APM Integration Testing

This repo contains tools for end to end (eg agent -> apm server -> elasticsearch <- kibana) development and testing of Elastic APM.

Prerequisites

The basic requirements for starting a local environment are:

• Docker
• Docker compose
• Python (version 3 preferred)

This repo is tested with Python 3 but best effort is made to make starting/stopping environments work with Python 2.7.

Docker

Installation instructions

Docker compose

Installation instructions

Python 3

• Windows: Installation instructions
• Mac (using Homebrew):

  brew install python

• Debian/Ubuntu

  sudo apt-get install python3

Running Local Enviroments

Starting an Environment

./scripts/compose.py provides a handy cli for starting a testing environment using docker-compose. make venv creates a virtual environment with all of the python-based dependencies needed to run ./scripts/compose.py - it requires virtualenv in your PATH. Activate the virtualenv with source venv/bin/activate and use ./scripts/compose.py --help for information on subcommands and arguments. Finally, you can execute the following command to list all available parameter to start the environment ./scripts/compose.py start --help.

APM LocalEnv Quickstart

Logging in

By default, Security is enabled, which means you need to log into Kibana and/or authenticate with Elasticsearch. An assortment of users is provided to test different scenarios:

• admin
• apm_server_user
• apm_user_ro
• kibana_system_user
• *_beat_user

The password for all default users is changeme.

Stopping an Environment

All services:

./scripts/compose.py stop

# OR

docker-compose down

All services and clean up volumes and networks:

make stop-env

Individual services:

docker-compose stop <service name>

Example environments

We have a list with the most common flags combination that we internally use when developing our APM solution. You can find the list here:

Persona	Flags	Motivation / Use Case	Team	Comments
CI Server	python scripts/compose.py start 8.0.0 --java-agent-version ${COMMIT_SHA} --build-parallel --with-agent-java-spring --no-apm-server-dashboards --no-apm-server-self-instrument --no-kibana --force-build	Prepare environment for running tests for APM Java agent	APM Agents
CI Server	python scripts/compose.py start 8.0.0 --apm-server-build https://github.com/elastic/apm-server@${COMMIT_HASH} --build-parallel --no-apm-server-dashboards --no-apm-server-self-instrument --with-agent-rumjs --with-agent-dotnet --with-agent-go-net-http --with-agent-nodejs-express --with-agent-ruby-rails --with-agent-java-spring --with-agent-python-django --with-agent-python-flask --force-build	Prepare environment for running tests for APM Server	APM Server
Demos & Screenshots	./scripts/compose.py start --release --with-opbeans-dotnet --with-opbeans-go --with-opbeans-java --opbeans-java-agent-branch=pr/588/head --force-build --with-opbeans-node --with-opbeans-python --with-opbeans-ruby --with-opbeans-rum --with-filebeat --with-metricbeat 7.3.0	demos, screenshots, ad hoc QA. It's also used to send heartbeat data to the cluster for Uptime	PMM	Used for snapshots when close to a release, without the --release flag
Development	./scripts/compose.py start 7.3 --bc --with-opbeans-python --opbeans-python-agent-local-repo=~/elastic/apm-agent-python	Use current state of local agent repo with opbeans	APM Agents	This works perfectly for Python, but has problems with Node.js. We are not mounting the local folder as a volume, but copy it. This is to avoid any side effects to the local repo. The node local dev folder can get very large due to node_modules, which takes some time to copy.
	./scripts/compose.py start 7.3 --bc --start-opbeans-deps	This flag would start all opbeans dependencies (postgres, redis, apm-server, ...), but not any opbeans instances	APM Agents	This would help when developing with a locally running opbeans. Currently, we start the environment with a --with-opbeans-python flag, then stop the opbeans-python container manually
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start master --no-apm-server	Only use Kibana + ES in desired version for testing	APM Server
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start --release 7.3 --no-apm-server	Use released Kibana + ES, with custom agent and server running on host, for developing new features that span agent and server.	APM Agents	If --opbeans-go-agent-local-repo worked, we might be inclined to use that instead of running custom apps on the host. Would have been handy while developing support for breakdown graphs. Even then, it's probably still faster to iterate on the agent without involving Docker.
Demos & Compettive	./scripts/compose.py start 6.7.0 --release --with-services ~/src/elastic/apm-dev/docs/static/jaeger.json --with-services ~/src/elastic/apm-dev/docs/static/zipkin.json --with-services ~/src/elastic/apm-dev/docs/static/haystack.json	Integration / comparison with external products that we'd prefer not to include in compose.py	APM	https://github.com/elastic/apm-dev/blob/master/docs/competitive.md
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start master --no-kibana	Use newest ES/master, with custom kibana on host, for developing new features in kibana	APM
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start 6.3 --with-kafka --with-zookeeper --apm-server-output=kafka --with-logstash --with-agent-python-flask	Testing with kafka and logstash ingestion methods	APM
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start master --no-kibana --with-opbeans-node --with-opbeans-rum --with-opbeans-x	Developing UI features locally	APM UI
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start master --docker-compose-path - --skip-download --no-kibana --with-opbeans-ruby --opbeans-ruby-agent-branch=master > docker-compose.yml	Developing UI features againt specific configuration	APM UI	We sometimes explicity write a docker-compose.yml file and tinker with it until we get the desired configuration becore running docker-compose up
Developer	scripts/compose.py start ${version}	Manual testing of agent features	APM Agents
Developer	./scripts/compose.py start master --with-opbeans-java --opbeans-java-agent-branch=pr/588/head --apm-server-build https://github.com/elastic/apm-server.git@master	Test with in-progress agent/server features	APM UI
Developer	compose.py start 7.0 --release --apm-server-version=6.8.0	Upgrade/mixed version testing	APM	Then, without losing es data, upgrade/downgrade various components

