Improving DNS performance with NodeLocalDNS

Neon deployed node-local DNS across its Kubernetes clusters to optimize DNS performance and reduce latency, particularly focusing on improving tail latencies associated with DNS caching. With the scale-to-zero feature, Neon frequently spins up ephemeral Postgres instances, increasing DNS traffic to CoreDNS pods. By implementing node-local DNS, the company aimed to distribute DNS caching, reducing the load on central CoreDNS pods and minimizing latency due to network round-trips. The deployment resulted in a significant reduction in DNS response times and load on CoreDNS pods, with a 97% decrease in DNS requests traveling over the network. This approach also facilitated easier identification and mitigation of misconfigurations, such as leaking requests due to incorrect /etc/hosts file settings. Despite some deployment challenges related to race conditions with kube-proxy, Neon's experience highlights the advantages of node-local DNS in enhancing DNS performance in large-scale Kubernetes environments.

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