aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/src/sandbox
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorMitja Felicijan <mitja.felicijan@gmail.com>2019-10-22 05:13:18 +0200
committerMitja Felicijan <mitja.felicijan@gmail.com>2019-10-22 05:13:18 +0200
commit8f38bdec060c9de8da5dbabf6d1d8dfafd2ebea3 (patch)
tree1eedb9f91655ee2a5ee1f266b6cab75fb7f7d691 /src/sandbox
parent6c07fd9c8cb6834ebc34ac40b0572456a3f9abae (diff)
downloadmitjafelicijan.com-8f38bdec060c9de8da5dbabf6d1d8dfafd2ebea3.tar.gz
Renamed research to sandbox experiments
Diffstat (limited to 'src/sandbox')
-rw-r--r--src/sandbox/encoding-binary-data-into-dna-sequence.md345
-rw-r--r--src/sandbox/using-digitalocean-spaces-object-storage-with-fuse.md260
2 files changed, 605 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/sandbox/encoding-binary-data-into-dna-sequence.md b/src/sandbox/encoding-binary-data-into-dna-sequence.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bfeaab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/sandbox/encoding-binary-data-into-dna-sequence.md
@@ -0,0 +1,345 @@
1title: Encoding binary data into DNA sequence
2date: 2019-01-03
3tags: research
4hide: false
5----
6
7## Initial thoughts
8
9Imagine a world where you could go outside and take a leaf from a tree and put it through your personal DNA sequencer and get data like music, videos or computer programs from it. Well, this is all possible now. It was not done on a large scale because it is quite expensive to create DNA strands but it's possible.
10
11Encoding data into DNA sequence is relatively simple process once you understand the relationship between binary data and nucleotides and scientists have been making large leaps in this field in order to provide viable long-term storage solution for our data that would potentially survive our specie if case of global disaster. We could imprint all the world's knowledge into plants and ensure the survival of our knowledge.
12
13More optimistic usage for this technology would be easier storage of ever growing data we produce every day. Once machines for sequencing DNA become fast enough and cheaper this could mean the next evolution of storing data and abandoning classical hard and solid state drives in data warehouses.
14
15As we currently stand this is still not viable but it is quite an amazing and cool technology.
16
17My interests in this field are purely in encoding processes and experimental testing mainly because I don't have the access to this expensive machines. My initial goal was to create a toolkit that can be used by everybody to encode their data into a proper DNA sequence.
18
19## Glossary
20
21**deoxyribose**
22: A five-carbon sugar molecule with a hydrogen atom rather than a hydroxyl group in the 2′ position; the sugar component of DNA nucleotides.
23
24**double helix**
25: The molecular shape of DNA in which two strands of nucleotides wind around each other in a spiral shape.
26
27**nitrogenous base**
28: A nitrogen-containing molecule that acts as a base; often referring to one of the purine or pyrimidine components of nucleic acids.
29
30**phosphate group**
31: A molecular group consisting of a central phosphorus atom bound to four oxygen atoms.
32
33**RGB**
34: The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors.
35
36**GCC**
37: The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages.
38
39## Data encoding
40
41**TL;DR:** Encoding involves the use of a code to change original data into a form that can be used by an external process [^1].
42
43Encoding is the process of converting data into a format required for a number of information processing needs, including:
44
45- Program compiling and execution
46- Data transmission, storage and compression/decompression
47- Application data processing, such as file conversion
48
49Encoding can have two meanings[^1]:
50
51- In computer technology, encoding is the process of applying a specific code, such as letters, symbols and numbers, to data for conversion into an equivalent cipher.
52- In electronics, encoding refers to analog to digital conversion.
53
54## Quick history of DNA
55
56- **1869** - Friedrich Miescher identifies "nuclein".
57- **1900s** - The Eugenics Movement.
58- **1900** – Mendel's theories are rediscovered by researchers.
59- **1944** - Oswald Avery identifies DNA as the 'transforming principle'.
60- **1952** - Rosalind Franklin photographs crystallized DNA fibres.