Change default ports

Expose Kibana on http://localhost:1234:

./scripts/compose.py start master --kibana-port 1234

Opbeans

Opbeans are demo web applications that are instrumented with Elastic APM. Start opbeans-* services and their dependencies along with apm-server, elasticsearch, and kibana:

./scripts/compose.py start --all master

This will also start the opbeans-load-generator service which, by default, will generate random requests to all started backend Opbeans services. To disable load generation for a specific service, use the --no-opbeans-XYZ-loadgen flag.

Opbeans RUM does not need a load generation service, as it is itself generating load using a headless chrome instance.

Start Opbeans with a specific agent branch

You can start Opbeans with an agent which is built from source from a specific branch or PR. This is currently only supported with the go and the Java agent.

Example which builds the elastic/apm-agent-java#588 branch from source and uses an APM server built from master:

./scripts/compose.py start master --with-opbeans-java --opbeans-java-agent-branch=pr/588/head --apm-server-build https://github.com/elastic/apm-server.git@master

Note that it may take a while to build the agent from source.

Another example, which installs the APM Python Agent from the master branch for testing against opbeans-python (for example, for end to end log correlation testing):

./scripts/compose.py start master --with-opbeans-python --with-filebeat --opbeans-python-agent-branch=master --force-build

Note that we use --opbeans-python-agent-branch to define the python agent branch for opbeans-python, rather than --python-agent-package, which only applies to the --with-python-agent-* flags for the small integration test apps.

Uploading Sourcemaps

The frontend app packaged with opbeans-node runs in a production build, which means the source code is minified. The APM server needs the corresponding sourcemap to unminify the code.

You can upload the sourcemap with this command:

./scripts/compose.py upload-sourcemap

In the standard setup, it will find the config options itself, but they can be overwritten. See

./scripts/compose.py upload-sourcemap --help

Kafka output

./scripts/compose.py start --with-kafka --with-zookeeper --apm-server-output=kafka --with-logstash master

Logstash will be configured to ingest events from kafka.

Topics are named according to service name. To view events for 1234_service-12a3:

docker exec -it localtesting_6.3.0-SNAPSHOT_kafka kafka-console-consumer --bootstrap-server kafka:9092 --topic apm-1234_service-12a3 --from-beginning --max-messages 100

Onboarding events will go to the apm topic.

Note that index templates are not loaded automatically when using outputs other than Elasticsearch. Create them manually with:

./scripts/compose.py load-dashboards

If data was inserted before this point (eg an opbeans service was started) you'll probably have to delete the auto-created apm-* indexes and let them be recreated.

Advanced topics

Dumping docker-compose.yml

./scripts/compose.py start master --docker-compose-path - --skip-download will dump the generated docker-compose.yml to standard out (-) without starting any containers or downloading images.

Omit --skip-download to just download images.

Testing compose

compose.py includes unittests, make test-compose to run.

Running Tests

Additional dependencies are required for running the integration tests:

• python3
• virtualenv

On a Mac with Homebrew:

brew install pyenv-virtualenv

All integration tests are written in python and live under tests/.

Several make targets exist to make their execution simpler:

• test-server
• test-kibana
• test-agent-{go,node,python,ruby,...}

These targets will create a python virtual environment in venv with all of the dependencies need to run the suite.

Each target requires a running test environment, providing an apm-server, elasticsearch, and others depending on the particular suite.

Tests should always eventually be run within a docker container to ensure a consistent, repeatable environment for reporting.

Prefix any of the test- targets with docker- to run them in a container eg: make docker-test-server.

Network issues diagnose

It is possible to diagnose Network issues related with lost documents between APM Agent, APM server, or Elasticsearch, in order to do that, you have to add the --with-packetbeat argument to your command line. When you add this argument an additional Docker container running Packetbeat is attached to the APM Server Docker container, this container will grab information about the communication between APM Agent, APM server, and Elasticsearch that you can analyze in case of failure. When a test fails, data related to Packetbeat and APM is dumped with elasticdump into a couple of files /app/tests/results/data-NAME_OF_THE_TEST.json and /app/tests/results/packetbeat-NAME_OF_THE_TEST.json

Continuous Integration

Jenkins runs the scripts from .ci/scripts and is viewable at https://apm-ci.elastic.co/.

