Table of Contents

Overview

This tutorial takes you through performance testing a smart contract on a pre-existing Fabric network using Caliper.

To complete this tutorial you will need to have installed NodeJS. To do this, we recommend using nvm.

This tutorial is based on resources available from the official Hyperledger Fabric documentation. A network comprised of two organizations and a solo orderer, with the javascript asset-transfer-basic smart contract (chaincode), is assumed to be built and ready to performance test.

The following command list is a minimalist quick step guide to get the required Fabric network up and running. We use available Hyperledger Fabric resources at explicit levels. To understand and troubleshoot what occurs during the creation of the test network, please refer to the Fabric documentation linked above!

Ensure you have the following pre-reqs installed

  • docker engine or docker desktop
  • curl
  • jq
  • a supported node LTS version. a list current supported LTS versions can be found on the node.js website (to install node easily you can use the nvm tool found here)
# Pull down the 2.5.7 hyperledger fabric and 1.5.10 hyperledger fabric ca images/binaries
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperledger/fabric/main/scripts/bootstrap.sh | bash -s -- 2.5.7 1.5.10
cd fabric-samples
# As fabric-samples for hyperledger 2.5 is via the main branch, fix to a specific commit which we know works
# to protect against potential breaking changes in main
git checkout c691cf94a99372e0225927d7927b1bc367018029
# Start up the test-network
cd test-network/
./network.sh up createChannel
./network.sh deployCC -ccn basic -ccp ../asset-transfer-basic/chaincode-javascript -ccl javascript

Step 1 - Create a Caliper Workspace

Create a folder named caliper-workspace at the same level as the fabric-samples directory, and then within the caliper-workspace folder, create three folders named networks, benchmarks, and workload respectively

Caliper installation and use will be based on a local npm installation. Within the caliper-workspace directory, install caliper CLI using the following terminal command:

npm install --only=prod @hyperledger/caliper-cli@0.6.0

Bind the SDK using the following terminal command:

npx caliper bind --caliper-bind-sut fabric:fabric-gateway

Further information relating to the installation and binding of Caliper may be found within the relevant documentation pages.

Caliper requires two configuration files:

  • The network configuration file, which describes the network under test and provides the test identities to use.
  • The benchmark file, which defines the performance test to be completed via a sequenced set of test rounds, each specifying a workload module and a series of options to drive the workload over a time interval.

We will now populate these folders with the assets required by Caliper.

Step 2 - Build a Network Configuration File

The network configuration file is the file required by Caliper workers to be able to submit and evaluate transactions on a Hyperledger Fabric network. The file can be in YAML or JSON format, this tutorial shows the YAML format.

Create a Template Network Configuration File

Under the networks folder create a template file called networkConfig.yaml with the following content:

name: Caliper test
version: "2.0.0"

caliper:
  blockchain: fabric

channels:

organizations:

name: The name for the configuration, in this instance “Caliper test”.

version: The version of the configuration file being used. “2.0.0” ensures the new fabric connectors are used

caliper: Indicates to Caliper the SUT that is being targeted, and may contain additional start/end commands or sut specific options that are not required within this tutorial. For the purposes of this tutorial, we are targeting a fabric network.

channels: Describes the Hyperledger Fabric channels and the smart contracts deployed on these channels to be benchmarked.

organizations: A list of the Hyperledger Fabric organizations with identities and connection profiles associated with each organization

A brief introduction to Common Connection Profiles (CCP)

Common Connection Profiles are a file format by which all the Hyperledger Fabric SDKs can use to connect to a Hyperledger Fabric Network. As Caliper utilizes the fabric node sdk to connect to the network, caliper makes use of these connection profiles. Whoever is responsible for building a Hyperledger Fabric network should create these files.

A Common Connection Profile will be organization specific. So each organization will have their own unique file. Again the network provider should provide a file for each organization.

These profiles can come in 2 forms termed static or dynamic in the Hyperledger Fabric documentation. In summary static connection profiles contain all the information up front about the fabric network. It contains, amonst other things, all the peers, orderers and channels that exist. A dynamic connection profile is minimal usually containing just 1 or 2 peers of your organization for which the SDK will need to use discovery with in order to determine all the required information to be able to interact with the fabric network.

