I’ve been having some issues with Apache lately in that it and MySQL aren’t playing nicely performance-wise. I’ve raised meaningful numbers. I’ve raised, lowered, raised, lowered, deleted, added, moved, and raised meaningless numbers. I’ve done a lot.
In the end, “time wget” gets you only so far when it comes to seeing how fast a page loads. Once you get Apache doing its job, it’s down to the database and the PHP code that’s running it all and that can get real fun to test.
Happily, Apache includes a very useful tool (in my experience) for hammering the living hell out of a server. It’s called Apache Benchmark (“ab” is the binary’s name) and it can really hand a server it’s own ass if you don’t watch it.
ab -kc 10 -t 30 http://localhost/
That will open 10 connections, use Keep-Alive on them, and then hammer localhost for 30 seconds through those connections. When done, you get a pretty little chart telling you what broke and how long it took to start screaming. Try fifty KA connections for five minutes if you really feel sadistic. That’d be equal to a very high-end hammering from Fark or Slashdot. Watch your server cry.
For best results, though, use it on another machine. You want to not only test the network connection but also leave the server’s CPU and OS to think about serving, not about pulling it down as well.
ab is included in Mac OS X as a part of the built-in Apache-based PWS.
If you want to hide your IP address (in order to protect your privacy) then you can send multiple requests to specific sites / webpages in specific time span via Proxy Server. You just release the following command from the commandline (Apache Server must be installed on your computer):
rakesh@debian ~]$ ab -kc 10 -t 30 -X 128.119.41.210:3128 http://localhost
Whereas:
ab Apache Benchmark
-kEnable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e., perform multiple requests within one HTTP session.
-cNumber of multiple requests to perform at a time. Default is one request at a time.
SUMMARY ab is a tool for benchmarking your Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to give you an impression of how your current
Apache installation performs. This especially shows you how many requests per second your Apache installation is capable of serving.
OPTIONS -A auth-username:password Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to the server. The username and password are separated by a single : and sent on the wire base64
encoded. The string is sent regardless of whether the server needs it (i.e., has sent an 401 authentication needed).
-c concurrency Number of multiple requests to perform at a time. Default is one request at a time.
-C cookie-name=value Add a Cookie: line to the request. The argument is typically in the form of a name=value pair. This field is repeatable.
-dDo not display the “percentage served within XX [ms] table”. (legacy support).
-e csv-file Write a Comma separated value (CSV) file which contains for each percentage (from 1% to 100%) the time (in milliseconds) it took to serve
that percentage of the requests. This is usually more useful than the ’gnuplot’ file; as the results are already ’binned’.
-g gnuplot-file Write all measured values out as a ’gnuplot’ or TSV (Tab separate values) file. This file can easily be imported into packages like Gnu‐
plot, IDL, Mathematica, Igor or even Excel. The labels are on the first line of the file.
-h Display usage information.
-H custom-header Append extra headers to the request. The argument is typically in the form of a valid header line, containing a colon-separated field-value
pair (i.e., “Accept-Encoding: zip/zop;8bit”).
-i Do HEAD requests instead of GET.
-k Enable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e., perform multiple requests within one HTTP session. Default is no KeepAlive.
-n requests Number of requests to perform for the benchmarking session. The default is to just perform a single request which usually leads to non-rep‐
resentative benchmarking results.
-p POST-file File containing data to POST.
-P proxy-auth-username:password Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to a proxy en-route. The username and password are separated by a single : and sent on the wire
base64 encoded. The string is sent regardless of whether the proxy needs it (i.e., has sent an 407 proxy authentication needed).
-q When processing more than 150 requests, ab outputs a progress count on stderr every 10% or 100 requests or so. The -q flag will suppress
these messages.
-s When compiled in (ab -h will show you) use the SSL protected https rather than the http protocol. This feature is experimental and very
rudimentary. You probably do not want to use it.
-S Do not display the median and standard deviation values, nor display the warning/error messages when the average and median are more than
one or two times the standard deviation apart. And default to the min/avg/max values. (legacy support).
-t timelimit Maximum number of seconds to spend for benchmarking. This implies a -n 50000 internally. Use this to benchmark the server within a fixed
total amount of time. Per default there is no timelimit. -T content-type Content-type header to use for POST data.
-v verbosity Set verbosity level – 4 and above prints information on headers, 3 and above prints response codes (404, 200, etc.), 2 and above prints
warnings and info.
-VDisplay version number and exit.
-wPrint out results in HTML tables. Default table is two columns wide, with a white background.
-X proxy[:port] Use a proxy server for the requests.
