Graviton3 (r7g) has arrived on Aurora in the Tokyo region! A quick performance test result and points to note
This is Onkai Yuta (@fat47) from the Service Reliability Group (SRG) of the Media Headquarters.
#SRG(Service Reliability Group) mainly provides cross-sectional support for the infrastructure of our media services, improving existing services, launching new ones, contributing to OSS, etc.
This article describes the availability of Graviton3 (r7g) in the Tokyo region of AWS Aurora, as well as performance testing and things to be aware of when using it.
I hope this helps in some way.
Graviton3 (r7g) has finally arrived in Aurora in the Tokyo region!Differences from r6gPerformanceAbout feesSysbench performance comparison between r6g and r7gPreparing the load environmentRunning sysbenchBeware of Reserved Instance PricesCalculation conditionsPrice comparison between r6g.large and r7g.largeConclusion
Graviton3 (r7g) has finally arrived in Aurora in the Tokyo region!
Aurora's support for Graviton3 (r7g) was released last year in May 2023.
However, at this time, it was only available in a few regions, such as US East (Northern Virginia, Ohio) and US West (Oregon).
Then we waited for more than a year...
I suddenly noticed that the r7g instance was now available for selection in the Tokyo region as well.
As of now (September 9, 2024)There seems to be no official release announcement, including for the English version.
[Update] This was announced in an English document on September 10th, Japan time.
15 additional regions, including US West (N. California), Canada (Central), South America (Sao Paulo), Europe (Stockholm), Europe (Frankfurt), Europe (London), Europe (Milan), Europe (Spain), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), Asia Pacific (Hyderabad), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Asia Pacific (Hong Kong).
Differences from r6g
Performance
Here are some quotes from an article when r7g was released in the North American region.
Graviton3 instances deliver up to 30% better performance and up to 20% better price/performance for RDS open source databases compared to Graviton2 instances for Aurora, depending on database engine, version, and workload.
It looks like you can expect a 30% improvement in performance.
About fees
Here are some excerpts from the official price list:
Tokyo Region Price List
| Instance type | Hourly rate (on demand) | Price difference with the same spec r6g |
|---|---|---|
| db.r7g.large | USD 0.333 | +6.39% |
| db.r7g.xlarge | USD 0.665 | +6.06% |
| db.r7g.2xlarge | USD 1.331 | +6.23% |
| db.r7g.4xlarge | USD 2.662 | +6.23% |
We found that the price was about 6% higher than Graviton2 (r6g).
Sysbench performance comparison between r6g and r7g
Measurements were performed using sysbench on r6g.large and r7g.large instances.
The side that applies the load and the side that receives the load are both within the same AZ.
Preparing the load environment
Instance type: c7a.xlarge
AMI:amazon/al2023-ami-2023.5.20240903.0-kernel-6.1-x86_64
Create schema tables for sysbench
Create 5 tables, each with 50,000 rows of data
Running sysbench
oltp_read_writeI ran it three times on each instance. I didn't take into account Aurora's cache clearing, as it is difficult to do so.
The average values of the three measurements are summarized below.
| read | write | other | total | transactions | queries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| r6g | 204,395 | 58,398 | 29,199 | 291,993 | 14,599 (243per sec) | 291,993 (4866per sec) |
| r7g | 274,106 | 78,316 | 39,158 | 391,580 | 19,579 (326per sec) | 391,580(6526per sec) |
| Difference from r6g | +34.1% | +34.1% | +34.1% | +34.1% | +34.1% | +34.1% |
In this test, we saw a performance improvement of approximately 34% in each area.
As an example, if we graph the performance difference of transactions, it looks like this.
Although the instance cost will increase by 6%, the performance will improve by nearly 30%.
- You can reduce the instance size
- Reduce the number of instances
I think it would be a good idea to consider whether this is possible.
Beware of Reserved Instance Prices
The Graviton 3 looks great, but there are some things to note.
it isReserved instance discounts are lower than r6gThat is the point.
Reserved Instances are a system that allows you to pay a portion or all of the instance cost upfront and receive a discount.
At the moment, the price list for R7G reserved instances in the Tokyo region is not listed on the official website, soNorthern Virginia (us-east-1) RegionLet's compare the prices in the price list.
Calculation conditions
Reserved period: 1 year
Payment options: Full prepayment
Region:Northern Virginia (us-east-1)
Below is the price list for the above conditions:
| Instance name | RI Fully Prepaid Hourly Rate | Cost savings compared to on-demand | On-Demand Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| db.r6g.large | USD 0.142 | 46% | USD 0.2600 |
| db.r6g.xlarge | USD 0.283 | 45% | USD 0.5190 |
| db.r6g.2xlarge | USD 0.566 | 45% | USD 1.0380 |
| db.r6g.4xlarge | USD 1.132 | 45% | USD 2.0760 |
| db.r7g.large | USD 0.202 | 27% | USD 0.2760 |
| db.r7g.xlarge | USD 0.404 | 27% | USD 0.5530 |
| db.r7g.2xlarge | USD 0.807 | 27% | USD 1.1060 |
| db.r7g.4xlarge | USD 1.614 | 27% | USD 2.2110 |
We can see that the discount rate for r6g RI is high.
Price comparison between r6g.large and r7g.large
To make it a little easier to see, we directly compared the prices of r6g.large and r7g.large and calculated the percentage increase in price compared to r6g.
| Instance name | RI Fully Prepaid Hourly Rate | On-Demand Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| r6g.large | USD 0.142 | USD 0.2600 |
| r7g.large | USD 0.202 (+42.2%) | USD 0.2760 (+6.1%) |
On-demand rates increased by about 6%, which was not significantly different from the figures shown on the Tokyo region price list.
and,Reserved instances are about 42% more expensive than r6gThe result was as follows.
Conclusion
I'm happy that the long-awaited Graviton3 has been released in the Tokyo region on Aurora! Thank you AWS!
Switching from r6g is easy, so I would like to consider the performance and price differences before deciding to adopt it.
However, if you are already using r6g with fully prepaid Reserved Instances, we recommend that you perform more careful calculations.
SRG is looking for people to work with us. If you are interested, please contact us here.