Antithesis Testing
This package supports testing with
Antithesis,
a SaaS offering that enables deployment of distributed systems (such
as Avalanche) to a deterministic and simulated environment that
enables discovery and reproduction of anomalous behavior.
Package details
Filename |
Purpose |
compose.go |
Generates Docker Compose project file and initial database for antithesis testing. |
config.go |
Defines common flags for the workload binary. |
init_db.go |
Initializes initial db state for subnet testing. |
node_health.go |
Helper to check node health. |
avalanchego/ |
Defines an antithesis test setup for avalanchego's primary chains. |
xsvm/ |
Defines an antithesis test setup for the xsvm VM. |
Instrumentation
Software running in Antithesis's environment must be
instrumented
to take full advantage of the supported traceability. Since the
Antithesis Go SDK only supports the amd64/x86_64 architecture as of this
writing, running of instrumented binaries on Macs (arm64) is not possible
without emulation (which would be very slow). To support test development
on Macs, a local build will not be instrumented.
Defining a new test setup
When defining a new test setup - whether in the avalanchego repo or
for a VM in another repo - following the example of an existing test
setup is suggested. The following table enumerates the files defining
a test setup:
Filename |
Purpose |
scripts/build_antithesis_images.sh |
Builds the test images to deploy to antithesis |
scripts/build_antithesis_[test setup]_workload.sh |
Builds the workload binary |
scripts/tests.build_antithesis_images.sh |
Validates the build of the test images |
tests/antithesis/[test setup]/main.go |
The entrypoint for the workload binary |
tests/antithesis/[test setup]/Dockerfile.config |
Defines how to build the config image |
tests/antithesis/[test setup]/Dockerfile.node |
Defines how to build the instrumented node image |
tests/antithesis/[test setup]/Dockerfile.workload |
Defines how to build the workload image |
tests/antithesis/[test setup]/gencomposeconfig/main.go |
Generates the compose configuration for the test setup |
In addition, github workflows are suggested to ensure
scripts/tests.build_antithesis_images.sh
runs against PRs and
scripts/build_antithesis_images.sh
runs against pushes.
Use of a builder image
To simplify building instrumented (for running in CI) and
non-instrumented (for running locally) versions of the workload and
node images, a common builder image is used. If on an amd64 host,
tests/antithesis/avalanchego/Dockerfile.builder-instrumented
is used
to create an instrumented builder. On an arm64 host,
tests/antithesis/avalanchego/Dockerfile.builder-uninstrumented
is
used to create an uninstrumented builder. In both cases, the builder
image is based on the default golang image and will include the source
code necessary to build the node and workload binaries. The
alternative would require duplicating builder setup for instrumented
and non-instrumented builds for the workload and node images of each
test setup.
Troubleshooting a test setup
Running a workload directly
The workload of the 'avalanchego' test setup can be invoked against an
arbitrary network:
$ AVAWL_URIS="http://10.0.20.3:9650 http://10.0.20.4:9650" go run ./tests/antithesis/avalanchego
The workload of a subnet test setup like 'xsvm' additionally requires
a network with a configured chain for the xsvm VM and the ID for that
chain needs to be provided to the workload:
$ AVAWL_URIS=... CHAIN_IDS="2S9ypz...AzMj9" go run ./tests/antithesis/xsvm
Running a workload with docker-compose
Running the test script for a given test setup with the DEBUG
flag
set will avoid cleaning up the the temporary directory where the
docker-compose setup is written to. This will allow manual invocation of
docker-compose to see the log output of the workload.
$ DEBUG=1 ./scripts/tests.build_antithesis_images.sh
After the test script has terminated, the name of the temporary
directory will appear in the output of the script:
...
using temporary directory /tmp/tmp.E6eHdDr4ln as the docker-compose path"
...
Running compose from the temporary directory will ensure the workload
output appears on stdout for inspection:
$ cd [temporary directory]
# Start the compose project
$ docker-compose up
# Cleanup the compose project
$ docker-compose down --volumes