Question
how to speedup creation a Kubernetes cluster
- Posted on December 11, 2023
- DigitalOcean API and CLI (doctl)DigitalOcean Managed Kubernetes
Asked by cheng.wu
It took me about 4 minutes to create a Kubernetes cluster with a single node using doctl, is there a faster way to do it? Because I want to create a new Kubernetes cluster every time I run gitlab ci.
$ time doctl kubernetes cluster create integrating-test-cluster --region=sfo3 --size=s-2vcpu-4gb --count=1 Notice: Cluster is provisioning, waiting for cluster to be running ...................................................... Notice: Cluster created, fetching credentials Notice: Adding cluster credentials to kubeconfig file found in Notice: Setting current-context to do-sfo3-integrating-test-cluster ID Name Region Version Auto Upgrade Status Node Pools 791f4e7e-8cd9-4939-af8e-a300e68fa460 integrating-test-cluster sfo3 1.28.2-do.0 false running integrating-test-cluster-default-pool doctl kubernetes cluster create integrating-test-cluster --region=sfo3 0.17s user 0.07s system 0% cpu 4:58.89 total
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Hi there,
Indeed, creating a Kubernetes cluster involves a series of complex operations that can take a few minutes. I believe that there isn’t much that you can do to speed up the creation of the cluster itself, but what you could do instead is to use a pre-provisioned cluster.
If the CI time is crucial what you could do is, instead of creating a new cluster for each CI run. For example, consider pre-provisioning a pool of clusters and reusing them across runs. This approach will significantly reduce the time spent in each CI pipeline waiting for cluster creation.
You can pre-provision your pool of clusters at the beginning of the working day and then bring them down once you are done for the day.
If you still would like to see a reduction in the creation time, the best thing to do to get your voice heard regarding this would be to head over to our Product Ideas board and post a new idea, including as much information as possible for what you’d like to see implemented.
But on another note, 4 minutes is actually pretty good. Speaking from experience, creating a managed cluster on AWS for example takes around 15 minutes or so, and on Azure, it takes between 15-20 minutes. In most cases, the initial creation of a Kubernetes cluster tends to take a bit longer due to the setup of various components and integrations.
Hope that helps!
- Bobby.