GoodJob is a multithreaded, Postgres-based, ActiveJob backend for Ruby on Rails.
Inspired by Delayed::Job and Que, GoodJob is designed for maximum compatibility with Ruby on Rails, ActiveJob, and Postgres to be simple and performant for most workloads.
- Designed for ActiveJob. Complete support for async, queues, delays, priorities, timeouts, and retries with near-zero configuration.
- Built for Rails. Fully adopts Ruby on Rails threading and code execution guidelines with Concurrent::Ruby.
- Backed by Postgres. Relies upon Postgres integrity, session-level Advisory Locks to provide run-once safety and stay within the limits of
schema.rb
, and LISTEN/NOTIFY to reduce queuing latency. - For most workloads. Targets full-stack teams, economy-minded solo developers, and applications that enqueue 1-million jobs/day and more.
For more of the story of GoodJob, read the introductory blog post.
๐ Comparison of GoodJob with other job queue backends (click to expand)
Queues, priority, retries | Database | Concurrency | Reliability/Integrity | Latency | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GoodJob | โ Yes | โ Postgres | โ Multithreaded | โ ACID, Advisory Locks | โ Postgres LISTEN/NOTIFY |
Que | โ Yes | ๐ถ๏ธ Postgres, requires structure.sql |
โ Multithreaded | โ ACID, Advisory Locks | โ Postgres LISTEN/NOTIFY |
Delayed Job | โ Yes | โ Postgres | ๐ด Single-threaded | โ ACID, record-based | ๐ถ Polling |
Sidekiq | โ Yes | ๐ด Redis | โ Multithreaded | ๐ด Crashes lose jobs | โ Redis BRPOP |
Sidekiq Pro | โ Yes | ๐ด Redis | โ Multithreaded | โ Redis RPOPLPUSH | โ Redis RPOPLPUSH |
- Set up
- Compatibility
- Configuration
- Go deeper
- Contribute
- License
-
Add
good_job
to your application's Gemfile and install the gem:bundle add good_job
-
Run the GoodJob install generator. This will generate a database migration to create a table for GoodJob's job records:
bin/rails g good_job:install
Run the migration:
bin/rails db:migrate
Optional: If using Rails' multiple databases with the
migrations_paths
configuration option, use the--database
option:bin/rails g good_job:install --database animals bin/rails db:migrate:animals
-
Configure the ActiveJob adapter:
# config/application.rb or config/environments/{RAILS_ENV}.rb config.active_job.queue_adapter = :good_job
-
Inside of your application, queue your job ๐:
YourJob.perform_later
GoodJob supports all ActiveJob features:
YourJob.set(queue: :some_queue, wait: 5.minutes, priority: 10).perform_later
-
In development, GoodJob executes jobs immediately in a separate thread ("async" mode). In production, GoodJob provides different options:
-
By default, GoodJob separates job enqueuing from job execution so that jobs can be scaled independently of the web server. Use the GoodJob command-line tool to execute jobs:
bundle exec good_job start
Ideally the command-line tool should be run on a separate machine or container from the web process. For example, on Heroku:
web: rails server worker: bundle exec good_job start
The command-line tool supports a variety of options, see the reference below for command-line configuration.
-
GoodJob can also be configured to execute jobs within the web server process to save on resources. This is useful for low-workloads when economy is paramount.
GOOD_JOB_EXECUTION_MODE=async rails server
Additional configuration is likely necessary, see the reference below for configuration.
-
- Ruby on Rails: 6.0+
- Ruby: Ruby 2.5+. JRuby 9.2.13+
- Postgres: 10.0+
There several top-level commands available through the good_job
command-line tool.
Configuration options are available with help
.
good_job start
executes queued jobs.
$ bundle exec good_job help start
Usage:
good_job start
Options:
[--queues=QUEUE_LIST] # Queues or pools to work from. (env var: GOOD_JOB_QUEUES, default: *)
[--max-threads=COUNT] # Default number of threads per pool to use for working jobs. (env var: GOOD_JOB_MAX_THREADS, default: 5)
[--poll-interval=SECONDS] # Interval between polls for available jobs in seconds (env var: GOOD_JOB_POLL_INTERVAL, default: 1)
[--max-cache=COUNT] # Maximum number of scheduled jobs to cache in memory (env var: GOOD_JOB_MAX_CACHE, default: 10000)
[--shutdown-timeout=SECONDS] # Number of seconds to wait for jobs to finish when shutting down before stopping the thread. (env var: GOOD_JOB_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT, default: -1 (forever))
[--enable-cron] # Whether to run cron process (default: false)
[--daemonize] # Run as a background daemon (default: false)
[--pidfile=PIDFILE] # Path to write daemonized Process ID (env var: GOOD_JOB_PIDFILE, default: tmp/pids/good_job.pid)
[--probe-port=PORT] # Port for http health check (env var: GOOD_JOB_PROBE_PORT, default: nil)
Executes queued jobs.
All options can be configured with environment variables.
See option descriptions for the matching environment variable name.
