Testing network throughput across clusters

This tutorial demonstrates how to perform real-time network throughput measurements on a Virtual Application Network using the iperf3 tool.

In this tutorial you will:

• deploy iperf3 servers in three separate clusters
• use the iperf3 server pods to run iperf3 client test instances
• create a Virtual Application Network which will enable the iperf3 client test instances to access iperf3 servers in any cluster

To complete this tutorial, do the following:

• Prerequisites
• Step 1: Set up the demo
• Step 2: Deploy the Virtual Application Network
• Step 3: Deploy the iperf3 servers
• Step 4: Create Skupper services for the Virtual Application Network
• Step 5: Bind the Skupper services to the deployment targets on the Virtual Application Network
• Step 6: Run benchmark tests across the clusters
• Cleaning up
• Next steps

Prerequisites

• The kubectl command-line tool, version 1.15 or later (installation guide)

• The skupper command-line tool, the latest version (installation guide)

The basis for this demonstration is to test communication performance across distributed clusters. You should have access to three independent clusters to observe performance over a Skupper Network. As an example, the three clusters might be composed of:

• A private cloud cluster running on your local machine (private1)
• Two public cloud clusters running in public cloud providers (public1 and public2)

Step 1: Set up the demo

1. On your local machine, make a directory for this tutorial and clone the example repo into it:

   mkdir ~/iperf-demo
   cd ~/iperf-demo
   git clone https://github.com/skupperproject/skupper-example-iperf.git

2. Prepare the target clusters.

   1. On your local machine, log in to each cluster in a separate terminal session.
   2. In each cluster, create a namespace to use for the demo.
   3. In each cluster, set the kubectl config context to use the demo namespace (see kubectl cheat sheet)

Step 2: Deploy the Virtual Application Network

On each cluster, using the skupper tool, define the Virtual Application Network and the connectivity for the peer clusters.

1. In the terminal for the first public cluster, deploy the public1 application router. Create a connection token for connections from the public2 cluster and the private1 cluster:

   skupper init --site-name public1
   skupper token create private1-to-public1-token.yaml
   skupper token create public2-to-public1-token.yaml

2. In the terminal for the second public cluster, deploy the public2 application router. Create a connection token for connections from the private1 cluser and connect to the public1 cluster:

   skupper init --site-name public2
   skupper token create private1-to-public2-token.yaml
   skupper link create public2-to-public1-token.yaml

3. In the terminal for the private cluster, deploy the private1 application router. Connect to the public1 and public2 clusters;

   skupper init --site-name private1
   skupper link create private1-to-public1-token.yaml
   skupper link create private1-to-public2-token.yaml

Step 3: Deploy the iperf3 servers

After creating the application router network, deploy one iperf3 server to each of the clusters.

1. In the terminal for the private1 cluster, deploy the first iperf3 server:

   kubectl apply -f ~/iperf-demo/skupper-example-iperf/deployment-iperf3-a.yaml

2. In the terminal for the public1 cluster, deploy the second iperf3 server:

   kubectl apply -f ~/iperf-demo/skupper-example-iperf/deployment-iperf3-b.yaml

3. In the terminal for the public2 cluster, deploy the third iperf3 server:

   kubectl apply -f ~/iperf-demo/skupper-example-iperf/deployment-iperf3-c.yaml

Step 4: Create Skupper services for the Virtual Application Network

1. In the terminal for the private1 cluster, create the iperf3-server-a service:

   skupper service create iperf3-server-a 5201

2. In the terminal for the public1 cluster, create the iperf3-server-b service:

   skupper service create iperf3-server-b 5201

3. In the terminal for the public2 cluster, create the iperf3-server-c service:

   skupper service create iperf3-server-c 5201

4. In each of the cluster terminals, verify that the services are present:

   skupper service status

   Note that each cluster depicts the target it provides.

Step 5: Bind the Skupper services to the deployment targets on the Virtual Application Network

1. In the terminal for the private1 cluster, expose the iperf3-server-a deployment:

   skupper service bind iperf3-server-a deployment iperf3-server-a

2. In the terminal for the public1 cluster, annotate the iperf3-server-b deployment:

   skupper service bind iperf3-server-b deployment iperf3-server-b

3. In the terminal for the public2 cluster, annotate the iperf3-server-c deployment:

   skupper service bind iperf3-server-c deployment iperf3-server-c

4. In each of the cluster terminals, verify the services bind to the targets

   skupper service status

   Note that each cluster depicts the target it provides.

Step 6: Run benchmark tests across the clusters

After deploying the iperf3 servers into the private and public cloud clusters, the application router network connects the servers and enables communications even though they are running in separate clusters.

1. In the terminal for the private1 cluster, attach to the iperf3-server-a container running in the private1 cluster and run the iperf3 client benchmark against each server:

   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-a -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-a
   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-a -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-b
   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-a -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-c

2. In the terminal for the public1 cluster, attach to the iperf3-server-b container running in the public1 cluster and run the iperf3 client benchmark against each server:

   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-b -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-a
   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-b -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-b
   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-b -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-c

3. In the terminal for the public2 cluster, attach to the iperf3-server-c container running in the public2 cluster and run the iperf3 client benchmark against each server:

   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-c -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-a
   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-c -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-b
   kubectl exec $(kubectl get pod -l application=iperf3-server-c -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- iperf3 -c iperf3-server-c

Cleaning Up

Restore your cluster environment by returning the resources created in the demonstration and delete the skupper network:

1. In the terminal for the private1 cluster, delete the resources:

   kubectl delete deployment iperf3-server-a
   skupper delete

2. In the terminal for the public1 cluster, delete the resources:

   kubectl delete deployment iperf3-server-b
   skupper delete

3. In the terminal for the public2 cluster, delete the resources:

   kubectl delete deployment iperf3-server-c
   skupper delete

Next Steps

• Find more examples