You will see that the test-network in fabric samples provides common connection profiles for each organization, and that they are dynamic connection profiles.

Populating The Template File

Following the test-network tutorial, a Common Connection Profile is generated as well as a set of identities for each organization.

We will be using Org1 whose MSP id is Org1MSP to connect in this example, so there is no need to provide details about Org2 which is part of the test-network. Only having to provide a single organization is a very common pattern.

Organizations

Here we need to add information about the organization whose MSP id is Org1MSP. We need to provide a name, it’s associated connection profile and at least 1 identity.

The connection profile can be found in fabric-samples -> test-network -> organizations -> peerOrganizations -> org1.example.com. There are both json and yaml versions of this file, we will make use of connection-org1.yaml. These connection profiles are what Hyperledger Fabric refer to as dynamic so they are expected to be used in conjunction with discovery, therefore we need to declare that this connection profile requires the use of discovery.

The identity we will use will be User1@org1.example.com.

The private key can be found in fabric-samples -> test-network -> organizations -> peerOrganizations -> org1.example.com -> users -> User1 -> msp -> keystore -> priv_sk

The public certificate can be found in fabric-samples -> test-network -> organizations -> peerOrganizations -> org1.example.com -> users -> User1 -> msp -> signedcerts -> User1@org1.example.com-cert.pem

The identity will need to be given a unique name within the organization. It doesn’t have to match the name that the test-network has used, ie User1@org1.example.com so to keep it simple let’s just give it a name of User1. For the purposes of this tutorial we will just point to the certificate and private key files, but it’s also possible to embed the information directly into the network configuration file.

Below is the required organizations section that provides the above detail

organizations:
  - mspid: Org1MSP
    identities:
      certificates:
      - name: 'User1'
        clientPrivateKey:
          path: '../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/User1@org1.example.com/msp/keystore/priv_sk'
        clientSignedCert:
          path: '../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/User1@org1.example.com/msp/signcerts/User1@org1.example.com-cert.pem'
    connectionProfile:
      path: '../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/connection-org1.yaml'
# Uncomment the next line only if you want to try this network configuration file binding to fabric:2.2, it's not required for fabric-gateway binding
#      discover: true

Note the - sign in front of mspid and name in the above example. These are important as organizations could contain more than 1 organization. certificates can also contain a list defining more than 1 identity.

One other important point to note; The first organization defined in the file is known as the default organization. In workload modules if you don’t specify an invoking organization, then the default organization is used. As there is only 1 organization defined anyway you will not see any reference to the invoking organization in the workload implementation.

Channels

The Fabric connector for Caliper requires assistance when creating connections to a Fabric network. A list of channels must be provided that lists the smart contracts that may be interacted with.

As part of the test-network tutorial, a channel of mychannel will have been created and a contract (chaincode) with the id of basic will have been instantiated on that channel. We declare this as follows

channels:
  - channelName: mychannel
    contracts:
    - id: basic

note the - sign in front of channelName and id in the above example. This is required because there can be more than 1 channel so channels specify a list of channels and contracts can have more than 1 contract (chaincode) ids that are of interest.

The Complete Network Configuration File

The Caliper network configuration file should now be fully populated. It can be useful to take time to look over and ensure that the paths to the certificates, private keys and connection profile are correct.

name: Calier test
version: "2.0.0"

caliper:
  blockchain: fabric

channels:
  - channelName: mychannel
    contracts:
    - id: basic

organizations:
  - mspid: Org1MSP
    identities:
      certificates:
      - name: 'User1'
        clientPrivateKey:
          path: '../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/User1@org1.example.com/msp/keystore/priv_sk'
        clientSignedCert:
          path: '../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/User1@org1.example.com/msp/signcerts/User1@org1.example.com-cert.pem'
    connectionProfile:
      path: '../fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/connection-org1.yaml'
# Uncomment the next line only if you want to try this network configuration file binding to fabric:2.2, it's not required for fabric-gateway binding
#      discover: true

