Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          S. Banks
Request for Comments: 7654                                VSS Monitoring
Category: Informational                                      F. Calabria
ISSN: 2070-1721                                            Cisco Systems
                                                             G. Czirjak
                                                              R. Machat
                                                       Juniper Networks
                                                           October 2015


   Benchmarking Methodology for In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU)

Abstract

  Modern forwarding devices attempt to minimize any control- and data-
  plane disruptions while performing planned software changes by
  implementing a technique commonly known as In-Service Software
  Upgrade (ISSU).  This document specifies a set of common
  methodologies and procedures designed to characterize the overall
  behavior of a Device Under Test (DUT), subject to an ISSU event.

Status of This Memo

  This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
  published for informational purposes.

  This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
  (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
  received public review and has been approved for publication by the
  Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
  approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
  Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

  Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
  and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
  http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7654.















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Copyright Notice

  Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
  document authors.  All rights reserved.

  This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
  Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
  (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
  publication of this document.  Please review these documents
  carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
  to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
  include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
  the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
  described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction ....................................................3
  2. Conventions Used in This Document ...............................4
  3. Generic ISSU Process, Phased Approach ...........................4
     3.1. Software Download ..........................................5
     3.2. Software Staging ...........................................6
     3.3. Upgrade Run ................................................6
     3.4. Upgrade Acceptance .........................................7
  4. Test Methodology ................................................7
     4.1. Test Topology ..............................................7
     4.2. Load Model .................................................8
  5. ISSU Test Methodology ...........................................9
     5.1. Pre-ISSU Recommended Verifications .........................9
     5.2. Software Staging ...........................................9
     5.3. Upgrade Run ...............................................10
     5.4. Post-ISSU Verification ....................................11
     5.5. ISSU under Negative Stimuli ...............................12
  6. ISSU Abort and Rollback ........................................12
  7. Final Report: Data Presentation and Analysis ...................13
     7.1. Data Collection Considerations ............................14
  8. Security Considerations ........................................15
  9. References .....................................................15
     9.1. Normative References ......................................15
     9.2. Informative References ....................................16
  Acknowledgments ...................................................16
  Authors' Addresses ................................................16









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1.  Introduction

  As required by most Service Provider (SP) network operators, ISSU
  functionality has been implemented by modern forwarding devices to
  upgrade or downgrade from one software version to another with a goal
  of eliminating the downtime of the router and/or the outage of
  service.  However, it is noted that while most operators desire
  complete elimination of downtime, minimization of downtime and
  service degradation is often the expectation.

  The ISSU operation may apply in terms of an atomic version change of
  the entire system software or it may be applied in a more modular
  sense, such as for a patch or maintenance upgrade.  The procedure
  described herein may be used to verify either approach, as may be
  supported by the vendor hardware and software.

  In support of this document, the desired behavior for an ISSU
  operation can be summarized as follows:

  -  The software is successfully migrated from one version to a
     successive version or vice versa.

  -  There are no control-plane interruptions throughout the process.
     That is, the upgrade/downgrade could be accomplished while the
     device remains "in service".  It is noted, however, that most
     service providers will still undertake such actions in a
     maintenance window (even in redundant environments) to minimize
     any risk.

  -  Interruptions to the forwarding plane are minimal to none.

  -  The total time to accomplish the upgrade is minimized, again to
     reduce potential network outage exposure (e.g., an external
     failure event might impact the network as it operates with reduced
     redundancy).

  This document provides a set of procedures to characterize a given
  forwarding device's ISSU behavior quantitatively, from the
  perspective of meeting the above expectations.

  Different hardware configurations may be expected to be benchmarked,
  but a typical configuration for a forwarding device that supports
  ISSU consists of at least one pair of Routing Processors (RPs) that
  operate in a redundant fashion, and single or multiple forwarding
  engines (line cards) that may or may not be redundant, as well as
  fabric cards or other components as applicable.  This does not
  preclude the possibility that a device in question can perform ISSU
  functions through the operation of independent process components,



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  which may be upgraded without impact to the overall operation of the
  device.  As an example, perhaps the software module involved in SNMP
  functions can be upgraded without impacting other operations.

  The concept of a multi-chassis deployment may also be characterized
  by the current set of proposed methodologies, but the implementation-
  specific details (i.e., process placement and others) are beyond the
  scope of the current document.

