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iperf

Stack

Network

IPerf3 Docker Build for Network Performance and Bandwidth Testing

Image details

Pulls: 78.6M
Architecture: amd64, arm64
Image size: 29 MB
User: networkstatic
Created: May 24, 2015
Updated: 15 days ago
Status: active

Configuration

Type
Compose
Platform
linux
Image
networkstatic/iperf3
Command
-s
Ports
5201:5201
Restart
unless-stopped
Source
Repo

Template by xneo1·Source

Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying iperf

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select iperf, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo
Original stackfile

The compose file this template deploys, straight from its repo:

services:
  iperf3:
    restart: unless-stopped
    container_name: iperf3-server
    ports:
      - '5201:5201'
    image: networkstatic/iperf3
    stdin_open: true # docker run -i
    tty: true        # docker run -t
    command: -s

Or deploy it directly from the source:

git clone https://github.com/xneo1/portainer_templates
cd portainer_templates
docker compose -f Template/Stack/iperf.yml up -d

More install options in our documentation.

iperf3

-------------------------------

IPerf3 Docker Build for Network Performance and Bandwidth Testing


Run the Docker Image and Show the Iperf Options

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 soccer waiting for new connections:

```

Server listening on 5201

#### Iperf3 Client SIde

First, get the IP address of the new server container ypu 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. ```
  • Thanks to ESNET for re-rolling iperf from the ground up. It is an excellent piece of software.

Serve iperf on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying iperf.example.com to http://iperf3:5201

Add this to your Caddyfile

iperf.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://iperf3:5201
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs <container>
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:5201 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :5201
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 5201:5201 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: http://your-server-ip:5201. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, iperf3 can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 5201

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull networkstatic/iperf3

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses latest, so try pinning a specific version instead.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • This image supports: amd64, arm64
  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect <container> --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Stack won't deploy

Compose stacks fail fast on small mistakes, and Portainer shows the reason just above the editor.

  • YAML only accepts spaces for indentation, a single tab breaks the whole file.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A Compose stack

iperf is a Compose stack, a set of containers defined in one file and brought up together by Portainer, then started and stopped as a single app.

The app image

An image is the app packed up ready to go, everything iperf needs bundled into one download. This template pulls networkstatic/iperf3, which Docker fetches once (about 29 MB) and then starts your own copy from.

Where the image comes from

Docker pulls its images from registries, public libraries of ready-built apps. iperf's comes from Docker Hub, published by networkstatic.

Version tags

The bit after the colon in the image name is the version tag. Here it's latest, which always points at the newest build, so a redeploy can bump you to a newer release without you asking. Pin a specific tag if you would rather stay on one version.

Which machines it runs on

Every image is built for particular CPU types. This one ships for amd64, arm64, so it runs on both regular x86 servers and ARM boards like a Raspberry Pi.

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 5201:5201 means it's reachable on port 5201 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. It opens:

  • 5201:5201

No stored data

This template doesn't mount any storage, so whatever iperf writes stays inside the container and is wiped if it's recreated or updated. That's fine for something stateless, but add a volume before trusting it with anything you want to keep.

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts iperf after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Nothing custom is set, so iperf sits on Docker's default bridge network: its own private space that reaches the outside world only through the ports it publishes.

Container name

Once it's deployed, Portainer names the container iperf3. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs iperf3.

Startup command

The command is what runs the moment the container starts. This template sets its own, -s, in place of the image's default.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set iperf up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying iperf is a click rather than a wall of config.