Benchmarking Apache using Specweb 2009

Question

I am bench marking Apache 2.2 performance using Specweb2009 specifically by using the support workload. I want to load the server so as to make it execute at high CPU load.

The issue is when I run the test using 10 Apache server processes and 25 load clients the test fails with the errors like HTTPRequestSched: [ERROR] Bad response (-1). Request was GET /support/downloads/dir0000000019/download5_0 HTTP/1.1 SPECweb_Support: [ERROR] STATE 6; makeHttpRequest() failed. Connection: [ERROR] Bad status: 404 and still the CPU usage for the Apache processes reaches maximum of 0.7 %.

On the other hand if I use more Apache processes like 20 and client load processes 25 my test passes the QOS without nay errors but the CPU % for Apache still only touches maximum of 0.7%.

My understanding is that in the first case Apache processes are loaded heavily so they are not able to send the responses but in that case they should show high CPU utilization but they are not.

Am I missing something in the config files?

I will really appreciate if any one can suggest any good links or just suggest some config changes to rectify the issue.

Some of my config files are:

httpd-mpm.conf

httpd.conf

SPECweb_Support.config

Test.config

Thanks

Answer 1

You do know that SpecWeb2009 is retired now?

Having said that, the last time I set up for this was a few years ago, and from what I remember, to get it working, you had to follow the recommended steps carefully (verifying as you go along). In particular, you need to setup for an entire Specweb suite test, else it's pointless and you might as well use apache bench or something else.

In terms of documentation/guidelines, I found that looking through reports worked best in showing how the various elements were setup. This is a typical report, scroll down and read the Notes (HTTP Software Notes). That was an IBM originated report, and they discuss a little bit how they configured for apache in this PDF report (see around page-14 forwards).

So, on the whole, I would say:

• ensure you have a good set of guides
• be prepared to configure for the whole suite, or seek another benchmarking solution
• go through various reports and compare their configs with what you have.
• don't be reluctant to start over when things don't seem to be working.

Some documentation links:

• a specweb2009 suggested design document
• of course, the spec2009 user manual (in case you haven't seen it)
• this is a chinese site (i think) but the config directives are in english
• this brief paper talks webserver benchmarking methodologies (seems a useful quick ref)

Hope you find this useful ..