Configuring trace replay tests with a large number of workers using traceReplayConfigGen.py (I/O Analyzer 1.6.1)

Dear Community,

In I/O Analyzer 1.6.1, we have included a script, traceReplayConfigGen.py, which generates a trace replay configuration file for a large number of worker VMs. This document describes the usage of traceReplayConfigGen.py.

1. On your I/O Analyzer controller VM, go to the script folder:
   'cd /root/ioAnalyzerScripts'.
2. The traceReplayConfigGen.py script takes several arguments, which you may see the explanation by running './traceReplayConfigGen –h'
3. Assuming you have the following setup:
   - 4 ESX hosts: esx1, esx2, esx3, esx4.
   - 20 worker VMs on each host.
   - All worker VMs have a name prefix: "vmware-io-analyzer-1.6.1-". For example, the first worker VM is "vmware-io-analyzer-1.6.1-001".
   - All worker VMs will be running the same trace: DVDSTORE.
4. To generate a trace replay config file for the above setup, run the following:
   './traceReplayConfigGen.py --testname 4host-80worker-DVDSTORE --vmcount 20 --trace DVDSTORE --vmprefix vmware-io-analyzer \
   --hosts esx1,esx2,esx3,esx4'
5. NOTE that the "--hosts" argument should have NO SPACE in between host names or IPs.
6. Also NOTE that this script will restart tomcat, so before running, make sure there is NO pending or running tests. Otherwise, web UI will lose track of all the ongoing or scheduled tests.
7. The script will ask for ESX root passwords and try to generate the config for you. If you have the same password for all ESX hosts, you may supply the root password with "--password" argument to bypass the password prompt. NOTE that you might have to add a back-slash '\' for each special character if you supply your ESX root password over "--password" argument,
8. After the config is generated, it will restart tomcat server and restore your previous no-vtop setting.
9. Please then refersh your web UI and load the generated config from the web UI to verify whether it contains the VMs you need.

Please let us know if you run into issues when using traceReplayConfigGen.py.

NOTE that the script is completely experimental. We are planning to improve our web UI to support adding worker VMs with regular expression. Since web UI change might take time, this script is meant to be a temporary workaround.

Thanks for everyone's support,

Chien-Chia Chen