Benchmark higher network bandwidth for VM instances

This document explains how to test per VM Tier_1 networking performanceby creating two VMs and streaming traffic back and forth to observenetwork performance. To take advantage of this feature, you must create your VMwithoperating systems thatsupport theGoogle Virtual NIC (gVNIC).Per VM Tier_1 networking performance requires larger VM sizes, so confirm youhave enoughCPU quota to create the VMs.

Before you begin

Setting up VMs for benchmarking

Create twon2-standard-64 vCPU machines with per VM Tier_1 networking performanceenabled and the highestmaximum transmission unit (MTU)setting. This gives your VMs up to 75 Gbps of maximum egress bandwidth(using internal IPs).

Note: To benchmark the egress for external IP addresses, you will need toassociate external IP addresses with the VMs, and use those IP addresses asthe target during testing.

gcloud

  1. To create an image, use thegcloud compute images create command.

      gcloud compute images createIMAGE_NAME \   --project=PROJECT_ID \   --source-image-family=SOURCE_IMAGE_FAMILY \   --source-image-project=SOURCE_IMAGE_PROJECT \   --guest-os-features=GVNIC

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the name of your project.
    • IMAGE_NAME: the name of the image that you want to create.
    • SOURCE_IMAGE_FAMILY: required version of a public image. For this test, useubuntu-2004-lts.
    • SOURCE_IMAGE_PROJECT: the name of the projectthat contains the source image. For this test, useubuntu-os-cloud.

    Example

    gcloud compute images create benchmark-image-test \  --project=my-project \  --source-image-family=ubuntu-2004-lts \  --source-image-project=ubuntu-os-cloud \  --guest-os-features=GVNIC

  2. Create an auto mode VPC network that uses the maximum MTU setting:

      gcloud compute networks createNETWORK_NAME \  --project=PROJECT_ID \  --subnet-mode=AUTO --mtu=8896

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the name of your project.
    • NETWORK_NAME: a name for the network.

  3. Create two identical instances:

      gcloud compute instances create \VM_NAME_1VM_NAME_2 \      --project=PROJECT_ID \      --zone=ZONE \      --machine-type=n2-standard-64 \      --image=projects/PROJECT_NAME/global/images/IMAGE_NAME \      --network=NETWORK_NAME \      --network-interface=nic-type=GVNIC \      --network-performance-configs=total-egress-bandwidth-tier=TIER_1

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME_1,VM_NAME_2:the names of the VM instances that you want to create.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project name.
    • ZONE: your VM's zone. Both VMs must reside in the same zone.
    • PROJECT_NAME/global/images/IMAGE_NAME: yourproject name and the image name.
    • NETWORK_NAME: the name of the networkyou configured with the maximum MTU setting.

Performing the benchmark

Your two VMs must reside in the same zone and on the sameVPC network. During thebenchmark, these two VMs conduct bi-directional testing of theVPC network path.

Verify the MTU setting

Confirm the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network has the maximum MTU settingconfigured by usingifconfig in the guest OS of one of the VMs.

  1. Connect to one of the VMs.

  2. In the terminal window, run the following command:

     /sbin/ifconfig | grep mtu

    The reported MTU should be 8896.

     ens4: flags=4163  mtu 8896 lo: flags=73  mtu 65536

Verify the VM configuration

Confirm the virtual machines have Tier_1 networking enabled byexamining the virtual machine properties.

gcloud

To view the instances, use thegcloud compute instances describe command.

gcloud compute instances describeVM_NAME_1 \    --project=PROJECT_ID \    --zone=ZONE \    --format="text(networkPerformanceConfig)"
gcloud compute instances describeVM_NAME_2 \    --project=PROJECT_ID \    --zone=ZONE \    --format="text(networkPerformanceConfig)"

Replace the following:

  • VM_NAME_1: the names of the VM instance that you want to view.
  • VM_NAME_2: the names of the VM instance that you want to view.
  • PROJECT_ID: your project name.
  • ZONE: your VM's zone. Both VMs must reside in the same zone.

In the response you should see the following:

networkPerformanceConfig.totalEgressBandwidthTier: TIER_1

Use iPerf to perform the benchmark on Debian-based systems

Note: Ensure that you are using iPerf version 2 and not version 3; iPerfversion 3 does not support multi-threading (by design) and can have performanceimplications in your results when running multiple streams.

gcloud

  1. If you haven't already done so, complete the steps inSetting up VMs for benchmarking.

  2. After both VMs are running, use SSH to connect to one of the VMs.

    gcloud compute sshVM_NAME_1 \  --project=PROJECT_ID

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME_1: the name of your first VM.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project name.

