Kubernetes footprint calculation

This page includes the specificities of the environmental footprint calculation for Kubernetes.

Calculation aspects

A Kubernetes cluster consists of two parts: the control plane and pools, which are made up of node Instances. The impact of the nodes is already calculated as part of the Instance impact calculation (/environmental-footprint/additional-content/instances-env-footprint/). The purpose of this page is to detail the calculation of the control plane's impact.

The total estimated impact of the Kubernetes control plane is calculated by integrating the:

• Dedicated manufacturing impact: Related to the physical servers hosting the Kubernetes control plane.
• Related manufacturing impact: The impact of the tools used to manage Kubernetes offers, such as the internal control plane, monitoring, and others.
• Energy usage impact: The average electricity consumption of servers and their energy efficiency, as well as that of the tools used to manage Kubernetes.

Ratio per control plane

Kubernetes control planes are implemented on internal Kubernetes clusters composed of virtual machines and load balancers. The cluster's impact is therefore, according to the RCP, the sum of the impacts of the virtual machines and load balancers. For mutualised offers, the cluster's impact is distributed among the different customers. For the dedicated offers, the entire cluster impact is allocated to the customers.

Manufacturing impact

The calculation of the manufacturing impact of Kubernetes is based on:

• The manufacturing impact of Instances and Load Balancers used to host users' Kubernetes control plane
• The manufacturing impact of servers used by the Scaleway Kubernetes team to manage the service

Calculation example

For the example below, we consider a dedicated Kubernetes control plane made of two Instances with a dedicated manufacturing impact of 2gCO2e/hour each and a load balancer with a dedicated manufacturing impact of 3gCO2e/hour. We measure the impact of 100 hours. We make the following calculation:

KubernetesDedicatedImpact = (2 * 2 + 3) * 100 = 700 gCO2e

In the example, the dedicated manufacturing impact of a dedicated Kubernetes control plane usage for 100 hours is 700 gCo2e.

Usage impact

The calculation of the usage impact of a Kubernetes control plane is based on:

• Impact of electricity consumption of Instances that host the Kubernetes control plane
• Impact of electricity consumption of infrastructure and service management servers by the Scaleway Kubernetes team to run the Kubernetes service.

To calculate the impact of a kWh, we consider the French energy mix and the datacenter's PUE.

In the example below, they are 0,065gCo2e/wh and 1,16, respectively. Considering a dedicated Kubernetes control plane made of two Instances with an electrical consumption of 6wh each and a load balancer with an electrical consumption of 5wh. Considering 100 hours of usage, the total usage impact comes down to:

UsageImpact = (2 * 6 + 5) * 100 * 0,065 * 1,16 = 128 gCo2e

In the example, the usage impact of a dedicated Kubernetes control plane usage for 100 hours is 128 gCo2e.