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Bug #11168

closed

[API] Use JSON instead of YAML for serialized fields in database

Added by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago. Updated over 7 years ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Normal
Assigned To:
Category:
API
Target version:
Story points:
2.0

Description

Currently hashes (like log properties) and arrays (like api_client_authorization scopes) are encoded in YAML, which is much slower than Oj.

YAML has some features that JSON is missing, but we don't want them; in fact, they get in our way (like in #6347).

If we store JSON, and tell PostgreSQL ≥9.3 that we are doing so, we can do queries on serialized fields. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.6/static/datatype-json.html

Implementation notes

Migration:
  • It's possible to do the up-migration in the background while the new server is running. We can detect format when loading, and deserialize accordingly: JSON starts with "{" or "[", YAML starts with "---".
  • However, for a downgrade, a full down-migration would need to finish before the old version could work.
  • In this version we won't bother migrating existing records -- we'll just use JSON in new/updated rows.
Changing column types:
  • PostgreSQL can help us more if we use a json or jsonb column type for serialized fields -- but this can will be deferred to a separate story.

Evaluation

After this change is deployed, we should collect some statistics/graphs about real-world performance impact. The biggest impact will probably be on API response times for "list" actions on container_requests, containers, jobs, pipeline instances, and logs.


Subtasks 1 (0 open1 closed)

Task #11195: Review 11168-serialize-jsonResolvedPeter Amstutz02/24/2017Actions

Related issues

Related to Arvados - Idea #4019: [API] Support query of "properties" field on objectsResolvedPeter Amstutz12/12/2017Actions
Related to Arvados - Idea #11807: [API] Migrate old serialized database content from YAML to JSONResolvedTom Clegg06/05/2017Actions
Actions #1

Updated by Tom Morris over 7 years ago

  • Target version set to 2017-03-15 sprint
  • Story points set to 2.0
Actions #2

Updated by Javier Bértoli over 7 years ago

  • Subject changed from [API] Use JSON instead of YAML for serialized fields in database to [API] Use JSON instead of YAML for serialized fields in databasethis

This sounds like a nice improvement. That PG page has some warnings to which we should need to probably pay careful attention:

  • difference in usage of json/jsonb, and which one is better depending on the JSON content we want to store.
  • "...it is best to avoid mixing Unicode escapes in JSON with a non-UTF8 database encoding, if possible.". China's default encoding is UTF-16, not UTF-8, so I don't know if/how that will have any impact in this change, but I think is something to take into consideration.
Actions #3

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

  • Subject changed from [API] Use JSON instead of YAML for serialized fields in databasethis to [API] Use JSON instead of YAML for serialized fields in database
Actions #4

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

  • Assigned To set to Tom Clegg
Actions #5

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

  • Status changed from New to In Progress
Actions #6

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

Actions #7

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

  • Description updated (diff)
Actions #8

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

  • Description updated (diff)
Actions #9

Updated by Peter Amstutz over 7 years ago

11168-serialize-json @ 766ddd6

I notice that a couple of places have been switched to use SafeJSON, but they still have require 'oj'. The specific instances are eventbus.rb and websocket_test.rb. eventbus.rb catches Oj::Error, websocket_test.rb doesn't appear to have any remaining instances of Oj.

I believe the change to Job.sorted_hash_digest may prevent job reuse unless we check for the hashes of both the YAML and JSON serializations.

Should deep_sort_hash happen in where_serialized ? It doesn't particularly make sense to query the string value of a serialized hashed column without sorting it first.

In create_superuser_token_test, the test "existing token has limited scope":

-      update_all(scopes: ["GET /"])
+      update_all(scopes: SafeJSON.dump(["GET /"]))

Why/how did this work before, and why does it need to be manually serialized now?

I did some manual verification:

  1. Looked at "properties" column of "logs" table in pqsl
  2. The earliest log item was previously serialized to postgres as YAML
  3. The latest log item is serialized to postgres as JSON
  4. Both earliest and latest log records can be accessed via API and are reported as JSON.
Actions #10

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

I notice that a couple of places have been switched to use SafeJSON, but they still have require 'oj'. The specific instances are eventbus.rb and websocket_test.rb. eventbus.rb catches Oj::Error, websocket_test.rb doesn't appear to have any remaining instances of Oj.