Step 3 - Build a Test Workload Module

The workload module interacts with the deployed smart contract during the benchmark round. The workload module extends the Caliper class WorkloadModuleBase from caliper-core. The workload module provides three overrides:

  • initializeWorkloadModule - used to initialize any required items for the benchmark
  • submitTransaction - used to interact with the smart contract method during the monitored phase of the benchmark
  • cleanupWorkloadModule - used to clean up after the completion of the benchmark

For more information, please see the specific documentation on Workload Configuration accessible on the left hand menu.

The workload we will be driving aims to benchmark the querying of existing assets within the world state database. Consequently we will use all three phases available in the workload module:

  • initializeWorkloadModule - to create assets that may be queried in the submitTransaction phase
  • submitTransaction - to query assets created in the initializeWorkloadModule phase
  • cleanupWorkloadModule - used to remove assets created in the initializeWorkloadModule phase so that the benchmark may be repeated

Create A Template Workload Module

Within the workload folder create a file called readAsset.js with the following content:

'use strict';

const { WorkloadModuleBase } = require('@hyperledger/caliper-core');

class MyWorkload extends WorkloadModuleBase {
    constructor() {
        super();
    }

    async initializeWorkloadModule(workerIndex, totalWorkers, roundIndex, roundArguments, sutAdapter, sutContext) {
        await super.initializeWorkloadModule(workerIndex, totalWorkers, roundIndex, roundArguments, sutAdapter, sutContext);
    }

    async submitTransaction() {
        // NOOP
    }

    async cleanupWorkloadModule() {
        // NOOP
    }
}

function createWorkloadModule() {
    return new MyWorkload();
}

module.exports.createWorkloadModule = createWorkloadModule;

Populating the Template File

When we populate this file we make reference to the available methods within the deployed smart contract assetTransfer.js file that can be found in: fabric-samples -> asset-transfer-basic -> chaincode-javascript -> lib -> assetTransfer.js

Populate initializeWorkloadModule

This method is used to prepare any items required by the primary submitTransaction method as the benchmark completes.

The number of assets to be created will be given as roundArguments.assets. We create assets using the smart contract by populating an arguments object, which defines the transaction body, and using the Caliper API sendRequests, which requires knowledge of:

  • contractId, the name of smart contract that is to be used and is present within the Caliper network configuration file
  • contractFunction, the specific function within the smart contract to invoke
  • contractArguments, the arguments to pass to the smart contract function
  • invokerIdentity, the identity to use that is present within the Caliper network configuration file. This can be optional and caliper will select an identity for you (from the appropriate invoking organization or default organization) and in this tutorial there would only ever be 1 identity to pick but for completeness the examples explicitly define the identity.
  • readOnly, if performing a query operation or not

The method should look like this:

    async initializeWorkloadModule(workerIndex, totalWorkers, roundIndex, roundArguments, sutAdapter, sutContext) {
        await super.initializeWorkloadModule(workerIndex, totalWorkers, roundIndex, roundArguments, sutAdapter, sutContext);

        for (let i=0; i<this.roundArguments.assets; i++) {
            const assetID = `${this.workerIndex}_${i}`;
            console.log(`Worker ${this.workerIndex}: Creating asset ${assetID}`);
            const request = {
                contractId: this.roundArguments.contractId,
                contractFunction: 'CreateAsset',
                invokerIdentity: 'User1',
                contractArguments: [assetID,'blue','20','penguin','500'],
                readOnly: false
            };

            await this.sutAdapter.sendRequests(request);
        }
    }

In the above example, different assets will be created that have the same parameters (blue, 20, penguin, 500). Comparing the above to the smart contract method itself, it should be evident that there is a 1:1 mapping of contract arguments to the method parameters.

Populate submitTransaction

This method runs repeatedly in the benchmark test phase. We will be evaluating the ReadAsset smart contract method by querying the assets we created in the initializeWorkloadModule method.

