Run JMH Benchmarks on Hetzner

Provision a dedicated Hetzner cloud server, deploy the current working tree, run JMH benchmarks from any module, download results, and tear down the server.

Prerequisites

• hcloud CLI installed and authenticated (hcloud version to verify)
• SSH key pair at ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 (or ~/.ssh/id_rsa)
• The benchmark module compiles locally

Workflow

Step 0: Determine benchmark module and parameters

Ask the user (or infer from context) which benchmark module to run. The project may contain multiple JMH benchmark modules. Common examples:

• jmh-ldbc — LDBC SNB read query benchmarks (default if user says "run benchmarks")
• Other modules with JMH dependencies — check for jmh-core dependency in pom.xml

Determine:

• Module name (-pl <module>)
• JMH regex filter (which benchmarks to include/exclude)
• JMH parameters (forks, warmup, measurement iterations)

Defaults (good for comparison runs):

• -f 1 -wi 3 -w 5s -i 5 -r 10s

For jmh-ldbc specifically:

• Expected runtime: ~90 minutes for 40 benchmarks (20 queries x 2 suites) with -f 1 -wi 3 -w 5s -i 5 -r 10s

Step 1: Provision the server

Naming convention: Use jmh-bench-<branch> for the server and jmh-bench-key-<branch> for the SSH key, where <branch> is the current git branch name (sanitized: lowercase, slashes replaced with dashes, truncated to keep total name under 63 chars). This avoids conflicts when multiple benchmark runs execute concurrently on different branches.

# Determine branch-based names
BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD | tr '[:upper:]/' '[:lower:]-' | cut -c1-40)
SERVER_NAME="jmh-bench-${BRANCH}"
KEY_NAME="jmh-bench-key-${BRANCH}"

# Upload local SSH public key
hcloud ssh-key create --name "$KEY_NAME" --public-key-from-file ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

# Create CCX33: 8 dedicated AMD vCPUs, 32 GB RAM, Falkenstein DC
hcloud server create --name "$SERVER_NAME" --type ccx33 --image ubuntu-24.04 --location fsn1 --ssh-key "$KEY_NAME"

Record the IPv4 address from the output. Wait ~15 seconds for the server to boot before attempting SSH.

If SSH fails with a host key conflict, remove the stale key:

ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/known_hosts -R <IP>

Step 2: Install JDK 21

ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no root@<IP> \
  'apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y -qq openjdk-21-jdk-headless git tmux > /dev/null 2>&1 && java -version'

Step 3: Deploy the project

Rsync the worktree root (the directory containing mvnw, pom.xml, core/, etc.), excluding .git, target, and .idea:

rsync -az --exclude='.git' --exclude='target' --exclude='.idea' <worktree-root>/ root@<IP>:/root/ytdb/

Important: The working directory (e.g. /workspace/ytdb/ldbc-jmh) may be a git worktree — it contains the full project tree with mvnw at its root. Rsync this directory, NOT the parent /workspace/ytdb/.

Then initialize a git repo on the server (required by Spotless):

ssh root@<IP> 'git config --global --add safe.directory /root/ytdb && \
  git config --global user.email "bench@test" && \
  git config --global user.name "bench" && \
  cd /root/ytdb && git init && git add -A && git commit -m "baseline" --quiet'

Step 3b: Download dataset from Hetzner S3 (jmh-ldbc only — MANDATORY)

The LDBC dataset must be pre-downloaded before running benchmarks. The benchmark no longer auto-downloads from SURF (the SURF format is incompatible). Download it from Hetzner Object Storage (S3):

ssh root@<IP> 'apt-get install -y -qq python3-pip zstd > /dev/null 2>&1 && \
  pip install --break-system-packages boto3 -q && \
  mkdir -p /root/ytdb/<module>/target/ldbc-dataset/sf0.1 && \
  python3 -c "
import boto3, os
s3 = boto3.client(\"s3\",
    endpoint_url=os.environ[\"S3_ENDPOINT\"],
    aws_access_key_id=os.environ[\"S3_ACCESS_KEY\"],
    aws_secret_access_key=os.environ[\"S3_SECRET_KEY\"])
print(\"Downloading dataset from S3...\")
s3.download_file(\"bench-cache\", \"ldbc/ldbc-sf0.1-composite-merged-fk.tar.zst\", \"/tmp/dataset.tar.zst\")
print(\"Downloaded\")
" && \
  cd /root/ytdb/<module>/target/ldbc-dataset/sf0.1 && \
  zstd -d /tmp/dataset.tar.zst -o /tmp/dataset.tar && \
  tar xf /tmp/dataset.tar && \
  rm -f /tmp/dataset.tar.zst /tmp/dataset.tar && \
  echo "Dataset ready" && ls static/ dynamic/'

Important: The command above requires S3 credentials as environment variables on the remote server. Pass them via SSH:

ssh root@<IP> "export S3_ENDPOINT='<endpoint>' S3_ACCESS_KEY='<key>' S3_SECRET_KEY='<secret>' && ..."

