pooler - An OTP Process Pool Application

The pooler application allows you to manage pools of OTP behaviors such as gen_servers, gen_fsms, or supervisors, and provide consumers with exclusive access to pool members using pooler:take_member.

What pooler does

• Exclusive member access — each consumer gets sole ownership of a member for the duration of its work; pooler monitors consumers and reclaims members automatically on exit
• Fixed and dynamic sizing — pools grow on demand up to max_count and cull idle members back to init_count on a configurable schedule
• Blocked-caller queuing — take_member/2 queues callers with a timeout instead of immediately returning error_no_members when the pool is busy
• Responsive under slow workers — member starts and stops run in supervised helper processes, never blocking the pool gen-server
• Survives service outages — returns error_no_members during outages without risking a supervisor restart cascade
• Group pools and load balancing — pools can be grouped for random-selection load balancing across backends
• Fully supervised — every process (members, starters, stoppers) lives under a supervision tree; shutting down a pool cleanly terminates all associated processes with no orphans
• Observability — utilization stats, pool metrics, and structured logging

Exclusive member access

Pooler monitors the calling process of take_member and uses that as the consumer identity, so return_member is optional for short-lived processes — pooler reclaims the member when the consumer exits. This means the process that calls take_member must be the actual consumer; handing the member pid to a different process defeats the tracking mechanism.

Pool sizing and member lifecycle

Replacement is automatic: both a crashing member and an abnormally exiting consumer trigger destruction of the member and an async start of a replacement. Culling runs on a configurable timer (cull_interval) to remove members idle longer than max_age, keeping resource usage proportional to actual demand.

Survives service outages

When the backing service is unavailable, start attempts fail and take_member returns error_no_members, letting callers handle degradation gracefully. The pool gen-server stays alive throughout and resumes filling the pool as soon as workers start succeeding again. Repeated failures do not risk a supervisor restart cascade because workers use a temporary restart strategy.

Keeps the pool gen-server responsive

Member starts and stops are handled by short-lived supervised helper processes, so the pool gen-server never blocks on slow worker operations (e.g. TCP handshakes or protocol teardown).

Group pools and load balancing

Independent pools serve different backends within the same application. Grouped pools sharing the same group tag form a cluster: take_group_member picks a pool at random and falls back to the remaining ones if the selected pool has no free members. A typical use is one pool per node in a database read-replica set.

Motivation

The need for pooler arose while writing an Erlang-based application that uses Riak for data storage. Riak’s protocol buffer client is a gen_server process that initiates a connection to a Riak node. A pool is needed to avoid spinning up a new client for each request in the application. Reusing clients also has the benefit of keeping the vector clocks smaller since each client ID corresponds to an entry in the vector clock.

When using the Erlang protocol buffer client for Riak, one should avoid accessing a given client concurrently. This is because each client is associated with a unique client ID that corresponds to an element in an object’s vector clock. Concurrent action from the same client ID defeats the vector clock. For some further explanation, see post 1 and post 2. Note that concurrent access to Riak’s pb client is actual ok as long as you avoid updating the same key at the same time. So the pool needs to have checkout/checkin semantics that give consumers exclusive access to a client.

On top of that, in order to evenly load a Riak cluster and be able to continue in the face of Riak node failures, consumers should spread their requests across clients connected to each node. The client pool provides an easy way to load balance.

Since writing pooler, I’ve seen it used to pool database connections for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Redis. These uses led to a redesign to better support multiple independent pools.

Usage and API

Pool Configuration via application environment

Pool configuration is specified in the pooler application’s environment. This can be provided in a config file using -config or set at startup using application:set_env(pooler, pools, Pools). Here’s an example config file that creates two pools of Riak pb clients each talking to a different node in a local cluster and one pool talking to a Postgresql database:

% pooler.config
% Start Erlang as: erl -config pooler
% -*- mode: erlang -*-
% pooler app config
[
 {pooler, [
         {pools, [
                  #{name => rc8081,
                    group => riak,
                    max_count => 5,
                    init_count => 2,
                    start_mfa =>
                     {riakc_pb_socket, start_link, ["localhost", 8081]}},

                  #{name => rc8082,
                    group => riak,
                    max_count => 5,
                    init_count => 2,
                    start_mfa =>
                     {riakc_pb_socket, start_link, ["localhost", 8082]}},

                  #{name => pg_db1,
                    max_count => 10,
                    init_count => 2,
                    start_mfa =>
                     {epgsql, connect, [#{host => "localhost", username => "user", database => "base"}]}}
                 ]}
           %% optional: enable metrics via folsom or exometer
           %% metrics_mod => folsom_metrics,
           %% metrics_api => folsom
        ]}
].