61- **1953** - James Watson and Francis Crick discover the double helix structure of DNA.
62- **1965** - Marshall Nirenberg is the first person to sequence the bases in each codon.
63- **1983** - Huntington's disease is the first mapped genetic disease.
64- **1990** - The Human Genome Project begins.
65- **1995** - Haemophilus Influenzae is the first bacterium genome sequenced.
66- **1996** - Dolly the sheep is cloned.
67- **1999** - First human chromosome is decoded.
68- **2000** – Genetic code of the fruit fly is decoded.
69- **2002** – Mouse is the first mammal to have its genome decoded.
70- **2003** – The Human Genome Project is completed.
71- **2013** – DNA Worldwide and Eurofins Forensic discover identical twins have differences in their genetic makeup [^2].
72
73## What is DNA?
74
75Deoxyribonucleic acid, a self-replicating material which is **present in nearly all living organisms** as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the **carrier of genetic information**.
76
77> The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.
78>
79> **-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos**
80
81The nucleotide in DNA consists of a sugar (deoxyribose), one of four bases (cytosine (C), thymine (T), adenine (A), guanine (G)), and a phosphate. Cytosine and thymine are pyrimidine bases, while adenine and guanine are purine bases. The sugar and the base together are called a nucleoside.
82
83![DNA](/files/dna-sequence/dna-basics.jpg#center)
84
85*DNA (a) forms a double stranded helix, and (b) adenine pairs with thymine and cytosine pairs with guanine. (credit a: modification of work by Jerome Walker, Dennis Myts) [^3]*
86
87## Encode binary data into DNA sequence
88
89As an input file you can use any file you want:
90- ASCII files,
91- Compiled programs,
92- Multimedia files (MP3, MP4, MVK, etc),
93- Images,
94- Database files,
95- etc.
96
97Note: If you would copy all the bytes from RAM to file or pipe data to file you could encode also this data as long as you provide file pointer to the encoder.
98
99### Basic Encoding
100
101As already mentioned, the Basic Encoding is based on a simple mapping. Since DNA is composed of 4 nucleotides (Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine; usually referred using the first letter). Using this technique we can encode
102
103$$ log_2(4) = log_2(2^2) = 2 bits $$
104
105using a single nucleotide. In this way, we are able to use the 4 bases that compose the DNA strand to encode each byte of data.
106
107| Two bits | Nucleotides |
108| -------- | ---------------- |
109| 00 | **A** (Adenine) |
110| 10 | **G** (Guanine) |
111| 01 | **C** (Cytosine) |
112| 11 | **T** (Thymine) |
113
114With this in mind we can simply encode any data by using two-bit to Nucleotides conversion
115
116```pascal
117{ Algorithm 1: Naive byte array to DNA encode }
118procedure EncodeToDNASequence(f) string
119begin
120 enc string
121 while not eof(f) do
122 c byte := buffer[0] { Read 1 byte from buffer }
123 bin integer := sprintf('08b', c) { Convert to string binary }
124 for e in range[0, 2, 4, 6] do
125 if e[0] == 48 and e[1] == 48 then { 0x00 - A (Adenine) }
126 enc += 'A'
127 else if e[0] == 48 and e[1] == 49 then { 0x01 - G (Guanine) }
128 enc += 'G'
129 else if e[0] == 49 and e[1] == 48 then { 0x10 - C (Cytosine) }
130 enc += 'C'
131 else if e[0] == 49 and e[1] == 49 then { 0x11 - T (Thymine) }
132 enc += 'T'
133 return enc { Return DNA sequence }
134end
135```
136
137Another encoding would be **Goldman encoding**. Using this encoding helps with Nonsense mutation (amino acids replaced by a stop codon) that occurs and is the most problematic during translation because it leads to truncated amino acid sequences, which in turn results in truncated proteins. [^4]
138
139[Where to store big data? In DNA: Nick Goldman at TEDxPrague](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4PiGWNsIEU)
140
141### FASTA file format
142
143In bioinformatics, FASTA format is a text-based format for representing either nucleotide sequences or peptide sequences, in which nucleotides or amino acids are represented using single-letter codes. The format also allows for sequence names and comments to precede the sequences. The format originates from the FASTA software package, but has now become a standard in the field of bioinformatics. [^5]
144
145The first line in a FASTA file started either with a ">" (greater-than) symbol or, less frequently, a ";" (semicolon) was taken as a comment. Subsequent lines starting with a semicolon would be ignored by software. Since the only comment used was the first, it quickly became used to hold a summary description of the sequence, often starting with a unique library accession number, and with time it has become commonplace to always use ">" for the first line and to not use ";" comments (which would otherwise be ignored).
