README
¶
Description
chef-load is a tool that simulates Chef Client API load on a Chef Server and/or a Chef Automate server.
It is designed to be easy to use yet powerfully flexible and accurate in its simulation of the chef-client run.
It works well at this point but there is always room for improvement so please provide feedback.
Considerations when applying high load
chef-load will periodically resolve hostnames for the API requests. It is recommended that the
hostnames and their IP addresses are put in the system's /etc/hosts file so chef-load does not
need to make DNS requests.
Make sure the maximum number of open file descriptors is set to unlimited. This can either be done in chef-load's systemd service file as shown below or you can follow instructions in this link.
Installation & Setup
Download prebuilt binary
Prebuilt chef-load binary files are available on chef-load's "Releases" page.
https://github.com/jeremiahsnapp/chef-load/releases
Generate a chef-load configuration file.
The configuration file uses TOML syntax and documents a lot of the flexibility of chef-load so please read it.
chef-load --sample-config > chef-load.conf
chef-load logs all API requests in the file specified by the log_file setting in the config file. The default value is /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.
Make sure chef-load.conf has appropriate settings for applying load to your Chef Server, Automate Server or both.
Chef API client
The client defined by "client_name" in the chef-load configuration file needs to be an admin user of the Chef Server organization.
Various ways to run chef-load
Run chef-load using only the configuration file.
chef-load --config chef-load.conf
You can use the --prefix command line option to set the prefix for the node names. This
enables easily running multiple instances of chef-load without affecting each others' nodes.
For example, a value of "chef-load" will result in nodes named "chef-load-1", "chef-load-2", etc.
chef-load --config chef-load.conf --prefix chef-load-a
# in another terminal you can run the following to create another instance of chef-load
chef-load --config chef-load.conf --prefix chef-load-b
You can set the number of nodes using the --nodes command line option and the interval using the --interval command line option. The default value for both of these options is 30. This is useful for quickly adjusting the load without modifying the configuration file.
chef-load will evenly distribute the number of nodes across the desired interval (minutes).
Examples:
- 1800 nodes / 30 minute interval = 60 chef-client runs per minute
- 1800 nodes / 60 minute interval = 30 chef-client runs per minute
chef-load --config chef-load.conf --nodes 1800
chef-load --config chef-load.conf --nodes 1800 --interval 60
Example chef-load systemd service file
Here is a working example of a systemd service file for chef-load. Notice that it is able to set LimitNOFILE to unlimited to avoid running out of file descriptors.
[Unit]
Description=Chef load testing tool
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/home/centos/chef-load -config /home/centos/chef_load.conf
Type=simple
PIDFile=/tmp/chef_load.pid
Restart=always
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
KillMode=process
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=infinity
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
API Request Profile
chef-load prints an API request profile when it receives a USR1 signal and when it is terminated.
root@ip-172-31-17-147:~# ./chef-load -config chef-load.conf -nodes 60 -interval 1 -prefix foo
2017-08-30T20:25:37Z Starting chef-load with 60 nodes distributed evenly across a 1 minute interval
2017-08-30T20:25:37Z All API requests will be logged in /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log
2017-08-30T20:25:44Z Received Signal: USR1
2017-08-30T20:25:44Z Printing profile of API requests
Total API Requests: 616
% of Total | Subtotal | Status | Method | URL
2.27 14 204 POST https://automate.lxc/data-collector/v0/
1.14 7 409 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/clients
1.14 7 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default
1.14 7 200 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default/cookbook_versions
1.14 7 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/foo-<N>
1.14 7 200 PUT https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/foo-<N>
1.14 7 404 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/roles/chef-client
90.91 560 200 GET https://chef.lxc:443/bookshelf/<...>
^C
2017-08-30T20:25:50Z Received Signal: INT
2017-08-30T20:25:50Z Printing profile of API requests
Total API Requests: 1149
% of Total | Subtotal | Status | Method | URL
2.35 27 204 POST https://automate.lxc/data-collector/v0/
1.22 14 409 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/clients
1.22 14 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default
1.13 13 200 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default/cookbook_versions
1.22 14 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/foo-<N>
1.13 13 200 PUT https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/foo-<N>
1.22 14 404 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/roles/chef-client
90.51 1040 200 GET https://chef.lxc:443/bookshelf/<...>
2017-08-30T20:25:50Z Stopping chef-load
The -profile-logs option will read the specified chef-load log files and print an API request profile. If chef-load receives a USR1 signal or is terminated before it finishes reading the log files then it will print an API request profile for the data that it read up to that point in time.