Credentials are stored as GitHub secrets: HETZNER_S3_ACCESS_KEY, HETZNER_S3_SECRET_KEY, HETZNER_S3_ENDPOINT. Retrieve them from GitHub or ask the user.

Replace <module> with the benchmark module (e.g. jmh-ldbc).

The dataset uses LDBC datagen v1.0.0 CsvCompositeMergeForeign format (~19 MB). It is stored in Hetzner Object Storage bucket bench-cache at key ldbc/ldbc-sf0.1-composite-merged-fk.tar.zst.

If S3 credentials are unavailable, generate the dataset locally using the LDBC datagen Docker image, then rsync it to the server:

# On the local machine
docker run --rm \
    -v "$(pwd)/jmh-ldbc/target/ldbc-dataset/sf0.1:/out" \
    ldbc/datagen:latest \
    --scale-factor 0.1 --mode raw --format CsvCompositeMergeForeign

# Then rsync the dataset to the server
rsync -az jmh-ldbc/target/ldbc-dataset/ root@<IP>:/root/ytdb/jmh-ldbc/target/ldbc-dataset/

Do not use the SURF repository at repository.surfsara.nl — it provides CsvComposite format (v0.3.5), which is incompatible with the benchmark loaders.

Step 4: Compile

ssh root@<IP> 'cd /root/ytdb && chmod +x mvnw && \
  ./mvnw -pl <module> -am compile -DskipTests -Dspotless.check.skip=true -q'

Replace <module> with the target benchmark module (e.g. jmh-ldbc).

Wait for BUILD SUCCESS (typically ~60-90 seconds on CCX33).

Step 4b: Pre-load LDBC dataset (jmh-ldbc only)

Critical for jmh-ldbc: The LDBC dataset is downloaded and loaded into the database inside JMH's @Setup(Level.Trial) method. This means the first fork's warmup iteration includes dataset download + DB creation time. For multi-threaded benchmarks, threads start executing queries on a partially-loaded database, producing wildly inaccurate results (e.g., 300+ ops/s when the real throughput is ~3 ops/s).

Always pre-load the dataset before running actual benchmarks:

ssh root@<IP> 'cd /root/ytdb && ./mvnw -pl <module> -am verify -P bench -DskipTests -Dspotless.check.skip=true \
  -Djmh.args="ic5_newGroups -f 0 -wi 0 -i 1 -r 1s -t 1" 2>&1 | tail -20'

This runs a single in-process iteration (-f 0) that triggers dataset download and DB creation. Subsequent forked runs will find the existing DB at ./target/ldbc-bench-db and skip loading.

If the dataset was pre-downloaded via Step 3b: The pre-load step is still required — it creates the YouTrackDB database from the CSV files. However, the download phase will be skipped automatically because the dataset files already exist in target/ldbc-dataset/.

When comparing two code versions (A/B testing): After running version A, delete the benchmark database before running version B to avoid stale cached data:

ssh root@<IP> 'rm -rf /root/ytdb/jmh-ldbc/target/ldbc-bench-db'

The dataset files (target/ldbc-dataset/) can be kept — only the DB needs to be recreated.

Step 5: Run benchmarks

IMPORTANT: Never run multiple benchmarks concurrently on the same server. Always wait for one benchmark run to complete before starting the next.

Start the benchmark in a tmux session so it survives SSH disconnects.

