This document describes several techniques to profile (i.e. find performance bottlenecks) the stacks-node mining loop, including:
- configuring debug logging,
- setting up a mock mining node,
- recording inbound transactions,
- mining on top of a past block,
- generating flame graphs, and
- profiling sqlite queries.
Note that all bash commands in this document are run from the stacks-blockchain repository root directory.
Validating the config file using stacks-node check-config:
$ cargo run -r -p stacks-node --bin stacks-node check-config --config testnet/stacks-node/conf/mainnet-mockminer-conf.toml
INFO [1661276562.220137] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:82] [main] stacks-node 0.1.0 (tip-mine:c90476aa8a+, release build, macos [aarch64])
INFO [1661276562.220363] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:115] [main] Loading config at path testnet/stacks-node/conf/mainnet-mockminer-conf.toml
INFO [1661276562.233071] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:128] [main] Valid config!
Enabling debug logging using environment variable STACKS_LOG_DEBUG=1:
$ STACKS_LOG_DEBUG=1 cargo run -r -p stacks-node --bin stacks-node check-config --config testnet/stacks-node/conf/mainnet-mockminer-conf.toml
INFO [1661276562.220137] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:82] [main] stacks-node 0.1.0 (tip-mine:c90476aa8a+, release build, macos [aarch64])
INFO [1661276562.220363] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:115] [main] Loading config at path testnet/stacks-node/conf/mainnet-mockminer-conf.toml
DEBG [1661276562.222450] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:118] [main] Loaded config file: ConfigFile { burnchain: Some(BurnchainConfigFile { chain: Some("bitcoin"), burn_fee_cap: Some(1), mode: Some("mainnet"), commit_anchor_block_within: None, peer_host: Some("bitcoind.stacks.co"), peer_port: Some(8333), rpc_port: Some(8332), rpc_ssl: None, username: Some("blockstack"), password: Some("blockstacksystem"), timeout: None, magic_bytes: None, local_mining_public_key: None, process_exit_at_block_height: None, poll_time_secs: None, satoshis_per_byte: None, leader_key_tx_estimated_size: None, block_commit_tx_estimated_size: None, rbf_fee_increment: None, max_rbf: None, epochs: None }), node: Some(NodeConfigFile { name: None, seed: None, deny_nodes: None, working_dir: Some("/Users/igor/w/stacks-work/working_dir"), rpc_bind: Some("0.0.0.0:20443"), p2p_bind: Some("0.0.0.0:20444"), p2p_address: None, data_url: None, bootstrap_node: Some("02196f005965cebe6ddc3901b7b1cc1aa7a88f305bb8c5893456b8f9a605923893@seed.mainnet.hiro.so:20444"), local_peer_seed: None, miner: Some(true), mock_mining: Some(true), mine_microblocks: None, microblock_frequency: None, max_microblocks: None, wait_time_for_microblocks: None, prometheus_bind: None, marf_cache_strategy: None, marf_defer_hashing: None, pox_sync_sample_secs: None, use_test_genesis_chainstate: None }), ustx_balance: None, events_observer: Some([EventObserverConfigFile { endpoint: "localhost:3700", events_keys: ["*"] }]), connection_options: None, fee_estimation: None, miner: None }
INFO [1661276562.233071] [testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs:128] [main] Valid config!
Enabling json logging using environment variable STACKS_LOG_JSON=1 and feature flag slog_json:
$ STACKS_LOG_JSON=1 cargo run -F slog_json -r -p stacks-node --bin stacks-node check-config --config testnet/stacks-node/conf/mainnet-mockminer-conf.toml
{"msg":"stacks-node 0.1.0 (tip-mine:c90476aa8a+, release build, macos [aarch64])","level":"INFO","ts":"2022-08-23T12:44:28.072462-05:00","thread":"main","line":82,"file":"testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs"}
{"msg":"Loading config at path testnet/stacks-node/conf/mainnet-mockminer-conf.toml","level":"INFO","ts":"2022-08-23T12:44:28.074238-05:00","thread":"main","line":115,"file":"testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs"}
{"msg":"Valid config!","level":"INFO","ts":"2022-08-23T12:44:28.089960-05:00","thread":"main","line":128,"file":"testnet/stacks-node/src/main.rs"}
First, let's set up the various directory locations:
$ export STACKS_DIR=~/stacks
$ export STACKS_WORKING_DIR=$STACKS_DIR/working
$ export STACKS_SNAPSHOT_DIR=$STACKS_DIR/snapshot
Download and extract an archived snapshot of mainnet working directory, provided by Hiro.
