Benchmarks are not running anymore

[abitrolly]

Looks like benchmarks are not being run for 3 years already https://numba.pydata.org/numba-benchmark/#summarylist?sort=0&dir=asc&llvmpy=%5Bnone%5D&os=Linux%203.13.0-54-generic&python=3.6&ram=3288606 What happened to them?

[esc]

Looks like benchmarks are not being run for 3 years already https://numba.pydata.org/numba-benchmark/#summarylist?sort=0&dir=asc&llvmpy=%5Bnone%5D&os=Linux%203.13.0-54-generic&python=3.6&ram=3288606 What happened to them?

There were Insufficient resources, so this is largely on hold.

[abitrolly]

@esc I could not find Numba on https://opencollective.com/search?q=numba

How much resources are needed?

[esc]

@esc I could not find Numba on https://opencollective.com/search?q=numba

How much resources are needed?

I am not sure how to answer this. The Numba project/ecosystem (which this repo is a part of) needs more contributors and especially people who are able to review pull-requests adequately.

[abitrolly]

@esc I actually thought about computing resources. I can try to setup CI/CD on GitHub Actions or GitLab Pipelines, and if there is a testing hardware, run benchmarks there to avoid going over GitHub/GitLab quota.

It is not that I am actually hoarded a lot of time to do this. With OpenCollective this time could be at least somehow compensated.

[esc]

@esc I actually thought about computing resources. I can try to setup CI/CD on GitHub Actions or GitLab Pipelines, and if there is a testing hardware, run benchmarks there to avoid going over GitHub/GitLab quota.

It is not that I am actually hoarded a lot of time to do this. With OpenCollective this time could be at least somehow compensated.

Interesting and thank you for bringing this to our attention. I am not sure it makes sense for you to work on this right now, there probably would be no-one to review and merge your changes at this stage.

[abitrolly]

Let try a lucky number #13.

[gmarkall]

Thanks for having a look at this. I think "resources" is a broad term, that in this case encompasses both:

• Compute resources: As you suggested, one possibility is running benchmarks using Github actions. However, for machines that we're assigned by a CI / CD system, I'm not sure how we can have a stable baseline on which to run benchmarks - the machines that run the benchmarks will surely differ in their level of contention, load, memory / CPU specifications, etc., so it would be very difficult to make any comparisons from run to run, which I think limits the value of benchmarking. I find it hard to see how we can get to a useful and reliable benchmark setup without having greater / absolute control over the machines on which we run the benchmarks.
• Time / people resources: As @esc already mentioned, reviewing PRs that add this sort of thing is one thing we have limited time to do, but in general once a benchmarking system is set up, it will require continuous monitoring / maintenance to ensure that it continues to run correctly and usefully. Maintaining the existing CI / testing setups for Numba (the Actions / pipelines for Numba / llvmlite and the buildfarm) presently consumes all the available time for this sort of task.

Whilst it would be great to get the benchmarks running continuously again, I'm not sure I see the way to set this up and keep it running at the present time.

[abitrolly]

1. The value of ephemeral CI/CD machines is just to ensure that benchmarks are not crashing, like now they are failing flake8 import checks (Use Github Actions #13). Then at least in GitLab it is possible to use own machines for runners, from which GitLab collects reports and logs. Baseline machines with specific hardware are needed. Is there a financial problem to get them?

2. If there are not enough people to care about infrastructure, does that mean Numba is low on budget, and it is a financial problem again? If somebody would want to represent the financial problem as mathematical problem, I think the benchmarks would be a key variable for third parties to estimate their savings as a reason to fund their availability.

[gmarkall]

1. That's a good point, it would be good to make sure that they're not crashing :-) - it would make sense to have them running for this purpose, just with some clear messaging / guidelines that the benchmark results aren't particularly usable.
2. My impression is that the limitations are mainly around maintainer time rather than money.

[abitrolly]

If there is no problem with funding, then I don't see the reason why not to grow project capacity to onboard more people to take care about that part specifically. )