# Performance

## Provision Time

Provisioning times vary based on the platform. Sampling the time to create (apply) and destroy clusters with 1 controller and 2 workers shows (roughly) what to expect.

| Platform      | Apply | Destroy |
|---------------|-------|---------|
| AWS           | 20 min | 8 min 10 sec |
| Bare-Metal    | 10-14 min | NA  |
| Digital Ocean | 3 min 30 sec | 20 sec |
| Google Cloud  | 6 min 10 sec | 4 min 30 sec |

Notes:

* AWS is alpha
* DNS propagation times have a large impact on provision time
* Platforms with auto-scaling take more time to provision (AWS, Google)
* Bare-metal provision times vary depending on the time for machines to POST and network bandwidth to download images.

## Network Performance

Network performance varies based on the platform and CNI plugin. `iperf` was used to measture the bandwidth between different hosts and different pods. Host-to-host indicates the typical bandwidth offered by the provider. Pod-to-pod shows the bandwidth between two `iperf` containers. The difference provides some idea about the overhead.

| Platform / Plugin          | Theory | Host to Host | Pod to Pod   |
|----------------------------|-------:|-------------:|-------------:|
| AWS (flannel)              | ?      | 976 MB/s     | 900-999 MB/s |
| AWS (calico, MTU 1480)     | ?      | 976 MB/s     | 100-350 MB/s |
| AWS (calico, MTU 8991)     | ?      | 976 MB/s     | 900-999 MB/s |
| Bare-Metal (flannel)       | 1 GB/s | 934 MB/s     | 903 MB/s     | 
| Bare-Metal (calico)        | 1 GB/s | 941 MB/s     | 931 MB/s     |
| Bare-Metal (flannel, bond) | 3 GB/s | TODO         | TODO         | 
| Bare-Metal (calico, bond)  | 3 GB/s |  2.3 GB/s    | 1.17 GB/s    |
| Digital Ocean              | ?      | 938 MB/s     | 820-880 MB/s |
| Google Cloud (flannel)     | ?      | 1.94 GB/s    | 1.76 GB/s    |
| Google Cloud (calico)      | ?      | 1.94 GB/s    | 1.81 GB/s    |

Notes:

* AWS is alpha
* AWS instances are located in the same region. Google instances are located in the same zone (helps bandwidth at the expense of fault tolerance).
* Network bandwidth fluctuates on AWS and Digital Ocean.
* Only [certain AWS EC2 instance types](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/network_mtu.html#jumbo_frame_instances) allow jumbo frames. This is why the default MTU on AWS must be 1480.
* Between Flannel and Calico, performance differences are usually minimal. Platform and configuration differenes dominate.
* Pods do not seem to be able to leverage the hosts' bonded NIC setup. Possibly a testing artifact.