MongoDB Benchmarking Guide for Node.js with vitest

Make sure you are using the minimum required version of the plugin: @codspeed/vitest-plugin>=3.1.0

All the code shown on this page is available in the CodSpeedHQ/codspeed-nestjs-mongodb repository. It uses the following technologies:

Sample application

We are going to use a simple NestJS application exposing a REST API to manage cats.

The following Cat model is defined:

src/cats/schemas/cat.schema.ts

import { Prop, Schema, SchemaFactory } from "@nestjs/mongoose";
import { HydratedDocument } from "mongoose";

export type CatDocument = HydratedDocument<Cat>;

@Schema()
export class Cat {
  @Prop({ index: 1, required: true })
  name: string;

  @Prop({ required: true })
  age: number;

  @Prop({ required: true })
  breed: string;
}

export const CatSchema = SchemaFactory.createForClass(Cat);

The CatsController exposes the following endpoints:

src/cats/cats.controller.ts

import { Controller, Get, Param } from "@nestjs/common";
import { CatsService } from "./cats.service";
import { Cat } from "./schemas/cat.schema";

@Controller("cats")
export class CatsController {
  constructor(private readonly catsService: CatsService) {}

  @Get("name/:name")
  async findByName(@Param("name") name: string): Promise<Cat[]> {
    return this.catsService.findByName(name);
  }

  @Get("breed/:breed")
  async findByBreed(@Param("breed") breed: string): Promise<Cat[]> {
    return this.catsService.findByBreed(breed);
  }
}

Complete setup with Docker

Setup SWC + Vitest

To use swc and vitest with nest-js, follow the setup guide on the NestJS website. At the end of this setup, you should be able to run e2e tests with a running MongoDB instance, using the following command:

pnpm test:e2e
# equivalent to
pnpm vitest run --config ./vitest.config.e2e.ts

Setup CodSpeed and Vitest for e2e benchmarks

Install the dependencies:

npm install --save-dev @codspeed/vitest-plugin vite-tsconfig-paths

vite-tsconfig-paths is used to resolve the paths defined in the tsconfig.json file automatically.

Rename the file vitest.config.e2e.ts to vitest.config.e2e.mts since @codspeed/vitest-plugin is only available in ESM. Apply the following modifications to the file:

vitest.config.e2e.mts

import codspeedPlugin from "@codspeed/vitest-plugin";
import swc from "unplugin-swc";
import tsconfigPaths from "vite-tsconfig-paths";
import { defineConfig } from "vitest/config";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [swc.vite(), tsconfigPaths(), codspeedPlugin()],
  test: {
    root: "./",
    passWithNoTests: true,
    include: ["**/*.e2e.spec.ts"],
    benchmark: { include: ["**/*.e2e.bench.ts"] },
    // ensure we running only one test at a time since they are using the same database
    // this could be removed by using a different database for each test
    poolOptions: { forks: { singleFork: true } },
  },
});

Create benchmarks

Similar to how we would create an e2e test in NestJS in a *.e2e.spec.ts file, we can create a benchmark in a *.e2e.bench.ts file.

src/cats/cats.controller.e2e.bench.ts

import { faker } from "@faker-js/faker";
import { INestApplication } from "@nestjs/common";
import { getModelToken } from "@nestjs/mongoose";
import { Test } from "@nestjs/testing";
import { AppModule } from "app.module";
import { Model } from "mongoose";
import request from "supertest";
import {
  afterAll,
  beforeAll,
  beforeEach,
  bench,
  describe,
  expect,
} from "vitest";
import { CatsFactory } from "./cats.factory";
import { Cat } from "./schemas/cat.schema";

faker.seed(1); // enforce the same seed, to remove randomness from generated data

const cats: Cat[] = Array.from({ length: 100 }, () => ({
  name: ["river", "felix", "toto", "marcel"][faker.number.int(3)],
  age: faker.number.int(20),
  breed: ["chausie", "toyger", "abyssinian", "birman"][faker.number.int(3)],
}));

describe("Cats (bench)", () => {
  let app: INestApplication;
  let catsModel: Model<Cat>;
  let catsFactory: CatsFactory;

  // initialize the application before the benchmarks
  beforeAll(async () => {
    const moduleRef = await Test.createTestingModule({
      imports: [AppModule],
    }).compile();

    app = moduleRef.createNestApplication();
    catsModel = moduleRef.get(getModelToken(Cat.name));
    catsFactory = new CatsFactory(catsModel);
    await app.init();
  });

  // reset the database before each benchmark
  beforeEach(async () => {
    await catsModel.deleteMany();
    await catsFactory.createMany(cats);
  });

  afterAll(async () => {
    await app.close();
  });

  bench("GET /cats/name/:name", async () => {
    const response = await request(app.getHttpServer()).get("/cats/name/river");