== Configuring queues
Separate multiple queues with commas; exclude queues with a leading minus;
separate isolated execution pools with semicolons and threads with colons.
good_job cleanup_preserved_jobs
destroys preserved job records. See GoodJob.preserve_job_records
for when this command is useful.
$ bundle exec good_job help cleanup_preserved_jobs
Usage:
good_job cleanup_preserved_jobs
Options:
[--before-seconds-ago=SECONDS] # Destroy records finished more than this many seconds ago (env var: GOOD_JOB_CLEANUP_PRESERVED_JOBS_BEFORE_SECONDS_AGO, default: 1209600 (14 days))
Destroys preserved job records.
By default, GoodJob destroys job records when the job is performed and this
command is not necessary.
However, when `GoodJob.preserve_job_records = true`, the jobs will be
preserved in the database. This is useful when wanting to analyze or
inspect job performance.
If you are preserving job records this way, use this command regularly
to destroy old records and preserve space in your database.
ActiveJob configuration depends on where the code is placed:
config.active_job.queue_adapter = :good_job
withinconfig/application.rb
orconfig/environments/*.rb
.ActiveJob::Base.queue_adapter = :good_job
within an initializer (e.g.config/initializers/active_job.rb
).
GoodJob configuration can be placed within Rails config
directory for all environments (config/application.rb
), within a particular environment (e.g. config/environments/development.rb
), or within an initializer (e.g. config/initializers/good_job.rb
).
Configuration examples:
# config/initializers/good_job.rb OR config/application.rb OR config/environments/{RAILS_ENV}.rb
Rails.application.configure do
# Configure options individually...
config.good_job.preserve_job_records = true
config.good_job.retry_on_unhandled_error = false
config.good_job.on_thread_error = -> (exception) { Raven.capture_exception(exception) }
config.good_job.execution_mode = :async
config.good_job.queues = '*'
config.good_job.max_threads = 5
config.good_job.poll_interval = 30 # seconds
config.good_job.shutdown_timeout = 25 # seconds
config.good_job.enable_cron = true
config.good_job.cron = { example: { cron: '0 * * * *', class: 'ExampleJob' } }
# ...or all at once.
config.good_job = {
preserve_job_records: true,
retry_on_unhandled_error: false,
on_thread_error: -> (exception) { Raven.capture_exception(exception) },
execution_mode: :async,
queues: '*',
max_threads: 5,
poll_interval: 30,
shutdown_timeout: 25,
enable_cron: true,
cron: {
example: {
cron: '0 * * * *',
class: 'ExampleJob'
},
},
}
end
Available configuration options are:
-
execution_mode
(symbol) specifies how and where jobs should be executed. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_EXECUTION_MODE
. It can be any one of::inline
executes jobs immediately in whatever process queued them (usually the web server process). This should only be used in test and development environments.:external
causes the adapter to enqueue jobs, but not execute them. When using this option (the default for production environments), youโll need to use the command-line tool to actually execute your jobs.:async
(or:async_server
) executes jobs in separate threads within the Rails web server process (bundle exec rails server
). It can be more economical for small workloads because you donโt need a separate machine or environment for running your jobs, but if your web server is under heavy load or your jobs require a lot of resources, you should choose:external
instead. When not in the Rails web server, jobs will execute in:external
mode to ensure jobs are not executed withinrails console
,rails db:migrate
,rails assets:prepare
, etc.:async_all
executes jobs in separate threads in any Rails process.
-
queues
(string) sets queues or pools to execute jobs. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_QUEUES
. -
max_threads
(integer) sets the default number of threads per pool to use for working jobs. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_MAX_THREADS
. -
poll_interval
(integer) sets the number of seconds between polls for jobs whenexecution_mode
is set to:async
. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_POLL_INTERVAL
. A poll interval of-1
disables polling completely. -
max_cache
(integer) sets the maximum number of scheduled jobs that will be stored in memory to reduce execution latency when also polling for scheduled jobs. Caching 10,000 scheduled jobs uses approximately 20MB of memory. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_MAX_CACHE
. -
shutdown_timeout
(float) number of seconds to wait for jobs to finish when shutting down before stopping the thread. Defaults to forever:-1
. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_SHUTDOWN_TIMEOUT
. -
enable_cron
(boolean) whether to run cron process. Defaults tofalse
. You can also set this with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_ENABLE_CRON
. -
cron
(hash) cron configuration. Defaults to{}
. You can also set this as a JSON string with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_CRON
-
cleanup_discarded_jobs
(boolean) whether to destroy discarded jobs when cleaning up preserved jobs using the$ good_job cleanup_preserved_jobs
CLI command or callingGoodJob.cleanup_preserved_jobs
. Defaults totrue
. Can also be set with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_CLEANUP_DISCARDED_JOBS
