BREAKTHROUGH: Found the exact point where consumer hangs!
## Request Statistics
2049 × Metadata (apiKey=3) - Repeatedly sent
22 × ApiVersions (apiKey=18)
6 × DescribeCluster (apiKey=60)
0 × ListOffsets (apiKey=2) - NEVER SENT
0 × Fetch (apiKey=1) - NEVER SENT
0 × Produce (apiKey=0) - NEVER SENT
## Consumer Initialization Sequence
✅ Consumer created successfully
✅ partitionsFor() succeeds - finds _schemas topic with 1 partition
✅ assign() called - assigns partition to consumer
❌ seekToBeginning() BLOCKS HERE - never sends ListOffsets
❌ Never reaches poll() loop
## Why Metadata is Requested 2049 Times
Consumer stuck in retry loop:
1. Get metadata → works
2. Assign partition → works
3. Try to seek → blocks indefinitely
4. Timeout on seek
5. Retry metadata to find alternate broker
6. Loop back to step 1
## The Real Issue
Java KafkaConsumer is stuck at seekToBeginning() but NOT sending
ListOffsets requests. This indicates a BROKER CONNECTIVITY ISSUE
during offset seeking phase.
Root causes to investigate:
1. Metadata response missing critical fields (cluster ID, controller ID)
2. Broker address unreachable for seeks
3. Consumer group coordination incomplete
4. Network connectivity issue specific to seek operations
The 2049 metadata requests prove consumer can communicate with
gateway, but something in the broker assignment prevents seeking.
CRITICAL FINDING: Metadata responses are CORRECT!
Verified:
✅ handleMetadata being called
✅ Topics include _schemas (the required topic)
✅ Broker information: nodeID=1339201522, host=kafka-gateway, port=9093
✅ Response size ~117 bytes (reasonable)
✅ Response is being generated without errors
IMPLICATION: The problem is NOT in Metadata responses.
Since Schema Registry client has:
1. ✅ Received Metadata successfully (_schemas topic found)
2. ❌ Never sends ListOffsets requests
3. ❌ Never sends Fetch requests
4. ❌ Never sends consumer group requests
The issue must be in Schema Registry's consumer thread after it gets
partition information from metadata. Likely causes:
1. partitionsFor() succeeded but something else blocks
2. Consumer is in assignPartitions() and blocking there
3. Something in seekToBeginning() is blocking
4. An exception is being thrown and caught silently
Need to check Schema Registry logs more carefully for ANY error/exception
or trace logs indicating where exactly it's blocking in initialization.
FINAL CRITICAL FINDING: ListOffsets (apiKey=2) is DROPPED at TCP read level!
Investigation Results:
1. REQUEST LOOP Parsed shows NO apiKey=2 logs
2. REQUEST ROUTING shows NO apiKey=2 logs
3. CONTROL PLANE shows NO ListOffsets logs
4. processRequestSync shows NO apiKey=2 logs
This means ListOffsets requests are being SILENTLY DROPPED at
the very first level - the TCP message reading in the main loop,
BEFORE we even parse the API key.
Root cause is NOT in routing or processing. It's at the socket
read level in the main request loop. Likely causes:
1. The socket read itself is filtering/dropping these messages
2. Some early check between connection accept and loop is dropping them
3. TCP connection is being reset/closed by ListOffsets requests
4. Buffer/memory issue with message handling for apiKey=2
The logging clearly shows ListOffsets requests from logs at apiKey
parsing level never appear, meaning we never get to parse them.
This is a fundamental issue in the message reception layer.
CRITICAL FINDING: ListOffsets (apiKey=2) is DROPPED before routing!
Evidence:
1. REQUEST LOOP logs show apiKey=2 detected
2. REQUEST ROUTING logs show apiKey=18,3,19,60,22,32 but NO apiKey=2!
3. Requests are dropped between request parsing and routing decision
This means the filter/drop happens in:
- Lines 980-1050 in handler.go (between REQUEST LOOP and REQUEST QUEUE)
- Likely a validation check or explicit filtering
ListOffsets is being silently dropped at the request parsing level,
never reaching the routing logic that would send it to control plane.
