iperf3

IPerf3 Docker Build for Network Performance and Bandwidth Testing

Image on Docker Hub hub.docker.com/r/networkstatic/iperf3/

Run

docker run -it --rm -p 5201:5201 networkstatic/iperf3 --help

Usage

To test bandwidth between two containers, start a server (listener) and point a client container (initiator) at the server.

Iperf3 Server

Start a listener service on port 5201 and name the container "iperf3-server":

docker run  -it --rm --name=iperf3-server -p 5201:5201 networkstatic/iperf3 -s

That returns an iperf3 process bound to a socket waiting for new connections:

-----------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on 5201
-----------------------------------------------------------

Iperf3 Client Side

First, get the IP address of the new server container you just started:

docker inspect --format "{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}" iperf3-server
(Returned) 172.17.0.163

Next, initiate a client connection from another container to measure the bandwidth between the two endpoints.

Run a client container pointing at the server service IP address.

Note if you are new to Docker, the --rm flag will destroy the container after the test runs. I also left out explicitly naming the container on the client side since I don't need its IP address. I typically explicitly name containers for organization and to maintain a consistent pattern.

docker run  -it --rm networkstatic/iperf3 -c 172.17.0.163

And the output is the following:

Connecting to host 172.17.0.163, port 5201
[  4] local 172.17.0.191 port 51148 connected to 172.17.0.163 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Retr  Cwnd
[  4]   0.00-1.00   sec  4.16 GBytes  35.7 Gbits/sec    0    468 KBytes
[  4]   1.00-2.00   sec  4.10 GBytes  35.2 Gbits/sec    0    632 KBytes
[  4]   2.00-3.00   sec  4.28 GBytes  36.8 Gbits/sec    0   1.02 MBytes
[  4]   3.00-4.00   sec  4.25 GBytes  36.5 Gbits/sec    0   1.28 MBytes
[  4]   4.00-5.00   sec  4.20 GBytes  36.0 Gbits/sec    0   1.37 MBytes
[  4]   5.00-6.00   sec  4.23 GBytes  36.3 Gbits/sec    0   1.40 MBytes
[  4]   6.00-7.00   sec  4.17 GBytes  35.8 Gbits/sec    0   1.40 MBytes
[  4]   7.00-8.00   sec  4.14 GBytes  35.6 Gbits/sec    0   1.40 MBytes
[  4]   8.00-9.00   sec  4.29 GBytes  36.8 Gbits/sec    0   1.64 MBytes
[  4]   9.00-10.00  sec  4.15 GBytes  35.7 Gbits/sec    0   1.68 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Retr
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  42.0 GBytes  36.1 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  42.0 GBytes  36.0 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Or you can do something fancier in a one liner like so (docker ps -ql returns the CID e.g. container ID of the last container started which would be the server we want in this case)

docker run  -it --rm networkstatic/iperf3 -c $(docker inspect --format "{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}" $(docker ps -ql))
Connecting to host 172.17.0.193, port 5201
[  4] local 172.17.0.194 port 60922 connected to 172.17.0.193 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Retr  Cwnd
[  4]   0.00-1.00   sec  4.32 GBytes  37.1 Gbits/sec    0    877 KBytes
[  4]   1.00-2.00   sec  4.28 GBytes  36.7 Gbits/sec    0   1.01 MBytes
[  4]   2.00-3.00   sec  4.18 GBytes  35.9 Gbits/sec    0   1.01 MBytes
[  4]   3.00-4.00   sec  4.23 GBytes  36.3 Gbits/sec    0   1.13 MBytes
[  4]   4.00-5.00   sec  4.20 GBytes  36.1 Gbits/sec    0   1.27 MBytes
[  4]   5.00-6.00   sec  4.19 GBytes  36.0 Gbits/sec    0   1.29 MBytes
[  4]   6.00-7.00   sec  4.17 GBytes  35.8 Gbits/sec    0   1.29 MBytes
[  4]   7.00-8.00   sec  4.17 GBytes  35.8 Gbits/sec    0   1.29 MBytes
[  4]   8.00-9.00   sec  4.17 GBytes  35.8 Gbits/sec    0   1.29 MBytes
[  4]   9.00-10.00  sec  4.22 GBytes  36.3 Gbits/sec    0   1.29 MBytes
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bandwidth       Retr
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  42.1 GBytes  36.2 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[  4]   0.00-10.00  sec  42.1 GBytes  36.2 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.

Iperf3 Client Side

You can use a public iperf3 server to measure your Internet speed

docker run  -it --rm networkstatic/iperf3  -c ams.speedtest.clouvider.net -p 5208  -R -P15

The downstream speed is in the last line:

[SUM]   0.00-10.00  sec  2.72 GBytes  2.34 Gbits/sec                  receiver

So in this case: 2.34 Gbits/sec

Thanks to ESNET for re-rolling iperf from the ground up. It is a killer piece of software.