First, create a string identity for the asset to query, formed by the concatenation of the worker index and a random integer between 0 and the number of created assets.

Then await the call on sendRequests, passing an object containing: contractId set as that passed in from the round arguments; contractFunction set as ReadAsset; invokerIdentity set as User1; and chaincodeArguments set as an array that contains the asset to query in this run.

The method should look like this:

    async submitTransaction() {
        const randomId = Math.floor(Math.random()*this.roundArguments.assets);
        const myArgs = {
            contractId: this.roundArguments.contractId,
            contractFunction: 'ReadAsset',
            invokerIdentity: 'User1',
            contractArguments: [`${this.workerIndex}_${randomId}`],
            readOnly: true
        };

        await this.sutAdapter.sendRequests(myArgs);
    }

Populate cleanupWorkloadModule

This function is used to clean up after a test as it deletes the assets created in the initializeWorkloadModule function though use of the smart contract function DeleteAsset. The implementation is similar to that within initializeWorkloadModule. Note it is possible to refactor both initializeWorkloadModule and cleanupWorkloadModule to utilize a common method that performs the create/delete action, this is left to the interested reader.

   async cleanupWorkloadModule() {
        for (let i=0; i<this.roundArguments.assets; i++) {
            const assetID = `${this.workerIndex}_${i}`;
            console.log(`Worker ${this.workerIndex}: Deleting asset ${assetID}`);
            const request = {
                contractId: this.roundArguments.contractId,
                contractFunction: 'DeleteAsset',
                invokerIdentity: 'User1',
                contractArguments: [assetID],
                readOnly: false
            };

            await this.sutAdapter.sendRequests(request);
        }
    }

The Complete Workload Module

The test callback file should now be fully populated:

'use strict';

const { WorkloadModuleBase } = require('@hyperledger/caliper-core');

class MyWorkload extends WorkloadModuleBase {
    constructor() {
        super();
    }

    async initializeWorkloadModule(workerIndex, totalWorkers, roundIndex, roundArguments, sutAdapter, sutContext) {
        await super.initializeWorkloadModule(workerIndex, totalWorkers, roundIndex, roundArguments, sutAdapter, sutContext);

        for (let i=0; i<this.roundArguments.assets; i++) {
            const assetID = `${this.workerIndex}_${i}`;
            console.log(`Worker ${this.workerIndex}: Creating asset ${assetID}`);
            const request = {
                contractId: this.roundArguments.contractId,
                contractFunction: 'CreateAsset',
                invokerIdentity: 'User1',
                contractArguments: [assetID,'blue','20','penguin','500'],
                readOnly: false
            };

            await this.sutAdapter.sendRequests(request);
        }
    }

    async submitTransaction() {
        const randomId = Math.floor(Math.random()*this.roundArguments.assets);
        const myArgs = {
            contractId: this.roundArguments.contractId,
            contractFunction: 'ReadAsset',
            invokerIdentity: 'User1',
            contractArguments: [`${this.workerIndex}_${randomId}`],
            readOnly: true
        };

        await this.sutAdapter.sendRequests(myArgs);
    }

    async cleanupWorkloadModule() {
        for (let i=0; i<this.roundArguments.assets; i++) {
            const assetID = `${this.workerIndex}_${i}`;
            console.log(`Worker ${this.workerIndex}: Deleting asset ${assetID}`);
            const request = {
                contractId: this.roundArguments.contractId,
                contractFunction: 'DeleteAsset',
                invokerIdentity: 'User1',
                contractArguments: [assetID],
                readOnly: false
            };

            await this.sutAdapter.sendRequests(request);
        }
    }
}

function createWorkloadModule() {
    return new MyWorkload();
}

module.exports.createWorkloadModule = createWorkloadModule;

Step 4 - Build a Benchmark Configuration File

The benchmark configuration file defines the benchmark rounds and references the defined workload module(s). It will specify the number of test workers to use when generating the load, the number of test rounds, the duration of each round, the rate control applied to the transaction load during each round, and options relating to monitors. This particular tutorial will not make use of any of the available resource and transaction monitors; for these details please refer to the documentation.