    // the response should contain 29 cats with the name "river"
    expect(response.body).toHaveLength(29);
    expect(response.body[0]).toEqual(
      expect.objectContaining({
        _id: expect.any(String),
        age: expect.any(Number),
        breed: expect.any(String),
        name: "river",
      })
    );
  });
  bench("GET /cats/breed/:breed", async () => {
    const response = await request(app.getHttpServer()).get(
      "/cats/breed/chausie"
    );

    // the response should contain 27 cats with the breed "chausie"
    expect(response.body).toHaveLength(27);
  });
});

Here we have defined 4 benchmarks for the cats endpoints:

GET /cats: retrieve all the cats
GET /cats/name/:name: retrieve all the cats with the given name
GET /cats/breed/:breed: retrieve all the cats with the given breed
GET /cats/age/greater/:age: retrieve all the cats with an age greater than the given age

Note the use the usage of expect in the benchmarks.

const response = await request(app.getHttpServer()).get("/cats/name/river");
expect(response.body).toHaveLength(29);
expect(response.body[0]).toEqual(
  expect.objectContaining({
    _id: expect.any(String),
    age: expect.any(Number),
    breed: expect.any(String),
    name: "river",
  })
);

This allows for a better experience when authoring benchmarks, as it provides a way to ensure that everything went well. This is optional, you can remove the assertions if you want:

await request(app.getHttpServer()).get("/cats/name/river");

Setup Docker locally

Add the following file to the root of the project:

docker-compose.yml

version: "3"

services:
  mongodb:
    image: mongo:latest
    environment:
      - MONGODB_DATABASE="test"
    ports:
      - 27017:27017
    volumes:
      - mongo:/data/db

volumes:
  mongo:

Run the following command to start the MongoDB instance:

docker-compose up -d

Run the benchmarks locally

Add the following script to your package.json:

package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "bench:e2e": "vitest -c vitest.config.e2e.mts bench"
  }
}

Run the following command to run the benchmarks:

$ pnpm bench:e2e
Benchmarking is an experimental feature.
Breaking changes might not follow SemVer, please pin Vitest's version when using it.
[CodSpeed] bench detected but no instrumentation found

 DEV  v1.2.0 /Users/user/projects/CodSpeedHQ/codspeed-nestjs-mongodb

[CodSpeed] @codspeed/vitest-plugin v3.1.0 - setup
[CodSpeed] running suite src/cats/cats.controller.e2e.bench.ts
[CodSpeed] src/cats/cats.controller.e2e.bench.ts::Cats (bench)::GET /cats/name/:name done
[CodSpeed] src/cats/cats.controller.e2e.bench.ts::Cats (bench)::GET /cats/breed/:breed done
[CodSpeed] running suite src/cats/cats.controller.e2e.bench.ts done

 ✓ src/cats/cats.controller.e2e.bench.ts (2) 698ms
   · Cats (bench) (2)

Run the benchmarks in the CI

Add the following file to the project:

.github/workflows/codspeed.yml

name: CodSpeed

on:
  # Run on pushes to the main branch
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"
  # Run on pull requests
  pull_request:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  benchmarks:
    name: Run benchmarks
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v2
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          cache: pnpm
          node-version-file: .nvmrc

      # easily setup a MongoDB cluster
      - uses: art049/mongodb-cluster-action@v0
        id: mongodb-cluster-action

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pnpm install

      - name: Run benchmarks
        uses: CodSpeedHQ/action@v3
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.CODSPEED_TOKEN }}
          instruments: mongodb
          mongo-uri-env-name: MONGO_URL
          run: |
            pnpm bench:e2e
        env:
          # we need the MONGO_URL to be set in the environment before actually running
          # the benchmark command so we set it here instead of inside the `run` command
          MONGO_URI:
            ${{ steps.mongodb-cluster-action.outputs.connection-string }}

With this configuration, the CodSpeed MongoDB instrument will be activated and data from MongoDB queries will be sent to CodSpeed.

Setup using testcontainers

Instead of relying on an externally provided Docker instance, we can leverage testcontainers to start a MongoDB instance dynamically during the benchmarks.

For this setup, we assume that the state of the application is similar to the one described in the above section.

Setup Vitest + testcontainers

Install the testcontainers dependencies:

npm install --save-dev @testcontainers/mongodb

Create a new file src/global.d.ts with the following content:

src/global.d.ts

declare var __MONGO_URI__: string;

This will make the globalThis.__MONGO_URI__ variable available in the whole application with the correct type.

⚠️ Make sure to use var and not let or const, as otherwise the TypeScript type will not be set.