Each pool has a unique name, specified as an atom, an initial and maximum number of members, and an {M, F, A} describing how to start members of the pool. When pooler starts, it will create members in each pool according to init_count. Optionally, you can indicate that a pool is part of a group. You can use pooler to load balance across pools labeled with the same group tag.

Culling stale members

The cull_interval and max_age pool configuration parameters allow you to control how (or if) the pool should be returned to its initial size after a traffic burst. Both parameters specify a time value which is specified as a tuple with the intended units. The following examples are valid:

%% two minutes, your way
{2, min}
{120, sec}
{120000, ms}

The cull_interval determines the schedule when a check will be made for stale members. Checks are scheduled using erlang:send_after/3 which provides a light-weight timing mechanism. The next check is scheduled after the prior check completes.

During a check, pool members that have not been used in more than max_age minutes will be removed until the pool size reaches init_count.

The default value for cull_interval is {1, min}. You can disable culling by specifying a value os {0, min}. The max_age parameter defaults to {30, sec}.

Member start timeout (member_start_timeout)

The member_start_timeout parameter sets how long pooler will wait for a member to be started before giving up on it. If a starter process takes longer than this, the starter is killed and the partially-started member is discarded. The value is a time_spec() tuple; the default is {1, min}.

#{member_start_timeout => {30, sec}}

Request queue limit (queue_max)

When all pool members are in use, take_member calls are queued up to queue_max entries (default 50). Callers beyond this limit receive error_no_members immediately rather than waiting. Set it to 0 to disable queuing entirely.

#{queue_max => 100}

Proactive growth (auto_grow_threshold)

By default, pooler only starts new members on demand — when a consumer calls take_member and the pool is exhausted. Setting auto_grow_threshold to a non-negative integer causes pooler to start new members proactively after each successful take_member if the remaining free count has dropped to or below the threshold. The new starts are capped at max_count total. This can help keep latency low by warming up spare capacity before the pool is fully exhausted. Disabled by default (undefined).

This option only has an effect on dynamic-sized pools (i.e. max_count > init_count); in a fixed-size pool there are no spare slots to grow into.

#{init_count => 5,
  max_count => 20,
  auto_grow_threshold => 2}   %% start new members when free_count drops to 2

Custom member initialization (initialize_mfa)

The initialize_mfa pool configuration parameter allows you to run custom initialization logic after a member process has been started but before it is made available to consumers. This is useful when the member’s start_link returns quickly (so the supervisor is not blocked) but some slow work — such as a TCP handshake or a database login — still needs to happen before the member is safe to use.

The value is an {M, F, A} tuple. Before calling, pooler replaces placeholder atoms in A: '$pooler_pid' with the pid of the newly started member, and '$pooler_pool_name' with the member supervisor name for the pool (same placeholders supported by stop_mfa):

#{name => pg_pool,
  max_count => 10,
  init_count => 2,
  start_mfa => {my_conn, start_link, []},
  initialize_mfa => {my_conn, handshake, ['$pooler_pid']}}

The callback must return ok on success. If it returns {error, Reason}, raises an exception, or the member process dies during initialization, the member is terminated and never added to the pool. Pooler will log an error but will not retry; the pool simply starts with fewer members than init_count until the next growth event.

The option is also accepted by pooler:pool_reconfigure/2.

Custom member termination (stop_mfa)

By default, pooler removes a pool member by calling supervisor:terminate_child/2 from a supervised helper process, so the pool gen-server is never blocked. However, stopping members count against max_count until they actually die, so a slow stop_mfa reduces available capacity during teardown.

The stop_mfa pool configuration parameter lets you override the default. It follows the same {M, F, A} convention with the '$pooler_pid' placeholder:

#{name => pg_pool,
  ...
  stop_mfa => {my_conn, close, ['$pooler_pid']}}

The callback is called from the helper process instead of supervisor:terminate_child/2. For maximum throughput under churn, prefer a fast or fire-and-forget teardown so that slots are freed quickly.