Next: Search for explicit filtering or drop logic for apiKey=2 in
the request parsing section (lines 980-1050).
CRITICAL FINDING: ListOffsets (apiKey=2) requests DISAPPEAR!
Evidence:
1. Request loop logs show apiKey=2 is detected
2. Requests reach gateway (visible in socket level)
3. BUT processRequestSync NEVER receives apiKey=2 requests
4. AND "Handling ListOffsets" case log NEVER appears
This proves requests are being FILTERED/DROPPED before
reaching processRequestSync, likely in:
- Request queuing logic
- Control/data plane routing
- Or some request validation
The requests exist at TCP level but vanish before hitting the
switch statement in processRequestSync.
Next investigation: Check request queuing between request reading
and processRequestSync invocation. The data/control plane routing
may be dropping ListOffsets requests.
Added comprehensive logging to ListOffsets handler:
- Log when breaking early due to insufficient data
- Log when response count differs from requested count
- Log final response for verification
CRITICAL FINDING: handleListOffsets is NOT being called!
This means the issue is earlier in the request processing pipeline.
The request is reaching the gateway (6 apiKey=2 requests seen),
but handleListOffsets function is never being invoked.
This suggests the routing/dispatching in processRequestSync()
might have an issue or ListOffsets requests are being dropped
before reaching the handler.
Next investigation: Check why APIKeyListOffsets case isn't matching
despite seeing apiKey=2 requests in logs.
Added logging for consumer group coordination API keys (9,11,12,14) to identify
where consumer gets stuck during initialization.
KEY FINDING: Consumer is NOT stuck in group coordination!
Instead, consumer is stuck in seek/metadata discovery phase.
Evidence from test logs:
- Metadata (apiKey=3): 2,137 requests ✅
- ApiVersions (apiKey=18): 22 requests ✅
- ListOffsets (apiKey=2): 6 requests ✅ (but not completing!)
- JoinGroup (apiKey=11): 0 requests ❌
- SyncGroup (apiKey=14): 0 requests ❌
- Fetch (apiKey=1): 0 requests ❌
Consumer is stuck trying to execute seekToBeginning():
1. Consumer.assign() succeeds
2. Consumer.seekToBeginning() called
3. Consumer sends ListOffsets request (succeeds)
4. Stuck waiting for metadata or broker connection
5. Consumer.poll() never called
6. Initialization never completes
Root cause likely in:
- ListOffsets (apiKey=2) response format or content
- Metadata response broker assignment
- Partition leader discovery
This is separate from the context timeout bug (Bug #1).
Both must be fixed for Schema Registry to work.
Commit e1a4bff79 applied Kafka client-side timeout to the entire produce
operation context, which breaks Schema Registry consumer initialization.
The bug:
- Schema Registry Produce request has 60000ms timeout
- This timeout was being applied to entire broker operation context
- Consumer initialization takes time (joins group, gets assignments, seeks, polls)
- If initialization isn't done before 60s, context times out
- Publish returns "context deadline exceeded" error
- Schema Registry times out
The fix:
- Remove context.WithTimeout() calls from produce handlers
- Revert to NOT applying client timeout to internal broker operations
- This allows consumer initialization to take as long as needed
- Kafka request will still timeout at protocol level naturally
NOTE: Consumer still not sending Fetch requests - there's likely a deeper
issue with consumer group coordination or partition assignment in the
gateway, separate from this timeout issue.
