High network usage observed on TAP/TKG clusters using kapp

Products

• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid 1.x
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Management
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Plus
• VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Plus 1.x
• VMware Tanzu Application Platform
• VMware vSphere with Tanzu
• Tanzu Mission Control

Issue/Introduction

• High data downloads from git repositories.
• Large amount of git repository clones on external repositories that are configured for continuous delivery.
• High network usage from TAP/TKG clusters to git repositories. 

Environment

TAP and TKG clusters configured to use kapp for continuous delivery resources to an external git repository.

Cause

kapp controller pulls once for every sync period per git fetch configured. Additionally for each git fetch step defined in kapp, users have the option to define multiple subpaths. If multipule subpaths are defined per fetch then kapp controller will pull for each subpath, leading to multiple pulls per git repository sync period.

Resolution

Reduce fetch configs to a single main repository fetch and not multiple subpaths per fetch. Also you can delay the kapp controller syncPeriod per fetch to lower the frequency of git clones/fetches.