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Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

cloud.google.com

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Re: Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

#3

Post by mathnode »

Aissen wrote: post #2

Pricing is in line with the cloud: expensive. That's it, they made it: now Arm servers are mainstream.

I am very ignorant of the current ARM cloud offerings. Is it similar prices but less power usage? Or have they had to ramp up the watts to compete?

Re: Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

#4

Post by justizin »

mathnode wrote: post #3
Aissen wrote: post #2

Pricing is in line with the cloud: expensive. That's it, they made it: now Arm servers are mainstream.

I am very ignorant of the current ARM cloud offerings. Is it similar prices but less power usage? Or have they had to ramp up the watts to compete?

not sure about pricing here, but graviton on aws has generally offered more performance at a lower price point, which is likely linked to lower power usage and perhaps lower cost of custom silicon vs intel.

the notion, "the cloud is expensive", ignores the fact that the cloud is not just rented hardware, but staff, facilities, planning, management, etc..

there are businesses where it makes more sense to own hardware and employ your own staff, but if you just want generic compute and storage, you're unlikely to do it as well for less.

also you cannot easily source arm hardware commercially, there is the honeycomb lx2, and its' lead time is months for a single unit. if you want hundreds of nodes, you're gonna use a cloud provider who manufactures their own silicon.

Re: Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

#6

Post by my123 »

Klasiaster wrote: post #5

It's quite light on details: What properties does the (virtualized) ARM CPU that one gets have? Can it do KVM itself (meaning the underlying real CPU has support for nested KVM)? Can it do ARMv8.3 pointer authentication?

It's an Ampere Altra for those first instances. So no on both.

Re: Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

#7

Post by vbezhenar »

justizin wrote: post #4
mathnode wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am very ignorant of the current ARM cloud offerings. Is it similar prices but less power usage? Or have they had to ramp up the watts to compete?

not sure about pricing here, but graviton on aws has generally offered more performance at a lower price point, which is likely linked to lower power usage and perhaps lower cost of custom silicon vs intel. the notion, "the cloud is expensive", ignores the fact that the cloud is not just rented hardware, but staff, facilities, planning, management, etc.. there are businesses where it makes more sense to own hardware…

> you cannot easily source arm hardware commercially

Buy Mac Minis and run virtual linux inside?

Re: Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

#8

Post by Klasiaster »

my123 wrote: post #6
Klasiaster wrote: post #5

It's quite light on details: What properties does the (virtualized) ARM CPU that one gets have? Can it do KVM itself (meaning the underlying real CPU has support for nested KVM)? Can it do ARMv8.3 pointer authentication?

It's an Ampere Altra for those first instances. So no on both.

They could have named Ampere and give credit to them, I think it's common in cloud instance offerings to have AMD or Intel also being named as underlying physical CPUs, even with the generation.

Re: Google Kubernetes Engine adds support for Arm nodes

#9

Post by throwaway894345 »

vbezhenar wrote: post #7
justizin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not sure about pricing here, but graviton on aws has generally offered more performance at a lower price point, which is likely linked to lower power usage and perhaps lower cost of custom silicon vs intel. the notion, "the cloud is expensive", ignores the fact that the cloud is not just rented hardware, but staff, facilities, planning, management, etc.. there are businesses where it makes more sense to own hardware…

> you cannot easily source arm hardware commercially Buy Mac Minis and run virtual linux inside?

I've been passively curious about this for a homelab--does linux virtualize on apple silicon today? I was of the impression this didn't work when they announced m1 in 2020, but I could be misremembering.
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