The benchmark configuration file may be provided in a yaml or json format: here we will use a yaml format. Please note that yaml files are case sensitive and all labels are in lowercase.

The benchmark configuration file has a single required stanza:

test:

Create A Template Benchmark Configuration File

Under the benchmarks folder create a file called myAssetBenchmark.yaml with the following content:

test:
    name: basic-contract-benchmark
    description: A test benchmark
    workers:
    rounds:

test: The root level block that contains the benchmark test information.

name: The name of the test, in this case “basic-contract-benchmark”.

description: A description for the benchmark, in this case “A test benchmark”.

workers: A set of keys used to define the number of workers (separate worker client instances) used in the subsequent benchmark.

rounds: An array of distinct test rounds that will be progressed sequentially. Rounds may be used to benchmark different smart contract methods, or the same method in a different manner.

Populating the Template File

We will now populate the template file to specify the number of workers and the test round that uses the workload module we have created.

Populate Workers

We will be using two separate workers, this is accomplished through the workers specification:

  number: 2

Populate Rounds

Each round block contains the following:

  • label - the unique header label to use for the round.
  • description - a description of the round being run.
  • txDuration - the specification of the test duration, in seconds
  • rateControl - a rate control type, with options.
  • workload - the workload module to use, with arguments to pass to the module. All arguments passed are available as roundArguments within the workload module.

We will specify a benchmark round labeled readAsset, with the description Query asset benchmark, to run for a 30s duration, using a fixed-load rate controller aiming to maintain a constant transaction pressure of 2. Additionally we will be providing a workload through specification of our readAsset.js workload file, which we will pass the arguments {assets: 10, contractId: asset-transfer-basic}.

The above is accomplished through the round specification:

    - label: readAsset
      description: Read asset benchmark
      txDuration: 30
      rateControl:
        type: fixed-load
        opts:
          transactionLoad: 2
      workload:
        module: workload/readAsset.js
        arguments:
          assets: 10
          contractId: basic

The Complete Benchmark Configuration File

The benchmark configuration file should now be fully populated:

test:
    name: basic-contract-benchmark
    description: test benchmark
    workers:
      number: 2
    rounds:
      - label: readAsset
        description: Read asset benchmark
        txDuration: 30
        rateControl:
          type: fixed-load
          opts:
            transactionLoad: 2
        workload:
          module: workload/readAsset.js
          arguments:
            assets: 10
            contractId: basic

Step 5 - Run the Caliper Benchmark

We are now ready to run the performance benchmark using the above configuration files and test module. The performance benchmark will be run using the Caliper CLI, which will need to be supplied a path to the workspace and workspace relative paths to the network configuration file and the benchmark configuration file. This information is provided with the flags --caliper-workspace, --caliper-networkconfig, and --caliper-benchconfig respectively.

Since the smart contract has already been installed and instantiated, Caliper only needs to perform the test phase. This is specified by using the flag --caliper-flow-only-test.

Run the command

Ensure that you are in the caliper-workspace directory.

In the terminal run the following Caliper CLI command:

npx caliper launch manager --caliper-workspace ./ --caliper-networkconfig networks/networkConfig.yaml --caliper-benchconfig benchmarks/myAssetBenchmark.yaml --caliper-flow-only-test

Benchmark Results

The resulting report will detail the following items for each benchmark round:

  • Name - the round name from the benchmark configuration file
  • Succ/Fail - the number of successful/failing transactions
  • Send Rate - the rate at which caliper issued the transactions
  • Latency (max/min/avg) - statistics relating to the time taken in seconds between issuing a transaction and receiving a response
  • Throughput - the average number of transactions processed per second

You have successfully benchmarked a smart contract. You can repeat the test varying the benchmark parameters, as well as adding resource monitors. For the full set of options, please refer to the Caliper Documentation

License

The Caliper codebase is released under the Apache 2.0 license. Any documentation developed by the Caliper Project is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may obtain a copy of the license, titled CC-BY-4.0, at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.