Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Finland, no national connectivity

Post date: Jun 24, 2018 6:28:54 AM

Just a few random traceroutes, these are actually horrible. Around 8 times worse than what you'll get with UpCloud or Hetzner, Finland locations.

user@instance-1:~$ traceroute www.funet.fi
traceroute to www.funet.fi (193.166.3.7), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 209.85.246.60 (209.85.246.60) 10.181 ms 10.242 ms 209.85.241.33 (209.85.241.33) 10.655 ms
2 108.170.254.39 (108.170.254.39) 9.985 ms 108.170.254.40 (108.170.254.40) 10.203 ms 108.170.254.55 (108.170.254.55) 10.197 ms
3 se-tug.nordu.net (109.105.98.5) 9.722 ms 9.687 ms *
4 se-tug.nordu.net (109.105.97.46) 10.219 ms se-fre.nordu.net (109.105.97.68) 9.962 ms 109.105.97.24 (109.105.97.24) 11.085 ms
5 helsinki6-rtr.funet.fi (109.105.102.103) 16.170 ms 15.774 ms 109.105.97.24 (109.105.97.24) 12.191 ms
6 csc6-et-8-1-0-1.ip.funet.fi (193.166.255.36) 17.319 ms helsinki6-rtr.funet.fi (109.105.102.103) 17.064 ms csc6-et-8-1-0-1.ip.funet.fi (193.166.255.36) 16.667 ms
7 csc2-ae0-1.ip.csc.fi (193.166.255.15) 15.294 ms csc6-et-8-1-0-1.ip.funet.fi (193.166.255.36) 16.725 ms 16.721 ms
8 csc3-xe-0-0-0-0.ip.csc.fi (193.166.187.179) 17.314 ms 17.327 ms 16.618 ms
9 * * csc3-xe-0-0-0-0.ip.csc.fi (193.166.187.179) 16.681 ms
...
user@instance-1:~$ traceroute www.ficix.fi
traceroute to www.ficix.fi (37.233.94.160), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 209.85.246.60 (209.85.246.60) 10.261 ms 209.85.241.33 (209.85.241.33) 10.366 ms 72.14.234.106 (72.14.234.106) 10.176 ms
2 108.170.253.178 (108.170.253.178) 10.449 ms 10.378 ms 108.170.253.162 (108.170.253.162) 10.665 ms
3 * * *
4 ae-125-3515.bar1.Helsinki1.Level3.net (4.69.203.26) 16.628 ms ae-124-3514.bar1.Helsinki1.Level3.net (4.69.203.22) 16.162 ms ae-125-3515.bar1.Helsinki1.Level3.net (4.69.203.26) 16.737 ms
5 212.73.248.186 (212.73.248.186) 16.494 ms 16.790 ms 16.235 ms
6 hn01.fi.cloudplatform.fi (37.233.89.11) 16.927 ms 16.586 ms 16.047 ms
7 37-233-94-160.planeetta.com (37.233.94.160) 17.422 ms 16.720 ms 17.389 ms
user@instance-1:~$ traceroute www.trex.fi
traceroute to www.trex.fi (195.140.195.51), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 209.85.241.33 (209.85.241.33) 10.518 ms 10.722 ms 72.14.234.106 (72.14.234.106) 9.913 ms
2 108.170.254.35 (108.170.254.35) 9.556 ms 108.170.254.51 (108.170.254.51) 9.300 ms 9.434 ms
3 213.192.185.92 (213.192.185.92) 9.755 ms 9.504 ms 9.578 ms
4 ge2-0-0-0.bbr2.hel1.fi.eunetip.net (213.192.184.81) 16.722 ms 16.607 ms 16.635 ms
5 trex1.unicast.trex.fi (195.140.192.10) 42.175 ms 42.164 ms 42.134 ms
...
user@instance-1:~$ traceroute www.trex.fi
traceroute to www.trex.fi (195.140.195.51), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 209.85.241.33 (209.85.241.33) 10.462 ms 209.85.246.60 (209.85.246.60) 10.239 ms 209.85.241.33 (209.85.241.33) 10.444 ms
2 108.170.253.184 (108.170.253.184) 9.791 ms 108.170.254.51 (108.170.254.51) 9.806 ms 108.170.254.35 (108.170.254.35) 10.182 ms
3 213.192.185.92 (213.192.185.92) 9.825 ms 9.890 ms 9.803 ms
4 ge2-0-0-0.bbr2.hel1.fi.eunetip.net (213.192.184.81) 16.815 ms 15.562 ms 16.792 ms
5 trex1.unicast.trex.fi (195.140.192.10) 20.199 ms 20.144 ms 20.131 ms
...