  Since most modern forwarding devices, where ISSU would be applicable,
  do consist of redundant RPs and hardware-separated control-plane and
  data-plane functionality, this document will focus on methodologies
  that would be directly applicable to those platforms.  It is
  anticipated that the concepts and approaches described herein may be
  readily extended to accommodate other device architectures as well.

2.  Conventions Used in This Document

  The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
  document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].

  In this document, these words will appear with that interpretation
  only when in ALL CAPS.  Lowercase uses of these words are not to be
  interpreted as carrying the significance of RFC 2119.

3.  Generic ISSU Process, Phased Approach

  ISSU may be viewed as the behavior of a device when exposed to a
  planned change in its software functionality.  This may mean changes
  to the core operating system, separate processes or daemons, or even
  firmware logic in programmable hardware devices (e.g., Complex
  Programmable Logic Device (CPLD) or Field-Programmable Gate Array
  (FPGA)).  The goal of an ISSU implementation is to permit such
  actions with minimal or no disruption to the primary operation of the
  device in question.

  ISSU may be user initiated through direct interaction with the device
  or activated through some automated process on a management system or
  even on the device itself.  For the purposes of this document, we
  will focus on the model where the ISSU action is initiated by direct
  user intervention.

  The ISSU process can be viewed as a series of different phases or
  activities, as defined below.  For each of these phases, the test
  operator must record the outcome as well as any relevant observations
  (defined further in the present document).  Note that, a given vendor
  implementation may or may not permit the abortion of the in-progress



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  ISSU at particular stages.  There may also be certain restrictions as
  to ISSU availability given certain functional configurations (for
  example, ISSU in the presence of Bidirectional Failure Detection
  (BFD) [RFC5880] may not be supported).  It is incumbent upon the test
  operator to ensure that the DUT is appropriately configured to
  provide the appropriate test environment.  As with any properly
  orchestrated test effort, the test plan document should reflect these
  and other relevant details and should be written with close attention
  to the expected production operating environment.  The combined
  analysis of the results of each phase will characterize the overall
  ISSU process with the main goal of being able to identify and
  quantify any disruption in service (from the data- and control-plane
  perspective) allowing operators to plan their maintenance activities
  with greater precision.

3.1.  Software Download

  In this first phase, the requested software package may be downloaded
  to the router and is typically stored onto a device.  The downloading
  of software may be performed automatically by the device as part of
  the upgrade process, or it may be initiated separately.  Such
  separation allows an administrator to download the new code inside or
  outside of a maintenance window; it is anticipated that downloading
  new code and saving it to disk on the router will not impact
  operations.  In the case where the software can be downloaded outside
  of the actual upgrade process, the administrator should do so;
  downloading software can skew timing results based on factors that
  are often not comparative in nature.  Internal compatibility
  verification may be performed by the software running on the DUT, to
  verify the checksum of the files downloaded as well as any other
  pertinent checks.  Depending upon vendor implementation, these
  mechanisms may include 1) verifying that the downloaded module(s)
  meet a set of identified prerequisites such as (but not limited to)
  hardware or firmware compatibility or minimum software requirements
  or even 2) ensuring that device is "authorized" to run the target
  software.

  Where such mechanisms are made available by the product, they should
  be verified, by the tester, with the goal of avoiding operational
  issues in production.  Verification should include both positive
  verification (ensuring that an ISSU action should be permitted) as
  well as negative tests (creation of scenarios where the verification
  mechanisms would report exceptions).








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3.2.  Software Staging

  In this second phase, the requested software package is loaded in the
  pertinent components of a given forwarding device (typically the RP
  in standby state).  Internal compatibility verification may be
  performed by the software running on the DUT, as part of the upgrade
  process itself, to verify the checksum of the files downloaded as
  well as any other pertinent checks.  Depending upon vendor
  implementation, these mechanisms may include verification that the
  downloaded module(s) meet a set of identified prerequisites such as
  hardware or firmware compatibility or minimum software requirements.
  Where such mechanisms are made available by the product, they should
  be verified, by the tester (again with the goal of avoiding
  operational issues in production).  In this case, the execution of
  these checks is within the scope of the upgrade time and should be
  included in the testing results.  Once the new software is downloaded
  to the pertinent components of the DUT, the upgrade begins, and the
  DUT begins to prepare itself for upgrade.  Depending on the vendor
  implementation, it is expected that redundant hardware pieces within
  the DUT are upgraded, including the backup or secondary RP.