Create a new file src/testUtils/setup-vitest.ts with the following content:

src/testUtils/setup-vitest.ts

import { setupInstruments } from "@codspeed/vitest-plugin";
import {
  MongoDBContainer,
  StartedMongoDBContainer,
} from "@testcontainers/mongodb";
import { beforeAll } from "vitest";

let mongodbContainer: StartedMongoDBContainer;

async function setupMongoDB() {
  // if the database is already setup so we can skip this step
  if (globalThis.__MONGO_URI__) return;

  mongodbContainer = await new MongoDBContainer("mongo:7.0.5").start();
  const mongoUrl =
    mongodbContainer.getConnectionString() +
    "/test?replicaSet=rs0&directConnection=true";

  const { remoteAddr } = await setupInstruments({ mongoUrl });

  globalThis.__MONGO_URI__ = remoteAddr;
}

async function setup() {
  await setupMongoDB();
}

beforeAll(async () => {
  await setup();
});

testcontainers on macOS

On macOS, we recommend using colima to run Docker containers. However there are issues using testcontainers on macOS. To bypass those issues, some environment variables need to be set when running the tests:

Enforce a check that the correct environment variables are set

To make testcontainers work on macOS with colima, the following environment variables need to be set:

TESTCONTAINERS_DOCKER_SOCKET_OVERRIDE=/var/run/docker.sock NODE_OPTIONS="$NODE_OPTIONS --dns-result-order=ipv4first" <command>

We will add a function to enforce that they are set when running vitest. Add the following function to your src/testUtils/setup-vitest.ts file:

src/testUtils/setup-vitest.ts

function checkColimaTestcontainersDarwin() {
  if (
    process.platform === "darwin" &&
    (process.env.TESTCONTAINERS_DOCKER_SOCKET_OVERRIDE === undefined ||
      !process.env.NODE_OPTIONS.includes("--dns-result-order=ipv4first"))
  ) {
    throw new Error(
      'On macOs, run with the following command to make testcontainers + colima work: `TESTCONTAINERS_DOCKER_SOCKET_OVERRIDE=/var/run/docker.sock NODE_OPTIONS="$NODE_OPTIONS --dns-result-order=ipv4first" <command>`'
    );
  }
}

And use it at the top of the the setupMongoDB function:

src/testUtils/setup-vitest.ts

async function setupMongoDB() {
  checkColimaTestcontainersDarwin();

  ...
}

Now the execution will stop with an explicit error message if the environment variables are not set when running on macOS.

Add the file as a setupFiles entry in vite.config.e2e.mts:

vitest.config.e2e.mts

import codspeedPlugin from "@codspeed/vitest-plugin";
import swc from "unplugin-swc";
import tsconfigPaths from "vite-tsconfig-paths";
import { defineConfig } from "vitest/config";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [swc.vite(), tsconfigPaths(), codspeedPlugin()],
  test: {
    root: "./",
    passWithNoTests: true,
    include: ["**/*.e2e.spec.ts"],
    benchmark: { include: ["**/*.e2e.bench.ts"] },
    // ensure we running only one test at a time since they are using the same database
    // this could be removed by using a different database for each test
    poolOptions: { forks: { singleFork: true } },
    setupFiles: ["./src/testUtils/setup-vitest.ts"],
  },
});

We can now change the src/app.module.ts file to use the globalThis.__MONGO_URI__ variable instead of the MONGO_URL environment variable when it is defined:

src/app.module.ts

MongooseModule.forRootAsync({
  useFactory: async () => ({
    uri: globalThis.__MONGO_URI__ ?? process.env.MONGO_URL,
  }),
}),

Run the benchmarks locally

You can now run the benchmarks locally without having to start a MongoDB instance:

pnpm bench:e2e

Run the benchmarks in the CI

You can now simplify the codspeed.yml file to the following:

Remove the mongodb-cluster-action step
Remove the mongo-uri-env-name input
Remove the MONGO_URI environment variable

.github/workflows/codspeed.yml

name: CodSpeed

on:
  # Run on pushes to the main branch
  push:
    branches:
      - "main"
  # Run on pull requests
  pull_request:
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  benchmarks:
    name: Run benchmarks
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: pnpm/action-setup@v2
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          cache: pnpm
          node-version-file: .nvmrc

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: pnpm install

      - name: Run benchmarks
        uses: CodSpeedHQ/action@v3
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.CODSPEED_TOKEN }}
          instruments: mongodb
          run: |
            pnpm bench:e2e

​Sample application

​Complete setup with Docker

​Setup SWC + Vitest

​Setup CodSpeed and Vitest for e2e benchmarks

​Create benchmarks

​Setup Docker locally

​Run the benchmarks locally

​Run the benchmarks in the CI

​Setup using testcontainers

​Setup Vitest + testcontainers

​Run the benchmarks locally

​Run the benchmarks in the CI

Sample application

Complete setup with Docker

Setup SWC + Vitest

Setup CodSpeed and Vitest for e2e benchmarks

Create benchmarks

Setup Docker locally

Run the benchmarks locally

Run the benchmarks in the CI

Setup using testcontainers

Setup Vitest + testcontainers

Run the benchmarks locally

Run the benchmarks in the CI