protobuf-net concurrent performance issue in TakeLock

Question

We're using protobuf-net for sending log messages between services. When profiling stress testing, under high concurrency, we see very high CPU usage and that TakeLock in RuntimeTypeModel is the culprit. The hot call stack looks something like:

*Our code...*
ProtoBuf.Serializer.SerializeWithLengthPrefix(class System.IO.Stream,!!0,valuetype ProtoBuf.PrefixStyle)
ProtoBuf.Serializer.SerializeWithLengthPrefix(class System.IO.Stream,!!0,valuetype ProtoBuf.PrefixStyle,int32)
ProtoBuf.Meta.TypeModel.SerializeWithLengthPrefix(class System.IO.Stream,object,class System.Type,valuetype ProtoBuf.PrefixStyle,int32)
ProtoBuf.Meta.TypeModel.SerializeWithLengthPrefix(class System.IO.Stream,object,class System.Type,valuetype ProtoBuf.PrefixStyle,int32,class ProtoBuf.SerializationContext)
ProtoBuf.ProtoWriter.WriteObject(object,int32,class ProtoBuf.ProtoWriter,valuetype  ProtoBuf.PrefixStyle,int32)
ProtoBuf.BclHelpers.WriteNetObject(object,class ProtoBuf.ProtoWriter,int32,valuetype 
ProtoBuf.BclHelpers/NetObjectOptions)
ProtoBuf.Meta.TypeModel.GetKey(class System.Type&)
ProtoBuf.Meta.RuntimeTypeModel.GetKey(class System.Type,bool,bool)
ProtoBuf.Meta.RuntimeTypeModel.FindOrAddAuto(class System.Type,bool,bool,bool)
ProtoBuf.Meta.RuntimeTypeModel.TakeLock(int32&)
[clr.dll]

I see that we can use the new precompiler to get a speed boost, but I'm wondering if that will get rid of the issue (sounds like it doesn't use reflection); it would be a bit of work for me to integrate this, so I haven't tested it yet. I also see the option to call Serializer.PrepareSerializer. My initial (small scale) testing didn't make the prepare seem promising.

A little more info about the type we're serializing:

[ProtoContract]
public class SomeMessage
{
    [ProtoMember(1)]
    public SomeEnumType SomeEnum { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(2)]
    public long SomeId{ get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(3)]
    public string SomeString{ get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(4)]
    public DateTime SomeDate { get; set; }

    [ProtoMember(5, DynamicType = true, OverwriteList = true)]
    public Collection<object> SomeArguments
}

Thanks for your help!

UPDATE 9/17

Thanks for your response! We're going to try the workaround you suggest and see if that fixes things.

This code lives in our logging system so, in the SomeMessage example, SomeString is really a format string (e.g. "Hello {0}") and the SomeArguments collection is a list of objects used to fill in the format string, just like String.Format. Before we serialize, we look at each argument and call DynamicSerializer.IsKnownType(argument.GetType()), if it isn't known, we convert it to a string first. I haven't looked at the ratios of data, but I'm pretty sure we have a lot of different strings coming in as arguments.

Let me know if this helps. If you need, I'll try to get more details.

Marc Gravell Marc Gravell · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-13T06:10:13

TakeLock is only used when it is changing the model, for example because it is seeing a type for the first time. You shouldn't normally see TakeLock after the first time a particular type has been used. In most cases, using Serializaer.PrepareSerializer<SomeMessage>() should perform all the necessary initialization (and similar for any other contracts you are using).

However! I wonder if perhaps this is also related to your use of DynamicType; what are the actual objects being used here? It might be that I need to tweak the logic here, so that it doesn't spend any time on that step. If you let me know the actual objects (so I can repro), I will try to run some tests.

As for whether the precompiler would change this; yes it would. A fully compiled static model has a completely different implementation of the ProtoBuf.Meta.TypeModel.GetKey method, so it would never call TakeLock (you don't need to protect a model that can never change!). But you can actuallydo something very similar without needing to use precompile. Consider the following, run as part of your app's initialization:

static readonly TypeModel serializer;
...
var model = TypeModel.Create();
model.Add(typeof(SomeMessage), true);
// TODO add other contracts you use here
serializer = model.Compile();

This will create a fully static-compiled serializer assembly in memory (instead of a mutable model with individual operations compiled). If you now use serializer.Serialize(...) instead of Serializer.Serialize (i.e. the instance method on your stored TypeModel rather than the static method on Serializer) then it will essentially be doing something very similar to "precompiler", but without the need to actualy precompile it (obviously this will only be available on "full" .NET). This will then never call TakeLock, as it is running a fixed model, rather than a flexible model. It does, however, require you to know what contract-types you use. You could use reflection to find these, by looking for all those types with a given attribute:

static readonly TypeModel serializer;
...
var model = TypeModel.Create();
Type attributeType = typeof(ProtoContractAttribute);
foreach (var type in typeof(SomeMessage).Assembly.GetTypes()) {
    if (Attribute.IsDefined(type, attributeType)) {
        model.Add(type, true);
    }
}
serializer = model.Compile();

But emphasis: the above is a workaround; it sounds like there's a glitch, which I'll happily investigate if I can see an example where it actually happens; most importantly: what are the objects in SomeArguments?

protobuf-net concurrent performance issue in TakeLock

1 Answers