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
10年の共創が示す、これからの開発者と企業の関係 ~ Crossroad
soracom
PRO
1
440
[2025-09-30] Databricks Genie を利用した分析基盤とデータモデリングの IVRy の現在地
wxyzzz
0
490
「Verify with Wallet API」を アプリに導入するために
hinakko
1
240
成長自己責任時代のあるきかた/How to navigate the era of personal responsibility for growth
kwappa
3
280
extension 現場で使えるXcodeショートカット一覧
ktombow
0
220
【Oracle Cloud ウェビナー】クラウド導入に「専用クラウド」という選択肢、Oracle AlloyとOCI Dedicated Region とは
oracle4engineer
PRO
3
110
LLMアプリケーション開発におけるセキュリティリスクと対策 / LLM Application Security
flatt_security
7
1.9k
SwiftUIのGeometryReaderとScrollViewを基礎から応用まで学び直す:設計と活用事例
fumiyasac0921
0
150
SoccerNet GSRの紹介と技術応用:選手視点映像を提供するサッカー作戦盤ツール
mixi_engineers
PRO
1
180
20250929_QaaS_vol20
mura_shin
0
120
Azure Well-Architected Framework入門
tomokusaba
1
320
実装で解き明かす並行処理の歴史
zozotech
PRO
1
460
Featured
See All Featured
Speed Design
sergeychernyshev
32
1.1k
Build The Right Thing And Hit Your Dates
maggiecrowley
37
2.9k
Building Adaptive Systems
keathley
43
2.8k
Fashionably flexible responsive web design (full day workshop)
malarkey
407
66k
KATA
mclloyd
32
15k
Context Engineering - Making Every Token Count
addyosmani
5
190
Design and Strategy: How to Deal with People Who Don’t "Get" Design
morganepeng
132
19k
The Cost Of JavaScript in 2023
addyosmani
53
9k
Distributed Sagas: A Protocol for Coordinating Microservices
caitiem20
333
22k
Evolution of real-time – Irina Nazarova, EuRuKo, 2024
irinanazarova
9
960
For a Future-Friendly Web
brad_frost
180
9.9k
Building an army of robots
kneath
306
46k
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]