gRPC performance test application

This project supports Windows, Linux and Linux RT for both the client and server. Always build release when running benchmarks. There is a large difference in performance between debug and release.

Available Implementations

This repository contains gRPC performance test implementations in multiple languages:

• C++ (src/) - Primary implementation with client and server
• C#/.NET (dotnet/) - Server implementation using ASP.NET Core
• Python (python/) - Client implementation
• Rust (rust/) - High-performance server implementation using Tonic
• LabVIEW (labview/) - LabVIEW integration components

All server implementations are compatible with the C++ client for cross-language performance testing.

Building on Windows

Prerequisites

To prepare for cmake + Microsoft Visual C++ compiler build

• Install Visual Studio 2015, 2017, or 2019 (Visual C++ compiler will be used).
• Install Git.
• Install gRPC for C++
• Install CMake.

Building

• Launch "x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for Visual Studio"

Download the repo and update submodules, this will pull the gRPC components and all dependencies

> git clone https://github.com/ni/grpc-perf grpc-perf
> cd grpc-perf
> git submodule update --init --recursive

Build Debug - Do not build debug for profiling

> mkdir build
> cd build
> cmake ..
> cmake --build .

Build Release

> mkdir build
> cd build
> cmake ..
> cmake --build . --config Release

Building on Linux

Download the repo and update submodules, this will pull the gRPC components and all dependencies

> git clone https://github.com/ni/grpc-perf grpc-perf
> cd grpc-perf
> git submodule update --init --recursive

Build - Do not build debug for profiling

> mkdir -p cmake/build
> cd cmake/build
> cmake ../..
> make

Build Release

> mkdir -p cmake/build
> cd cmake/build
> cmake ../..
> cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../..
> make

Building on Linux RT

Install required packages not installed by default

> opkg update
> opkg install git
> opkg install git-perltools
> opkg install cmake
> opkg install g++
> opkg install g++-symlinks

Download the repo and update submodules, this will pull the gRPC components and all dependencies

> git clone https://github.com/ni/grpc-perf grpc-perf
> cd grpc-perf
> git submodule update --init --recursive

Build Debug - Do not build debug for profiling

> mkdir -p cmake/build
> cd cmake/build
> cmake ../..
> make

Build Release

> mkdir -p cmake/build
> cd cmake/build
> cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../..
> make

Building Rust Server

The Rust implementation provides a high-performance gRPC server implementation.

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ (install via rustup)
• Protocol Buffers compiler (protoc)

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install protobuf-compiler

On macOS:

brew install protobuf

Building

From the rust/ directory:

cd rust
cargo build --release

Or use the provided build script:

cd rust
./build.sh

Running

cd rust
./target/release/perftest_server

Run with custom options:

cd rust
./target/release/perftest_server --port 8080 --address 127.0.0.1

For help:

cd rust
./target/release/perftest_server --help

Running Tests

New Configuration System ⭐

The performance test client now supports JSON configuration files to specify which tests to run, eliminating the need to modify and recompile source code.

Quick Configuration Setup:

# Generate a default configuration file
./perftest_client --generate-config

# Edit test_config.json to enable/disable desired tests
# Run with the configuration
./perftest_client

# Or specify a custom config file
./perftest_client --config my_custom_tests.json

Command Line Options:

• --config <file>: Specify configuration file (default: test_config.json)
• --generate-config: Generate a default configuration file and exit
• --cert <file>: Certificate file path for secure connections
• --target <address>: Target server address (default: localhost)
• --port <number>: Target server port (default: 50051)

For detailed configuration options and examples, see CONFIG_README.md.

Traditional Usage

Start the server, perftest_server, on the server machine. Run the client, perftest_client. If you want to run the client on a different machine pass in the server to conect to: perftest_client --target={server name or ip}

Generating Python

pip install grpcio-tools

python -m grpc_tools.protoc -I="..\.." --python_out=. --grpc_python_out=. perftest.proto

SSL/TLS Support

You can enable SSL/TLS support on the server by passing in a path to a certificate and private key for the server.

You can generate the certificate with openssl using the following script.

mypass="password123"

echo Generate server key:
openssl genrsa -passout pass:$mypass -des3 -out server.key 4096

echo Generate server signing request:
openssl req -passin pass:$mypass -new -key server.key -out server.csr -subj  "/C=US/ST=TX/L=Austin/O=NI/OU=perftest/CN=localhost"

echo Self-sign server certificate:
openssl x509 -req -passin pass:$mypass -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -set_serial 01 -out server.crt

echo Remove passphrase from server key:
openssl rsa -passin pass:$mypass -in server.key -out server.key

rm server.csr

Clients then must connect using the server certificate that was generated (server.cer) otherwise the connection will fail.

If you do not passing in a certificate then the server will use insecure gRPC.