Those scripts shut down any existing testing containers and start a fresh new environment before running tests unless the REUSE_CONTAINERS environment variable is set.

These are the scripts available to execute:

• all.sh: runs all test on apm-server and every agent type.
• common.sh: common scripts variables and functions, it does not execute anything.
• dotnet.sh: runs .NET tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• go.sh: runs Go tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• java.sh: runs Java tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• kibana.sh: runs kibana agent tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• nodejs.sh: runs Nodejs agent tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• opbeans.sh: runs the unit tests for the apm-integration-testing app and validate the linting, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• python.sh: runs Python agent tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• ruby.sh: runs Ruby agent tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• server.sh: runs APM Server tests, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.
• unit-tests.sh: runs the unit tests for the apm-integration-testing app and validate the linting, you can choose the versions to run see the environment variables configuration.

Environment Variables

It is possible to configure some options and versions to run by defining environment variables before to launch the scripts

• COMPOSE_ARGS: replaces completely the default arguments compose.py used by scripts, see the compose.py help to know which ones you can use.
• DISABLE_BUILD_PARALLEL: by default Docker images are built in parallel, if you set DISABLE_BUILD_PARALLEL=true the Docker images will build in serie. It helps to make the logs more readable.
• BUILD_OPTS: aggregates arguments to default arguments passing to compose.py see the compose.py help to know which ones you can use.
• ELASTIC_STACK_VERSION: selects the Elastic Stack version to use on tests, by default is is used the master branch. You can choose any branch or tag from the Github repo.
• APM_SERVER_BRANCH: selects the APM Server version to use on tests, by default it uses the master branch. You can choose any branch or tag from the Github repo.
• APM_AGENT_DOTNET_VERSION: selects the agent .NET version to use, by default it uses the master branch. See specify an agent version
• APM_AGENT_GO_VERSION: selects the agent Go version to use, by default it uses the master branch. See specify an agent version
• APM_AGENT_JAVA_VERSION: selects the agent Java version to use, by default it uses the master branch. See specify an agent version
• APM_AGENT_NODEJS_VERSION: selects the agent Nodejs version to use, by default it uses the master branch. See specify an agent version
• APM_AGENT_PYTHON_VERSION: selects the agent Python version to use, by default it uses the master branch. See specify an agent version
• APM_AGENT_RUBY_VERSION: selects the agent Ruby version to use, by default it uses the master branch. See specify an agent version

Specify an Agent Version

You can choose any release, branch, or tag from the Github repo, to do that you have to set the PKG environment variable to MODE;VERSION, where MODE can be:

• github: to get VERSION from branches and tags.
• release: to get VERSION from releases.
• commit: to get VERSION from commits (only Java and Go agents).

e.g.

• APM_AGENT_NODEJS_VERSION=github;v1.0.0 It will try to get v1.0.0 branch or tag from Github.
• APM_AGENT_NODEJS_VERSION=github;master It will try to get master branch or tag from Github.
• APM_AGENT_NODEJS_VERSION=release;v1.0.0 It will try to get v1.0.0 from releases repo.
• APM_AGENT_RUBY_VERSION=release;latest It will try to get latest from releases repo.
• APM_AGENT_JAVA_VERSION=commit;539f1725483804d32beb4f780eac72c238329cb1 It will try to get 539f1725483804d32beb4f780eac72c238329cb1 from repo commits.

Version tests

Various combinations of versions of agents and the Elastic Stack are tested together to ensure compatibility. The matrix is defined using apm_server.yml for one axis and then a per-agent specification for the other axis. Certain exclusions are defined on a per agent basis. For example, the nodejs matrix is defined in nodejs.yml. When those tests run, scripts/ci/versions_nodejs.sh is invoked with the product of those files, eg scripts/ci/versions_nodejs.sh 'github;master' '6.3'. The Elastic Stack version argument accepts an optional list of semi-colon separated arguments that will be passed to scripts/compose.py when building the test stack.

Agent Development

To run integration tests against unreleased agent code, start an environment where that agent code is used by the test application.

For example, to test an update to the python agent from user elasticcontributor on their newfeature1 branch:

# start test deps: apm-server, elasticsearch, and the two python test applications
# the test applications will use elasticcontributor's newfeature1 apm agent
./scripts/compose.py start master --no-kibana --with-agent-python-django --with-agent-python-flask --python-agent-package=git+https://github.com/elasticcontributor/apm-agent-python.git@newfeature1 --force-build

# wait for healthiness
docker-compose ps

# run tests
make test-agent-python

Testing unrelease code for other agents follows a simliar pattern.

See version* in https://github.com/elastic/apm-integration-testing/tree/master/.ci/scripts for details on how CI tests specific agent/elastic stack version combinations.

Testing docker images

Tests are written using bats under the docker/tests dir

make -C docker test-<app>
make -C docker test-opbeans-<agent>
make -C docker test-<agent>

Test all the docker images for the Opbeans

make -C docker all-opbeans-tests

Test all the docker images for the agents

make -C docker all-agents-tests