CODEWITHSUNDEEP
google-app-enginegoogle-cloud-platform
Whyser
Whyser

Reputation: 2247

Minimizing "Frontend Instance Hours" on App Engine by only changing settings

As the title states, I'm looking for a way to minimize the Frontend Instance Hours, in other words, the cost of the server. I want to do this by changing the settings for the application, but I'm a bit scared to change these settings since I don't know the repercussions.

The options that are available to change are Min and Max values of:

Idle Instances

The Idle Instances slider allows you to control the number of idle instances available to the default version of your application at any given time. Idle Instances are pre-loaded with your application code, so when a new Instance is needed, it can serve traffic immediately. You will not be charged for idle instances over the specified maximum. A smaller number of idle Instances means your application costs less to run, but may encounter more startup latency during load spikes.

and

Pending Latency

The Pending Latency slider controls how long requests spend in the pending queue before being served by an Instance of the default version of your application. If the minimum pending latency is high App Engine will allow requests to wait rather than start new Instances to process them. This can reduce the number of instance hours your application uses, but can result in more user-visible latency.

The application is currently set to automatic for both of these options (min and max). How is this automatic calculated (don't really expect anyone to know this)?

Since my app doesn't really require low latency what would be "workable" settings? For example, what would happen if: I set Max Idle Instances to 1, and a surge of traffic comes along? Should I even poke around with the Idle Instances?

If I change the Min Pending Latency from Automatic to 5 seconds, would that make any difference?

Any feedback is welcome!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 942

Answers (1)

Ying Li
Ying Li

Reputation: 2519

This is really not a coding related question...

Minimum pending latency controls the "request feeds" into your App Engine Instance, if you don't mind the users waiting, have it higher so the requests are fed slower. The idling instance setup is useful for anti-spike traffic so if your traffic is spiky, then you might want to have a few idle instances lying around. Ideal setup will depend on what you expect your traffic to be like.

The best advice I can give is to try out the different settings and see what suits you.

Upvotes: 1

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