3.3.  Upgrade Run

  In this phase, a switchover of RPs may take place, where one RP is
  now upgraded with the new version of software.  More importantly, the
  "Upgrade Run" phase is where the internal changes made to information
  and state (stored on the router, on disk, and in memory) are either
  migrated to the "new" version of code, or transformed/rebuilt to meet
  the standards of the new version of code, and pushed onto the
  appropriate pieces of hardware.  It is within this phase that any
  outage(s) on the control or forwarding plane may be expected to be
  observed.  This is the critical phase of the ISSU, where the control
  plane should not be impacted and any interruptions to the forwarding
  plane should be minimal to none.

  If any control- or data-plane interruptions are observed within this
  stage, they should be recorded as part of the results document.

  For some implementations, the two stages, as described in Section 3.2
  and above, may be concatenated into one monolithic operation.  In
  that case, the calculation of the respective ISSU time intervals may
  need to be adapted accordingly.









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3.4.  Upgrade Acceptance

  In this phase, the new version of software must be running in all the
  physical nodes of the logical forwarding device (RPs and line cards
  as applicable).  At this point, configuration control is returned to
  the operator, and normal device operation, i.e., outside of ISSU-
  oriented operation, is resumed.

4.  Test Methodology

  As stated by [RFC6815], the Test Topology Setup must be part of an
  Isolated Test Environment (ITE).

  The reporting of results must take into account the repeatability
  considerations from Section 4 of [RFC2544].  It is RECOMMENDED to
  perform multiple trials and report average results.  The results are
  reported in a simple statement including the measured frame loss and
  ISSU impact times.

4.1.  Test Topology

  The hardware configuration of the DUT (Device Under Test) should be
  identical to the one expected to be or currently deployed in
  production in order for the benchmark to have relevance.  This would
  include the number of RPs, hardware version, memory, and initial
  software release, any common chassis components, such as fabric
  hardware in the case of a fabric-switching platform, and the specific
  line cards (version, memory, interfaces type, rate, etc.).

  For the control and data plane, differing configuration approaches
  may be utilized.  The recommended approach relies on "mimicking" the
  existing production data- and control-plane information, in order to
  emulate all the necessary Layer 1 through Layer 3 communications and,
  if appropriate, the upper-layer characteristics of the network, as
  well as end-to-end traffic/communication pairs.  In other words,
  design a representative load model of the production environment and
  deploy a collapsed topology utilizing test tools and/or external
  devices, where the DUT will be tested.  Note that, the negative
  impact of ISSU operations is likely to impact scaled, dynamic
  topologies to a greater extent than simpler, static environments.  As
  such, this methodology (based upon production configuration) is
  advised for most test scenarios.

  The second, more simplistic approach is to deploy an ITE in which
  endpoints are "directly" connected to the DUT.  In this manner,
  control-plane information is kept to a minimum (only connected
  interfaces), and only a basic data-plane of sources and destinations
  is applied.  If this methodology is selected, care must be taken to



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  understand that the systemic behavior of the ITE may not be identical
  to that experienced by a device in a production network role.  That
  is, control-plane validation may be minimal to none with this
  methodology.  Consequently, if this approach is chosen, comparison
  with at least one production configuration is recommended in order to
  understand the direct relevance and limitations of the test exercise.

4.2.  Load Model

  In consideration of the defined test topology, a load model must be
  developed to exercise the DUT while the ISSU event is introduced.
  This applied load should be defined in such a manner as to provide a
  granular, repeatable verification of the ISSU impact on transit
  traffic.  Sufficient traffic load (rate) should be applied to permit
  timing extrapolations at a minimum granularity of 100 milliseconds,
  e.g., 100 Mbps for a 10 Gbps interface.  The use of steady traffic
  streams rather than bursty loads is preferred to simplify analysis.

  The traffic should be patterned to provide a broad range of source
  and destination pairs, which resolve to a variety of FIB (Forwarding
  Information Base) prefix lengths.  If the production network
  environment includes multicast traffic or VPNs (L2, L3, or IPsec), it
  is critical to include these in the model.

  For mixed protocol environments (e.g., IPv4 and IPv6), frames should
  be distributed between the different protocols.  The distribution
  should approximate the network conditions of deployment.  In all
  cases, the details of the mixed protocol distribution must be
  included in the reporting.

