seaweedfs/test/foundationdb/README.ARM64.md

ARM64 Support for FoundationDB Integration

This document explains how to run FoundationDB integration tests on ARM64 systems (Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 Macs).

Problem

The official FoundationDB Docker images (foundationdb/foundationdb:7.1.61) are only available for linux/amd64 architecture. When running on ARM64 systems, you'll encounter "Illegal instruction" errors. Apple now publishes official ARM64 Debian packages (starting with 7.4.5), which this repo downloads directly for native workflows.

Solutions

We provide three different approaches to run FoundationDB on ARM64:

1. 🚀 ARM64 Native (Recommended for Development)

Pros: Native performance, no emulation overhead
Cons: Requires downloading ~100MB of FoundationDB packages on first run

# Build and run ARM64-native FoundationDB from source
make setup-arm64
make test-arm64

This approach:

• Downloads the official FoundationDB 7.4.5 ARM64 packages
• Takes ~2-3 minutes on first run (no source compilation)
• Provides native performance
• Uses docker-compose.arm64.yml

2. 🐳 x86 Emulation (Quick Setup)

Pros: Fast setup, uses official images
Cons: Slower runtime performance due to emulation

# Run x86 images with Docker emulation
make setup-emulated
make test-emulated

This approach:

• Uses Docker's x86 emulation
• Quick setup with official images
• May have performance overhead
• Uses standard docker-compose.yml with platform specification

3. 📝 Mock Testing (Fastest)

Pros: No dependencies, always works, fast execution
Cons: Doesn't test real FoundationDB integration

# Run mock tests (no FoundationDB cluster needed)
make test-mock
make test-reliable

Files Overview

File	Purpose
docker-compose.yml	Standard setup with platform specification
docker-compose.arm64.yml	ARM64-native setup with source builds
Dockerfile.fdb-arm64	Multi-stage build for ARM64 FoundationDB
README.ARM64.md	This documentation

Performance Comparison

Approach	Setup Time	Runtime Performance	Compatibility
ARM64 Native	2-3 min	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	ARM64 only
x86 Emulation	2-3 min	⭐⭐⭐	ARM64 + x86
Mock Testing	< 1 min	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	Any platform

Quick Start Commands

# For ARM64 Mac users - choose your approach:

# Option 1: ARM64 native (best performance)
make clean && make setup-arm64

# Option 2: x86 emulation (faster setup) 
make clean && make setup-emulated

# Option 3: Mock testing (no FDB needed)
make test-mock

# Clean up everything
make clean

Troubleshooting

Build Timeouts

If ARM64 builds timeout, increase Docker build timeout:

export DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
export BUILDKIT_PROGRESS=plain
make setup-arm64

Memory Issues

ARM64 builds require significant memory:

• Increase Docker memory limit to 8GB+
• Close other applications during build

Platform Detection

Verify your platform:

docker info | grep -i arch
uname -m  # Should show arm64

CI/CD Recommendations

• Development: Use make test-mock for fast feedback
• ARM64 CI: Use make setup-arm64
• x86 CI: Use make setup (standard)
• Multi-platform CI: Run both depending on runner architecture

Architecture Details

The ARM64 solution now uses the official FoundationDB 7.4.5 aarch64 packages:

1. Builder Stage: Downloads prebuilt FoundationDB client libraries

   • Uses Debian-based Go image for compiling SeaweedFS
   • Verifies SHA256 checksums before installing the deb package

2. Runtime Stage: Copies the already-installed artifacts

   • SeaweedFS runtime layers reuse the validated libraries
   • FoundationDB server containers install the prebuilt server + client packages with checksum verification

This keeps the setup time short while preserving native ARM64 performance and strong supply-chain guarantees.