Which Node.js Concurrent Web Server is best on Heroku?

Question

I have just learned about Heroku and was pretty much excited to test it out. Ive quickly assembled their demo's with Node.js Language and stumbled across a problem. When running the application locally, apache benchmark prints roughly about 3500 request/s but when its on the cloud that drops to 10 request/s and does not increase or lower based on network latency. I cannot believe that this is the performance they are asking 5 cents/hour for and highly suspect my application to be not multi-threaded.

This is my code.js: http://pastebin.com/hyM47Ue7

What configuration do I need to apply in order to get it 'running' (faster) on Heroku ? Or what other web servers for node.js could I use ?

I am thankful for every answer on this topic.

Answer 1

Your little example is not multi-threaded. (Not even on your own machine.) But you don't need to pay for more dyno's immediately, as you can make use of multiple cores on a dyno, see this answer Running Node.js App with cluster module is meaningless in Heroku?

To repeat that answer: a node solution to using multiple processes that should increase your throughput is to use the (built-in) cluster module.

I would guess that you can easily get more than 10 req/s from a heroku dyno without a problem, see this benchmark, for example:

http://openhood.com/ruby/node/heroku/sinatra/mongo_mapper/unicorn/express/mongoose/cluster/2011/06/14/benchmark-ruby-versus-node-js/

What do you use to benchmark?

Answer 2

You're right, the web server is not multi-threaded, until you pay for more web dynos. I've found Heroku is handy for prototyping; depending on the monetary value of your time, you may or may not want to use it to set up a scalable server instead of using EC2 directly.