Limit badger gc concurrency to 1 to avoid panic

changelogs/8.16.asciidoc

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/apm-server/compare/v8.15.2\...v8.16.0[View commits]
 - Track all bulk request response status codes {pull}13574[13574]
 - Fix a concurrent map write panic in monitoring middleware {pull}14335[14335]
 - Apply shutdown timeout to http server {pull}14339[14339]
+- Tail-based sampling: Fix rare gc thread failure after EA hot reload causing storage not reclaimed and stuck with "storage limit reached" {pull}13574[13574]
 
 [float]
 ==== Breaking Changes

x-pack/apm-server/sampling/processor.go

@@ -40,6 +40,11 @@ const (
 	shutdownGracePeriod = 5 * time.Second
 )
 
+var (
+	// gcCh works like a global mutex to protect gc from running concurrently when 2 TBS processors are active during a hot reload
+	gcCh = make(chan struct{}, 1)
+)
+
 // Processor is a tail-sampling event processor.
 type Processor struct {
 	config            Config
@@ -386,6 +391,16 @@ func (p *Processor) Run() error {
 		}
 	})
 	g.Go(func() error {
+		// Protect this goroutine from running concurrently when 2 TBS processors are active
+		// as badger GC is not concurrent safe.
+		select {
+		case <-p.stopping:
+			return nil
+		case gcCh <- struct{}{}:
+		}
+		defer func() {
+			<-gcCh
+		}()
 		// This goroutine is responsible for periodically garbage
 		// collecting the Badger value log, using the recommended
 		// discard ratio of 0.5.
@@ -411,7 +426,9 @@ func (p *Processor) Run() error {
 	})
 	g.Go(func() error {
 		// Subscribe to remotely sampled trace IDs. This is cancelled immediately when
-		// Stop is called. The next subscriber will pick up from the previous position.
+		// Stop is called. But it is possible that both old and new subscriber goroutines
+		// run concurrently, before the old one eventually receives the Stop call.
+		// The next subscriber will pick up from the previous position.
 		defer close(remoteSampledTraceIDs)
 		defer close(subscriberPositions)
 		ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
@@ -558,7 +575,13 @@ func (p *Processor) Run() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// subscriberPositionFileMutex protects the subscriber file from concurrent RW, in case of hot reload.
+var subscriberPositionFileMutex sync.Mutex
+
 func readSubscriberPosition(logger *logp.Logger, storageDir string) (pubsub.SubscriberPosition, error) {
+	subscriberPositionFileMutex.Lock()
+	defer subscriberPositionFileMutex.Unlock()
+
 	var pos pubsub.SubscriberPosition
 	data, err := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(storageDir, subscriberPositionFile))
 	if errors.Is(err, os.ErrNotExist) {
@@ -579,6 +602,9 @@ func writeSubscriberPosition(storageDir string, pos pubsub.SubscriberPosition) e
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+
+	subscriberPositionFileMutex.Lock()
+	defer subscriberPositionFileMutex.Unlock()
 	return os.WriteFile(filepath.Join(storageDir, subscriberPositionFile), data, 0644)
 }
 

x-pack/apm-server/sampling/processor_test.go

@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+	"golang.org/x/sync/errgroup"
 	"google.golang.org/protobuf/testing/protocmp"
 
 	"github.com/elastic/apm-data/model/modelpb"
@@ -668,6 +669,31 @@ func TestStorageGC(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Fatal("timed out waiting for value log garbage collection")
 }
 
+func TestStorageGCConcurrency(t *testing.T) {
+	// This test ensures that TBS processor does not return an error
+	// even when run concurrently e.g. in hot reload
+	if testing.Short() {
+		t.Skip("skipping slow test")
+	}
+
+	config := newTempdirConfig(t)
+	config.TTL = 10 * time.Millisecond
+	config.FlushInterval = 10 * time.Millisecond
+	config.StorageGCInterval = 10 * time.Millisecond
+
+	g := errgroup.Group{}
+	for i := 0; i < 2; i++ {
+		processor, err := sampling.NewProcessor(config)
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		g.Go(processor.Run)
+		go func() {
+			time.Sleep(time.Second)
+			assert.NoError(t, processor.Stop(context.Background()))
+		}()
+	}
+	assert.NoError(t, g.Wait())
+}
+
 func TestStorageLimit(t *testing.T) {
 	// This test ensures that when tail sampling is configured with a hard
 	// storage limit, the limit is respected once the size is available.