What's New in version 2.1

17th January 2021 - Author: Nigel Bowden

Version 2.1 of the wiperf probe code introduces a number of bug-fixes and features. These are outlined below:

New Features

SMB Tests

Thanks to the kind contribution of Mario Gingras, wiperf now supports performance testing of SMB/CIFS file transfers.

Up to 5 tests may be defined to be run in each wiperf poll cycle. Each test instance will mount a remote volume and then transfer a file from the remote server to the wiperf probe. The transfer rate and time are then reported to the management platform for reporting.

A new dashboard is also provided to display the SMB data in report format.

If using the SMB tests, note that there are a small number of additional Linux packages that you may need to install to provide the SMB connectivity. Please check out the link provided below for more details.

Further information: SMB Tests Reference Document

Librespeed Speedtest Support

An idea for Librespeed speedtest support by wiperf was submitted by Oscar Leal. This has now been added, meaning that wiperf can now run a speedtest to either Ookla or Librespeed for performance testing.

In addition to testing against public Librespeed servers,it is also possible to test against your own instance of the Librespeed server, allowing testing within your own environment, without hitting the Internet (and associated bottlenecks)

If using the Librespeed speedtest, note that there an additional Linux package that you will need to install to enable the test to work. Please check out the link provided below for more details.

Further information: Librespeed Reference Document

Results Spooling

Tris Kipling is a keen supporter of the wiperf project and, based on is experience of using wiperf probes, suggested that some mechanism be created to allow a degree of "survivability" for instances when communications between the probe and management platform are down.

To address this request, a spooling mechanism for results data is now provided. Previously, if the probe was unable to communicate with the management server, no tests would be attempted during the current poll cycle. With the new spooling feature, tests will still be performed by the probe and results data will be locally stored. The data will be forwarded by the probe when communications with the management platform is re-established (and any local data spool files removed).

This feature is enabled by default so required no additional configuration. It may be disabled if required.

Results Data Caching

Due to a couple of requests for local storage of results data, local results caching has been implemented.

When this is enabled, all results data is stored in either CSV or JSON format in local storage on the wiperf probe (in addition to being sent to the reporting server). The data files are stored in the local directory /var/cache/wiperf for a configurable period of time (3 days by default).

This feature allows for other methods of data inspection or retrieval that users may choose to perform. It is disabled by default.

(Note: This is a completely separate feature from the data spooling feature mentioned previously))

Further information: Results Caching Reference Document

Error Reporting

Diagnosing issues with probe tests may be difficult without remote access to a probe for further investigation. To assist with looking at issues, error messages generated by the probe during its test cycle are now available for reporting back to the reporting platform.

This feature is enabled by default, but may be disabled if there are concerns about volumes of management traffic from the probe. There is also a configuration setting to allow the number of error messages per poll cycle to be capped (5 by default).

A new "Probe Health" dashboard has been provided to allow viewing of error messages.

Installing

Installation is not required for the WLAN Pi as wiperf is included in the WLAN Pi packages. To upgrade, see the next section.

To install on to an RPi (or other platform), see our installation document.

Upgrading

To upgrade from a previous release of wiperf, please consult these instructions in our upgrade document.

Attention

Don't forget to also update your management platform dashboard files to make sure you have the latest & greatest that are compatible with this release
- Splunk link
- Grafana link
When upgrading on the WLAN Pi make sure your WLAN Pi is in classic mode prior to upgrading
Make sure you are aware of this advisory about existing ping test results when moving to version 2.1
Several new options have been added to config.ini - see the note below to make sure you don't miss out on them.

Attention

Ensure that you re-create your config.ini file using the new config.default.ini file supplied during the upgrade

Several new options have been added to the config.ini configuration file. Use the new config.default.ini file in /etc/wiperf as a template to create a new copy of config.ini. Wiperf will not run if some of the new configuration sections are missing.

Copy across your existing settings in to the new copy of config.ini. For example:

# after upgrade
cd /etc/wiperf

# backup existing config file
sudo cp config.ini config.ini.orig

# create new config file from template
sudo cp config.defaut.ini config.ini

# view old config file
cat config.ini.orig

# edit new file to transpose old config settings
sudo nano config.ini

Release Notes

Added fix for bad read of remote config file when downloaded (thanks Ben Roeder)
Fixed bad config variable names for InfluxDB2 in config.py (thanks Konstantin - issue #1)
Added SMB tests provided by Mario Gingras
Improved route injection for tests when required interface not selected by default routing
Fixed issue with incorrect data types in Influx DB for ping tests (some numeric values were created as strings, preventing calculations on their values.)

This fixed issue will cause failures for ping test results on existing data. To correct the issue, existing ping test data in the Influx DB must be dropped using the following command in the InfluxDB CLI utility:
```
sudo influx -username admin -password letmein
use wiperf
drop series from "wiperf-ping"
```
Added support for librespeed to speedtest in addition to existing Ookla support. Also made more data points available to reports including latency, jitter & data volume for upload/download
Added support for cached data : data may now be cached locally for retrieval and inspection by user-defined means (e.g. SSH to probe & inspect data). Data may be stored in VSC or JSON format.
Added result spooling support. If connectivity between the probe and reporting platform is lost, results may be spooled to a local directory and automatically forwarded when connectivity is re-established.
Added support for forwarding of probe error messages to reporting platform to allow diagnosis of test related issues on the probe.
Fixed DHCP test errors on RPi reported/fixed by Ben Roeder (Issue #39)
Fixed re-read of config file from github reported/fixed by Ben Roeder (PR #7)
Added new dashboard for SMB tests
Updated summary dashboard to support new SMB tests
Updated speedtest dashboard to support librespeed and additional data points
Added dashboard for probe health, which include probe poll error messages
Miscellaneous minor dashboard improvements/fixes

Last update: January 28, 2021