Pools with slow-starting or slow-stopping workers

For pools whose workers take significant time to start (e.g. opening a database or network connection), the recommended configuration pattern is:

• Use initialize_mfa to perform the slow part of initialization (TCP handshake, protocol negotiation, etc.) after start_link returns. Each worker’s start_link completes quickly and multiple workers initialize in parallel.
• Raise member_start_timeout to give workers enough time to finish.
• Set auto_grow_threshold so the pool begins growing toward max_count while free members still exist, giving slow workers time to initialize before demand peaks.
• Use take_member/2 with a non-zero timeout so callers wait in the queue while workers are starting rather than immediately receiving error_no_members.
• Set queue_max to match the expected peak of concurrent callers.

For pools with workers that are slow to stop, use stop_mfa with a fast asynchronous teardown so that the pool is not blocked while workers drain.

Pool Configuration via pooler:new_pool

You can create pools using pooler:new_pool/1 when accepts a map of pool configuration. Here’s an example:

PoolConfig = #{
    name => rc8081,
    group => riak,
    max_count => 5,
    init_count => 2,
    start_mfa => {riakc_pb_socket, start_link, ["localhost", 8081]}
},
pooler:new_pool(PoolConfig).

Dynamic pool reconfiguration

Pool configuration can be changed in runtime

pooler:pool_reconfigure(rc8081, PoolConfig#{max_count => 10, init_count => 4}).

It will update the pool’s state and will start/stop workers if necessary, join/leave group, reschedule the cull timer etc. The only parameters that can’t be updated are name and start_mfa.

However, updated configuration won’t survive pool crash (it will be restarted with old config by supervisor). But this should not normally happen.

Using pooler

Here’s an example session:

pooler:start().
P = pooler:take_member(mysql, 5000),
% use P
pooler:return_member(mysql, P, ok).

Once started, the main interaction you will have with pooler is through two functions, take_member and return_member/3 (or return_member/2).

Call pooler:take_member(Pool) to obtain the pid belonging to a member of the pool Pool. When you are done with it, return it to the pool using pooler:return_member(Pool, Pid, ok). If you encountered an error using the member, you can pass fail as the second argument. In this case, pooler will permanently remove that member from the pool and start a new member to replace it. If your process is short lived, you can omit the call to return_member. In this case, pooler will detect the normal exit of the consumer and reclaim the member.

pooler:take_member/2 accepts a timeout (in milliseconds or as a time_spec() tuple). When no member is immediately available, the caller is queued and waits until either a member is returned or the timeout expires. Note that the timeout is soft: it controls how long the caller will wait in the queue, not the overall duration of the gen_server:call itself (which uses infinity).

For dynamic-sized pools (max_count > init_count) be aware that take_member/1 passes an implicit 0 timeout and therefore always returns error_no_members immediately when no member is free — even when the pool is actively starting new members to satisfy demand. take_member/2 with a non-zero timeout queues the caller and delivers the next member that becomes available, including freshly started ones. Which variant fits best depends on your latency requirements.

If you would like to obtain a member from a randomly selected pool in a group, call pooler:take_group_member(Group). This will return a Pid which must be returned using pooler:return_group_member/2 or pooler:return_group_member/3.

pooler as an included application

In order for pooler to start properly, all applications required to start a pool member must be start before pooler starts. Since pooler does not depend on members and since OTP may parallelize application starts for applications with no detectable dependencies, this can cause problems. One way to work around this is to specify pooler as an included application in your app. This means you will call pooler’s top-level supervisor in your app’s top-level supervisor and can regain control over the application start order. To do this, you would remove pooler from the list of applications in your_app.app and add it to the included_application key:

{application, your_app,
 [
  {description, "Your App"},
  {vsn, "0.1"},
  {registered, []},
  {applications, [kernel,
                  stdlib,
                  crypto,
                  mod_xyz]},
  {included_applications, [pooler]},
  {mod, {your_app, []}}
 ]}.

Then start pooler’s top-level supervisor with something like the following in your app’s top-level supervisor:

PoolerSup = {pooler_sup, {pooler_sup, start_link, []},
             permanent, infinity, supervisor, [pooler_sup]},
{ok, {{one_for_one, 5, 10}, [PoolerSup]}}.

