DAG-Based Formal Modeling of Spark Applications with MSVL

Abstract

Apache Spark is a high-speed computing engine for processing massive data. With its widespread adoption, there is a growing need to analyze its correctness and temporal properties. However, there is scarce research focused on the verification of temporal properties in Spark programs. To address this gap, we employ the code-level runtime verification tool UMC4M based on the Modeling, Simulation, and Verification Language (MSVL). To this end, a Spark program S has to be translated into an MSVL program M, and the negation of the property P specified by a Propositional Projection Temporal Logic (PPTL) formula that needs to be verified is also translated to an MSVL program M1; then, a new MSVL program “M and M1” can be compiled and executed. Whether program S violates the property P is determined by the existence of an acceptable execution of “M and M1”. Thus, the key issue lies in how to formalize model Spark programs using MSVL programs. We previously proposed a solution to this problem—using the MSVL functions to perform Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDD) operations and converting the Spark program into an MSVL program based on the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) of the Spark program. However, we only proposed this idea. Building upon this foundation, we implement the conversion from RDD operations to MSVL functions and propose, as well as implement, the rules for translating Spark programs to MSVL programs based on DAG. We confirm the feasibility of this approach and provide a viable method for verifying the temporal properties of Spark programs. Additionally, an automatic translation tool, S2M, is developed. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate this conversion process.