$ wget -P $STACKS_DIR https://storage.googleapis.com/blockstack-publish/archiver-main/follower/mainnet-follower-latest.tar.gz
$ tar xzvf $STACKS_DIR/mainnet-follower-latest.tar.gz -C $STACKS_DIR
We'll be using the stacks-node config file available at:
testnet/stacks-node/conf/mocknet-miner-conf.toml
Note that, for convenience, the stacks-node binary uses the environment variable $STACKS_WORKING_DIR to override the working directory location in the config file.
$ cargo run -r -p stacks-node --bin stacks-node start --config testnet/stacks-node/conf/mocknet-miner-conf.toml
The stacks-node process will receive blocks starting from the latest block available in the Hiro archive.
Check the latest tip height of our node.
$ curl -s 127.0.0.1:20443/v2/info | jq .stacks_tip_height
Compare our node's tip height to a public node's tip height to check when our node is fully synchronized.
$ curl -s seed-0.mainnet.stacks.co:20443/v2/info | jq .stacks_tip_height
Once the node is synchronized, terminate the stacks-node process so we can setup event recording.
Run stacks-events to receive and archive events:
$ cargo run -r -p stacks-node --bin stacks-events | tee $STACKS_DIR/events.log
Run stacks-node with an event observer:
$ STACKS_EVENT_OBSERVER=localhost:3700 cargo run -r -p stacks-node --bin stacks-node start --config testnet/stacks-node/conf/mocknet-miner-conf.toml
You should see output from stacks-events in events.logs similar to:
$ tail -F $STACKS_DIR/events.log
{"path":"drop_mempool_tx","payload":{"dropped_txids":["0x6f78047f15ac3309153fc34be94ed8895111304336aec1ff106b7de051021e17, ..., "ts":"2022-08-12T05:03:08.577Z"}
Discover the first recorded block height:
$ cat $STACKS_DIR/events.log | egrep new_block | head -1 | jq .payload.block_height
Discover a lower bound number of recorded transactions. This is a lower bound because each line in the events file is a list of transactions.
$ cat $STACKS_DIR/events.log | egrep new_mempool_tx | wc -l
Make a snapshot of the working directory:
$ cp -r $STACKS_WORKING_DIR $STACKS_SNAPSHOT_DIR
Run the tip-mine benchmark:
$ export STACKS_TIP_MINE_BLOCK_HEIGHT=71294
$ export STACKS_TIP_MINE_NUM_TXS=100
$ cargo run -F disable-costs -r --bin stacks-inspect tip-mine $STACKS_SNAPSHOT_DIR $STACKS_DIR/events.log $STACKS_TIP_MINE_BLOCK_HEIGHT $STACKS_TIP_MINE_NUM_TXS
INFO [1661221745.316390] [src/main.rs:1383] [main] Clearing mempool
INFO [1661221745.316638] [src/main.rs:1405] [main] Found stacks_chain_tip with height 71296
INFO [1661221745.316651] [src/main.rs:1406] [main] Mining off parent block with height 71294
INFO [1661221745.316657] [src/main.rs:1408] [main] Submitting up to 0 transactions to the mempool
INFO [1661221745.393176] [src/main.rs:1424] [main] Found target block height 71294
INFO [1661221745.393213] [src/main.rs:1426] [main] Found new_block height 71294 parsed_tx_count 0 submit_tx_count 0
INFO [1661221745.394649] [src/main.rs:1441] [main] Reached mine_max_txns 0
INFO [1661221745.394665] [src/main.rs:1463] [main] Parsed 0 transactions
INFO [1661221745.394669] [src/main.rs:1464] [main] Submitted 0 transactions into the mempool
INFO [1661221745.394673] [src/main.rs:1466] [main] Mining a block
...
INFO [1661274285.417171] [src/chainstate/stacks/miner.rs:1628] [main] Miner: mined anchored block 4a64e0a4012acb6748a08784876c23f6f61aba08b7c826db5b57832935278f33 height 71295 with 87 txs, parent block f0f0caa2afaae75417f14fe2fad1e3fd52b0169e66cb045b4954b9ab78611f31, parent microblock 48ba93f3cc3cf88e44fe27ba58bd75d33e92d7e99b04a83240cfa90bd0767273 (7), state root = b84dcee8b48a77030682eb95340ffcc20cb76087587048c9c3d6c42be8fd22d4
Successfully mined block @ height = 71295 off of bd4fa09ece02e7fd53493c96bd69b89155058f7b28d4a659d87d89644208f41e (96cc06519e670eefb674aa2e9cfe0cfae103d4da/f0f0caa2afaae75417f14fe2fad1e3fd52b0169e66cb045b4954b9ab78611f31) in 7310ms.
