Overview

The following document contains information about FHIR servers performance: Hearth and HAPI FHIR. Tests contain create, update and read actions on a location resource. Each section presents the request structure and response times. To execute tests, the Taurus tool has been used. The following machine has been used for tests:

Memory: 7.7 GiB
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.60GHz x 8
Graphics: GeForce GTX 960M/Pcie/SSE2
OS: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (64-bit)

The following variables have been set and used to avoid duplication in tests. Some of them are used in request bodies.

fhir-server-url: http://localhost/fhir # Hearth
                 http://localhost/hapifhir/baseDstu3  # HAPI FHIR
scenario-iterations: # how many times a scenario/test will be executed
scenario-concurrency: 1 # how many users will execute the given scenario/test
identifier_value: # this value is generated for each location resource so searching by identifier always returns a single resource
location_id: # set by a FHIR server when a resource is created

The sample column presents the number of iterations/resources. The memory limit presents if memory limit has been set for FHIR servers and how big it was. The mem column presents how much memory was used during the test. The avg column presents the average time of waiting for a response from all request. The p90 column presents times of 90% of all results (in this case 900 requests). Result times in columns are in milliseconds.

Create a new location

Note: When an X test is being executed, there are X - 1 resources in the FHIR server. For the first resource creation, the FHIR server will not contain any resources.

Request body

URL: ${fhir-server-url}/Location
Method: POST
Headers:
  Content-Type: application/json
Body:
  {
    resourceType: "Location",
	alias: [ "N007" ],
	identifier: {
	  { system: "urn:ietf:rfc:3986", value: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/programs/418bdc1d-c303-4bd0-b2d3-d8901150a983" },
	  { system: "urn:ietf:rfc:3986", value: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/facilityTypes/ac1d268b-ce10-455f-bf87-9c667da8f060" },
	  { system: "urn:ietf:rfc:3986", value: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/facilityOperators/9456c3e9-c4a6-4a28-9e08-47ceb16a4121" },
	  { system: "https://test.openlmis.org", value: ${identifier_value} }
	},
	name: "Lurio, Cuamba",
	position: {
	  longitude: 36.852509
	  latitude: -14.78975
	},
	physicalType: {
	  coding: [
	    { system: "http://hl7.org/fhir/location-physical-type", code: "si", display: "Site" }
	  ]
	},
	partOf: {
	  reference: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/Location/9b8cfb5a-217a-4261-a64f-16ca06ae79fa"
	},
	status: "active"
  }

Response times

FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	1st attempt			2nd attempt			3rd attempt			4th attempt			5th attempt
FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90
Hearth	1 000	no limit	-	3	4	-	3	4	-	3	5	-	3	5	-	3	4
HAPI FHIR	1 000	no limit	-	105	172	-	107	176	-	106	174	-	106	176	-	105	172
Hearth	10 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	10 000	no limit
Hearth	10 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	10 000	1024MB
Hearth	20 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	20 000	no limit
Hearth	20 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	20 000	1024MB

Update the location

Note: When an X test is being executed, there are X - 1 resources in the FHIR server. For the first resource update, the FHIR server will contain a single resource.

Request body

URL: ${fhir-server-url}/Location
Method: PUT
Headers:
  Content-Type: application/json
Body:
  {
    resourceType: "Location",
	alias: [ "N007" ],
	identifier: {
	  { system: "urn:ietf:rfc:3986", value: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/programs/418bdc1d-c303-4bd0-b2d3-d8901150a983" },
	  { system: "urn:ietf:rfc:3986", value: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/facilityTypes/ac1d268b-ce10-455f-bf87-9c667da8f060" },
	  { system: "urn:ietf:rfc:3986", value: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/facilityOperators/9456c3e9-c4a6-4a28-9e08-47ceb16a4121" },
	  { system: "https://test.openlmis.org", value: ${identifier_value} }
	},
	name: "Lurio, Cuamba (Updated)",
	position: {
	  longitude: 36.852509
	  latitude: -14.78975
	},
	physicalType: {
	  coding: [
	    { system: "http://hl7.org/fhir/location-physical-type", code: "si", display: "Site" }
	  ]
	},
	partOf: {
	  reference: "https://test.openlmis.org/api/Location/9b8cfb5a-217a-4261-a64f-16ca06ae79fa"
	},
	status: "active"
  }