  The feature, protocol timing, and other relevant configurations
  should be matched to the expected production environment.  Deviations
  from the production templates may be deemed necessary by the test
  operator (for example, certain features may not support ISSU or the
  test bed may not be able to accommodate such).  However, the impact
  of any such divergence should be clearly understood, and the
  differences must be recorded in the results documentation.  It is
  recommended that a Network Management System (NMS) be deployed,
  preferably similar to that utilized in production.  This will allow
  for monitoring of the DUT while it is being tested, both in terms of
  supporting the impact analysis on system resources as well as
  detecting interference with non-transit (management) traffic as a
  result of the ISSU operation.  It is suggested that the actual test
  exercise be managed utilizing direct console access to the DUT, if at
  all possible, to avoid the possibility that a network interruption
  impairs execution of the test exercise.





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  All in all, the load model should attempt to simulate the production
  network environment to the greatest extent possible in order to
  maximize the applicability of the results generated.

5.  ISSU Test Methodology

  As previously described, for the purposes of this test document, the
  ISSU process is divided into three main phases.  The following
  methodology assumes that a suitable test topology has been
  constructed per Section 4.  A description of the methodology to be
  applied for each of the above phases follows.

5.1.  Pre-ISSU Recommended Verifications

  The steps of this phase are as follows.

  1.  Verify that enough hardware and software resources are available
      to complete the Load operation (e.g., enough disk space).

  2.  Verify that the redundancy states between RPs and other nodes are
      as expected (e.g., redundancy on, RPs synchronized).

  3.  Verify that the device, if running protocols capable of NSR (Non-
      Stop Routing), is in a "ready" state; that is, that the sync
      between RPs is complete and the system is ready for failover, if
      necessary.

  4.  Gather a configuration snapshot of the device and all of its
      applicable components.

  5.  Verify that the node is operating in a "steady" state (that is,
      no critical or maintenance function is being currently
      performed).

  6.  Note any other operational characteristics that the tester may
      deem applicable to the specific implementation deployed.

5.2.  Software Staging

  The steps of this phase are as follows.

  1.  Establish all relevant protocol adjacencies and stabilize routing
      within the test topology.  In particular, ensure that the scaled
      levels of the dynamic protocols are dimensioned as specified by
      the test topology plan.






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  2.  Clear, relevant logs and interface counters to simplify analysis.
      If possible, set logging timestamps to a highly granular mode.
      If the topology includes management systems, ensure that the
      appropriate polling levels have been applied, sessions have been
      established, and the responses are per expectation.

  3.  Apply the traffic loads as specified in the load model previously
      developed for this exercise.

  4.  Document an operational baseline for the test bed with relevant
      data supporting the above steps (include all relevant load
      characteristics of interest in the topology, e.g., routing load,
      traffic volumes, memory and CPU utilization).

  5.  Note the start time (T0) and begin the code change process
      utilizing the appropriate mechanisms as expected to be used in
      production (e.g., active download with TFTP, FTP, SCP, etc., or
      direct install from local or external storage facility).  In
      order to ensure that ISSU process timings are not skewed by the
      lack of a network-wide synchronization source, the use of a
      network NTP source is encouraged.

  6.  Take note of any logging information and command-line interface
      (CLI) prompts as needed.  (This detail will be vendor specific.)
      Respond to any DUT prompts in a timely manner.

  7.  Monitor the DUT for the reload of the secondary RP to the new
      software level.  Once the secondary has stabilized on the new
      code, note the completion time.  The duration of these steps will
      be recorded as "T1".

  8.  Review system logs for any anomalies, check that relevant dynamic
      protocols have remained stable, and note traffic loss if any.
      Verify that deployed management systems have not identified any
      unexpected behavior.

5.3.  Upgrade Run

  The following assumes that the software load step and upgrade step
  are discretely controllable.  If not, maintain the aforementioned
  timer and monitor for completion of the ISSU as described below.

  1.  Note the start time and initiate the actual upgrade procedure.

  2.  Monitor the operation of the secondary route processor while it
      initializes with the new software and assumes mastership of the
      DUT.  At this point, pay particular attention to any indications
      of control-plane disruption, traffic impact, or other anomalous



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      behavior.  Once the DUT has converged upon the new code and
      returned to normal operation, note the completion time and log
      the duration of this step as "T2".

