DB Context pooling with proxies resulting in memory issues in 8.0 RC2

[Ottodeklerk]

DB Context pooling with proxies enabled

Issue #25486 describes that this issue should be resolved in .NET 8 RC1. When comparing .NET7 with .NET8 RC2 no differences in memory handling are noticable.
When running the code below the process quickly passes the 1GB memory mark. When disabling proxies or using adddbcontext instead of pooling the memory usage is more consistent (as it should be after disposing the scope, I assume).

Code example

var testProcess = new TestSetup();
testProcess.InitializeServiceProvider();
await testProcess.QueryTest();

public class TestSetup
{
    private IServiceProvider _serviceProvider;
    public IServiceProvider InitializeServiceProvider()
    {
        var sc = new ServiceCollection();
        sc.AddDbContextPool<Context>(options =>
        {
            options.UseInMemoryDatabase("test").UseLazyLoadingProxies();
        });

        // For comparison (does not result in high memory usage)
        //sc.AddDbContext<Context>(options =>
        //{
        //    options.UseInMemoryDatabase("test").UseLazyLoadingProxies();
        //});

        _serviceProvider = sc.BuildServiceProvider();
        return _serviceProvider;
    }

    public async Task QueryTest()
    {
        await using ( var insertScope = _serviceProvider.CreateAsyncScope())
        {
            var insertScopeSp = insertScope.ServiceProvider;
            var insertScopeCt = insertScopeSp.GetRequiredService<Context>();
            for (var x = 1; x <= 10000; x++)
                insertScopeCt.TestModels.Add(new TestModel() {Id = x, Test = "test"});
            await insertScopeCt.SaveChangesAsync();
        }

        var i = 0;
        while (i < 100000)
        {
            i++;
            await using var scope = _serviceProvider.CreateAsyncScope();
            var sp = scope.ServiceProvider;
            var contextInstance = sp.GetRequiredService<Context>();
            var list = await contextInstance.TestModels.ToListAsync();
        }

        Console.ReadLine();

    }


    // DB Context
    public class TestModel
    {
        public long Id { get; set; }
        public string Test { get; set; }
    }
    public class Context : DbContext
    {
        public Context(DbContextOptions options) : base(options) { }
        public DbSet<TestModel> TestModels { get; set; }
    }
}

Memory snapshot comparison with Pooling only

Memory snapshot comparison with Pooling and proxies enabled

EF Core version:

    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="8.0.0-rc.2.23480.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.InMemory" Version="8.0.0-rc.2.23480.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Proxies" Version="8.0.0-rc.2.23480.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools" Version="8.0.0-rc.2.23480.1">

Database provider: InMemory
Target framework: 8.0
Operating system: Win-11
IDE: VS 2022 Preview 17.8.0 Preview 3

[roji]

@Ottodeklerk is this something you've seen in a real database provider as well, e.g. SQL Server or SQLite?

[Ottodeklerk]

I just tried the example above with the SQL server provider (8.0.0-rc.2.23480.1), and the results look the same.

Pooling and proxies enabled:

Pooling without proxies:

The issue came to our attention since our .NET 7 (SQL server based) production environment has some serious memory issues and occasional hangs when the GC is active. A lot of the proxy related objects (LazyLoader) seem to be stuck in gen2.

For now, we will disable pooling as a quick workaround since it creates more performance issues than it should resolve.

If you need anything else please let me know.

[roji]

/cc @ajcvickers

[Ottodeklerk]

In case it helps, the following (random) cases were tested to see if it makes any difference:

• Changing the pool size.
• Using sync/async scopes.
• Using buffering/streaming (ToListAsync vs AsAsyncEnumerable ).
• Using .AsNoTracking.
• Disabling LazyLoadingEnabled on the ChangeTracker (before the query).
• Calling SaveChanges after the read-only tolist (to possibly reset the state internally?).
• Setting entity state detached manually using the EntityEntry.
• Calling clear or ResetStateAsync on the StateManager manually before leaving the scope. Example:
  

Unfortunately none of the above changed the outcome.

[ajcvickers]

Note for triage: we null out the DbContext, but the Castle interceptor still has a reference to the entity type:

[Ottodeklerk]

Clearing the LazyLoader disposables in the DbContext service scope seems to keep the memory usage consistent and does not break pooling functionality.
It's more of a hacky workaround, but maybe it helps to find the root of the issue.

private bool DisposeSync(bool leaseActive, bool contextShouldBeDisposed)
{

    // Dispose LazyLoader objects in the Disposables list without disposing all services required by the pooled context.
    var props = _serviceScope?.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
        .First(e => e.Name == "Disposables");
    var toDispose = (props!.GetValue(_serviceScope) as List<object>);
    var toDisposeCopy = toDispose!.ToList();

    for (var i = toDisposeCopy.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
    {
        if (toDisposeCopy[i] is LazyLoader lazyLoader)
        {
            lazyLoader.Dispose();
            toDispose!.Remove(lazyLoader);
        }
    }

    if (leaseActive)
    {
        if (contextShouldBeDisposed)
        {
            _disposed = true;
            _lease = DbContextLease.InactiveLease;
        }
    }
    else if (!_disposed)
    {
        EntityFrameworkEventSource.Log.DbContextDisposing();

        _dbContextDependencies?.InfrastructureLogger.ContextDisposed(this);

        _disposed = true;

        _dbContextDependencies?.StateManager.Unsubscribe(resetting: true);

        _dbContextDependencies = null;
        _changeTracker = null;
        _database = null;
        _configurationSnapshot = null;

        SavingChanges = null;
        SavedChanges = null;
        SaveChangesFailed = null;

        return true;
    }

    return false;
}