Performance of modifying scan/query request in search for beacons in table where beacons are not used.

[zbytt]

I'm using Java & DynamoDbClient with configured DynamoDbEncryptionInterceptor (created using software.amazon.cryptography.dbencryptionsdk.dynamodb.enhancedclient.CreateDynamoDbEncryptionInterceptorInput)
Based on the profiling result, roughly 15% of the processing time of scan request is spent on modyfingRequest,
specifically:

In my case, call to DynamoDBFilterExpr_Compile.__default.TestBeaconize(DafnyMap, Option, Option, Option) does not make sense, as I did not configure/use any beacons at all.

This also applies to all queries - 15% overhead for every call is very expensive overall - especially when this specific feature is not even in use anywhere in our codebase.

Is there any way to opt-out of 'beaconization' of those requests for tables that do not support it?

(I did not check whether other calls are affected by this)

[ajewellamz]

Greetings @zbytt,

There are two answers to your question.

The first is that, if you have beacons turned off, then we still want to verify that you're not searching on any encrypted fields. Otherwise doing so would produce no error and no result and some early customers were bitten by that.
The fact that your stack trace includes "TestBeaconize" shows that it's taking the "no beacons configured" path.

The second answer is : wow, you're right. That shouldn't be taking that much time.
Is your FilterExpression particularly long?
Are you able to share an example FilterExpression that takes this much time?

[zbytt]

Hi @ajewellamz

Is your FilterExpression particularly long?

Example scan request I used:

    public static ScanRequest SCAN_REQ = ScanRequest.builder()
            .tableName(TABLE_NAME)
            .filterExpression("begins_with (#param_0, :param_0_v0) AND begins_with (#param_1, :param_1_v0)")
            .expressionAttributeNames(
                    Map.of(
                            "#param_0", "rangeKey",
                            "#param_1", "hashKey")
            )
            .expressionAttributeValues(
                    Map.of(
                            ":param_0_v0", AttributeValue.fromS("TEST"),
                            ":param_1_v0", AttributeValue.fromS("TEST")
                    )
            )
            .build();

Profiling result with focus on the whole request execution (DB is empty, scan yields no results)

[ajewellamz]

Thank you.

We were able to address some of the performance issues in that area.
As of the next release of the db-esdk for Java, you should see a dramatic decrease in the amount of time spent in TestBeaconize.

We will release this in the coming weeks, let us know if you need a more urgent release.

[zbytt]

I would say the faster the better, but it's not a blocker.
Thanks a lot for addressing the issue.

[lucasmcdonald3]

Hi @zbytt --

Thanks for your patience. We've released 3.9.0 which improves performance.

Thanks,
Lucas