146
147```text
148;LCBO - Prolactin precursor - Bovine
149; a sample sequence in FASTA format
150MDSKGSSQKGSRLLLLLVVSNLLLCQGVVSTPVCPNGPGNCQVSLRDLFDRAVMVSHYIHDLSS
151EMFNEFDKRYAQGKGFITMALNSCHTSSLPTPEDKEQAQQTHHEVLMSLILGLLRSWNDPLYHL
152VTEVRGMKGAPDAILSRAIEIEEENKRLLEGMEMIFGQVIPGAKETEPYPVWSGLPSLQTKDED
153ARYSAFYNLLHCLRRDSSKIDTYLKLLNCRIIYNNNC*
154
155>MCHU - Calmodulin - Human, rabbit, bovine, rat, and chicken
156ADQLTEEQIAEFKEAFSLFDKDGDGTITTKELGTVMRSLGQNPTEAELQDMINEVDADGNGTID
157FPEFLTMMARKMKDTDSEEEIREAFRVFDKDGNGYISAAELRHVMTNLGEKLTDEEVDEMIREA
158DIDGDGQVNYEEFVQMMTAK*
159
160>gi|5524211|gb|AAD44166.1| cytochrome b [Elephas maximus maximus]
161LCLYTHIGRNIYYGSYLYSETWNTGIMLLLITMATAFMGYVLPWGQMSFWGATVITNLFSAIPYIGTNLV
162EWIWGGFSVDKATLNRFFAFHFILPFTMVALAGVHLTFLHETGSNNPLGLTSDSDKIPFHPYYTIKDFLG
163LLILILLLLLLALLSPDMLGDPDNHMPADPLNTPLHIKPEWYFLFAYAILRSVPNKLGGVLALFLSIVIL
164GLMPFLHTSKHRSMMLRPLSQALFWTLTMDLLTLTWIGSQPVEYPYTIIGQMASILYFSIILAFLPIAGX
165IENY
166```
167
168FASTA format was extended by [FASTQ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASTQ_format) format from the [Sanger Centre](https://www.sanger.ac.uk/) in Cambridge.
169
170### PNG encoded DNA sequence
171
172| Nucleotides | RGB | Color name |
173| ------------- | ----------- | ---------- |
174| A -> Adenine | (0,0,255) | Blue |
175| G -> Guanine | (0,100,0) | Green |
176| C -> Cytosine | (255,0,0) | Red |
177| T -> Thymine | (255,255,0) | Yellow |
178
179With this in mind we can create a simple algorithm to create PNG representation of a DNA sequence.
180
181```pascal
182{ Algorithm 2: Naive DNA to PNG encode from FASTA file }
183procedure EncodeDNASequenceToPNG(f)
184begin
185 i image
186 while not eof(f) do
187 c char := buffer[0] { Read 1 char from buffer }
188 case c of
189 'A': color := RGB(0, 0, 255) { Blue }
190 'G': color := RGB(0, 100, 0) { Green }
191 'C': color := RGB(255, 0, 0) { Red }
192 'T': color := RGB(255, 255, 0) { Yellow }
193 drawRect(i, [x, y], color)
194 save(i) { Save PNG image }
195end
196```
197
198## Encoding text file in practice
199
200In this example we will take a simple text file as our input stream for encoding. This file will have a quote from Niels Bohr and saved as txt file.