  3.  Review the syslog data in the DUT and neighboring devices for any
      behavior that would be disruptive in a production environment
      (line card reloads, control-plane flaps, etc.).  Examine the
      traffic generators for any indication of traffic loss over this
      interval.  If the Test Set reported any traffic loss, note the
      number of frames lost as "TPL_frames", where TPL stands for
      "Total Packet Loss".  If the Test Set also provides outage
      duration, note this as "TPL_time".  (Alternatively, TPL_time may
      be calculated as (TPL / Offered Load) * 1000.  The units for
      Offered Load are packets per second; the units for TPL_time are
      milliseconds.)

  4.  Verify the DUT status observations as per any NMS managing the
      DUT and its neighboring devices.  Document the observed CPU and
      memory statistics both during and after the ISSU upgrade event,
      and ensure that memory and CPU have returned to an expected
      (previously baselined) level.

5.4.  Post-ISSU Verification

  The following describes a set of post-ISSU verification tasks that
  are not directly part of the ISSU process, but are recommended for
  execution in order to validate a successful upgrade.

  1.  Configuration delta analysis

      Examine the post-ISSU configurations to determine if any changes
      have occurred either through process error or due to differences
      in the implementation of the upgraded code.

  2.  Exhaustive control-plane analysis

      Review the details of the Routing Information Base (RIB) and FIB
      to assess whether any unexpected changes have been introduced in
      the forwarding paths.

  3.  Verify that both RPs are up and that the redundancy mechanism for
      the control plane is enabled and fully synchronized.

  4.  Verify that no control-plane (protocol) events or flaps were
      detected.

  5.  Verify that no L1 and or L2 interface flaps were observed.




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  6.  Document the hitless operation or presence of an outage based
      upon the counter values provided by the Test Set.

5.5.  ISSU under Negative Stimuli

  As an OPTIONAL Test Case, the operator may want to perform an ISSU
  test while the DUT is under stress by introducing route churn to any
  or all of the involved phases of the ISSU process.

  One approach relies on the operator to gather statistical information
  from the production environment and determine a specific number of
  routes to flap every 'fixed' or 'variable' interval.  Alternatively,
  the operator may wish to simply preselect a fixed number of prefixes
  to flap.  As an example, an operator may decide to flap 1% of all the
  BGP routes every minute and restore them 1 minute afterwards.  The
  tester may wish to apply this negative stimulus throughout the entire
  ISSU process or, most importantly, during the run phase.  It is
  important to ensure that these routes, which are introduced solely
  for stress proposes, must not overlap the ones (per the load model)
  specifically leveraged to calculate the TPL_time (recorded outage).
  Furthermore, there should not be 'operator-induced' control-plane
  protocol adjacency flaps for the duration of the test process as it
  may adversely affect the characterization of the entire test
  exercise.  For example, triggering IGP adjacency events may force
  recomputation of underlying routing tables with attendant impact to
  the perceived ISSU timings.  While not recommended, if such trigger
  events are desired by the test operator, care should be taken to
  avoid the introduction of unexpected anomalies within the test
  harness.

6.  ISSU Abort and Rollback

  Where a vendor provides such support, the ISSU process could be
  aborted for any reason by the operator.  However, the end results and
  behavior may depend on the specific phase where the process was
  aborted.  While this is implementation dependent, as a general
  recommendation, if the process is aborted during the "Software
  Download" or "Software Staging" phases, no impact to service or
  device functionality should be observed.  In contrast, if the process
  is aborted during the "Upgrade Run" or "Upgrade Accept" phases, the
  system may reload and revert back to the previous software release,
  and, as such, this operation may be service affecting.  Where vendor
  support is available, the abort/rollback functionality should be
  verified, and the impact, if any, quantified generally following the
  procedures provided above.






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7.  Final Report: Data Presentation and Analysis

  All ISSU impact results are summarized in a simple statement
  describing the "ISSU Disruption Impact" including the measured frame
  loss and impact time, where impact time is defined as the time frame
  determined per the TPL_time reported outage.  These are considered to
  be the primary data points of interest.

  However, the entire ISSU operational impact should also be considered
  in support of planning for maintenance, and, as such, additional
  reporting points are included.