Having data center in Finland, doesn't mean that you would route anything via Finnish IXs like FICIX.

What should be expected? Rough estimate is that something around 3 ms should be acceptable latency.

Other interesting observations are, that Cloudflare servers Google VPS servers in Finland from Frankfurt, adding even more extra networking latency. That's strange.

At least some services are well reachable with low latency. As expected.

user@instance-1:~$ ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=0.590 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=0.337 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=0.216 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=4 ttl=52 time=0.319 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=5 ttl=52 time=0.224 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=6 ttl=52 time=0.369 ms
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 5107ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.216/0.342/0.590/0.125 ms
user@instance-1:~$ ping 1.1.1.1
PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=10.6 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=56 time=10.0 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=56 time=10.0 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=56 time=10.0 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=56 time=10.1 ms
--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 10.058/10.209/10.629/0.224 ms

As well as this blog, because it's hosted on Google Sites.

user@instance-1:~$ ping -c 5 www.sami-lehtinen.net
PING ghs.google.com (209.85.233.121) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lr-in-f121.1e100.net (209.85.233.121): icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=0.638 ms
64 bytes from lr-in-f121.1e100.net (209.85.233.121): icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=0.348 ms
64 bytes from lr-in-f121.1e100.net (209.85.233.121): icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=0.261 ms
64 bytes from lr-in-f121.1e100.net (209.85.233.121): icmp_seq=4 ttl=52 time=0.247 ms
64 bytes from lr-in-f121.1e100.net (209.85.233.121): icmp_seq=5 ttl=52 time=0.259 ms
--- ghs.google.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4093ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.247/0.350/0.638/0.149 ms

CPU info, seem sto be older Intel Xeon. cpuid level: 13

Traceroute to UpCloud Finland

 1  72.14.239.166 (72.14.239.166)  32.190 ms 108.170.226.2 (108.170.226.2)  32.244 ms 209.85.241.70 (209.85.241.70)  32.439 ms
 2  108.170.251.137 (108.170.251.137)  32.214 ms 108.170.252.75 (108.170.252.75)  32.302 ms 108.170.251.205 (108.170.251.205)  32.401 ms
 3  xe-1-0-0.decix-fr-mx1.ip.fne.fi (80.81.192.180)  32.809 ms  32.659 ms  32.707 ms
 4  87.236.158.142 (87.236.158.142)  52.528 ms  52.615 ms  52.533 ms
 5  87.236.158.145 (87.236.158.145)  52.307 ms  52.234 ms  52.365 ms
 6  87.236.158.164 (87.236.158.164)  52.554 ms  57.828 ms  52.507 ms
 7  87.236.154.1 (87.236.154.1)  52.467 ms  52.451 ms  52.411 ms
 8  87.236.154.23 (87.236.154.23)  52.745 ms  52.527 ms  52.899 ms
 9  r2-hel2-et4.fi.net.upcloud.com (94.237.0.54)  52.417 ms  52.644 ms  52.446 ms

Traceroute to Hetzner Finland

 1  72.14.239.166 (72.14.239.166)  36.262 ms 209.85.241.70 (209.85.241.70)  32.451 ms 108.170.236.248 (108.170.236.248)  32.916 ms
 2  108.170.251.204 (108.170.251.204)  32.099 ms 108.170.251.140 (108.170.251.140)  32.471 ms 108.170.252.78 (108.170.252.78)  32.117 ms
 3  * * *
 4  core8.fra.hetzner.com (213.239.252.9)  32.471 ms core9.fra.hetzner.com (213.239.224.178)  85.374 ms core8.fra.hetzner.com (213.239.252.9)  32.393 ms
 5  core31.hel1.hetzner.com (213.239.224.165)  35.569 ms core32.hel1.hetzner.com (213.239.224.154)  35.192 ms  35.177 ms
 6  ex9k1.dc2.hel1.hetzner.com (213.239.224.138)  35.059 ms ex9k1.dc2.hel1.hetzner.com (213.239.224.134)  35.060 ms ex9k1.dc2.hel1.hetzner.com (213.239.224.138)  35.035 ms

I guess that's it, for now. Everyone can make their own conclusions. I've been personally waiting to see Google as FICIX member as soon as they announced Finland DC, but probably FICIX is just way too small for them to care?