
iterations: 10