Introduction

Ensuring your application’s performance is as important as its functionality. BenchmarkDotNet, a powerful .NET library for benchmarking, is an excellent tool for this.

By integrating BenchmarkDotNet into an Azure DevOps pipeline, you can automate the process of measuring and monitoring the performance of your code.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to add BenchmarkDotNet to your Azure DevOps pipeline, ensuring your application’s performance is continually assessed as part of your CI/CD process.

What is BenchmarkDotNet?

BenchmarkDotNet is a performance testing framework that makes it easy to write benchmarks and measure the performance of your code in .NET. It provides a rich set of features to run and analyze benchmarks with accuracy.

Why Integrate BenchmarkDotNet in Azure DevOps Pipeline?

Integrating BenchmarkDotNet in your Azure DevOps pipeline allows you to:

• Continuously monitor performance regressions.
  
• Ensure new code commits do not degrade performance.
  
• Generate and track performance metrics over time.
  
• Make informed decisions based on performance data.

Prerequisites

• Basic understanding of Azure DevOps and CI/CD concepts.
  
• An existing Azure DevOps project with a .NET application.
  
• Familiarity with BenchmarkDotNet.

Step-by-Step Guide to Integration

Step 1: Setting Up BenchmarkDotNet

Install BenchmarkDotNet: Add BenchmarkDotNet to your project via NuGet.

Install-Package BenchmarkDotNet

Write Benchmarks: Create a new class and write your benchmarks. Here’s a simple example:

using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;

public class MyBenchmarks
{
    [Benchmark]
    public void SomeMethodToTest()
    {
        // Your code here
    }
}

Step 2: Create a Benchmarking Script

1. Script Creation: Create a script that will run your benchmarks as part of the build process. This script can be a PowerShell script or a batch file, depending on your preference.
   
2. Script Execution: The script should build your project with BenchmarkDotNet and execute the benchmarks. The results should be output to a file for later analysis.

Step 3: Modifying Azure DevOps Pipeline

1. Edit Pipeline: Go to your Azure DevOps project and edit your build pipeline.
   
2. Add Benchmark Step: Add a new step in your Azure DevOps pipeline to execute the benchmarking script. This can be done using the Azure PowerShell task or a Command Line task, depending on the script you’ve created.
   
3. Artifact Publishing: Configure the pipeline to publish the benchmark results as build artifacts. This allows you to review the results after the build has completed.

- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  inputs:
    PathtoPublish: 'path_to_benchmark_results'
    ArtifactName: 'BenchmarkResults'
    publishLocation: 'Container'

Step 4: Analyzing the Results

After your pipeline runs, check the published artifacts to view the benchmark results. BenchmarkDotNet provides detailed performance reports that you can analyze to understand the performance implications of your recent code changes.

Best Practices

• Automate Regularly: Run benchmarks regularly to catch performance regressions early.
  
• Version Control for Benchmarks: Keep benchmarks under version control to track changes over time.
  
• Understand Results: Spend time understanding the benchmark results to make informed decisions.
  
• Avoid Overhead: Avoid adding too much overhead to your CI/CD pipeline with extensive benchmarking.
  
  It is a good idea to run a select number of tests around the most essential pieces of code regularly and other less critical pieces of code, perhaps once per day.
  
  This is easy to do by splitting the tests into different classes and running some every time changes are merged into your branches and others on a timer.

Conclusion

By integrating BenchmarkDotNet into your Azure DevOps pipeline, you can ensure that performance considerations are an integral part of your development process.

This approach helps in identifying performance regressions promptly and maintaining the overall efficiency of your application.

Remember, performance is not just an afterthought but a critical component of your application’s success and user experience.

Related posts:

Create a YAML Pipeline in Azure DevOps Add Human Intervention into an Azure Pipeline Hosting a Windows Container Build Agent and Connecting It to Azure DevOps Boost Your C# Code’s Performance with BenchmarkDotNet