add-steps

Go faster by adding more steps

This directory contains a docker-compose environment that runs a demo that you can use to test linkerd's performance. The results of the demo are discussed in much more detail in Buoyant's blog post, Making Things Faster by Adding More Steps.

Startup

The docker-compose.yml file that's included in this directory is configured to run the demo. Start all of the containers with:

docker-compose build && docker-compose up -d
open http://$(docker-machine ip default):3000 # or equivalent docker ip address

That command will build and run all of the following containers:

• 2 slow_cookers: Traffic is generated using slow_cooker. The slow_cookers are configured to send 500 requests per second to both the linkerd cluster and the baseline cluster.

• linkerd: linkerd is configured via the provided linkerd.yml, which specifies a router running on port 4140, configured to route traffic to a backend app cluster, via file-system based service discovery.

• 2 backend clusters: Each cluster runs 10 instances of the go web server that's defined in server.go. One cluster is fronted by linkerd, another baseline cluster simply uses a Docker network DNS alias. Instance response times vary between 0 and 2 seconds. The slowest instances also simulate a decrease in success rate.

• prometheus: linkerd, slow_cooker, and the backend instances expose metrics data in a format that can be read by Prometheus. Prometheus metrics collection is configured in prometheus.yml, which scrapes all metrics from all processes every 5 seconds.

• grafana: Collected metrics are displayed on a dashboard using Grafana. The grafana container is preconfigured to display dashboard comparing linkerd and the baseline cluster, defined at grafana.json.

Dashboards

Grafana

Grafana is running on port 3000 in your docker-compose environment. To see a dashboard comparing linkerd with the baseline cluster, load the Grafana dashboard by going to port 3000 on your docker host. It should look like this:

Prometheus

Prometheus is running on port 9090 in your docker-compose environment. To see raw metrics from all processes, go to port 9090 on your docker host.

linkerd admin

The linkerd admin server is running on port 9990 in your docker-compose environment. To see the admin dashboard, go to port 9990 on your docker host.

Troubleshooting

If you have any issues getting the demo up and running, pop into linkerd's Slack and we'll help you get it sorted out.

Thanks! 👋