201
202> How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.
203> ― Niels Bohr
204
205First we encode text file into FASTA file.
206
207```bash
208./dnae-encode -i quote.txt -o quote.fa
2092019/01/10 00:38:29 Gathering input file stats
2102019/01/10 00:38:29 Starting encoding ...
211 106 B / 106 B [==================================] 100.00% 0s
2122019/01/10 00:38:29 Saving to FASTA file ...
2132019/01/10 00:38:29 Output FASTA file length is 438 B
2142019/01/10 00:38:29 Process took 987.263µs
2152019/01/10 00:38:29 Done ...
216```
217
218Output of `quote.fa` file contains the encoded DNA sequence in ASCII format.
219
220```text
221>SEQ1
222GACAGCTTGTGTACAAGTGTGCTTGCTCGCGAGCGGGTACGCGCGTGGGCTAACAAGTGA
223GCCAGCAGGTGAACAAGTGTGCGGACAAGCCAGCAGGTGCGCGGACAAGCTGGCGGGTGA
224ACAAGTGTGCCGGTGAGCCAACAAGCAGACAAGTAAGCAGGTACGCAGGCGAGCTTGTCA
225ACTCACAAGATCGCTTGTGTACAAGTGTGCGGACAAGCCAGCAGGTGCGCGGACAAGTAT
226GCTTGCTGGCGGACAAGCCAGCTTGTAAGCGGACAAGCTTGCGCACAAGCTGGCAGGCCT
227GCCGGCTCGCGTACAAATTCACAAGTAAGTACGCTTGCGTGTACGCGGGTATGTATACTC
228AACCTCACCAAACGGGACAAGATCGCCGGCGGGCTAGTATACAAGAACGCTTGCCAGTAC
229AACC
230```
231
232Then we encode FASTA file from previous operation to encode this data into PNG.
233
234```bash
235./dnae-png -i quote.fa -o quote.png
2362019/01/10 00:40:09 Gathering input file stats ...
2372019/01/10 00:40:09 Deconstructing FASTA file ...
2382019/01/10 00:40:09 Compositing image file ...
239 424 / 424 [==================================] 100.00% 0s
2402019/01/10 00:40:09 Saving output file ...
2412019/01/10 00:40:09 Output image file length is 1.1 kB
2422019/01/10 00:40:09 Process took 19.036117ms
2432019/01/10 00:40:09 Done ...
244```
245
246After encoding into PNG format this file looks like this.
247
248![Encoded Quote in PNG format](/files/dna-sequence/quote.png)
249
250The larger the input stream is the larger the PNG file would be.
251
252Compiled basic Hello World C program with [GCC](https://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/) would [look like](/files/dna-sequence/sample.png).
253
254```c
255// gcc -O3 -o sample sample.c
256#include <stdio.h>
257
258main() {
259 printf("Hello, world!\n");
260 return 0;
261}
262```
263
264## Toolkit for encoding data
265
266I have created a toolkit with two main programs:
267- dnae-encode (encodes file into FASTA file)
268- dnae-png (encodes FASTA file into PNG)
269
270Toolkit with full source code is available on [github.com/mitjafelicijan/dna-encoding](https://github.com/mitjafelicijan/dna-encoding).
271
272### dnae-encode
273
274```bash
275> ./dnae-encode --help
276usage: dnae-encode --input=INPUT [<flags>]
277
278A command-line application that encodes file into DNA sequence.
279
280Flags:
281 --help Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
282 -i, --input=INPUT Input file (ASCII or binary) which will be encoded into DNA sequence.
283 -o, --output="out.fa" Output file which stores DNA sequence in FASTA format.
284 -s, --sequence=SEQ1 The description line (defline) or header/identifier line, gives a name and/or a unique identifier for the sequence.
285 -c, --columns=60 Row characters length (no more than 120 characters). Devices preallocate fixed line sizes in software.
286 --version Show application version.
