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EC2 seems to provide a mechanism to enable Enhanced Networking for certain EC2 instance types. However, the use cases and benefits are not clearly spelled out?

What are they and when is it appropriate to use?

Jedi
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1 Answers1

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From TFM:

We currently support enhanced networking capabilities using SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization). SR-IOV is a method of device virtualization that provides higher I/O performance and lower CPU utilization compared to traditional implementations. For supported Amazon EC2 instances, this feature provides higher packet per second (PPS) performance, lower inter-instance latencies, and very low network jitter.

So, if any of those situations appear on your list of requirements, then you should use enhanced networking.

EEAA
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    The problem is that these are not quantified. For instance, how much would the inter-instance latencies reduce by when implemented, and does this only apply within a single AZ/region/...? – Jedi Apr 13 '17 at 21:16
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    That's a [capacity planning](https://serverfault.com/questions/384686/can-you-help-me-with-my-capacity-planning) question. You'd need to test to see how performance differs with enhanced networking. Also, remember that you're running on shared infrastructure, and AWS places virtually no guarantees on performance. – EEAA Apr 13 '17 at 21:18