Indeed. Removed import from websocket_test.rb, thanks.

I believe the change to Job.sorted_hash_digest may prevent job reuse unless we check for the hashes of both the YAML and JSON serializations.

Ah, good catch. Both old and new are JSON, but Oj.dump(h) serializes {"foo":"bar"} as {":foo":"bar"} so changing to compat mode without a migration would break reuse of jobs saved by old versions. I suppose "symbol" mode is fine for this as long as we keep doing it. Reverted.

Should deep_sort_hash happen in where_serialized ? It doesn't particularly make sense to query the string value of a serialized hashed column without sorting it first.

Yes, good point. Moved into where_serialized.

In create_superuser_token_test, the test "existing token has limited scope":

update_all(scopes: ["GET /"])

Why/how did this work before, and why does it need to be manually serialized now?

Well, it turns out it didn't work all that well before:

======================================================================
CreateSuperUserTokenTest#test_existing_token_has_limited_scope
----------------------------------------------------------------------

  ApiClientAuthorization Load (0.3ms)  SELECT "api_client_authorizations".* FROM "api_client_authorizations" WHERE "api_client_authorizations"."id" = $1 LIMIT 1  [["id", 279786541]]
  SQL (0.4ms)  UPDATE "api_client_authorizations" SET "scopes" = 'GET /' WHERE "api_client_authorizations"."user_id" = 476014017

But the purpose of this statement was just to sabotage the test fixture so actual≠desired scopes, and invalid≠desired, so the test passed.

Now it does what it looks like it does:

  SQL (0.4ms)  UPDATE "api_client_authorizations" SET "scopes" = '["GET /"]' WHERE "api_client_authorizations"."user_id" = 476014017

(update_all() is just a DB query, it bypasses model logic.)

now at 594e00f9311da95f73843f55b6e1c7c3ad55d8df

Actions #11

Updated by Peter Amstutz over 7 years ago

LGTM @ 594e00f

Actions #12

Updated by Peter Amstutz over 7 years ago

Hold on, now I'm having trouble starting the API server in arvbox. I don't know if something is just corrupted/confused or there's a real problem here:

2017-03-03_16:43:49.18377   Job Load (0.6ms)  SELECT "jobs".* FROM "jobs" WHERE (state = 'Queued') ORDER BY priority desc, created_at
2017-03-03_16:43:49.18440    (0.5ms)  SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "pipeline_instances" WHERE (state = 'RunningOnServer')
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57545   ApiClientAuthorization Load (0.7ms)  SELECT "api_client_authorizations".* FROM "api_client_authorizations" WHERE (api_token='4ao313k81hkmc1812j4eo25uf5p
3wlmc78edkkkpqnrhf8bwvb' and (expires_at is null or expires_at > CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)) LIMIT 1
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57617 App 4431 stderr: [ 2017-03-03 16:43:49.5759 4545/0x0055cfdc0e9b40(Worker 1) utils.rb:87 ]: *** Exception RuntimeError in Rack application object (invalid 
serialized data "\"[\\\"al") (process 4545, thread 0x0055cfdc0e9b40(Worker 1)):
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57619 App 4431 stderr:      from /usr/src/arvados/services/api/lib/serializers.rb:32:in `load'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57619 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods/serialization.rb:24:in `unserialize'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57619 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods/serialization.rb:15:in `unserialized_value'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57620 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods/read.rb:84:in `__temp__'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57620 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods/read.rb:46:in `type_cast_attribute'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57620 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods/read.rb:127:in `read_attribute'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57621 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:185:in `block in attributes'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57621 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:185:in `each'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57621 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb:185:in `attributes'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57621 App 4431 stderr:      from /usr/src/arvados/services/api/app/models/arvados_model.rb:498:in `block in convert_serialized_symbols_to_strings'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57622 App 4431 stderr:      from /usr/src/arvados/services/api/app/models/arvados_model.rb:497:in `each'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57622 App 4431 stderr:      from /usr/src/arvados/services/api/app/models/arvados_model.rb:497:in `convert_serialized_symbols_to_strings'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57622 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activesupport-3.2.22.5/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:405:in `_run__1338818612019012701__find__4105550916150344441__callbacks'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57623 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activesupport-3.2.22.5/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:405:in `__run_callback'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57623 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activesupport-3.2.22.5/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:385:in `_run_find_callbacks'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57623 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activesupport-3.2.22.5/lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:81:in `run_callbacks'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57623 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/base.rb:523:in `init_with'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57624 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/inheritance.rb:68:in `instantiate'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57624 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/querying.rb:38:in `block (2 levels) in find_by_sql'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57624 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/querying.rb:38:in `collect!'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57625 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/querying.rb:38:in `block in find_by_sql'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57626 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/explain.rb:41:in `logging_query_plan'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57626 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/querying.rb:37:in `find_by_sql'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57626 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/relation.rb:171:in `exec_queries'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57626 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/relation.rb:160:in `block in to_a'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57626 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/explain.rb:41:in `logging_query_plan'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57627 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/relation.rb:159:in `to_a'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57627 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb:381:in `find_first'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57627 App 4431 stderr:      from /var/lib/gems/ruby/2.1.0/gems/activerecord-3.2.22.5/lib/active_record/relation/finder_methods.rb:122:in `first'
2017-03-03_16:43:49.57628 App 4431 stderr:      from /usr/src/arvados/services/api/app/middlewares/arvados_api_token.rb:39:in `call'
Actions #13