. This configuration is only used when {GoodJob.preserve_job_records} istrue
. -
cleanup_preserved_jobs_before_seconds_ago
(integer) number of seconds to preserve jobs when using the$ good_job cleanup_preserved_jobs
CLI command or callingGoodJob.cleanup_preserved_jobs
. Defaults to1209600
(14 days). Can also be set with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_CLEANUP_PRESERVED_JOBS_BEFORE_SECONDS_AGO
. This configuration is only used when {GoodJob.preserve_job_records} istrue
. -
cleanup_interval_jobs
(integer) Number of jobs a Scheduler will execute before cleaning up preserved jobs. Defaults to1000
. Can also be set with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_CLEANUP_INTERVAL_JOBS
. -
cleanup_interval_seconds
(integer) Number of seconds a Scheduler will wait before cleaning up preserved jobs. Defaults to600
(10 minutes). Can also be set with the environment variableGOOD_JOB_CLEANUP_INTERVAL_SECONDS
. -
inline_execution_respects_schedule
(boolean) Opt-in to future behavior of inline execution respecting scheduled jobs. Defaults tofalse
. -
logger
(Rails Logger) lets you set a custom logger for GoodJob. It should be an instance of a RailsLogger
(Default:Rails.logger
). -
preserve_job_records
(boolean) keeps job records in your database even after jobs are completed. (Default:true
) -
retry_on_unhandled_error
(boolean) causes jobs to be re-queued and retried if they raise an instance ofStandardError
. Be advised this may lead to jobs being repeated infinitely (see below for more on retries). Instances ofException
, like SIGINT, will always be retried, regardless of this attributeโs value. (Default:true
) -
on_thread_error
(proc, lambda, or callable) will be called when an Exception. It can be useful for logging errors to bug tracking services, like Sentry or Airbrake. Example:config.good_job.on_thread_error = -> (exception) { Raven.capture_exception(exception) }
By default, GoodJob configures the following execution modes per environment:
# config/environments/development.rb
config.active_job.queue_adapter = :good_job
config.good_job.execution_mode = :async
# config/environments/test.rb
config.active_job.queue_adapter = :good_job
config.good_job.execution_mode = :inline
# config/environments/production.rb
config.active_job.queue_adapter = :good_job
config.good_job.execution_mode = :external
Good Jobโs general behavior can also be configured via attributes directly on the GoodJob
module:
GoodJob.active_record_parent_class
(string) The ActiveRecord parent class inherited by GoodJob's ActiveRecord modelGoodJob::Job
(defaults to"ActiveRecord::Base"
). Configure this when using multiple databases with ActiveRecord or when other custom configuration is necessary for the ActiveRecord model to connect to the Postgres database. The value must be a String to avoid premature initialization of ActiveRecord.
Youโll generally want to configure these in config/initializers/good_job.rb
, like so:
# config/initializers/good_job.rb
GoodJob.active_record_parent_class = "ApplicationRecord"
The following options are also configurable via accessors, but you are encouraged to use the configuration attributes instead because these may be deprecated and removed in the future:
GoodJob.logger
(Rails Logger) lets you set a custom logger for GoodJob. It should be an instance of a RailsLogger
.GoodJob.preserve_job_records
(boolean) keeps job records in your database even after jobs are completed. (Default:true
)GoodJob.retry_on_unhandled_error
(boolean) causes jobs to be re-queued and retried if they raise an instance ofStandardError
. Be advised this may lead to jobs being repeated infinitely (see below for more on retries). Instances ofException
, like SIGINT, will always be retried, regardless of this attributeโs value. (Default:false
)GoodJob.on_thread_error
(proc, lambda, or callable) will be called when an Exception. It can be useful for logging errors to bug tracking services, like Sentry or Airbrake.
๐ง GoodJob's dashboard is a work in progress. Please contribute ideas and code on Github.
GoodJob includes a Dashboard as a mountable Rails::Engine
.
-
Mount the engine in your
config/routes.rb
file. The following will mount it athttp://example.com/good_job
.# config/routes.rb # ... mount GoodJob::Engine => 'good_job'
-
Configure authentication. Because jobs can potentially contain sensitive information, you should authorize access. For example, using Devise's
authenticate
helper, that might look like:# config/routes.rb # ... authenticate :user, ->(user) { user.admin? } do mount GoodJob::Engine => 'good_job' end
Another option is using basic auth like this:
# config/initializers/good_job.rb GoodJob::Engine.middleware.use(Rack::Auth::Basic) do |username, password| ActiveSupport::SecurityUtils.secure_compare(Rails.application.credentials.good_job_username, username) && ActiveSupport::SecurityUtils.secure_compare(Rails.application.credentials.good_job_password, password) end
To view finished (successful) and discarded (failed) jobs on the Dashboard, GoodJob must be configured to preserve job records. Preservation is enabled by default.
Troubleshooting the Dashboard: Some applications are unable to autoload the Goodjob Engine. To work around this, explicitly require the Engine at the top of your config/application.rb
file, immediately after Rails is required and before Bundler requires the Rails' groups.
