nanvix/benchmarking

Benchmarking Nanvix

Use this skill when the user asks about running, creating, or analyzing performance benchmarks in Nanvix.

Benchmark Tool

Nanvix includes nanvix-bench (src/utils/nanvix-bench/) for measuring system performance. Benchmarks require a release build with panic-level logging.

Building for Benchmarks

# Standard benchmarks.
./z build -- all RELEASE=yes LOG_LEVEL=panic

# Echo-breakdown benchmark (requires message timestamping).
./z build -- all RELEASE=yes LOG_LEVEL=panic TIMESTAMP_MSG=yes

Available Benchmarks

| Benchmark | Description | |-------------------------|---------------------------------------| | boot-time | Start a user VM (no linuxd) | | cold-start | Start linuxd + VM + HTTP echo | | cold-start-l2 | cold-start with linuxd in L2 VM | | cold-start-uvm | cold-start reusing linuxd | | concurrent | cold-start with many VMs alive | | concurrent-l2 | concurrent with linuxd in L2 VM | | echo-breakdown | HTTP echo step-by-step breakdown | | echo-breakdown-l2 | echo-breakdown with linuxd in L2 VM | | round-trip-latency | Latency vs. echo payload size | | warm-start | Fixed-size HTTP echo latency | | warm-start-l2 | warm-start with linuxd in L2 VM | | warm-start-vmm | warm-start without linuxd |

Running Benchmarks

# Basic usage.
./bin/nanvix-bench.elf -benchmark cold-start
./bin/nanvix-bench.elf -benchmark warm-start
./bin/nanvix-bench.elf -benchmark echo-breakdown

# See all options.
./bin/nanvix-bench.elf -help

Core Pinning (Recommended)

For best performance, pin components to different CPU dies. Create a JSON config:

{
    "client_core_str": "0-9",
    "linuxd_core_str": "10-14",
    "nanovm_core_str": "15-19"
}

Then pass it to the benchmark:

./bin/nanvix-bench.elf \
    -benchmark <benchmark> \
    -hwloc <path_to_config.json>

High-Iteration Runs

For benchmarks with many iterations, increase system limits:

ulimit -u 65536    # Max user processes.
ulimit -n 65536    # Max open files.

Benchmark Applications

Source code for benchmark programs:

| Benchmark App | Path | Lang | |-------------------|-------------------------------------|------| | echo-rust-nostd | src/benchmarks/echo-rust-nostd/ | Rust | | echo-wasm-rust | src/benchmarks/echo-wasm-rust/ | WASM | | noop-js | src/benchmarks/noop-js/ | JS | | noop-rust-nostd | src/benchmarks/noop-rust-nostd/ | Rust | | noop-wasm-rust | src/benchmarks/noop-wasm-rust/ | WASM |

Analyzing Results

Benchmark results can be visualized with the plotting script:

python3 scripts/plot-performance.py

Additional analysis can be done with the automation script:

python3 scripts/benchmark.py

Benchmarking on Windows

On Windows, nanvix-bench runs in standalone mode (no HTTP, no linuxd). The standalone cold-start benchmark spawns a fresh nanvixd process per iteration in interactive mode and measures the time from process spawn to the first echo round-trip.

Building

.\z.ps1 build -- all RELEASE=yes LOG_LEVEL=panic

Available Benchmarks

| Benchmark | Description | |--------------------|---------------------------------------------------------| | boot-time | Start a user VM (no nanvixd) | | cold-start | Spawn nanvixd + VM + echo round-trip (standalone mode) | | snapshot-restore | Measure snapshot restore latency vs boot-time | | warm-start-vmm | Raw round-trip latency inside the user VM |

Running

# Using z.ps1.
.\z.ps1 bench -- -benchmark cold-start -iterations 10

# Or directly.
.\bin\nanvix-bench.exe -benchmark cold-start -iterations 10
.\bin\nanvix-bench.exe -benchmark boot-time -iterations 100
.\bin\nanvix-bench.exe -help

Note: HTTP-based benchmarks (warm-start, round-trip-latency, concurrent, L2 variants, and echo-breakdown) are Linux-only.