Keyboard Community · After reading the keyboard core source I finally understand the trade-offs

866
KEr/keyboard·posted by mike_xu·just nowJobs

After reading the keyboard core source I finally understand the trade-offs

Short version: keyboard needs almost no tuning at small and medium scale — the point where it starts to hurt is much further out than most people assume. Full measurements below.

On trade-offs, my view is this: if nobody on the team owns this area long-term, do not introduce a second mechanism. With two coexistence you first have to work out which one is even in play when things break, and that costs far more than the performance you saved.

Documentation first44%
Source code first28%
Just ask someone17%
Run a demo and learn by error11%

1472 votes total

445 comments

445 comments

· first 120 loaded
M
Oops_wang·12 minutes agoedited

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

509
Llinlin·2 days ago

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

225
Mmike_xu·yesterday

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

29
Oops_wang·3 minutes ago

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

373
Llinlin·2 days ago

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

2
Rran_bo·yesterday

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

2
Ttang_hao·2 days ago

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

454
Rran_bo·2 days ago

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

452
Bbob_chen·just nowedited

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

447
Wwinter·2 days ago

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

408
Cchen_dev·2 days ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

407
Zzhou_yiOP·2 days ago

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

260
Bbob_chen·2 days agoedited

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

319
NnikicMod·2 days ago

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

284
Oops_wang·2 days ago

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

255
Ttang_hao·2 days agoedited

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

367
Bbob_chen·2 days ago

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

254
Sslow_query·2 days ago

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

221
Aalice_dev·12 minutes ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

214
Cchen_dev·2 days agoedited

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

207
Wwinter·2 days ago

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

176
Rran_bo·2 days ago

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

167
Cchen_dev·2 days ago

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

165
Rrase·2 days ago

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

163
Rran_bo·2 days ago

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

130
Bbob_chen·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

161
Cchen_dev·2 days ago

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

147
Llinlin·2 days ago

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

12
Ddev_zhou·2 days agoedited

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

469
Cchen_dev·2 days agoedited

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

10
Cchen_dev·2 days ago

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

128
Rrase·2 days agoedited

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

17
Hhuang_ke·2 days ago

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

451
Hhuang_ke·2 days ago

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

221
Sswoole_lee·yesterday

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

112
Lli_ming·2 days ago

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

382
Llinlin·1 hour agoedited

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

107
Bbob_chenMod·2 days agoedited

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

383
Aalice_dev·just nowedited

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

95
Cchen_dev·2 days ago

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

284
Cchen_devOP·2 days ago

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

29
Kkernel_panic·2 days ago

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

80
Zzhou_yiMod·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

78
Kkernel_panic·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

78
Hhuang_ke·2 days ago

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

76
Zzhu_zong·2 days ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

497
Bbob_chen·2 days ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

334
Oops_wang·2 days agoedited

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

73
Oops_wang·2 days agoedited

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

323
Sslow_query·2 days ago

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

70
Lli_ming·2 days ago

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

62
Mmike_xuOP·2 days ago

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

1
Bbob_chenOP·2 hours agoedited

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

1
Nnikic·just now

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

49
Zzhu_zongOP·2 hours agoedited

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

25
Lli_ming·2 hours ago

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

180
Nnikic·2 days agoedited

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

106
Rran_bo·2 days ago

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

176
Hhuang_ke·2 days ago

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

65
Wwinter·28 minutes agoedited

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

3
Zzhu_zong·2 days agoedited

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

164
Ttang_hao·2 days ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

12
Zzhu_zongOP·2 days agoLevel 6

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

270
Hhuang_keMod·2 days agoeditedLevel 6

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

3
Lli_ming·2 days ago

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

1
Hhuang_ke·2 days agoLevel 6

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

3
Kkite·1 hour ago

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

149
Oops_wangMod·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

415
Aalice_dev·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

102
Sslow_query·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

4
Aalice_dev·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

101
Rran_boOP·28 minutes agoedited

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

10
Wwinter·2 days ago

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

21
Hhuang_keOP·2 hours ago

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

1
Mmike_xu·1 hour ago

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

461
Ddev_zhou·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

190
Aalice_dev·2 days ago

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

119
Zzhu_zong·2 hours ago

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

9
Rrase·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

46
Llinlin·2 days ago

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

27
Wwinter·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

418
Kkite·2 days ago

Sharing our numbers, 8 cores 16GB, same scenario:

| Concurrency | P50 | P99 |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | 12ms | 88ms |
| 500 | 31ms | 340ms |

P99 clearly collapses at 500 concurrency, which lines up with your knee point.

63
Nnikic·2 days agoedited

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

19
Kkernel_panic·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

17
Hhuang_ke·2 days ago

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

104
Sswoole_lee·2 days ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

16
Kkernel_panic·2 days ago

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

7
Wwinter·3 minutes ago

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

15
Bbob_chen·2 days ago

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

13
Oops_wang·2 days ago

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

13
Zzhou_yi·just now

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

11
Ddev_zhou·2 days ago

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

313
Sslow_query·2 days ago

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

400
Kkite·2 days ago

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

305
Nnikic·2 days ago

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

30
Lli_mingMod·3 minutes ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

166
Rran_bo·2 days ago

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

51
Sswoole_lee·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

115
Bbob_chen·2 days ago

I see point 3 differently. The trade-off depends on your read/write ratio: read-heavy with little writing means caching actually widens the inconsistency window.

428
Sswoole_lee·5 hours ago

Worth learning from this debugging approach. We went straight at the logs and took a much longer route.

18
Llinlin·2 days agoedited

Can you give a minimal reproduction? I ran it locally for ten minutes and could not reproduce on macOS with the latest version.

237
Sswoole_lee·2 days agoedited

There is actually a simpler fix that needs no architecture change: move this check up to the gateway and the problem disappears. The cost is one extra lookup at the gateway.

33
Llinlin·1 hour ago

One counter-example: below keyboard 7.4 the semantics of that code are different, so do not copy it verbatim. We got burned in staging and rolled back once.

145
Llinlin·2 days agoLevel 6

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

1
Llinlin·2 days ago

I just read the keyboard source — the author actually explains the reasoning in a comment, roughly "so that it degrades into predictable behaviour in extreme cases".

19
Rrase·28 minutes ago

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

341
Sslow_queryOP·2 days ago

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

368
Rrase·2 days ago

This matches what we see in production. We only hit it past 3k QPS; the earlier load tests showed nothing — the test traffic was too clean, with no long-tail requests.

130
Cchen_dev·2 days ago

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

4
Wwinter·2 hours ago

We have run this in production for two years without hitting it. That said, we never reached this scale, so our experience is not really evidence here.

8
Llinlin·2 days ago

This is not a keyboard problem, it is a usage problem. The docs say this API is not thread-safe and you must lock around it yourself.

6
Zzhu_zong·2 days ago

A question: what changes in a container with a 512Mi memory limit? That is how we run it in production.

5
Nnikic·2 days ago

Thanks for sharing real numbers — far more useful than the articles that only cover concepts.

3
Wwinter·28 minutes ago

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

3
Cchen_devOP·2 days ago

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

199
Ddev_zhou·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

2
Lli_ming·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

2
Nnikic·2 days ago

Saved. I am reworking this area this week — this saves a lot of wrong turns.

1
Ttang_hao·just now

Agreeing with the above. One addition: with this option enabled the GC count in your metrics doubles, so adjust the alert threshold at the same time or it will keep firing.

292
Kkernel_panic·1 hour ago

Has anyone run a controlled experiment? I did, reducing it to a single variable, and the difference was 4% — within noise. So I suspect the main cause is something else.

117

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