[PLUG] benchmarking webserver performance ?

M. Edward (Ed) Borasky znmeb at cesmail.net
Wed Mar 19 01:59:46 UTC 2008


Russ Gilman-Hunt wrote:
> I have to admit a mild stumping. 
> 
> I've gotten my boss used to the idea of "benchmarks" so that he can not
> only ask "is the load high on serverX" but also "how does the load today
> compare against last week's load?"  ( good boss, have a donut ). 
> 
> Now he wants me to look at a webpage on serverX and gauge the response.
> On one hand, it responds quick, but on the other several included bits
> ( you know, graphics, javascript libraries, all that web2.0 crap ) can
> take seconds to materialize. 
> 
> I think it'd be fairly easy for me to add a graph to mrtg to just
> monitor how quickly the server responds ( how quickly the html starts to
> come down the chute ), but how do I tell mrtg I want to know when the
> last piece comes down and the page is "done" ?

Question: has your boss given you a budget, or does he want you to build 
this yourself? The reason I ask is that there are quite a few good load 
testing tools out there. The two best IMHO are Borland SilkPerformer 
(which I know well) and HP/Mercury LoadRunner (which I've never 
touched). These are the expensive ones. There are also open source tools 
and less expensive commercial tools, but I'd recommend investigating the 
"name brand" tools first.

As far as knowing when "the last piece is done", that's not easy for a 
variety of reasons. Essentially you need to get fairly intimate with the 
browser, and it's highly dependent on how fast the client PC is, how 
much RAM it has, and what else it happens to be doing.



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