typhoon/docs/topics/performance.md
Dalton Hubble 147c21a4bd Allow Calico networking on Azure and DigitalOcean
* Introduce "calico" as a `networking` option on Azure and DigitalOcean
using Calico's new VXLAN support (similar to flannel). Flannel remains
the default on these platforms for now.
* Historically, DigitalOcean and Azure only allowed Flannel as the
CNI provider, since those platforms don't support IPIP traffic that
was previously required for Calico.
* Looking forward, its desireable for Calico to become the default
across Typhoon clusters, since it provides NetworkPolicy and a
consistent experience
* No changes to AWS, GCP, or bare-metal where Calico remains the
default CNI provider. On these platforms, IPIP mode will always
be used, since its available and more performant than vxlan
2019-05-20 17:17:20 +02:00

2.3 KiB

Performance

Provision Time

Provisioning times vary based on the operating system and 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 5 min 3 min
Azure 10 min 7 min
Bare-Metal 10-15 min NA
Digital Ocean 3 min 30 sec 20 sec
Google Cloud 8 min 5 min

Notes:

  • SOA TTL and NXDOMAIN caching can have a large impact on provision time
  • Platforms with auto-scaling take more time to provision (AWS, Azure, Google)
  • Bare-metal POST times and network bandwidth will affect provision times

Network Performance

Network performance varies based on the platform and CNI plugin. iperf was used to measure the bandwidth between different hosts and different pods. Host-to-host shows typical bandwidth between host machines. Pod-to-pod shows the bandwidth between two iperf containers.

Platform / Plugin Theory Host to Host Pod to Pod
AWS (flannel) 5 Gb/s 4.94 Gb/s 4.89 Gb/s
AWS (calico, MTU 1480) 5 Gb/s 4.94 Gb/s 4.42 Gb/s
AWS (calico, MTU 8981) 5 Gb/s 4.94 Gb/s 4.90 Gb/s
Azure (flannel) Varies 749 Mb/s 650 Mb/s
Azure (calico) Varies 749 Mb/s 650 Mb/s
Bare-Metal (flannel) 1 Gb/s 940 Mb/s 903 Mb/s
Bare-Metal (calico) 1 Gb/s 940 Mb/s 931 Mb/s
Digital Ocean (flannel) Varies 1.97 Gb/s 1.20 Gb/s
Digital Ocean (calico) Varies 1.97 Gb/s 1.20 Gb/s
Google Cloud (flannel) 2 Gb/s 1.94 Gb/s 1.76 Gb/s
Google Cloud (calico) 2 Gb/s 1.94 Gb/s 1.81 Gb/s

Notes:

  • Calico and Flannel have comparable performance. Platform and configuration differences dominate.
  • Azure and DigitalOcean network performance can be quite variable or depend on machine type
  • Only certain AWS EC2 instance types allow jumbo frames. This is why the default MTU on AWS must be 1480.