287```
288
289### dnae-png
290
291```bash
292> ./dnae-png --help
293usage: dnae-png --input=INPUT [<flags>]
294
295A command-line application that encodes FASTA file into PNG image.
296
297Flags:
298 --help Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
299 -i, --input=INPUT Input FASTA file which will be encoded into PNG image.
300 -o, --output="out.png" Output file in PNG format that represents DNA sequence in graphical way.
301 -s, --size=10 Size of pairings of DNA bases on image in pixels (lower resolution lower file size).
302 --version Show application version.
303```
304
305## Benchmarks
306
307First we generate some binary sample data with dd.
308
309```bash
310dd if=<(openssl enc -aes-256-ctr -pass pass:"$(dd if=/dev/urandom bs=128 count=1 2>/dev/null | base64)" -nosalt < /dev/zero) of=1KB.bin bs=1KB count=1 iflag=fullblock
311```
312
313Our freshly generated 1KB file looks something like this (its full of garbage data as intended).
314
315![Sample binary file 1KB](/files/dna-sequence/sample-binary-file.png)
316
317We create following binary files:
318- 1KB.bin
319- 10KB.bin
320- 100KB.bin
321- 1MB.bin
322- 10MB.bin
323- 100MB.bin
324
325After this we create FASTA files for all the binary files by encoding them into DNA sequence.
326
327```bash
328./dnae-encode -i 100MB.bin -o 100MB.fa
329```
330
331Then we GZIP all the FASTA files to see how much the can be compressed.
332
333```bash
334gzip -9 < 10MB.fa > 10MB.fa.gz
335```
336
337[Download ODS file with benchmarks](/files/dna-sequence/benchmarks.ods).
338
339## References
340
341[^1]: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/948/encoding
342[^2]: https://www.dna-worldwide.com/resource/160/history-dna-timeline
343[^3]: https://opentextbc.ca/biology/chapter/9-1-the-structure-of-dna/
344[^4]: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.04774
345[^5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FASTA_format
diff --git a/src/sandbox/using-digitalocean-spaces-object-storage-with-fuse.md b/src/sandbox/using-digitalocean-spaces-object-storage-with-fuse.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..099fbef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/sandbox/using-digitalocean-spaces-object-storage-with-fuse.md
@@ -0,0 +1,260 @@
1title: Using DigitalOcean Spaces Object Storage with FUSE
2date: 2018-01-16
3tags: research
4hide: false
5----
6
7Couple of months ago [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com) introduced new product called [Spaces](https://blog.digitalocean.com/introducing-spaces-object-storage/) which is Object Storage very similar to Amazon's S3. This really peaked my interest, because this was something I was missing and even the thought of going over the internet for such functionality was in no interest to me. Also in fashion with their previous pricing this also is very cheap and pricing page is a no-brainer compared to AWS or GCE. [Prices are clearly and precisely defined and outlined](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/). You must love them for that :)
8
9### Initial requirements
10
11* Is it possible to use them as a mounted drive with FUSE? (tl;dr YES)
12* Will the performance degrade over time and over different sizes of objects? (tl;dr NO&YES)
13* Can storage be mounted on multiple machines at the same time and be writable? (tl;dr YES)
14
15> Let me be clear. This scripts I use are made just for benchmarking and are not intended to be used in real-life situations. Besides that, I am looking into using this approaches but adding caching service in front of it and then dumping everything as an object to storage. This could potentially be some interesting post of itself. But in case you would need real-time data without eventual consistency please take this scripts as they are: not usable in such situations.
16
17## Is it possible to use them as a mounted drive with FUSE?
18
19Well, actually they can be used in such manor. Because they are similar to [AWS S3](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/) many tools are available and you can find many articles and [Stackoverflow items](https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=s3+fuse).
20
21To make this work you will need DigitalOcean account. If you don't have one you will not be able to test this code. But if you have an account then you go and [create new Droplet](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/droplets/new?size=s-1vcpu-1gb&region=ams3&distro=debian&distroImage=debian-9-x64&options=private_networking,install_agent). If you click on this link you will already have preselected Debian 9 with smallest VM option.
