dgen-py 0.1.5

High-performance random data generation with NUMA optimization and zero-copy Python interface

dgen-py

High-performance random data generation with NUMA optimization and zero-copy Python interface

Features

• 🚀 Blazing Fast: 58+ GB/s streaming throughput, matches Numba JIT performance
• 🎯 Controllable Characteristics: Configurable deduplication and compression ratios
• 🔬 Multi-Process NUMA: One Python process per NUMA node for maximum throughput
• 🐍 True Zero-Copy: Python buffer protocol with direct memory access (no data copying)
• 📦 Streaming API: Generate terabytes of data with constant 32 MB memory usage
• 🧵 Thread Pool Reuse: Created once, reused across all operations
• 🛠️ Built with Rust: Memory-safe, production-quality implementation

Performance

Version 0.1.5 Highlights 🎉

NEW: Significant Performance Improvements over v0.1.3:

• UMA systems: ~50% improvement in per-core throughput (10.80 GB/s vs ~7 GB/s)
• NUMA systems: Major improvements from bug fixes in multi-process architecture
• 8-core system: 86.41 GB/s aggregate throughput (C4-16)
• Maximum aggregate: 324.72 GB/s on 48-core dual-NUMA system (C4-96 with compress=2.0)

Streaming Benchmark (v0.1.5) - 100 GB Test

Comparison of streaming random data generation methods on a 12-core system:

Method	Throughput	Speedup vs Baseline	Memory Required
os.urandom() (baseline)	0.34 GB/s	1.0x	Minimal
NumPy Multi-Thread	1.06 GB/s	3.1x	100 GB RAM*
Numba JIT Xoshiro256++ (streaming)	57.11 GB/s	165.7x	32 MB RAM
dgen-py v0.1.5 (streaming)	58.46 GB/s	169.6x	32 MB RAM

* NumPy requires full dataset in memory (10 GB tested, would need 100 GB for 100 GB dataset)

Key Findings:

• dgen-py matches Numba's streaming performance (58.46 vs 57.11 GB/s)
• 55x faster than NumPy while using 3,000x less memory (32 MB vs 100 GB)
• Streaming architecture: Can generate unlimited data with only 32 MB RAM
• Per-core throughput: 4.87 GB/s (12 cores)

⚠️ Critical for Storage Testing: ONLY dgen-py supports configurable deduplication and compression ratios. All other methods (os.urandom, NumPy, Numba) generate purely random data with maximum entropy, making them unsuitable for realistic storage system testing. Real-world storage workloads require controllable data characteristics to test deduplication engines, compression algorithms, and storage efficiency—capabilities unique to dgen-py.

Multi-NUMA Benchmarks (v0.1.5) - GCP Emerald Rapid

Scalability testing on Google Cloud Platform Intel Emerald Rapid systems (1024 GB workload, compress=1.0):

Instance	Physical Cores	NUMA Nodes	Aggregate Throughput	Per-Core	Scaling Efficiency
C4-8	4	1 (UMA)	36.26 GB/s	9.07 GB/s	Baseline
C4-16	8	1 (UMA)	86.41 GB/s	10.80 GB/s	119%
C4-32	16	1 (UMA)	162.78 GB/s	10.17 GB/s	112%
C4-96	48	2 (NUMA)	248.53 GB/s	5.18 GB/s	51%*

* NUMA penalty: 49% per-core reduction on multi-socket systems, but still achieves highest absolute throughput

Key Findings:

• Excellent UMA scaling: 112-119% efficiency on single-NUMA systems (super-linear due to larger L3 cache)
• Per-core performance: 10.80 GB/s on C4-16 (3.0x improvement vs dgen-py v0.1.3's 3.60 GB/s)
• Compression tradeoff: compress=2.0 provides 1.3-1.5x speedup, but makes data compressible (choose based on your test requirements, not performance)
• Storage headroom: Even modest 8-core systems exceed 86 GB/s (far beyond typical storage requirements)

See docs/BENCHMARK_RESULTS_V0.1.5.md for complete analysis

Installation

From PyPI (Recommended)

pip install dgen-py

System Requirements

For NUMA support (Linux only):

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libhwloc-dev

# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
sudo yum install systemd-devel hwloc-devel

Note: NUMA support is optional. Without these libraries, the package works perfectly on single-NUMA systems (workstations, cloud VMs).

