core: adjust in-memory processed set dynamically

Instead of tick-tocking with sync/async and having an unpredictable data
set we can just try to check for the real amount of keys that be processed
by the underlying DB. Can't be perfect, but still this adds some hard
limit to the amount of in-memory data. It's also adaptive, slower machines
will keep less and faster machines will keep more.

This gives almost perfect 4s cycles for mainnet BoltDB with no tail cutting,
it makes zero sense to process more blocks since we're clearly DB-bound:

2025-01-15T11:35:00.567+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1469, "keys": 40579, "headerHeight": 5438141, "blockHeight": 5438140, "velocity": 9912, "took": "4.378939648s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:04.699+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1060, "keys": 39976, "headerHeight": 5439201, "blockHeight": 5439200, "velocity": 9888, "took": "4.131985438s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:08.752+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1508, "keys": 39658, "headerHeight": 5440709, "blockHeight": 5440708, "velocity": 9877, "took": "4.052347569s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:12.807+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1645, "keys": 39565, "headerHeight": 5442354, "blockHeight": 5442353, "velocity": 9864, "took": "4.05547743s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:17.011+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1472, "keys": 39519, "headerHeight": 5443826, "blockHeight": 5443825, "velocity": 9817, "took": "4.203258142s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:21.089+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1345, "keys": 39529, "headerHeight": 5445171, "blockHeight": 5445170, "velocity": 9804, "took": "4.078297579s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:25.090+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1054, "keys": 39326, "headerHeight": 5446225, "blockHeight": 5446224, "velocity": 9806, "took": "4.000524899s"}
2025-01-15T11:35:30.372+0300    INFO    persisted to disk       {"blocks": 1239, "keys": 39349, "headerHeight": 5447464, "blockHeight": 5447463, "velocity": 9744, "took": "4.281444939s"}

2× can be considered, but this calculation isn't perfect for low number of
keys, so somewhat bigger tolerance is preferable for now. Overall it's not
degrading performance, my mainnet/bolt run was even 8% better with this.

Fixes #3249, we don't need any option this way.

Signed-off-by: Roman Khimov <roman@nspcc.ru>

pkg/core/blockchain.go

@@ -70,6 +70,13 @@ const (
 	// either, the next cycle will still do the job (only transfers need this,
 	// MPT won't notice at all).
 	defaultBlockTimesCache = 8
+
+	// persistSamples is the number of persist velocity samples to use for
+	// storeBlock limit.
+	persistSamples = 10
+	// persistMinForSampling is the minimal number of keys to take persist
+	// time into account wrt persist velocity.
+	persistMinForSampling = 100
 )
 
 // stateChangeStage denotes the stage of state modification process.
@@ -165,6 +172,14 @@ type Blockchain struct {
 	// Current persisted block count.
 	persistedHeight uint32
 
+	// keysPerPersist is the average number of persisted keys per persist
+	// time limit.
+	keysPerPersist uint32
+
+	// persistCond is signaled each time persist cycle ends, this wakes
+	// storeBlock if needed (when it has too many queued blocks)
+	persistCond *sync.Cond
+
 	// Index->Timestamp cache for garbage collector. Headers can be gone
 	// by the time it runs, so we use a tiny little cache to sync block
 	// removal (performed in storeBlock()) with transfer/MPT GC (tryRunGC())
@@ -338,6 +353,7 @@ func NewBlockchain(s storage.Store, cfg config.Blockchain, log *zap.Logger) (*Bl
 		contracts:   *native.NewContracts(cfg.ProtocolConfiguration),
 	}
 
+	bc.persistCond = sync.NewCond(&bc.lock)
 	bc.gcBlockTimes, _ = lru.New[uint32, uint64](defaultBlockTimesCache) // Never errors for positive size
 	bc.stateRoot = stateroot.NewModule(cfg, bc.VerifyWitness, bc.log, bc.dao.Store)
 	bc.contracts.Designate.StateRootService = bc.stateRoot
@@ -1102,7 +1118,7 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) Run() {
 	persistTimer := time.NewTimer(persistInterval)
 	defer func() {
 		persistTimer.Stop()
-		if _, err := bc.persist(true); err != nil {
+		if _, err := bc.persist(); err != nil {
 			bc.log.Warn("failed to persist", zap.Error(err))
 		}
 		if err := bc.dao.Store.Close(); err != nil {
@@ -1112,7 +1128,6 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) Run() {
 		close(bc.runToExitCh)
 	}()
 	go bc.notificationDispatcher()
-	var nextSync bool
 	for {
 		select {
 		case <-bc.stopCh:
@@ -1123,14 +1138,13 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) Run() {
 			if bc.config.Ledger.RemoveUntraceableBlocks {
 				oldPersisted = atomic.LoadUint32(&bc.persistedHeight)
 			}
-			dur, err := bc.persist(nextSync)
+			dur, err := bc.persist()
 			if err != nil {
 				bc.log.Error("failed to persist blockchain", zap.Error(err))
 			}
 			if bc.config.Ledger.RemoveUntraceableBlocks {
 				dur += bc.tryRunGC(oldPersisted)
 			}
-			nextSync = dur > persistInterval*2
 			interval := persistInterval - dur
 			interval = max(interval, time.Microsecond) // Reset doesn't work with zero or negative value.
 			persistTimer.Reset(interval)
@@ -1797,6 +1811,14 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) storeBlock(block *block.Block, txpool *mempool.Pool) error
 	}
 
 	bc.lock.Lock()
+	// Wait for a while if we're lagging behind the persistence routine,
+	// it's too easy to OOM otherwise. Keep in mind that this check can't
+	// be perfect, so some tolerance (accepting more) is OK to have.
+	var persistVelocity = atomic.LoadUint32(&bc.keysPerPersist)
+	for persistVelocity != 0 && uint32(bc.dao.Store.Len()) > persistVelocity*4 {
+		bc.persistCond.Wait()
+	}
+
 	_, err = aerCache.Persist()
 	if err != nil {
 		bc.lock.Unlock()
@@ -2148,19 +2170,15 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) LastBatch() *storage.MemBatch {
 }
 