22
23* Please be sure to add you SSH key, because we will login to this machine remotely.
24* If you change your region please remember which one you choose because we will need this information when we try to mount space to our machine.
25
26Instuctions on how to use SSH keys and how to setup them are available in article [How To Use SSH Keys with DigitalOcean Droplets](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-ssh-keys-with-digitalocean-droplets).
27
28![DigitalOcean Droplets](/files/do-fuse/fuse-droplets.png)
29
30After we created Droplet it's time to create new Space. This is done by clicking on a button [Create](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/spaces/new) (right top corner) and selecting Spaces. Choose pronounceable ```Unique name``` because we will use it in examples below. You can either choose Private or Public, it doesn't matter in our case. And you can always change that in the future.
31
32When you have created new Space we should [generate Access key](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/settings/api/tokens). This link will guide to the page when you can generate this key. After you create new one, please save provided Key and Secret because Secret will not be shown again.
33
34![DigitalOcean Spaces](/files/do-fuse/fuse-spaces.png)
35
36Now that we have new Space and Access key we should SSH into our machine.
37
38```bash
39# replace IP with the ip of your newly created droplet
40ssh root@IP
41
42# this will install utilities for mounting storage objects as FUSE
43apt install s3fs
44
45# we now need to provide credentials (access key we created earlier)
46# replace KEY and SECRET with your own credentials but leave the colon between them
47# we also need to set proper permissions
48echo "KEY:SECRET" > .passwd-s3fs
49chmod 600 .passwd-s3fs
50
51# now we mount space to our machine
52# replace UNIQUE-NAME with the name you choose earlier
53# if you choose different region for your space be careful about -ourl option (ams3)
54s3fs UNIQUE-NAME /mnt/ -ourl=https://ams3.digitaloceanspaces.com -ouse_cache=/tmp
55
56# now we try to create a file
57# once you mount it may take a couple of seconds to retrieve data
58echo "Hello cruel world" > /mnt/hello.txt
59```
60
61After all this you can return to your browser and go to [DigitalOcean Spaces](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/spaces) and click on your created space. If file hello.txt is present you have successfully mounted space to your machine and wrote data to it.
62
63I choose the same region for my Droplet and my Space but you don't have to. You can have different regions. What this actually does to performance I don't know.
64
65Additional information on FUSE:
66
67* [Github project page for s3fs](https://github.com/s3fs-fuse/s3fs-fuse)
68* [FUSE - Filesystem in Userspace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_in_Userspace)
69
70## Will the performance degrade over time and over different sizes of objects?
71
72For this task I didn't want to just read and write text files or uploading images. I actually wanted to figure out if using something like SQlite is viable in this case.
73
74### Measurement experiment 1: File copy
75
76```bash
77# first we create some dummy files at different sizes
78dd if=/dev/zero of=10KB.dat bs=1024 count=10 #10KB
79dd if=/dev/zero of=100KB.dat bs=1024 count=100 #100KB
80dd if=/dev/zero of=1MB.dat bs=1024 count=1024 #1MB
81dd if=/dev/zero of=10MB.dat bs=1024 count=10240 #10MB
82
83# now we set time command to only return real
84TIMEFORMAT=%R
85
86# now lets test it
87(time cp 10KB.dat /mnt/) |& tee -a 10KB.results.txt
88
89# and now we automate
90# this will perform the same operation 100 times
91# this will output results into separated files based on objecty size
92n=0; while (( n++ < 100 )); do (time cp 10KB.dat /mnt/10KB.$n.dat) |& tee -a 10KB.results.txt; done
93n=0; while (( n++ < 100 )); do (time cp 100KB.dat /mnt/100KB.$n.dat) |& tee -a 100KB.results.txt; done
94n=0; while (( n++ < 100 )); do (time cp 1MB.dat /mnt/1MB.$n.dat) |& tee -a 1MB.results.txt; done
95n=0; while (( n++ < 100 )); do (time cp 10MB.dat /mnt/10MB.$n.dat) |& tee -a 10MB.results.txt; done
96```
97
98Files of size 100MB were not successfully transferred and ended up displaying error (cp: failed to close '/mnt/100MB.1.dat': Operation not permitted).
