Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Asynchronous Processing for Fun and Profit
Search
Mike Perham
November 02, 2012
Technology
11
880
Asynchronous Processing for Fun and Profit
Some pro tips and an overview of Sidekiq for great async victory!
Mike Perham
November 02, 2012
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Mike Perham
See All by Mike Perham
Computer Science vs Software Engineering
mperham
0
330
A Tribute to Ezra Zygmuntowicz
mperham
1
1k
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
AIエージェント入門 〜基礎からMCP・A2Aまで〜
shukob
0
110
AIとともに歩んでいくデザイナーの役割の変化
lycorptech_jp
PRO
0
520
現場データから見える、開発生産性の変化コード生成AI導入・運用のリアル〜 / Changes in Development Productivity and Operational Challenges Following the Introduction of Code Generation AI
nttcom
0
320
Liquid AI Hackathon Tokyo プレゼン資料
aratako
0
110
Railsの話をしよう
yahonda
0
160
Zephyr(RTOS)にEdge AIを組み込んでみた話
iotengineer22
0
190
やる気のない自分との向き合い方/How to Deal with Your Unmotivated Self
sanogemaru
1
520
OpenTelemetry が拡げる Gemini CLI の可観測性
phaya72
2
350
Copilot Studio ハンズオン - 生成オーケストレーションモード
tomoyasasakimskk
0
140
Data Hubグループ 紹介資料
sansan33
PRO
0
2.2k
Geospatialの世界最前線を探る [2025年版]
dayjournal
1
250
20251007: What happens when multi-agent systems become larger? (CyberAgent, Inc)
ornew
1
460
Featured
See All Featured
Sharpening the Axe: The Primacy of Toolmaking
bcantrill
46
2.5k
Producing Creativity
orderedlist
PRO
347
40k
The Web Performance Landscape in 2024 [PerfNow 2024]
tammyeverts
10
870
Making Projects Easy
brettharned
120
6.4k
Intergalactic Javascript Robots from Outer Space
tanoku
273
27k
CSS Pre-Processors: Stylus, Less & Sass
bermonpainter
359
30k
Fantastic passwords and where to find them - at NoRuKo
philnash
52
3.4k
A better future with KSS
kneath
239
18k
Java REST API Framework Comparison - PWX 2021
mraible
34
8.9k
Creating an realtime collaboration tool: Agile Flush - .NET Oxford
marcduiker
34
2.3k
RailsConf & Balkan Ruby 2019: The Past, Present, and Future of Rails at GitHub
eileencodes
140
34k
RailsConf 2023
tenderlove
30
1.3k
Transcript
Async Processing for Fun and Profit Mike Perham @mperham
Me Director of Engineering, TheClymb.com
Agenda • Basics • Protips • Sidekiq
Why? • User-Perceived Performance • I/O is SLOOOOOOOOOOOW • I/O
is unreliable
What? • Optional work • Anything not required to build
the HTTP response
How? • Client puts message on a queue • Server
pulls message off queue • Worker executes code based on message
How? async do # perform some work end
How? • Marshalling a Proc • Need to serialize closure
How? async(instance, :method, args)
How? • Marshal instance • Marshal args
How? async(Class, :method, args)
How? • Serialize just the class name • Marshal the
arguments
Congratulations! This is exactly how Resque and Sidekiq work.
How?
How?
How?
Tip #1 Small, Stateless Messages
Stateless • Database holds objects (nouns) • Queue holds actions
(verbs) • “Perform X on Object 123”
Avoid State • Bad • @user.delay.sync_images • Good • User.delay.sync_images(@user.id)
Simple Types • Small & Easy to read • Cross-platform
• Sidekiq / Resque use JSON
Debugging
Tip #2 Idempotent, Transactional Units of Work
Idempotent • Fancy computer science term • “Work can be
applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application”
Idempotent • Canceling an order • Updating user’s email address
Not Idempotent! • Charging credit card • Sending email
Idempotent • Your code has bugs! • Sidekiq will retry
jobs that raise • Design jobs to be retried • e.g. verify you need to perform action before performing it
Transactional • Infinite credit?
Tip #3 Embrace Concurrency
Concurrency • Resque/DJ = 4 workers • Sidekiq = 100
workers • Mike, what is best in life?
“To crush their servers, see them smoking before you and
hear the lamentations of their admins.”
Concurrency • Use connection_pool gem to limit client connections •
Split work into small batches • 100 items => 10 jobs of 10 items
Concurrency • Thread safety rarely an issue • Most gem
maintainers very responsive • Recently fixed: • cocaine, typheuos
Theory, meet Practice
Sidekiq • Simple, efficient message processing • Like Resque, but
10x faster
MODERN RUBY IS NOT SLOW SINGLE THREADING IS SLOW
Concurrency • To scale single-threaded, create lots of processes. •
HORRIBLY RAM INEFFICIENT
Threads vs Processes • Example: 400MB single-threaded process • 25
processes = 10GB RAM = EC2 xlarge • 25 threads = 1GB RAM = EC2 small • $60/month vs $480/month • 160 dynos => 10 dynos • 150 dynos * $35/month =~ $5000/month
Quick Rant • GIL + poor GC • C extension
API must DIE • What’s larger: 50% or 800%?
Client Your App Client Middleware Redis Sidekiq Client API Rails
Process
Server Processor Server Middleware Redis Worker Sidekiq Process Processor Server
Middleware Worker Processor Server Middleware Worker Processor Server Middleware Worker Fetcher Manager
Versions • Sidekiq - Free, LGPLv3 • Sidekiq Pro -
more features, support, $ • motivation!
Features Sidekiq Resque DJ Concurrency Store Hooks Web UI Scheduler
Retry Delay Batches Threads Processes Processes Redis Redis DB middleware callbacks callbacks ✓ ✓ ? ✓ ? ✓ ✓ ? ✓ ✓ ? ✓ Pro ? - ? - optional
Future • Nicer, more functional Web UI • APIs for
managing queues / retries • Rails 4 Queue API
Pro Future • Enterprise-y features • Workflow • Notifications
Conclusion • small, stateless messages • idempotent / transactional •
concurrency • sidekiq
Questions? @mperham
[email protected]