Quick Start

Basic Usage

import dgen_py
import time

# Generate 100 GB of random data with configurable characteristics
gen = dgen_py.Generator(
    size=100 * 1024**3,      # 100 GB
    dedup_ratio=1.0,         # No deduplication 
    compress_ratio=1.0,      # Incompressible 
    numa_mode="auto",        # Auto-detect NUMA topology
    max_threads=None         # Use all available cores
)

# Create buffer (uses optimal chunk size automatically)
buffer = bytearray(gen.chunk_size)

# Stream data in chunks (zero-copy, parallel generation)
start = time.perf_counter()
while not gen.is_complete():
    nbytes = gen.fill_chunk(buffer)
    if nbytes == 0:
        break
    # Write to file/network: buffer[:nbytes]

duration = time.perf_counter() - start
print(f"Throughput: {(100 / duration):.2f} GB/s")

Example output (8-core system):

Throughput: 86.41 GB/s

System Information

import dgen_py

info = dgen_py.get_system_info()
if info:
    print(f"NUMA nodes: {info['num_nodes']}")
    print(f"Physical cores: {info['physical_cores']}")
    print(f"Deployment: {info['deployment_type']}")

Advanced Usage

Multi-Process NUMA (For Multi-NUMA Systems)

For maximum throughput on multi-socket systems, use one Python process per NUMA node with process affinity pinning.

See python/examples/benchmark_numa_multiprocess_v2.py for complete implementation.

Key architecture:

• One Python process per NUMA node
• Process pinning via os.sched_setaffinity() to local cores
• Local memory allocation on each NUMA node
• Synchronized start with multiprocessing.Barrier

Results:

• C4-96 (48 cores, 2 NUMA nodes): 248.53 GB/s aggregate
• C4-32 (16 cores, 1 NUMA node): 162.78 GB/s with 112% scaling efficiency

Performance Notes

Chunk Size Optimization

Default chunk size is automatically optimized for your system. You can override if needed:

gen = dgen_py.Generator(
    size=100 * 1024**3,
    chunk_size=64 * 1024**2  # Override to 64 MB
)

Newer CPUs (Emerald Rapid, Sapphire Rapids) with larger L3 cache benefit from 64 MB chunks.

Deduplication and Compression Ratios

Performance vs Test Accuracy Tradeoff:

# FAST: Incompressible data (1.0x baseline)
gen = dgen_py.Generator(
    size=100 * 1024**3,
    dedup_ratio=1.0,      # No dedup (no performance impact)
    compress_ratio=1.0    # Incompressible data
)

# FASTER: More compressible (1.3-1.5x speedup)
gen = dgen_py.Generator(
    size=100 * 1024**3,
    dedup_ratio=1.0,      # No dedup (no performance impact)
    compress_ratio=2.0    # 2:1 compressible data
)

Important: Higher compress_ratio values improve generation performance (1.3-1.5x faster) BUT make the data more compressible, which may not represent your actual workload:

• compress_ratio=1.0: Incompressible data (realistic for encrypted files, compressed archives)
• compress_ratio=2.0: 2:1 compressible data (realistic for text, logs, uncompressed images)
• compress_ratio=3.0+: Highly compressible data (may not be realistic)

Choose based on YOUR test requirements, not performance numbers. If testing storage with compression enabled, use compress_ratio=1.0 to avoid inflating storage efficiency metrics.

Note: dedup_ratio has zero performance impact (< 1% variance)

NUMA Modes

# Auto-detect topology (recommended)
gen = dgen_py.Generator(..., numa_mode="auto")

# Force UMA (single-socket)
gen = dgen_py.Generator(..., numa_mode="uma")

# Manual NUMA node binding (multi-process only)
gen = dgen_py.Generator(..., numa_node=0)  # Bind to node 0

Architecture

Zero-Copy Implementation

Python buffer protocol with direct memory access:

• No data copying between Rust and Python
• GIL released during generation (true parallelism)
• Memoryview creation < 0.001ms (verified zero-copy)

Parallel Generation

• 4 MiB internal blocks distributed across all cores
• Thread pool created once, reused for all operations
• Xoshiro256++ RNG (5-10x faster than ChaCha20)
• Optimal for L3 cache performance

NUMA Optimization

• Multi-process architecture (one process per NUMA node)
• Local memory allocation on each node
• Local core affinity (no cross-node traffic)
• Automatic topology detection via hwloc

Use Cases

• Storage benchmarking: Generate realistic test data at 40-188 GB/s
• Network testing: High-throughput data sources
• AI/ML profiling: Simulate data loading pipelines
• Compression testing: Validate compressor behavior with controlled ratios
• Deduplication testing: Test dedup systems with known ratios

License

Dual-licensed under MIT OR Apache-2.0

Credits

• Built with PyO3 and Maturin
• Uses hwlocality for NUMA topology detection
• Xoshiro256++ RNG from rand crate