99
100As I suspected, object size is not really that important. Sadly I don't have the time to test performance over periods of time. But if some of you would do it please send me your data. I would be interested in seeing results.
101
102**Here are plotted results**
103
104You can download [raw result here](/files/do-fuse/copy-benchmarks.tsv). Measurements are in seconds.
105
106<script src="//cdn.plot.ly/plotly-latest.min.js"></script>
107<div id="copy-benchmarks"></div>
108<script>
109(function(){
110 var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
111 request.open("GET", "/files/do-fuse/copy-benchmarks.tsv", true);
112 request.onload = function() {
113 if (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 400) {
114 var payload = request.responseText.trim();
115 var tsv = payload.split("\n");
116 for (var i=0; i<tsv.length; i++) { tsv[i] = tsv[i].split("\t"); }
117 var traces = [];
118 var headers = tsv[0];
119 tsv.shift();
120 Array.prototype.forEach.call(headers, function(el, idx) {
121 var x = [];
122 var y = [];
123 for (var j=0; j<tsv.length; j++) {
124 x.push(j);
125 y.push(parseFloat(tsv[j][idx].replace(",", ".")));
126 }
127 traces.push({ x: x, y: y, type: "scatter", name: el, line: { width: 1, shape: "spline" } });
128 });
129 var copy = Plotly.newPlot("copy-benchmarks", traces, { legend: {"orientation": "h"}, height: 400, margin: { l: 40, r: 0, b: 20, t: 30, pad: 0 }, yaxis: { title: "execution time in seconds", titlefont: { size: 12 } }, xaxis: { title: "fn(i)", titlefont: { size: 12 } } });
130 } else { }
131 };
132 request.onerror = function() { };
133 request.send(null);
134})();
135</script>
136
137As far as these tests show, performance is quite stable and can be predicted which is fantastic. But this is a small test and spans only over couple of hours. So you should not completely trust them.
138
139### Measurement experiment 2: SQLite performanse
140
141I was unable to use database file directly from mounted drive so this is a no-go as I suspected. So I executed code below on a local disk just to get some benchmarks. I inserted 1000 records with DROPTABLE, CREATETABLE, INSERTMANY, FETCHALL, COMMIT for 1000 times to generate statistics. As you can see performance of SQLite is quite amazing. You could then potentially just copy file to mounted drive and be done with it.
142
143```python
144import time
145import sqlite3
146import sys
147
148if len(sys.argv) < 3:
149 print("usage: python sqlite-benchmark.py DB_PATH NUM_RECORDS REPEAT")
150 exit()
151
152def data_iter(x):
153 for i in range(x):
154 yield "m" + str(i), "f" + str(i*i)
155
156header_line = "%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\t%s\n" % ("DROPTABLE", "CREATETABLE", "INSERTMANY", "FETCHALL", "COMMIT")
157with open("sqlite-benchmarks.tsv", "w") as fp:
158 fp.write(header_line)
159
160start_time = time.time()
161conn = sqlite3.connect(sys.argv[1])
162c = conn.cursor()
163end_time = time.time()
164result_time = CONNECT = end_time - start_time
165print("CONNECT: %g seconds" % (result_time))
166
167start_time = time.time()
168c.execute("PRAGMA journal_mode=WAL")
169c.execute("PRAGMA temp_store=MEMORY")
170c.execute("PRAGMA synchronous=OFF")
171result_time = PRAGMA = end_time - start_time
172print("PRAGMA: %g seconds" % (result_time))
173
174for i in range(int(sys.argv[3])):
175 print("#%i" % (i))
176
177 start_time = time.time()
178 c.execute("drop table if exists test")
179 end_time = time.time()
180 result_time = DROPTABLE = end_time - start_time
181 print("DROPTABLE: %g seconds" % (result_time))
182
183 start_time = time.time()
184 c.execute("create table if not exists test(a,b)")
185 end_time = time.time()
186 result_time = CREATETABLE = end_time - start_time