# config/application.rb
require_relative 'boot'
require 'rails/all'
require 'good_job/engine' # <= Add this line
# ...
API-only Rails applications may not have all of the required Rack middleware for the GoodJob Dashboard to function. To re-add the middlware:
# config/application.rb
module MyApp
class Application < Rails::Application
#...
config.middleware.use Rack::MethodOverride
config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Flash
config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Cookies
config.middleware.use ActionDispatch::Session::CookieStore
end
end
The Dashboard can be set to automatically refresh by checking "Live Poll" in the Dashboard header, or by setting ?poll=10
with the interval in seconds (default 30 seconds).
GoodJob can extend ActiveJob to provide limits on concurrently running jobs, either at time of enqueue or at perform. Limiting concurrency can help prevent duplicate, double or unecessary jobs from being enqueued, or race conditions when performing, for example when interacting with 3rd-party APIs.
class MyJob < ApplicationJob
include GoodJob::ActiveJobExtensions::Concurrency
good_job_control_concurrency_with(
# Maximum number of unfinished jobs to allow with the concurrency key
total_limit: 1,
# Or, if more control is needed:
# Maximum number of jobs with the concurrency key to be
# concurrently enqueued (excludes performing jobs)
enqueue_limit: 2,
# Maximum number of jobs with the concurrency key to be
# concurrently performed (excludes enqueued jobs)
perform_limit: 1,
# Note: Under heavy load, the total number of jobs may exceed the
# sum of `enqueue_limit` and `perform_limit` because of race conditions
# caused by imperfectly disjunctive states. If you need to constrain
# the total number of jobs, use `total_limit` instead. See #378.
# A unique key to be globally locked against.
# Can be String or Lambda/Proc that is invoked in the context of the job.
# Note: Arguments passed to #perform_later can be accessed through ActiveJob's `arguments` method
# which is an array containing positional arguments and, optionally, a kwarg hash.
key: -> { "Unique-#{arguments.first}-#{arguments.last[:version]}" } # MyJob.perform_later("Alice", version: 'v2') => "Unique-Alice-v2"
)
def perform(first_name)
# do work
end
end
When testing, the resulting concurrency key value can be inspected:
job = MyJob.perform_later("Alice")
job.good_job_concurrency_key #=> "Unique-Alice"
GoodJob's concurrency control strategy for perform_limit
is "optimistic retry with an incremental backoff". The code is readable.
- "Optimistic" meaning that the implementation's performance trade-off assumes that collisions are atypical (e.g. two users enqueue the same job at the same time) rather than regular (e.g. the system enqueues thousands of colliding jobs at the same time).
- "Retry with an incremental backoff" means that when
perform_limit
is exceeded, the job will raise aGoodJob::ActiveJobExtensions::Concurrency::ConcurrencyExceededError
which is caught by aretry_on
handler which re-schedules the job to execute in the near future with an incremental backoff.
GoodJob can enqueue jobs on a recurring basis that can be used as a replacement for cron.
Cron-style jobs are run on every GoodJob process (e.g. CLI or async
execution mode) when config.good_job.enable_cron = true
, but GoodJob's cron uses unique indexes to ensure that only a single job is enqeued at the given time interval.
Cron-format is parsed by the fugit
gem, which has support for seconds-level resolution (e.g. * * * * * *
) and natural language parsing (e.g. every second
).
# config/environments/application.rb or a specific environment e.g. production.rb
# Enable cron in this process; e.g. only run on the first Heroku worker process
config.good_job.enable_cron = ENV['DYNO'] == 'worker.1' # or `true` or via $GOOD_JOB_ENABLE_CRON
# Configure cron with a hash that has a unique key for each recurring job
config.good_job.cron = {
# Every 15 minutes, enqueue `ExampleJob.set(priority: -10).perform_later(42, name: "Alice")`
frequent_task: { # each recurring job must have a unique key
cron: "*/15 * * * *", # cron-style scheduling format by fugit gem
class: "ExampleJob", # reference the Job class with a string
args: [42, "life"], # positional arguments to pass; can also be a proc e.g. `-> { [Time.now] }`
kwargs: { name: "Alice" }, # keyword arguments to pass; can also be a proc e.g. `-> { { name: NAMES.sample } }`
set: { priority: -10 }, # additional ActiveJob properties; can also be a lambda/proc e.g. `-> { { priority: [1,2].sample } }`
description: "Something helpful", # optional description that appears in Dashboard
},
another_task: {
cron: "0 0,12 * * *",
class: "AnotherJob",
},
# etc.
}
GoodJob follows semantic versioning, though updates may be encouraged through deprecation warnings in minor versions.
Upgrading between minor versions (e.g. v1.4 to v1.5) should not introduce breaking changes, but can introduce new deprecation warnings and database migration notices.
To perform upgrades to the GoodJob database tables:
-
Generate new database migration files:
bin/rails g good_job:update
Optional: If using Rails' multiple databases with the
migrations_paths
configuration option, use the--database
option:bin/rails g good_job:update --database animals
-
Run the database migration locally
bin/rails db:migrate
-
Commit the migration files and resulting
db/schema.rb
changes. -
Deploy the code, run the migrations against the production database, and restart server/worker processes.