 // persist flushes current in-memory Store contents to the persistent storage.
-func (bc *Blockchain) persist(isSync bool) (time.Duration, error) {
+func (bc *Blockchain) persist() (time.Duration, error) {
 	var (
 		start     = time.Now()
 		duration  time.Duration
 		persisted int
 		err       error
 	)
 
-	if isSync {
-		persisted, err = bc.dao.PersistSync()
-	} else {
-		persisted, err = bc.dao.Persist()
-	}
+	persisted, err = bc.dao.Persist()
 	if err != nil {
 		return 0, err
 	}
@@ -2177,6 +2195,18 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) persist(isSync bool) (time.Duration, error) {
 			return 0, err
 		}
 		duration = time.Since(start)
+		if persisted > persistMinForSampling { // Low number of keys is not representative.
+			var (
+				currentVelocity = uint32(int64(persisted) * int64(persistInterval) / int64(duration))
+				persistVelocity = atomic.LoadUint32(&bc.keysPerPersist)
+			)
+			if persistVelocity != 0 {
+				currentVelocity = min(currentVelocity, 2*persistVelocity) // Normalize sudden spikes.
+				currentVelocity = (persistVelocity*(persistSamples-1) + currentVelocity) / persistSamples
+			} // Otherwise it's the first sample and we take it as is.
+			atomic.StoreUint32(&bc.keysPerPersist, currentVelocity)
+			updateEstimatedPersistVelocityMetric(currentVelocity)
+		}
 		bc.log.Info("persisted to disk",
 			zap.Uint32("blocks", diff),
 			zap.Int("keys", persisted),
@@ -2187,6 +2217,7 @@ func (bc *Blockchain) persist(isSync bool) (time.Duration, error) {
 		// update monitoring metrics.
 		updatePersistedHeightMetric(bHeight)
 	}
+	bc.persistCond.Signal()
 
 	return duration, nil
 }

pkg/core/blockchain_core_test.go

@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ func TestAddBlock(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, lastBlock.Hash(), bc.CurrentHeaderHash())
 
 	// This one tests persisting blocks, so it does need to persist()
-	_, err = bc.persist(false)
+	_, err = bc.persist()
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 
 	key := make([]byte, 1+util.Uint256Size)

pkg/core/prometheus.go

@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@ var (
 			Namespace: "neogo",
 		},
 	)
+	// estimatedPersistVelocity prometheus metric.
+	estimatedPersistVelocity = prometheus.NewGauge(
+		prometheus.GaugeOpts{
+			Help:      "Estimation of persist velocity per cycle (1s by default)",
+			Name:      "estimated_persist_velocity",
+			Namespace: "neogo",
+		},
+	)
 	// headerHeight prometheus metric.
 	headerHeight = prometheus.NewGauge(
 		prometheus.GaugeOpts{
@@ -44,6 +52,7 @@ func init() {
 	prometheus.MustRegister(
 		blockHeight,
 		persistedHeight,
+		estimatedPersistVelocity,
 		headerHeight,
 		mempoolUnsortedTx,
 	)
@@ -53,6 +62,10 @@ func updatePersistedHeightMetric(pHeight uint32) {
 	persistedHeight.Set(float64(pHeight))
 }
 
+func updateEstimatedPersistVelocityMetric(v uint32) {
+	estimatedPersistVelocity.Set(float64(v))
+}
+
 func updateHeaderHeightMetric(hHeight uint32) {
 	headerHeight.Set(float64(hHeight))
 }

pkg/core/storage/memcached_store_test.go

@@ -19,12 +19,14 @@ func TestMemCachedPutGetDelete(t *testing.T) {
 
 	s.Put(key, value)
 
+	require.Equal(t, 1, s.Len())
 	result, err := s.Get(key)
 	assert.Nil(t, err)
 	require.Equal(t, value, result)
 
 	s.Delete(key)
 
+	require.Equal(t, 1, s.Len()) // deletion marker
 	_, err = s.Get(key)
 	assert.NotNil(t, err)
 	assert.Equal(t, err, ErrKeyNotFound)

pkg/core/storage/memory_store.go

@@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ func (s *MemoryStore) putChangeSet(puts map[string][]byte, stores map[string][]b
 	}
 }
 
+// Len returns the number of keys stored.
+func (s *MemoryStore) Len() int {
+	s.mut.RLock()
+	defer s.mut.RUnlock()
+	return len(s.mem) + len(s.stor)
+}
+
 // Seek implements the Store interface.
 func (s *MemoryStore) Seek(rng SeekRange, f func(k, v []byte) bool) {
 	s.seek(rng, f, s.mut.RLock, s.mut.RUnlock)