Updated by Peter Amstutz over 7 years ago

arvados_development=# SELECT "api_client_authorizations".scopes FROM "api_client_authorizations" WHERE (api_token='4ao313k81hkmc1812j4eo25uf5p3wlmc78edkkkpqnrhf8bwvb' and (expires_at is null or expires_at > CURRENT_TIMESTAMP)) LIMIT 1;
   scopes    
-------------
 "[\"all\"]" 
(1 row)

Hmm?

Actions #14

Updated by Peter Amstutz over 7 years ago

arvados_development=# SELECT id, scopes FROM "api_client_authorizations";
 id |   scopes    
----+-------------
  1 | "[\"all\"]" 
  2 | ["all"]
Actions #15

Updated by Peter Amstutz over 7 years ago

 id |                     api_token                      | api_client_id | user_id | created_by_ip_address | last_used_by_ip_address |        last_used_at        | expires_at |         created_at         |         updated_at         | default_owner_uuid |   scopes    |            uuid             
----+----------------------------------------------------+---------------+---------+-----------------------+-------------------------+----------------------------+------------+----------------------------+----------------------------+--------------------+-------------+-----------------------------
  1 | 4ao313k81hkmc1812j4eo25uf5p3wlmc78edkkkpqnrhf8bwvb |             1 |       1 | ::1                   | 192.168.5.3             | 2017-03-03 16:43:31.951122 |            | 2017-02-24 16:08:41.941389 | 2017-03-03 16:43:32.971805 |                    | "[\"all\"]" | 34t0i-gj3su-28nah1lzkhpalqb
  2 | mdvgi7g61ec6gshnwlhi92icny27map7k5o3nghnz18j82l92  |             2 |       3 | 192.168.5.1           | 192.168.5.2             | 2017-03-02 15:27:32.650515 |            | 2017-03-02 15:21:51.147115 | 2017-03-02 15:27:32.651099 |                    | ["all"]     | 34t0i-gj3su-u4yxlmib581etwd
(2 rows)
Actions #16

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

07e4083ea451913b988d77e8e4c926da8ad844a4

"Double-decode serialized fields if database was mangled by downgraded API server."

Actions #17

Updated by Tom Clegg over 7 years ago

  • Status changed from In Progress to Resolved

Applied in changeset arvados|commit:660a6143ecf1e777f33bd84183ba9e821e1d7a8e.

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