GoodJob v3 is operationally identical to v2; upgrading to GoodJob v3 should be simple. If you are already using >= v2.9+
no other changes are necessary.
- Upgrade to
v2.99.x
, following the minor version upgrade process, running any remaining database migrations (rails g good_job:update
) and addressing deprecation warnings. - Upgrade from
v2.99.x
tov3.x
Notable changes:
- Defaults to preserve job records, and automatically delete them after 14 days.
- Defaults to discarding failed jobs, instead of immediately retrying them.
:inline
execution mode respects job schedules. Tests can invokeGoodJob.perform_inline
to execute jobs.GoodJob::Adapter
can no longer can be initialized with custom execution options (queues:
,max_threads:
,poll_interval:
).- Renames
GoodJob::ActiveJobJob
toGoodJob::Job
. - Removes support for Rails 5.2.
GoodJob v2 introduces a new Advisory Lock key format that is operationally different than the v1 advisory lock key format; it's therefore necessary to perform a simple, but staged production upgrade. If you are already using >= v1.12+
no other changes are necessary.
- Upgrade your production environment to
v1.99.x
following the minor version upgrade process, including database migrations.v1.99
is a transitional release that is safely compatible with bothv1.x
andv2.0.0
because it uses bothv1
- andv2
-formatted advisory locks. - Address any deprecation warnings generated by
v1.99
. - Upgrade your production environment to
v1.99.x
tov2.0.x
again following the minor upgrade process.
Notable changes:
- Renames
:async_server
execution mode to:async
; renames prior:async
execution mode to:async_all
. - Sets default Development environment's execution mode to
:async
with disabled polling. - Excludes performing jobs from
enqueue_limit
's count inGoodJob::ActiveJobExtensions::Concurrency
. - Triggers
GoodJob.on_thread_error
for unhandled ActiveJob exceptions. - Renames
GoodJob.reperform_jobs_on_standard_error
accessor toGoodJob.retry_on_unhandled_error
. - Renames
GoodJob::Adapter.shutdown(wait:)
argument toGoodJob::Adapter.shutdown(timeout:)
. - Changes Advisory Lock key format from
good_jobs[ROW_ID]
togood_jobs-[ACTIVE_JOB_ID]
. - Expects presence of columns
good_jobs.active_job_id
,good_jobs.concurrency_key
,good_jobs.concurrency_key
, andgood_jobs.retried_good_job_id
.
GoodJob guarantees that a completely-performed job will run once and only once. GoodJob fully supports ActiveJob's built-in functionality for error handling, retries and timeouts.
ActiveJob provides tools for rescuing and retrying exceptions, including retry_on
, discard_on
, rescue_from
that will rescue exceptions before they get to GoodJob.
If errors do reach GoodJob, you can assign a callable to GoodJob.on_thread_error
to be notified. For example, to log errors to an exception monitoring service like Sentry (or Bugsnag, Airbrake, Honeybadger, etc.):
# config/initializers/good_job.rb
GoodJob.on_thread_error = -> (exception) { Raven.capture_exception(exception) }
By default, GoodJob relies on ActiveJob's retry functionality.
ActiveJob can be configured to retry an infinite number of times, with an exponential backoff. Using ActiveJob's retry_on
prevents exceptions from reaching GoodJob:
class ApplicationJob < ActiveJob::Base
retry_on StandardError, wait: :exponentially_longer, attempts: Float::INFINITY
# ...
end
When using retry_on
with a limited number of retries, the final exception will not be rescued and will raise to GoodJob's error handler. To avoid this, pass a block to retry_on
to handle the final exception instead of raising it to GoodJob:
class ApplicationJob < ActiveJob::Base
retry_on StandardError, attempts: 5 do |_job, _exception|
# Log error, do nothing, etc.
end
# ...
end
When using retry_on
with an infinite number of retries, exceptions will never be raised to GoodJob, which means GoodJob.on_thread_error
will never be called. To report log or report exceptions to an exception monitoring service (e.g. Sentry, Bugsnag, Airbrake, Honeybadger, etc), create an explicit exception wrapper. For example:
class ApplicationJob < ActiveJob::Base
retry_on StandardError, wait: :exponentially_longer, attempts: Float::INFINITY
retry_on SpecialError, attempts: 5 do |_job, exception|
Raven.capture_exception(exception)
end
around_perform do |_job, block|
block.call
rescue StandardError => e
Raven.capture_exception(e)
raise
end
# ...
end
By default, jobs will not be retried unless retry_on
is configured. This can be overridden by setting GoodJob.retry_on_unhandled_error
to true
; GoodJob will then retry the failing job immediately and infinitely, potentially causing high load.
Any configuration in ApplicationJob
will have to be duplicated on ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob
because ActionMailer uses that custom class which inherits from ActiveJob::Base
, rather than your application's ApplicationJob
.