root@ip-172-31-17-147:~# ./chef-load -profile-logs /var/log/chef-load/*
2017-08-31T15:04:42Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log
2017-08-31T15:04:43Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.1
2017-08-31T15:04:43Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.2
2017-08-31T15:04:43Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.3
2017-08-31T15:04:43Z Received Signal: USR1
2017-08-31T15:04:43Z Printing profile of API requests
Total API Requests: 31478
% of Total | Subtotal | Status | Method | URL
2.55 804 204 POST https://automate.lxc/data-collector/v0/
0.04 12 201 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/clients
1.05 330 409 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/clients
1.16 366 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default
1.16 365 200 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default/cookbook_versions
0.04 12 201 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes
1.12 354 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/bar-12-<N>
0.04 12 404 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/bar-12-<N>
1.11 348 200 PUT https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/bar-12-<N>
1.16 366 404 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/roles/chef-client
90.57 28509 200 GET https://chef.lxc:443/bookshelf/<...>
2017-08-31T15:04:43Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.4
2017-08-31T15:04:44Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.5
2017-08-31T15:04:44Z Reading log file /var/log/chef-load/chef-load.log.6
2017-08-31T15:04:44Z Printing profile of API requests
Total API Requests: 59128
% of Total | Subtotal | Status | Method | URL
2.56 1516 204 POST https://automate.lxc/data-collector/v0/
0.03 20 201 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/clients
1.08 641 409 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/clients
1.16 685 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default
1.16 684 200 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/environments/_default/cookbook_versions
0.03 20 201 POST https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes
1.12 665 200 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/bar-12-<N>
0.03 20 404 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/bar-12-<N>
1.10 651 200 PUT https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/nodes/bar-12-<N>
1.16 685 404 GET https://chef.lxc/organizations/demo/roles/chef-client
90.55 53541 200 GET https://chef.lxc:443/bookshelf/<...>
Using sample JSON data files
chef-load is able to use files containing ohai, converge status and compliance status data captured from real nodes. This helps by simulating more accurate API payloads.
chef-load's configuration file has the following settings to specify the path to sample data files.
- ohai_json_file
- converge_status_json_file
- compliance_status_json_file
The chef-load GitHub repo's "sample-data" directory has a file for each type of data that can be used.
Create your own sample ohai JSON file
An ohai JSON file can be created by running "ohai > example-ohai.json".
Create sample compliance status JSON file
A compliance status JSON file can be created by adding the "json-file" reporter to a node's "audit" cookbook's attribute. The next Chef Client run will save the compliance status report in the "/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/audit/" directory.
Alternatively, you can simply run the "inspec exec" command along with the "--format json" option to execute inspec profiles against a node. The resultant JSON file can be used with the compliance_status_json_file chef-load option.
Create sample converge status JSON file
You can copy the following code to a file named capture-converge-status.rb in any cookbook's "libraries" directory and it will cause the next Chef Client run to save the converge status JSON data to "/tmp/converge-status.json" on the node. Once you capture the data you can remove the code from the cookbook.
class Chef
class DataCollector
class Reporter < EventDispatch::Base
private
def send_to_data_collector(message)
return unless data_collector_accessible?
IO.write('/tmp/converge-status.json', JSON.generate(message))
http.post(nil, message, headers)
end
end
end
end
Build chef-load from source
To build chef-load you must have Go installed.
Ref: https://golang.org/dl/
Setup a GOPATH if you haven't already.
Ref: https://golang.org/doc/install#testing
mkdir ~/go-work
export GOPATH=~/go-work
Get and install chef-load
go get github.com/jeremiahsnapp/chef-load
It is easy to cross-compile chef-load for other platforms.
Options for $GOOS and $GOARCH are listed in the following link.
Ref: https://golang.org/doc/install/source#environment
The following command will create a chef-load executable file for linux amd64 in the current working directory.
env GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build github.com/jeremiahsnapp/chef-load
License
chef-load - a tool that simulates Chef Client API load on a Chef Server and/or a Chef Automate server
| Author: | Jeremiah Snapp (jeremiah@chef.io) |
| Copyright: | Copyright 2016-2017, Chef Software, Inc. |
| License: | Apache License, Version 2.0 |
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
Documentation
¶
There is no documentation for this package.
Source Files