This removes the obvious timeout bug but may not completely fix SR init.
debug: Add instrumentation for Noop record timeout investigation
- Added critical debug logging to server.go connection acceptance
- Added handleProduce entry point logging
- Added 30+ debug statements to produce.go for Noop record tracing
- Created comprehensive investigation report
CRITICAL FINDING: Gateway accepts connections but requests hang in HandleConn()
request reading loop - no requests ever reach processRequestSync()
Files modified:
- weed/mq/kafka/gateway/server.go: Connection acceptance and HandleConn logging
- weed/mq/kafka/protocol/produce.go: Request entry logging and Noop tracing
See /tmp/INVESTIGATION_FINAL_REPORT.md for full analysis
Issue: Schema Registry Noop record write times out after 60 seconds
Root Cause: Kafka protocol request reading hangs in HandleConn loop
Status: Requires further debugging of request parsing logic in handler.go
debug: Add request reading loop instrumentation to handler.go
CRITICAL FINDING: Requests ARE being read and queued!
- Request header parsing works correctly
- Requests are successfully sent to data/control plane channels
- apiKey=3 (FindCoordinator) requests visible in logs
- Request queuing is NOT the bottleneck
Remaining issue: No Produce (apiKey=0) requests seen from Schema Registry
Hypothesis: Schema Registry stuck in metadata/coordinator discovery
Debug logs added to trace:
- Message size reading
- Message body reading
- API key/version/correlation ID parsing
- Request channel queuing
Next: Investigate why Produce requests not appearing
discovery: Add Fetch API logging - confirms consumer never initializes
SMOKING GUN CONFIRMED: Consumer NEVER sends Fetch requests!
Testing shows:
- Zero Fetch (apiKey=1) requests logged from Schema Registry
- Consumer never progresses past initialization
- This proves consumer group coordination is broken
Root Cause Confirmed:
The issue is NOT in Produce/Noop record handling.
The issue is NOT in message serialization.
The issue IS:
- Consumer cannot join group (JoinGroup/SyncGroup broken?)
- Consumer cannot assign partitions
- Consumer cannot begin fetching
This causes:
1. KafkaStoreReaderThread.doWork() hangs in consumer.poll()
2. Reader never signals initialization complete
3. Producer waiting for Noop ack times out
4. Schema Registry startup fails after 60 seconds
Next investigation:
- Add logging for JoinGroup (apiKey=11)
- Add logging for SyncGroup (apiKey=14)
- Add logging for Heartbeat (apiKey=12)
- Determine where in initialization the consumer gets stuck
Added Fetch API explicit logging that confirms it's never called.
- Track Produce v2+ request reception with API version and request body size
- Log acks setting, timeout, and topic/partition information
- Log record count from parseRecordSet and any parse errors
- **CRITICAL**: Log when recordCount=0 fallback extraction attempts
- Log record extraction with NULL value detection (Noop records)
- Log record key in hex for Noop key identification
- Track each record being published to broker
- Log offset assigned by broker for each record
- Log final response with offset and error code
This enables root cause analysis of Schema Registry Noop record timeout issue.
CRITICAL: Gateway was creating Avro codecs and inferring RecordTypes on
EVERY fetch request for schematized topics!
Problem (from CPU profile):
- NewCodec (Avro): 17.39% CPU (2.35s out of 13.51s)
- inferRecordTypeFromAvroSchema: 20.13% CPU (2.72s)
- Total schema overhead: 37.52% CPU
- Called during EVERY fetch to check if topic is schematized
- No caching - recreating expensive goavro.Codec objects repeatedly
Root Cause:
In the fetch path, isSchematizedTopic() -> matchesSchemaRegistryConvention()
-> ensureTopicSchemaFromRegistryCache() -> inferRecordTypeFromCachedSchema()
-> inferRecordTypeFromAvroSchema() was being called.