You can use an initializer to configure ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob
, for example:
# config/initializers/good_job.rb
ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob.retry_on StandardError, wait: :exponentially_longer, attempts: Float::INFINITY
# With Sentry (or Bugsnag, Airbrake, Honeybadger, etc.)
ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob.around_perform do |_job, block|
block.call
rescue StandardError => e
Raven.capture_exception(e)
raise
end
Note, that ActionMailer::MailDeliveryJob
is a default since Rails 6.0. Be sure that your app is using that class, as it
might also be configured to use (deprecated now) ActionMailer::DeliveryJob
.
Job timeouts can be configured with an around_perform
:
class ApplicationJob < ActiveJob::Base
JobTimeoutError = Class.new(StandardError)
around_perform do |_job, block|
# Timeout jobs after 10 minutes
Timeout.timeout(10.minutes, JobTimeoutError) do
block.call
end
end
end
By default, GoodJob creates a single thread execution pool that will execute jobs from any queue. Depending on your application's workload, job types, and service level objectives, you may wish to optimize execution resources. For example, providing dedicated execution resources for transactional emails so they are not delayed by long-running batch jobs. Some options:
-
Multiple isolated execution pools within a single process:
For moderate workloads, multiple isolated thread execution pools offers a good balance between congestion management and economy.
A pool is configured with the following syntax
<participating_queues>:<thread_count>
:<participating_queues>
: eitherqueue1,queue2
(only those queues),+queue1,queue2
(only those queues, and processed in order),*
(all) or-queue1,queue2
(all except those queues).<thread_count>
: a count overriding for this specific pool the globalmax-threads
.
Pool configurations are separated with a semicolon (;) in the
queues
configuration$ bundle exec good_job \ --queues="transactional_messages:2;batch_processing:1;-transactional_messages,batch_processing:2;*" \ --max-threads=5
This configuration will result in a single process with 4 isolated thread execution pools.
transactional_messages:2
: execute jobs enqueued ontransactional_messages
, with up to 2 threads.batch_processing:1
execute jobs enqueued onbatch_processing
, with a single thread.-transactional_messages,batch_processing
: execute jobs enqueued on any queue excludingtransactional_messages
orbatch_processing
, with up to 2 threads.*
: execute jobs on any queue, with up to 5 threads (as configured by--max-threads=5
).
When a pool is performing jobs from multiple queues, jobs will be performed from specified queues, ordered by priority and creation time. To perform jobs from queues in the queues' given order, use the
+
modifier. In this example, jobs inbatch_processing
will be performed only when there are no jobs intransactional_messages
:bundle exec good_job --queues="+transactional_messages,batch_processing"
Configuration can be injected by environment variables too:
$ GOOD_JOB_QUEUES="transactional_messages:2;batch_processing:1;-transactional_messages,batch_processing:2;*" \ GOOD_JOB_MAX_THREADS=5 \ bundle exec good_job
-
Multiple processes:
While multiple isolated thread execution pools offer a way to provide dedicated execution resources, those resources are bound to a single machine. To scale them independently, define several processes.
For example, this configuration on Heroku allows to customize the dyno count (instances), or type (CPU/RAM), per process type:
# Procfile # Separate process types worker: bundle exec good_job --max-threads=5 transactional_worker: bundle exec good_job --queues="transactional_messages" --max-threads=2 batch_worker: bundle exec good_job --queues="batch_processing" --max-threads=1
To optimize for CPU performance at the expense of greater memory and system resource usage, while keeping a single process type (and thus a single dyno), combine several processes and wait for them:
# Procfile # Combined multi-process combined_worker: bundle exec good_job --max-threads=5 & bundle exec good_job --queues="transactional_messages" --max-threads=2 & bundle exec good_job --queues="batch_processing" --max-threads=1 & wait -n
Keep in mind, queue operations and management is an advanced discipline. This stuff is complex, especially for heavy workloads and unique processing requirements. Good job ๐
Each GoodJob execution thread requires its own database connection that is automatically checked out from Railsโ connection pool. For example:
# config/database.yml
pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS", 5).to_i + 3 + ENV.fetch("GOOD_JOB_MAX_THREADS", 5).to_i %>
To calculate the total number of the database connections you'll need:
- 1 connection dedicated to the scheduler aka
LISTEN/NOTIFY
- 1 connection per query pool thread e.g.
--queues=mice:2;elephants:1
is 3 threads. Pool thread size defaults to--max-threads
- (optional) 2 connections for Cron scheduler if you're running it
- (optional) 1 connection per subthread, if your application makes multithreaded database queries within a job
- When running
:async
, you must also add the number of threads by the webserver
The queue process will not crash if the connections pool is exhausted, instead it will report an exception (eg. ActiveRecord::ConnectionTimeoutError
).
When running GoodJob in a production environment, you should be mindful of:
- Execution mode
- Database connection pool size
- Health check probes and potentially the instrumentation support
The recommended way to monitor the queue in production is:
- have an exception notifier callback (see
on_thread_error
) - if possible, run the queue as a dedicated instance and use available HTTP health check probes instead of pid-based monitoring
- keep an eye on the number of jobs in the queue (abnormal high number of unscheduled jobs means the queue could be underperforming)
- consider performance monitoring services which support the built-in Rails instrumentation (eg. Sentry, Skylight, etc.)