  3. On the first VM, complete the following steps:

    1. Installiperf.

      sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install iperf

    2. Get the internal IP address for this VM. Make note of the internal IPaddress for later use.

      ip a

    3. Start up the iPerf server.

      iperf -s

      This starts up a server listening for connections in order to performthe benchmark. Leave the iPerf server running for the duration of thetest.

  4. In a separate client terminal, connect to the second VM using SSH.

    gcloud compute sshVM_NAME_2 \   --project=PROJECT_ID

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME_2: the name of your second VM.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project name.

  5. On the second VM, complete the following steps:

    1. Install iPerf.

      sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install iperf

    2. Run the iperf test and specify the first VM's IP address as the target.

      Note: The order of the arguments is important.
      iperf -t 30 -c internal_ip_of_instance_1 -P 16

      This executes a 30-second test. If iPerf is not able to reach theother VM you, might need to adjust the network orfirewall settings on the VMs or perhapsin the Google Cloud console.

      Your results should look something like the following example.It shows the 75 Gbps egress bandwidth limit forn2-standard-64 withTier_1 networkingenabled, exceeding the default 32 Gbps egress bandwidth limit.

      ------------------------------------------------------------Client connecting to 10.128.0.10, TCP port 5001TCP window size: 1.59 MByte (default)------------------------------------------------------------[ 12] local 10.128.0.11 port 57722 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 11] local 10.128.0.11 port 57720 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 16] local 10.128.0.11 port 57730 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  6] local 10.128.0.11 port 57710 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 13] local 10.128.0.11 port 57724 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  8] local 10.128.0.11 port 57712 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  9] local 10.128.0.11 port 57716 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 14] local 10.128.0.11 port 57726 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 15] local 10.128.0.11 port 57728 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 10] local 10.128.0.11 port 57718 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  4] local 10.128.0.11 port 57706 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  5] local 10.128.0.11 port 57708 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  3] local 10.128.0.11 port 57704 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 17] local 10.128.0.11 port 57732 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[  7] local 10.128.0.11 port 57714 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ 18] local 10.128.0.11 port 57734 connected with 10.128.0.10 port 5001[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth[ 12]  0.0-30.0 sec  7.63 GBytes  2.19 Gbits/sec[ 11]  0.0-30.0 sec  17.7 GBytes  5.07 Gbits/sec[ 16]  0.0-30.0 sec  9.15 GBytes  2.62 Gbits/sec[  6]  0.0-30.0 sec  43.8 GBytes  12.6 Gbits/sec[ 13]  0.0-30.0 sec  23.6 GBytes  6.76 Gbits/sec[  8]  0.0-30.0 sec  13.3 GBytes  3.80 Gbits/sec[  9]  0.0-30.0 sec  9.29 GBytes  2.66 Gbits/sec[ 14]  0.0-30.0 sec  19.6 GBytes  5.62 Gbits/sec[ 15]  0.0-30.0 sec  12.5 GBytes  3.58 Gbits/sec[ 10]  0.0-30.0 sec  11.1 GBytes  3.19 Gbits/sec[  4]  0.0-30.0 sec  19.0 GBytes  5.43 Gbits/sec[  5]  0.0-30.0 sec  7.32 GBytes  2.10 Gbits/sec[  3]  0.0-30.0 sec  8.78 GBytes  2.51 Gbits/sec[ 17]  0.0-30.0 sec  17.5 GBytes  5.02 Gbits/sec[  7]  0.0-30.0 sec  33.4 GBytes  9.57 Gbits/sec[ 18]  0.0-30.0 sec  7.64 GBytes  2.19 Gbits/sec[SUM]  0.0-30.0 sec   261 GBytes  74.9 Gbits/sec

Remove resources after benchmark testing

Remove the resources you created during the benchmark testing to avoidcharges for the image and additional VMs.

gcloud

  1. Use thegcloud compute instances delete commandto remove the instances you created for benchmark testing.

    gcloud compute instances delete \VM_NAME_1VM_NAME_2 \   --project=PROJECT_ID \   --zone=ZONE

    Replace the following:

    • VM_NAME_1,VM_NAME_2:the names of the two VM instances that you want to delete.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project name.
    • ZONE: your VM's zone. Both VMs should bein the same zone.

  2. Use thegcloud compute networks delete commandto remove the network you created for benchmark testing.

    gcloud compute networks deleteNETWORK_NAME  \   --project=PROJECT_ID

    Replace the following:

    • NETWORK_NAME:the name of the network that you want to delete.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project name.

  3. Use thegcloud compute images delete commandto remove the image you created for benchmark testing.

     gcloud compute images deleteIMAGE_NAME  \    --project=PROJECT_ID

    Replace the following:

    • IMAGE_NAME: the name of the image that you want to delete.
    • PROJECT_ID: your project name.

What's next

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Last updated 2025-12-15 UTC.