bug(core): Fixed infinite loop in CommitToDisk (#8614)

Whenever an error happens in CommitToDisk, we retry the function
according to x.config.MaxRetries. However, the value was set to -1,
which causes the function to get stuck in infinite loop. This leads to
dgraph not being able to commit the transaction, nor move forward to
newer queries.

CommitToDisk function is required to be pushed to disk. In case of an
error, different alphas in a group can end up having different data
leading to data loss. To avoid such issues, we panic in case we are not
able to CommitToDisk after 10 retries. Once the alpha is restarted, if
the issue is fixed, the alpha would start to work again. This way,
Alphas wont fail silently and we would know if there was any issue
occuring.

Fixes: https://github.com/dgraph-io/projects/issues/85

Author: harshil-goel

worker/draft.go

@@ -819,8 +819,10 @@ func (n *node) commitOrAbort(pkey uint64, delta *pb.OracleDelta) error {
 			return
 		}
 		txn.Update()
-		err := x.RetryUntilSuccess(int(x.Config.MaxRetries),
-			10*time.Millisecond, func() error {
+		// We start with 20 ms, so that we end up waiting 5 mins by the end.
+		// If there is any transient issue, it should get fixed within that timeframe.
+		err := x.ExponentialRetry(int(x.Config.MaxRetries),
+			20*time.Millisecond, func() error {
 				err := txn.CommitToDisk(writer, commit)
 				if err == badger.ErrBannedKey {
 					glog.Errorf("Error while writing to banned namespace.")
@@ -832,6 +834,7 @@ func (n *node) commitOrAbort(pkey uint64, delta *pb.OracleDelta) error {
 		if err != nil {
 			glog.Errorf("Error while applying txn status to disk (%d -> %d): %v",
 				start, commit, err)
+			panic(err)
 		}
 	}
 

worker/server_state.go

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ const (
 		`client_key=; sasl-mechanism=PLAIN; tls=false;`
 	LimitDefaults = `mutations=allow; query-edge=1000000; normalize-node=10000; ` +
 		`mutations-nquad=1000000; disallow-drop=false; query-timeout=0ms; txn-abort-after=5m; ` +
-		` max-retries=-1;max-pending-queries=10000`
+		` max-retries=10;max-pending-queries=10000`
 	ZeroLimitsDefaults = `uid-lease=0; refill-interval=30s; disable-admin-http=false;`
 	GraphQLDefaults    = `introspection=true; debug=false; extensions=true; poll-interval=1s; ` +
 		`lambda-url=;`

x/x.go

@@ -613,11 +613,27 @@ func Max(a, b uint64) uint64 {
 	return b
 }
 
+// ExponentialRetry runs the given function until it succeeds or can no longer be retried.
+func ExponentialRetry(maxRetries int, waitAfterFailure time.Duration,
+	f func() error) error {
+	var err error
+	for retry := maxRetries; retry > 0; retry-- {
+		if err = f(); err == nil {
+			return nil
+		}
+		if waitAfterFailure > 0 {
+			time.Sleep(waitAfterFailure)
+			waitAfterFailure *= 2
+		}
+	}
+	return err
+}
+
 // RetryUntilSuccess runs the given function until it succeeds or can no longer be retried.
 func RetryUntilSuccess(maxRetries int, waitAfterFailure time.Duration,
 	f func() error) error {
 	var err error
-	for retry := maxRetries; retry != 0; retry-- {
+	for retry := maxRetries; retry > 0; retry-- {
 		if err = f(); err == nil {
 			return nil
 		}