Response times

FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	1st attempt			2nd attempt			3rd attempt			4th attempt			5th attempt
FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90
Hearth	1 000	no limit	-	5	6	-	5	7	-	5	7	-	5	7	-	4	5
HAPI FHIR	1 000	no limit	-	115	183	-	119	187	-	114	182	-	114	183	-	115	184
Hearth	10 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	10 000	no limit
Hearth	10 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	10 000	1024MB
Hearth	20 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	20 000	no limit
Hearth	20 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	20 000	1024MB

Get a location by an id

Note: When an X test is being executed, there are X - 1 resources in the FHIR server. For the first resource search, the FHIR server will contain only one resource.

Request body

URL: ${fhir-server-url}/Location/${location_id}
Method: GET
Headers:
  Accept: application/json

Response times

FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	1st attempt			2nd attempt			3rd attempt			4th attempt			5th attempt
FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90
Hearth	1 000	no limit	-	3	4	-	3	4	-	3	4	-	3	4	-	2	3
HAPI FHIR	1 000	no limit	-	5	9	-	6	10	-	5	9	-	5	9	-	5	9
Hearth	10 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	10 000	no limit
Hearth	10 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	10 000	1024MB
Hearth	20 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	20 000	no limit
Hearth	20 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	20 000	1024MB

Search single location by an identifier

Note: When an X test is being executed, there are X - 1 resources in the FHIR server. For the first resource search, the FHIR server will contain only one resource.

Request body

URL: ${fhir-server-url}/Location?identifier=https://test.openlmis.org|${identifier_value}
Method: GET

Response times

FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	1st attempt			2th attempt			3th attempt			4th attempt			5th attempt
FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90
Hearth	1 000	no limit	-	4	6	-	4	6	-	5	7	-	4	6	-	4	5
HAPI FHIR	1 000	no limit	-	16	24	-	17	26	-	17	25	-	17	25	-	17	25
Hearth	10 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	10 000	no limit
Hearth	10 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	10 000	1024MB
Hearth	20 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	20 000	no limit
Hearth	20 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	20 000	1024MB

Search locations

Note: When an X test is being executed, there are 1000 resources in the FHIR server. The search endpoint returns only 10 resources.

Request body

URL: ${fhir-server-url}/Location
Method: GET

Response times

FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	1st attempt			2th attempt			3th attempt			4th attempt			5th attempt
FHIR server	Sample	Memory limit	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90	mem	avg	p90
Hearth	1 000	no limit	-	3	4	-	3	5	-	3	4	-	3	5	-	3	4
HAPI FHIR	1 000	no limit	-	19	25	-	17	20	-	20	28	-	20	27	-	22	29
Hearth	10 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	10 000	no limit
Hearth	10 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	10 000	1024MB
Hearth	20 000	no limit
HAPI FHIR	20 000	no limit
Hearth	20 000	1024MB
HAPI FHIR	20 000	1024MB

Conclusions

In all attempts, the Hearth FHIR server has better performance than the HAPI FHIR server. Creation and update actions take a lot of more time in the HAPI FHIR than in the Hearth. The search actions have better results but still, Hearth server is faster about 4 times. I noticed that the HAPI FHIR server caches results (not know for how long) for search requests:

hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.190 [http-nio-8080-exec-7] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:151] Search entity marked as finished
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.217 [http-nio-8080-exec-5] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:301] Reusing search f36b5bb4-d58c-4836-83fe-448225372c85 from cache
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.228 [http-nio-8080-exec-5] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:151] Search entity marked as finished
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.245 [http-nio-8080-exec-8] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:301] Reusing search f36b5bb4-d58c-4836-83fe-448225372c85 from cache
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.250 [http-nio-8080-exec-8] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:151] Search entity marked as finished
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.265 [http-nio-8080-exec-1] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:301] Reusing search f36b5bb4-d58c-4836-83fe-448225372c85 from cache
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.269 [http-nio-8080-exec-1] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:151] Search entity marked as finished
hapi_1                   | 2018-09-05 13:42:12.288 [http-nio-8080-exec-4] INFO  c.u.f.j.s.SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl [SearchCoordinatorSvcImpl.java:301] Reusing search f36b5bb4-d58c-4836-83fe-448225372c85 from cache

Performance results

The following zip file contains all result data of all attempts