Metrics

You can enable metrics collection by setting metrics_mod and metrics_api in the pool config (or the pooler application environment). Metrics are disabled by default.

metrics_api selects the backend API: folsom (default when metrics_mod is set) or exometer. metrics_mod is the module that implements the chosen API — e.g. folsom_metrics for folsom, or a custom module with a compatible interface.

#{name => my_pool,
  ...,
  metrics_mod => folsom_metrics,
  metrics_api => folsom}

Ensure the metrics library is in your code path and has been started before pooler.

When enabled, the following metrics will be tracked:

Metric Label	Description
pooler.POOL_NAME.take_rate	meter recording rate at which take_member is called
pooler.POOL_NAME.stopping_count	histogram tracking number of members currently being stopped asynchronously
pooler.error_no_members_count	counter indicating how many times take_member has returned error_no_members
pooler.killed_free_count	counter how many members have been killed when in the free state
pooler.killed_in_use_count	counter how many members have been killed when in the in_use state
pooler.event	history various error conditions

Demo Quick Start

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/epgsql/pooler.git
       

2. Build and run tests:

   cd pooler; make && make test
       

3. Start a demo

   make run
   
   Erlang R16B03 (erts-5.10.4) [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [async-threads:10] [kernel-poll:false]
   
   Eshell V5.10.4  (abort with ^G)
   1> pooler:start().
   ok
   2> M = pooler:take_member(pool1).
   <0.44.0>
   3> pooled_gs:get_id(M).
   {"p1",#Ref<0.0.0.38>}
   4> M2 = pooler:take_member(pool1).
   <0.45.0>
   5> pooled_gs:get_id(M2).
   {"p1",#Ref<0.0.0.40>}
   6> pooler:return_member(pool1, M, ok).
   ok
   7> pooler:return_member(pool1, M2, ok).
   ok
       

Implementation Notes

Overview of supervision

The top-level supervisor is pooler_sup. It supervises one supervisor for each pool configured in pooler’s app config.

At startup, a pooler_NAME_pool_sup is started for each pool described in pooler’s app config with NAME matching the name attribute of the config.

The pooler_NAME_pool_sup starts the gen_server that will register with pooler_NAME_pool as well as a pooler_NAME_member_sup that will be used to start and supervise the members of this pool. The pooler_starter_sup is used to start temporary workers used for managing async member start.

pooler_sup: one_for_one pooler_NAME_pool_sup: all_for_one pooler_NAME_member_sup: simple_one_for_one pooler_starter_sup: simple_one_for_one

Groups of pools are managed using the pg (OTP-23+) or pg2 (OTP below 23) application. This imposes a requirement to set a configuration parameter on the kernel application in an OTP release. Like this in sys.config:

% OTP_RELEASE >= 23
{kernel, [{start_pg, true}]}
% OTP_RELEASE < 23
{kernel, [{start_pg2, true}]}

Contribute

All contributions are welcome!

Pooler uses rebar3 fmt code formatter. Please make sure to apply make format before committing any code.

In pooler we are trying to maintain high test coverage. Run make test to ensure code coverage does not fall below a threshold (it is automatically validated).

Pooler is quite critical to performance regressions. We do not run benchmarks in CI, so, to make sure your change does not make pooler slower, please run the benchmarks before and after your changes and make sure there are no major regressions on the most recent OTP release. The workflow is:

$ git checkout master
$ rebar3 bench --save-baseline master  # run benchmarks, save results to `master` file
$ git checkout -b <my feature branch>

# <do your code changes>

$ rebar3 bench --baseline master  # run benchmarks on updated code, compare results with `master` results
$ git commit ... && git push ...

Please attach the output of rebar3 bench --baseline master after your changes to the PR description in order to prove that there were no performance regressions. Please attach the OTP version you run the benchmarks on.

New release

Our goal is to allow the hot code upgrade of pooler, so it is shipped with .appup file and hot upgrade procedure is tested in CI.

To cut a new release, do the following steps:

1. In src/pooler.app.src: update the vsn
2. In src/pooler.appup.src: replace the contents with upgrade instructions for a new release
3. In test/relx-base.config: update the pooler’s app version to a previous release (or leave it without version)
4. In test/relx-current.config: update the pooler’s app version to a new one
5. In .github/workflows/hot_upgrade.yml: update from_version to a previous release, maybe bump OTP version as well
6. Push, wait for the green build, tag

License

Pooler is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0. See the LICENSE file for details.