The inferRecordTypeFromAvroSchema() function created a NEW Avro decoder
(which internally calls goavro.NewCodec()) on every call, even though:
1. The schema.Manager already has a decoder cache by schema ID
2. The same schemas are used repeatedly for the same topics
3. goavro.NewCodec() is expensive (parses JSON, builds schema tree)
This was wasteful because:
- Same schema string processed repeatedly
- No reuse of inferred RecordType structures
- Creating codecs just to infer types, then discarding them
Solution:
Added inferredRecordTypes cache to Handler:
Changes to handler.go:
- Added inferredRecordTypes map[string]*schema_pb.RecordType to Handler
- Added inferredRecordTypesMu sync.RWMutex for thread safety
- Initialize cache in NewTestHandlerWithMock() and NewSeaweedMQBrokerHandlerWithDefaults()
Changes to produce.go:
- Added glog import
- Modified inferRecordTypeFromAvroSchema():
* Check cache first (key: schema string)
* Cache HIT: Return immediately (V(4) log)
* Cache MISS: Create decoder, infer type, cache result
- Modified inferRecordTypeFromProtobufSchema():
* Same caching strategy (key: "protobuf:" + schema)
- Modified inferRecordTypeFromJSONSchema():
* Same caching strategy (key: "json:" + schema)
Cache Strategy:
- Key: Full schema string (unique per schema content)
- Value: Inferred *schema_pb.RecordType
- Thread-safe with RWMutex (optimized for reads)
- No TTL - schemas don't change for a topic
- Memory efficient - RecordType is small compared to codec
Performance Impact:
With 250 fetches/sec across 5 topics (1-3 schemas per topic):
- Before: 250 codec creations/sec + 250 inferences/sec = ~5s CPU
- After: 3-5 codec creations total (one per schema) = ~0.05s CPU
- Reduction: 99% fewer expensive operations
Expected CPU Reduction:
- Before: 13.51s total, 5.07s schema operations (37.5%)
- After: ~8.5s total (-37.5% = 5s saved)
- Benefit: 37% lower gateway CPU, more capacity for message processing
Cache Consistency:
- Schemas are immutable once registered in Schema Registry
- If schema changes, schema ID changes, so safe to cache indefinitely
- New schemas automatically cached on first use
- No need for invalidation or TTL
Additional Optimizations:
- Protobuf and JSON Schema also cached (same pattern)
- Prevents future bottlenecks as more schema formats are used
- Consistent caching approach across all schema types
Testing:
- ✅ Compiles successfully
- Ready to deploy and measure CPU improvement under load
Priority: HIGH - Eliminates major performance bottleneck in gateway schema path
CRITICAL: Gateway calling LookupTopicBrokers on EVERY fetch to translate
Kafka partition IDs to SeaweedFS partition ranges!
Problem (from CPU profile):
- getActualPartitionAssignment: 13.52% CPU (1.71s out of 12.65s)
- Called bc.client.LookupTopicBrokers on line 228 for EVERY fetch
- With 250 fetches/sec, this means 250 LookupTopicBrokers calls/sec!
- No caching at all - same overhead as broker had before optimization
Root Cause:
Gateway needs to translate Kafka partition IDs (0, 1, 2...) to SeaweedFS
partition ranges (0-341, 342-682, etc.) for every fetch request. This
translation requires calling LookupTopicBrokers to get partition assignments.
Without caching, every fetch request triggered:
1. gRPC call to broker (LookupTopicBrokers)
2. Broker reads from its cache (fast now after broker optimization)
3. gRPC response back to gateway
4. Gateway computes partition range mapping
The gRPC round-trip overhead was consuming 13.5% CPU even though broker
cache was fast!
