Modelling Performance & Resource Management in Kubernetes

Containers are rapidly replacing Virtual Machines (VMs) as the compute instance of choice in cloud-based deployments. The significantly lower overhead of deploying containers (compared to VMs) has often been cited as one reason for this. We analyse performance of the Kubernetes system and develop a Reference net-based model of resource management within this system. Our model is characterised using real data from a Kubernetes deployment, and can be used as a basis to design scalable applications that make use of Kubernetes.