A performance testing and stress testing of cloud platform central identity: OpenStack Keystone case study

Abstract

Nowadays OpenStack platform is a leading solution in cloud computing field. Keystone, the OpenStack Identity Service is one of its major components. In this paper we demonstrate the problem of Keystone performance degradation during constant load. In order to find source of the problem we have tested Keystone with different backends (PostgreSQL, MariaDB), frontends (Apache2, ngnix) and keeping the database on different hardware (HDD, SSD and tmpfs on RAM). Tests were conducted with Rally. As a result, in all test cases we have seen inadequate quick degradation under relatively light load. We have also implemented a mock service which represents the simplest Keystone tasks. Our service turned out to be much faster than Keystone. The problem with Keystone might be related to either its internal logic implementation or incorrect interaction with other components; it is the subject of further research.