Cadence Bench Tests

This README describes how to set up Cadence bench, different types of bench loads, and how to start the load.

Setup

Cadence server

Bench tests requires Cadence server with ElasticSearch. You can run it through:

• Docker: Instructions for running Cadence server through docker can be found in docker/README.md. Either docker-compose-es-v7.yml or docker-compose-es.yml can be used to start the server.
• Build from source: Please check CONTRIBUTING for how to build and run Cadence server from source. Please also make sure Kafka and ElasticSearch are running before starting the server with ./cadence-server --zone es start. If ElasticSearch v7 is used, change the value for --zone flag to es_v7.

Search Attributes

One of the bench tests (called Cron), which is responsible for running other tests as a cron job and tracking the results, requires an search attribute named Passed.

For local development environment, this search attribute has already been added to the ES index template and the list of valid search attributes.

However, if you already have a running ES cluster, you will need to add this search attribute to your ES cluster through the following steps:

1. Update ES cluster index template using the following Cadence CLI command

   cadence adm cluster asa --search_attr_key Passed --search_attr_type 4 
   

2. Add Passed: 4 to the dynamic config value of valid search attributes (frontend.validSearchAttributes), so that Cadence server can recognize it.
3. Validate it has been successfully added with

   cadence cluster get-search-attr
   

Bench Workers

For now there's no docker image for bench workers. The only way to run bench workers is:

1. Build cadence bench binary:

   make cadence-bench
   

2. Start bench workers:

   ./cadence-bench start
   

   By default, it will load the configuration in config/bench/development.yaml. Please run ./cadence-bench -h for details on how to change the configuration directory and file used.
3. Note that, unlike canary, starting bench worker will not automatically start a bench test. Next two sections will cover how to start and configure it.

Worker Configurations

Bench workers configuration contains two parts:

• Bench: this part controls the client side, including the bench service name, which domains bench workers are responsible for and how many taskLists each domain should use.
• Cadence: this control how bench worker should talk to Cadence server, which includes the server's service name and address.

Note:

1. When starting bench workers, it will try to register a local domain with archival feature disabled for each domain name listed in the configuration, if not already exists. If your want to test the performance of global domains and/or archival feature, please register the domains first before starting the worker.
2. Bench workers will only poll from task lists whose name start with cadence-bench-tl-. If in the configuration, numTaskLists is specified to be 2, then workers will only listen to cadence-bench-tl-0 and cadence-bench-tl-1. So make sure you use a valid task list name when starting the bench load.

Bench Loads

This section briefly describes the purpose of each bench load and provides a sample command for running the load. Detailed descriptions for each test's configuration can be found in bench/lib/config.go

Please note that all load configurations in config/bench is for only local development and illustration purpose, it does not reflect the actual capability of Cadence server.

Cron

Cron itself is not a test. It is responsible for running multiple other tests in parallel or sequential according a cron schedule.

Tests in Cron are divided to into multiple test suites. Tests in different test suites will be run in parallel, while tests within a test suite will be run in a random sequential order. Different test suites can also be run in different domains, which provides a way for testing the multi-tenant performance of Cadence server.

On the completion of each test, Cron will be signaled with the result of the test, which can be queried through:

cadence --do <domain> wf query --wid <workflowID of the Cron workflow> --qt test-results

This command will show the result of all completed tests.

When all tests complete, Cron will update the value of the Passed search attribute accordingly. Passed will be set to true only when all tests have passed, and false otherwise. Since the last event for cron workflow is always WorkflowContinuedAsNew, this search attribute can be used to tell whether one run of Cron is successful or not. You can see the search attribute value by adding --psa flag to workflow list commands when listing Cron runs.

A sample cron configuration is in config/bench/cron.json, and it can be started with

cadence --do <domain> wf start --tl cadence-bench-tl-0 --wt cron-test-workflow --dt 30 --et 7200 --if config/bench/cron.json

Basic

As the name suggests, this load tests the basic case of starting workflows and running activities in sequential/parallel. Once all test workflows are started, it will wait test workflow timeout + 5 mins before checking the status of all test workflows. If the failure rate is too high, or if there's any open workflows found, the test will fail.

The basic load can also be run in "panic" mode by setting "panicStressWorkflow": true, to test if server can handle large number of panic workflows (which can be caused by a bad worker deployment).

Sample configuration can be found in config/bench/basic.json and config/ben/basic_panic.json. To start the test, a sample command can be

cadence --do <domain> wf start --tl cadence-bench-tl-0 --wt basic-load-test-workflow --dt 30 --et 3600 --if config/bench/basic.json

Cancellation

The load tests the StartWorkflowExecution and CancelWorkflowExecution sync API, and validates the number of cancelled workflows and if there's any open workflow.

Sample configuration can be found in config/bench/cancellation.json and it can be started with

cadence --do <domain> wf start --tl cadence-bench-tl-0 --wt cancellation-load-test-workflow --dt 30 --et 3600 --if config/bench/cancellation.json 

Signal

The load tests the SignalWorkflowExecution and SignalWithStartWorkflowExecution sync API, and validates the latency of signaling, the number of successfully completed workflows and if there's any open workflow.

Sample configuration can be found in config/bench/signal.json and it can be started with

cadence --do cadence-bench wf start --tl cadence-bench-tl-0 --wt signal-load-test-workflow --dt 30 --et 3600 --if config/bench/signal.json  

Concurrent Execution

The purpose of this load is to test when a workflow schedules a large number of activities or child workflows in a single decision batch, whether server can properly throttle the processing of this workflow without affecting the execution of workflows in other domains. It will also check if the delayed period is within limit or not and fail the test if it takes too long.

A typical usage will be run this load and another load for testing sync APIs (for example, basic, cancellation or signal) in two different test suites/domains (so that they are run in parallel in two domains). Apply proper task processing throttling configuration to the domain that is running the concurrent execution test and see if tests in the other domain can still pass or not.

Sample configuration can be found in config/bench/concurrent_execution.json and it can be started with

cadence --do <domain> wf start --tl cadence-bench-tl-0 --wt concurrent-execution-test-workflow --dt 30 --et 3600 --if config/bench/concurrent_execution.json

Timer

This load tests if Cadence server can properly handle the case when one domain fires a large number of timers in a short period of time. Ideally timer from that domain should be throttled and delayed without affecting workflows in other domains. It will also check if the delayed period is within limit or not and fail the test if the timer latency is too high.

Typical usage is the same as the concurrent execution load above. Run it in parallel with another sync API test and see if the other test can pass or not.

Sample configuration can be found in config/bench/timer.json and it can be started with

cadence --do <domain> wf start --tl cadence-bench-tl-0 --wt timer-load-test-workflow --dt 30 --et 3600 --if config/bench/timer.json