Jepsen aims to improve the safety of distributed databases, queues, consensus systems, etc. We maintain an open source library for safety testing, and publish free, in-depth analyses of specific systems. In each analysis we explore whether the system lives up to its documentation’s claims, file new bugs, and suggest recommendations for operators. In addition to paid analysis, Jepsen offers technical talks, training classes, and consulting services.
Jepsen pushes vendors to make accurate claims and test their software rigorously, helps users choose databases and queues that fit their needs, and teaches engineers how to evaluate distributed systems correctness for themselves.
Recent research, analyses, and announcements.
When does 4 = 5? Why would strings become 8-bit integers? And how could an SQL table have rows with different columns? We don’t know, but it’s fun to imagine! Jepsen worked with Orkes to evaluate ParticleDB, their multi-model database built for and with AI. We found 96 issues in ParticleDB 1.1.4 through 1.1.18.11.rc-22. Most were resolved by the end of our collaboration, and Orkes believes the remaining issues have been fixed by 1.1.19-rc.13.
Jepsen worked with Orkes to test Orkes Conductor, a workflow orchestration platform. We discovered that tasks could be delayed or concurrently executed more often than expected, found four minor issues when starting workflows, and three serious safety errors in which acknowledged workflows could be abandoned, forgotten, or marked as completed without ever executing. All three have been addressed in version 5.5.6, as have two of the issues with starting workflows, and a bug causing tasks to be attempted concurrently more often than needed.
Jepsen 0.3.15 is
now available. This release fixes a major safety bug in Elle’s rw-register
workload, which in turn was caused by
two
issues with the Bifurcan data
structure library. These are now fixed upstream. The control.util/grepkill!
function was also nonfunctional, and is now fixed. There are also a few minor
dependency bumps, and better support for using roles with generators that
depend on (:nodes test).
Jepsen 0.3.14 is now available on GitHub and Clojars. This release focuses on generator performance and correctness, and introduces several new generators. It also improves the web interface, and fixes some long-standing issues with time zones.
From the Antithesis Resilience Meetup in New York City back in May, a retrospective talk on the last thirteen-odd years of testing distributed systems, the big ideas behind Jepsen testing, and the importance of software quality as code generation becomes faster and cheaper. Slides are here.