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><A
NAME="benchmark">5.2. How to benchmark a web server</H1
><P
> First, benchmarking a web server is not an easy thing. To benchmark a
web server the time it will take to give a page is not important: you don't
care if a user can have his page in 0.1 ms or in 0.05 ms as nobody can have
such delays on the Internet.
</P
><P
> What is important is the average time it will take when you have
a maximum number of users on your site simultaneously. Another
important thing is how much more time it will take when there
are 2 times more users: a server that take 2 times more for 2
times more users is better than another that take 4 times more
for the same amount of users. If you run more than a web server
on your computer, you will also want to look at the load average
and CPU time of your system. Here is a typical output of the
command <B
CLASS="command"
>uptime</B
>:
</P
><P
> <TT
CLASS="computeroutput"
> 22:39:49 up 2:22, 5 users, load average: 0.01, 0.01, 0.00
</TT
>
</P
><P
> And an extract from the top(1) man page:
</P
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"
The load averages are the average number of process ready to run during
the last 1, 5 and 15 minutes
"</SPAN
>
</P
><P
> So the lower your load average is, the better for the other
programs on your machine.
</P
><P
> Now comes the next problem: how can you stress your web server with a maximum
number of connections when your client (the machine making the request) will
usually not be able to cope with the server and with the number of users you
have.
</P
><P
> To do this, increase the number of sockets you can have on your
system. Under some systems it is 1024, which is too low, see
<A
HREF="tune.html"
>Section 5.3</A
> for more information. The
next thing to do is to have a good client program written with
threads and non-blocking sockets. If you use a multi-fork
program on a single client, it will never cope with any web
server. It is also good to have several clients stressing the
server together.
</P
><P
> Last, if you want to compare two web servers, be sure that they are on the
same hardware, OS, and network. The same holds for the client(s).
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