187 print("CREATETABLE: %g seconds" % (result_time))
188
189 start_time = time.time()
190 c.executemany("INSERT INTO test VALUES (?, ?)", data_iter(int(sys.argv[2])))
191 end_time = time.time()
192 result_time = INSERTMANY = end_time - start_time
193 print("INSERTMANY: %g seconds" % (result_time))
194
195 start_time = time.time()
196 c.execute("select count(*) from test")
197 res = c.fetchall()
198 end_time = time.time()
199 result_time = FETCHALL = end_time - start_time
200 print("FETCHALL: %g seconds" % (result_time))
201
202 start_time = time.time()
203 conn.commit()
204 end_time = time.time()
205 result_time = COMMIT = end_time - start_time
206 print("COMMIT: %g seconds" % (result_time))
207
208 print
209 log_line = "%f\t%f\t%f\t%f\t%f\n" % (DROPTABLE, CREATETABLE, INSERTMANY, FETCHALL, COMMIT)
210 with open("sqlite-benchmarks.tsv", "a") as fp:
211 fp.write(log_line)
212
213start_time = time.time()
214conn.close()
215end_time = time.time()
216result_time = CLOSE = end_time - start_time
217print("CLOSE: %g seconds" % (result_time))
218```
219
220You can download [raw result here](/files/do-fuse/sqlite-benchmarks.tsv). And again, these results are done on a local block storage and do not represent capabilities of object storage. With my current approach and state of the test code these can not be done. I would need to make Python code much more robust and check locking etc.
221
222<div id="sqlite-benchmarks"></div>
223<script>
224(function(){
225 var request = new XMLHttpRequest();
226 request.open("GET", "/files/do-fuse/sqlite-benchmarks.tsv", true);
227 request.onload = function() {
228 if (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 400) {
229 var payload = request.responseText.trim();
230 var tsv = payload.split("\n");
231 for (var i=0; i<tsv.length; i++) { tsv[i] = tsv[i].split("\t"); }
232 var traces = [];
233 var headers = tsv[0];
234 tsv.shift();
235 Array.prototype.forEach.call(headers, function(el, idx) {
236 var x = [];
237 var y = [];
238 for (var j=0; j<tsv.length; j++) {
239 x.push(j);
240 y.push(parseFloat(tsv[j][idx].replace(",", ".")));
241 }
242 traces.push({ x: x, y: y, type: "scatter", name: el, line: { width: 1, shape: "spline" } });
243 });
244 var sqlite = Plotly.newPlot("sqlite-benchmarks", traces, { legend: {"orientation": "h"}, height: 400, margin: { l: 50, r: 0, b: 20, t: 30, pad: 0 }, yaxis: { title: "execution time in seconds", titlefont: { size: 12 } } });
245 } else { }
246 };
247 request.onerror = function() { };
248 request.send(null);
249})();
250</script>
251
252## Can storage be mounted on multiple machines at the same time and be writable?
253
254Well, this one didn't take long to test. And the answer is **YES**. I mounted space on both machines and measured same performance on both machines. But because file is downloaded before write and then uploaded on complete there could potentially be problems is another process is trying to access the same file.
255
256## Observations and conslusion
257
258Using Spaces in this way makes it easier to access and manage files. But besides that you would need to write additional code to make this one play nice with you applications.
259
260Nevertheless, this was extremely simple to setup and use and this is just another excellent product in DigitalOcean product line. I found this exercise very valuable and am thinking about implementing some sort of mechanism for SQLite, so data can be stored on Spaces and accessed by many VM's. For a project where data doesn't need to be accessible in real-time and can have couple of minutes old data this would be very interesting. If any of you find this proposal interesting please write in a comment box below or shoot me an email and I will keep you posted.