GoodJob can execute jobs "async" in the same process as the web server (e.g. bin/rails s
). GoodJob's async execution mode offers benefits of economy by not requiring a separate job worker process, but with the tradeoff of increased complexity. Async mode can be configured in two ways:
-
Via Rails configuration:
# config/environments/production.rb config.active_job.queue_adapter = :good_job # To change the execution mode config.good_job.execution_mode = :async # Or with more configuration config.good_job = { execution_mode: :async, max_threads: 4, poll_interval: 30 }
-
Or, with environment variables:
GOOD_JOB_EXECUTION_MODE=async GOOD_JOB_MAX_THREADS=4 GOOD_JOB_POLL_INTERVAL=30 bin/rails server
Depending on your application configuration, you may need to take additional steps:
-
Ensure that you have enough database connections for both web and job execution threads:
# config/database.yml pool: <%= ENV.fetch("RAILS_MAX_THREADS", 5).to_i + ENV.fetch("GOOD_JOB_MAX_THREADS", 4).to_i %>
-
When running Puma with workers (
WEB_CONCURRENCY > 0
) or another process-forking web server, GoodJob's threadpool schedulers should be stopped before forking, restarted after fork, and cleanly shut down on exit. Stopping GoodJob's scheduler pre-fork is recommended to ensure that GoodJob does not continue executing jobs in the parent/controller process. For example, with Puma:# config/puma.rb before_fork do GoodJob.shutdown end on_worker_boot do GoodJob.restart end on_worker_shutdown do GoodJob.shutdown end MAIN_PID = Process.pid at_exit do GoodJob.shutdown if Process.pid == MAIN_PID end
GoodJob is compatible with Puma's
preload_app!
method.For Passenger:
if defined? PhusionPassenger PhusionPassenger.on_event :starting_worker_process do |forked| # If `forked` is true, we're in smart spawning mode. # https://www.phusionpassenger.com/docs/advanced_guides/in_depth/ruby/spawn_methods.html#smart-spawning-hooks if forked GoodJob.logger.info { 'Starting Passenger worker process.' } GoodJob.restart end end PhusionPassenger.on_event :stopping_worker_process do GoodJob.logger.info { 'Stopping Passenger worker process.' } GoodJob.shutdown end end # GoodJob also starts in the Passenger preloader process. This one does not # trigger the above events, thus we catch it with `Kernel#at_exit`. PRELOADER_PID = Process.pid at_exit do if Process.pid == PRELOADER_PID GoodJob.logger.info { 'Passenger AppPreloader shutting down.' } GoodJob.shutdown end end
If you are using cron-style jobs, you might also want to look at your Passenger configuration, especially at
passenger_pool_idle_time
andpassenger_min_instances
to make sure there's always at least once process running that can execute cron-style scheduled jobs. See also Passenger's optimization guide for more information.
If your application is already using an ActiveJob backend, you will need to install GoodJob to enqueue and perform newly created jobs and finish performing pre-existing jobs on the previous backend.
-
Enqueue newly created jobs on GoodJob either entirely by setting
ActiveJob::Base.queue_adapter = :good_job
or progressively via individual job classes:# jobs/specific_job.rb class SpecificJob < ApplicationJob self.queue_adapter = :good_job # ... end
-
Continue running executors for both backends. For example, on Heroku it's possible to run two processes within the same dyno:
# Procfile # ... worker: bundle exec que ./config/environment.rb & bundle exec good_job & wait -n
-
Once you are confident that no unperformed jobs remain in the previous ActiveJob backend, code and configuration for that backend can be completely removed.
GoodJob is fully instrumented with ActiveSupport::Notifications
.
By default, GoodJob will preserve job records for 14 days after they are run, regardless of whether they succeed or raised an exception.
To instead delete job records immediately after they are finished:
# config/initializers/good_job.rb
config.good_job.preserve_job_records = false # defaults to true; can also be `false` or `:on_unhandled_error`
GoodJob will automatically delete preserved job records after 14 days. The retention period, as well as the frequency GoodJob checks for deletable records can be configured:
config.good_job.cleanup_preserved_jobs_before_seconds_ago = 14.days.to_i
config.good_job.cleanup_interval_jobs = 1_000 # Number of executed jobs between deletion sweeps.
config.good_job.cleanup_interval_seconds = 10.minutes.to_i # Number of seconds between deletion sweeps.
It is also possible to manually trigger a cleanup of preserved job records:
-
For example, in a Rake task:
GoodJob.cleanup_preserved_jobs # Will use default retention period GoodJob.cleanup_preserved_jobs(older_than: 7.days) # custom retention period
-
For example, using the
good_job
command-line utility:bundle exec good_job cleanup_preserved_jobs --before-seconds-ago=86400
By default, GoodJob uses its inline adapter in the test environment; the inline adapter is designed for the test environment. When enquing a job with GoodJob's inline adapter, the job will be executed immediately on the current thread; unhandled exceptions will be raised.