     Software download / secondary update      T1

     Upgrade/Run                               T2

     ISSU Traffic Disruption (Frame Loss)      TPL_frames

     ISSU Traffic Impact Time (milliseconds)   TPL_time

     ISSU Housekeeping Interval                T3

     (Time for both RPs up on new code and fully synced - Redundancy
     restored)

     Total ISSU Maintenance Window             T4 (sum of T1+T2+T3)

  The results reporting must provide the following information:

  -  DUT hardware and software detail

  -  Test Topology definition and diagram (especially as related to the
     ISSU operation)

  -  Load Model description including protocol mixes and any divergence
     from the production environment

  -  Time Results as per above

  -  Anomalies Observed during ISSU

  -  Anomalies Observed in post-ISSU analysis









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  It is RECOMMENDED that the following parameters be reported as
  outlined below:

  Parameter                Units or Examples
  ---------------------------------------------------------------

  Traffic Load             Frames per second and bits per second

  Disruption (average)     Frames

  Impact Time (average)    Milliseconds

  Number of trials         Integer count

  Protocols                IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, etc.

  Frame Size               Octets

  Port Media               Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE),
                           Packet over SONET (POS), etc.

  Port Speed               10 Gbps, 1 Gbps, 100 Mbps, etc.

  Interface Encaps         Ethernet, Ethernet VLAN, PPP,
                           High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC), etc.

  Number of Prefixes       Integer count

  flapped (ON Interval)    (Optional)  # of prefixes / Time (min.)

  flapped (OFF Interval)   (Optional)  # of prefixes / Time (min.)

  Document any configuration deltas that are observed after the ISSU
  upgrade has taken effect.  Note differences that are driven by
  changes in the patch or release level, as well as items that are
  aberrant changes due to software faults.  In either of these cases,
  any unexpected behavioral changes should be analyzed and a
  determination made as to the impact of the change (be it functional
  variances or operational impacts to existing scripts or management
  mechanisms).

7.1.  Data Collection Considerations

  When a DUT is undergoing an ISSU operation, it's worth noting that
  the DUT's data collection and reporting of data, such as counters,
  interface statistics, log messages, etc., may not be accurate.  As
  such, one should not rely on the DUT's data collection methods, but
  rather, should use the test tools and equipment to collect data used



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  for reporting in Section 7.  Care and consideration should be paid in
  testing or adding new test cases, such that the desired data can be
  collected from the test tools themselves, or other external
  equipment, outside of the DUT itself.

8.  Security Considerations

  All BMWG memos are limited to testing in a laboratory Isolated Test
  Environment (ITE), thus avoiding accidental interruption to
  production networks due to test activities.

  All benchmarking activities are limited to technology
  characterization using controlled stimuli in a laboratory environment
  with dedicated address space and the other constraints [RFC2544].

  The benchmarking network topology will be an independent test setup
  and MUST NOT be connected to devices that may forward the test
  traffic into a production network or misroute traffic to the test
  management network.

  Further, benchmarking is performed on a "black-box" basis, relying
  solely on measurements observable external to the Device Under Test /
  System Under Test (DUT/SUT).

  Special capabilities should not exist in the DUT/SUT specifically for
  benchmarking purposes.  Any implications for network security arising
  from the DUT/SUT should be identical in the lab and in production
  networks.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

  [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
             Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
             DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
             <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

  [RFC2544]  Bradner, S. and J. McQuaid, "Benchmarking Methodology for
             Network Interconnect Devices", RFC 2544,
             DOI 10.17487/RFC2544, March 1999,
             <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2544>.









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9.2.  Informative References

  [RFC5880]  Katz, D. and D. Ward, "Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
             (BFD)", RFC 5880, DOI 10.17487/RFC5880, June 2010,
             <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5880>.

  [RFC6815]  Bradner, S., Dubray, K., McQuaid, J., and A. Morton,
             "Applicability Statement for RFC 2544: Use on Production
             Networks Considered Harmful", RFC 6815,
             DOI 10.17487/RFC6815, November 2012,
             <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6815>.

Acknowledgments

  The authors wish to thank Vibin Thomas for his valued review and
  feedback.

Authors' Addresses

  Sarah Banks
  VSS Monitoring
  Email: [email protected]


  Fernando Calabria
  Cisco Systems
  Email: [email protected]


  Gery Czirjak
  Juniper Networks
  Email: [email protected]


  Ramdas Machat
  Juniper Networks
  Email: [email protected]














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