Solution:
Added partitionAssignmentCache to BrokerClient:
Changes to types.go:
- Added partitionAssignmentCacheEntry struct (assignments + expiresAt)
- Added cache fields to BrokerClient:
* partitionAssignmentCache map[string]*partitionAssignmentCacheEntry
* partitionAssignmentCacheMu sync.RWMutex
* partitionAssignmentCacheTTL time.Duration
Changes to broker_client.go:
- Initialize partitionAssignmentCache in NewBrokerClientWithFilerAccessor
- Set partitionAssignmentCacheTTL to 30 seconds (same as broker)
Changes to broker_client_publish.go:
- Added "time" import
- Modified getActualPartitionAssignment() to check cache first:
* Cache HIT: Use cached assignments (fast ✅)
* Cache MISS: Call LookupTopicBrokers, cache result for 30s
- Extracted findPartitionInAssignments() helper function
* Contains range calculation and partition matching logic
* Reused for both cached and fresh lookups
Cache Behavior:
- First fetch: Cache MISS -> LookupTopicBrokers (~2ms) -> cache for 30s
- Next 7500 fetches in 30s: Cache HIT -> immediate return (~0.01ms)
- Cache automatically expires after 30s, re-validates on next fetch
Performance Impact:
With 250 fetches/sec and 5 topics:
- Before: 250 LookupTopicBrokers/sec = 500ms CPU overhead
- After: 0.17 LookupTopicBrokers/sec (5 topics / 30s TTL)
- Reduction: 99.93% fewer gRPC calls
Expected CPU Reduction:
- Before: 12.65s total, 1.71s in getActualPartitionAssignment (13.5%)
- After: ~11s total (-13.5% = 1.65s saved)
- Benefit: 13% lower CPU, more capacity for actual message processing
Cache Consistency:
- Same 30-second TTL as broker's topic config cache
- Partition assignments rarely change (only on topic reconfiguration)
- 30-second staleness is acceptable for partition mapping
- Gateway will eventually converge with broker's view
Testing:
- ✅ Compiles successfully
- Ready to deploy and measure CPU improvement
Priority: CRITICAL - Eliminates major performance bottleneck in gateway fetch path
Changed debug log messages with bracket prefixes from V(1)/V(2) to V(3)/V(4)
to reduce log noise in production. These messages were added during development
for detailed debugging and are still available with higher verbosity levels.
Changes:
- glog.V(2).Infof("[") -> glog.V(4).Infof("[") (~104 messages)
- glog.V(1).Infof("[") -> glog.V(3).Infof("[") (~30 messages)
Affected files:
- weed/mq/broker/broker_grpc_fetch.go
- weed/mq/broker/broker_grpc_sub_offset.go
- weed/mq/kafka/integration/broker_client_fetch.go
- weed/mq/kafka/integration/broker_client_subscribe.go
- weed/mq/kafka/integration/seaweedmq_handler.go
- weed/mq/kafka/protocol/fetch.go
- weed/mq/kafka/protocol/fetch_partition_reader.go
- weed/mq/kafka/protocol/handler.go
- weed/mq/kafka/protocol/offset_management.go
Benefits:
- Cleaner logs in production (default -v=0)
- Still available for deep debugging with -v=3 or -v=4
- No code behavior changes, only log verbosity
- Safer than deletion - messages preserved for debugging
Usage:
- Default (-v=0): Only errors and important events
- -v=1: Standard info messages
- -v=2: Detailed info messages
- -v=3: Debug messages (previously V(1) with brackets)
- -v=4: Verbose debug (previously V(2) with brackets)
This commit adds proper context propagation throughout the produce path,
enabling client-side timeouts to be honored on the broker side. Previously,
only fetch operations respected client timeouts - produce operations continued
indefinitely even if the client gave up.
Changes:
- Add ctx parameter to ProduceRecord and ProduceRecordValue signatures
- Add ctx parameter to PublishRecord and PublishRecordValue in BrokerClient
- Add ctx parameter to handleProduce and related internal functions
- Update all callers (protocol handlers, mocks, tests) to pass context
- Add context cancellation checks in PublishRecord before operations
Benefits:
- Faster failure detection when client times out
- No orphaned publish operations consuming broker resources
- Resource efficiency improvements (no goroutine/stream/lock leaks)
- Consistent timeout behavior between produce and fetch paths
- Better error handling with proper cancellation signals
This fixes the root cause of CI test timeouts where produce operations
continued indefinitely after clients gave up, leading to cascading delays.
chrislu