In GoodJob 2.0, the inline adapter will execute future scheduled jobs immediately. In the next major release, GoodJob 3.0, the inline adapter will not execute future scheduled jobs and instead enqueue them in the database.
To opt into this behavior immediately set: config.good_job.inline_execution_respects_schedule = true
To perform jobs inline at any time, use GoodJob.perform_inline
. For example, using time helpers within an integration test:
MyJob.set(wait: 10.minutes).perform_later
travel_to(15.minutes.from_now) { GoodJob.perform_inline }
Note: Rails travel
/travel_to
time helpers do not have millisecond precision, so you must leave at least 1 second between the schedule and time traveling for the job to be executed. This behavior may change in Rails 7.1.
GoodJob is not compatible with PgBouncer in transaction mode, but is compatible with PgBouncer's connection mode. GoodJob uses connection-based advisory locks and LISTEN/NOTIFY, both of which require full database connections.
A workaround to this limitation is to make a direct database connection available to GoodJob. With Rails 6.0's support for multiple databases, a direct connection to the database can be configured:
-
Define a direct connection to your database that is not proxied through PgBouncer, for example:
# config/database.yml production: primary: url: postgres://pgbouncer_host/my_database primary_direct: url: postgres://database_host/my_database
-
Create a new ActiveRecord base class that uses the direct database connection
# app/models/application_direct_record.rb class ApplicationDirectRecord < ActiveRecord::Base self.abstract_class = true connects_to database: :primary_direct end
-
Configure GoodJob to use the newly created ActiveRecord base class:
# config/initializers/good_job.rb GoodJob.active_record_parent_class = "ApplicationDirectRecord"
GoodJob's CLI offers an http health check probe to better manage process lifecycle in containerized environments like Kubernetes:
# Run the CLI with a health check on port 7001
good_job start --probe-port=7001
# or via an environment variable
GOOD_JOB_PROBE_PORT=7001 good_job start
# Probe the status
curl localhost:7001/status
curl localhost:7001/status/started
curl localhost:7001/status/connected
Multiple health checks are available at different paths:
/
or/status
: the CLI process is running/status/started
: the multithreaded job executor is running/status/connected
: the database connection is established
This can be configured, for example with Kubernetes:
spec:
containers:
- name: good_job
image: my_app:latest
env:
- name: RAILS_ENV
value: production
- name: GOOD_JOB_PROBE_PORT
value: 7001
command:
- good_job
- start
ports:
- name: probe-port
containerPort: 7001
startupProbe:
httpGet:
path: "/status/started"
port: probe-port
failureThreshold: 30
periodSeconds: 10
livenessProbe:
httpGet:
path: "/status/connected"
port: probe-port
failureThreshold: 1
periodSeconds: 10
All contributions, from feedback to code and beyond, are welcomed and appreciated ๐
- Review the Prioritized Project Backlog.
- Open a new Issue or contribute to an existing Issue. Questions or suggestions are fantastic.
- Participate according to our Code of Conduct.
- Financially support the project via Sponsorship.
For gem development and debugging information, please review the README's Gem Development section.
# Clone the repository locally
git clone [email protected]:bensheldon/good_job.git
# Set up the gem development environment
bin/setup
A Rails application exists within spec/test_app
that is used for development, test, and GoodJob Demo environments.
# Run a local development webserver
bin/rails s
# Disable job execution and cron for cleaner console output
GOOD_JOB_ENABLE_CRON=0 GOOD_JOB_EXECUTION_MODE=external bin/rails s
# Open the Rails console
bin/rails c
For developing locally within another Ruby on Rails project:
# Within Ruby on Rails project directory
# Ensure that the Gemfile is set to git with a branch e.g.
# gem "good_job", git: "https://github.com/bensheldon/good_job.git", branch: "main"
# Then, override the Bundle config to point to the local filesystem's good_job repository
bundle config local.good_job /path/to/local/good_job/repository
# Confirm that the local copy is used
bundle install
# => Using good_job 0.1.0 from https://github.com/bensheldon/good_job.git (at /Users/You/Projects/good_job@dc57fb0)
Tests can be run against the primary development environment:
# Set up the gem development environment
bin/setup
# Run the tests
bin/rspec
Environment variables that may help with debugging:
LOUD=1
: display all stdout/stderr output from all sources. This is helpful because GoodJob wraps some tests withquiet { }
for cleaner test output, but it can hinder debugging.SHOW_BROWSER=1
: Run system tests headfully with Chrome/Chromedriver. Usebinding.irb
in the system tests to pause.
Appraisal can be used to run a test matrix of multiple versions of Rails:
# Install Appraisal matrix of gemfiles
bin/appraisal
# Run tests against matrix
bin/appraisal bin/rspec
Package maintainers can release this gem by running:
# Sign into rubygems
$ gem signin
# Add a .env file with the following:
# CHANGELOG_GITHUB_TOKEN= # Github Personal Access Token
# Update version number, changelog, and create git commit:
$ bundle exec rake release_good_job[minor] # major,minor,patch
# ..and follow subsequent directions.
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.