If the module has a bench Maven profile (like jmh-ldbc):

ssh root@<IP> 'tmux new-session -d -s bench \
  "cd /root/ytdb && ./mvnw -pl <module> -am verify -P bench -DskipTests -Dspotless.check.skip=true \
  -Djmh.args=\"<jmh-args> -rf json -rff /root/results.json\" \
  2>&1 | tee /root/bench.log"'

If the module produces an uber-jar:

ssh root@<IP> 'tmux new-session -d -s bench \
  "cd /root/ytdb && java -jar <module>/target/benchmarks.jar \
  <jmh-args> -rf json -rff /root/results.json \
  2>&1 | tee /root/bench.log"'

JMH parameters explained:

• -f 1 — 1 fork (sufficient for comparison runs; use -f 3 for publication-grade results)
• -wi 3 -w 5s — 3 warmup iterations, 5 seconds each
• -i 5 -r 10s — 5 measurement iterations, 10 seconds each
• -e <pattern> — exclude benchmarks matching regex
• -rf json -rff /root/results.json — save results as JSON

Step 6: Monitor progress

Poll periodically (every 5-10 minutes):

# Count completed benchmarks
ssh root@<IP> 'grep "^Result" /root/bench.log 2>/dev/null | wc -l'

# Check current benchmark
ssh root@<IP> 'tail -5 /root/bench.log'

# Check if complete
ssh root@<IP> 'grep "^# Run complete\|BUILD" /root/bench.log'

Step 7: Collect results

Once # Run complete appears in the log:

# Download JSON results
scp root@<IP>:/root/results.json /tmp/claude-code-results.json

# Show summary table
ssh root@<IP> 'grep "^Benchmark\|thrpt\|avgt" /root/bench.log | head -60'

Copy the JSON to the project directory with a descriptive name:

cp /tmp/claude-code-results.json <module>/<name>-results-ccx33.json

Step 8: Destroy the server

Always clean up to avoid charges. Use the same branch-based names from Step 1:

hcloud server delete "$SERVER_NAME"
hcloud ssh-key delete "$KEY_NAME"

Step 9: Compare results

If baseline data exists (e.g. in memory files or previous JSON), present a comparison table with:

• Benchmark name
• Baseline score
• New score
• Percentage change
• Assessment (regression / noise / improvement)

Changes within ~5-7% are typically measurement noise for multi-threaded benchmarks. Single-threaded benchmarks are more stable (~2-3% noise floor).

Troubleshooting

Notes

• Server type: CCX33 provides 8 dedicated AMD EPYC vCPUs — dedicated (not shared) cores ensure consistent benchmark results. For heavier benchmarks, consider CCX43 (16 vCPUs) or CCX53 (32 vCPUs).
• jmh-ldbc Threads.MAX: The multi-threaded LDBC benchmark uses @Threads(Threads.MAX) — one thread per available processor. On CCX33 this means 8 threads.
• jmh-ldbc dataset loading: The LDBC dataset must be pre-downloaded via Step 3b (Hetzner S3) — the benchmark no longer auto-downloads from SURF. DB creation happens inside LdbcBenchmarkState.@Setup(Level.Trial) on first run. Always pre-load with -f 0 before real benchmarks (see Step 4b). The DB path is ./target/ldbc-bench-db; the dataset cache is ./target/ldbc-dataset/.
• Never run benchmarks concurrently: Multiple JMH processes on the same server will contend for CPU and produce unreliable numbers. Always run one at a time.
• Ubuntu apt lock on fresh servers: Newly provisioned Ubuntu 24.04 servers run unattended-upgrades on first boot. If apt-get install fails with "Could not get lock", wait 30 seconds and retry.
• Memory file: For LDBC benchmarks, update ldbc-jmh-benchmarks.md in the auto-memory directory with new results after each run.
• S3 dataset cache: The LDBC dataset archive (ldbc-sf0.1-composite-merged-fk.tar.zst, ~19 MB, datagen v1.0.0 CsvCompositeMergeForeign format) is cached in Hetzner Object Storage bucket bench-cache at ldbc/ldbc-sf0.1-composite-merged-fk.tar.zst. Credentials are stored as GitHub secrets HETZNER_S3_ACCESS_KEY / HETZNER_S3_SECRET_KEY / HETZNER_S3_ENDPOINT — never hardcode them in code or commit them to the repository.
• Dataset without S3 access: If S3 credentials are unavailable, generate the dataset locally using the LDBC datagen Docker image: docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)/jmh-ldbc/target/ldbc-dataset/sf0.1:/out" ldbc/datagen:latest --scale-factor 0.1 --mode raw --format CsvCompositeMergeForeign. Then rsync the generated dataset to the server. See jmh-ldbc/README.md for details.
• Do not use SURF: The SURF Data Repository (repository.surfsara.nl) provides the CsvComposite format (v0.3.5), which is incompatible with the benchmark loaders that expect CsvCompositeMergeForeign column layouts.