Block 4a64e0a4012acb6748a08784876c23f6f61aba08b7c826db5b57832935278f33: 3227082 uSTX, 31587 bytes, cost ExecutionCost { write_length: 84090, write_count: 1170, read_length: 20381499, read_count: 7529, runtime: 103717315 }
In this run, tip-mine mined a block with 87 transactions.
Alternatively, you can run cargo build separately from the target binary stacks-inspect to avoid re-building and speed up profiling:
$ cargo build -F disable-costs -r --bin stacks-inspect
$ ./target/release/stacks-inspect tip-mine $STACKS_SNAPSHOT_DIR $STACKS_DIR/events.log $STACKS_TIP_MINE_BLOCK_HEIGHT $STACKS_TIP_MINE_NUM_TXS
Let's use the flamegraph-rs package to generate flame graphs.
$ cargo install flamegraph
flamegraph-rs uses dtrace for profiling on Mac.
Build stacks-inspect using the feature disable-costs to disable the block cost limits:
$ cargo build -F disable-costs -r --bin stacks-inspect
Generate a flame graph:
$ flamegraph --root -o perf.svg -e cpu-clock --min-width 1 --deterministic -- ./target/release/stacks-inspect tip-mine $STACKS_SNAPSHOT_DIR $STACKS_DIR/events.log $STACKS_TIP_MINE_BLOCK_HEIGHT $STACKS_TIP_MINE_NUM_TXS
You can open the flame graph using a browser:
$ open perf.svg
flamegraph-rs uses perf for profiling on Linux.
The Linux performance tool perf has a performance bug which has been fixed. If you experience slow flame graph generation, try to build perf locally:
Background on the perf performance bug: https://eighty-twenty.org/2021/09/09/perf-addr2line-speed-improvement
Find out your kernel version:
$ uname -a
Linux localhost 5.15.0-25-generic #26~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Oct 1 16:30:39 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Install dependencies, clone the linux kernel source, checkout the version tag matching your kernel version and build perf:
$ sudo apt install -y git libzstd-dev libunwind-dev libcap-dev libdw-dev libdwarf-dev libbfd-dev libelf-dev systemtap-sdt-dev binutils-dev libnuma-dev libiberty-dev bison flex
$ git clone https://github.com/torvalds/linux.git
$ git checkout v5.15
$ cd linux/tools/perf && make
Grant kernel permissions to perf:
$ sudo sed -i "$ a kernel.perf_event_paranoid = -1" /etc/sysctl.conf
$ sudo sed -i "$ a kernel.kptr_restrict = 0" /etc/sysctl.conf
$ sysctl --system
Note that you need to uncomment the following in .cargo/config.toml (see flamegraph-rs for details)
[target.x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu]
linker = "/usr/bin/clang"
rustflags = ["-Clink-arg=-fuse-ld=lld", "-Clink-arg=-Wl,--no-rosegment"]
Build stacks-inspect using the feature disable-costs to disable the block cost limits:
$ cargo build -F disable-costs -r --bin stacks-inspect
Generate a flame graph using the locally built perf binary:
$ PERF=~/linux/tools/perf/perf flamegraph --cmd "record -F 97 --call-graph dwarf,65528 -g -e cpu-clock" -o perf.svg --min-width 0.5 --deterministic -- ./target/release/stacks-inspect tip-mine $STACKS_SNAPSHOT_DIR $STACKS_DIR/events.log $STACKS_TIP_MINE_BLOCK_HEIGHT $STACKS_TIP_MINE_NUM_TXS
Output flame graph is in perf.svg.
Set the environment variable STACKS_LOG_DEBUG=1 and use the cargo feature profile-sqlite:
$ STACKS_LOG_DEBUG=1 cargo run -F profile-sqlite,disable-costs -r --bin stacks-inspect try-mine $STACKS_WORKING_DIR
...
DEBG [1661217664.809057] [src/util_lib/db.rs:666] [main] sqlite trace profile {"millis":1,"query":"SELECT value FROM data_table WHERE key = ?"}
...