I’ve been having some issues with Apache lately in that it and MySQL aren’t playing nicely performance-wise. I’ve raised meaningful numbers. I’ve raised, lowered, raised, lowered, deleted, added, moved, and raised meaningless numbers. I’ve done a lot.
In the end, “time wget” gets you only so far when it comes to seeing how fast a page loads. Once you get Apache doing its job, it’s down to the database and the PHP code that’s running it all and that can get real fun to test.
Happily, Apache includes a very useful tool (in my experience) for hammering the living hell out of a server. It’s called Apache Benchmark (“ab” is the binary’s name) and it can really hand a server it’s own ass if you don’t watch it.
ab -kc 10 -t 30 http://localhost/
That will open 10 connections, use Keep-Alive on them, and then hammer localhost for 30 seconds through those connections. When done, you get a pretty little chart telling you what broke and how long it took to start screaming. Try fifty KA connections for five minutes if you really feel sadistic. That’d be equal to a very high-end hammering from Fark or Slashdot. Watch your server cry.
For best results, though, use it on another machine. You want to not only test the network connection but also leave the server’s CPU and OS to think about serving, not about pulling it down as well.
ab is included in Mac OS X as a part of the built-in Apache-based PWS.
If you want to hide your IP address (in order to protect your privacy) then you can send multiple requests to specific sites / webpages in specific time span via Proxy Server. You just release the following command from the commandline (Apache Server must be installed on your computer):
rakesh@debian ~]$ ab -kc 10 -t 30 -X 128.119.41.210:3128 http://localhost
Whereas:
ab Apache Benchmark
-kEnable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e., perform multiple requests within one HTTP session.
-cNumber of multiple requests to perform at a time. Default is one request at a time.
SUMMARY ab is a tool for benchmarking your Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to give you an impression of how your current
Apache installation performs. This especially shows you how many requests per second your Apache installation is capable of serving.
OPTIONS -A auth-username:password Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to the server. The username and password are separated by a single : and sent on the wire base64
encoded. The string is sent regardless of whether the server needs it (i.e., has sent an 401 authentication needed).
-c concurrency Number of multiple requests to perform at a time. Default is one request at a time.
-C cookie-name=value Add a Cookie: line to the request. The argument is typically in the form of a name=value pair. This field is repeatable.
-dDo not display the “percentage served within XX [ms] table”. (legacy support).
-e csv-file Write a Comma separated value (CSV) file which contains for each percentage (from 1% to 100%) the time (in milliseconds) it took to serve
that percentage of the requests. This is usually more useful than the ’gnuplot’ file; as the results are already ’binned’.
-g gnuplot-file Write all measured values out as a ’gnuplot’ or TSV (Tab separate values) file. This file can easily be imported into packages like Gnu‐
plot, IDL, Mathematica, Igor or even Excel. The labels are on the first line of the file.
-h Display usage information.
-H custom-header Append extra headers to the request. The argument is typically in the form of a valid header line, containing a colon-separated field-value
pair (i.e., “Accept-Encoding: zip/zop;8bit”).
-i Do HEAD requests instead of GET.
-k Enable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e., perform multiple requests within one HTTP session. Default is no KeepAlive.
-n requests Number of requests to perform for the benchmarking session. The default is to just perform a single request which usually leads to non-rep‐
resentative benchmarking results.
-p POST-file File containing data to POST.
-P proxy-auth-username:password Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to a proxy en-route. The username and password are separated by a single : and sent on the wire
base64 encoded. The string is sent regardless of whether the proxy needs it (i.e., has sent an 407 proxy authentication needed).
-q When processing more than 150 requests, ab outputs a progress count on stderr every 10% or 100 requests or so. The -q flag will suppress
these messages.
-s When compiled in (ab -h will show you) use the SSL protected https rather than the http protocol. This feature is experimental and very
rudimentary. You probably do not want to use it.
-S Do not display the median and standard deviation values, nor display the warning/error messages when the average and median are more than
one or two times the standard deviation apart. And default to the min/avg/max values. (legacy support).
-t timelimit Maximum number of seconds to spend for benchmarking. This implies a -n 50000 internally. Use this to benchmark the server within a fixed
total amount of time. Per default there is no timelimit. -T content-type Content-type header to use for POST data.
-v verbosity Set verbosity level – 4 and above prints information on headers, 3 and above prints response codes (404, 200, etc.), 2 and above prints
warnings and info.
-VDisplay version number and exit.
-wPrint out results in HTML tables. Default table is two columns wide, with a white background.
-X proxy[:port] Use a proxy server for the requests.
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2 Comments to “Apache Benchmark: Stress-Test Apache With ab”
Posted by Rakesh in 
Shamail says:
Oh! Cool
I never knew about ab, its a really powerfull utility. Thanks for the info.
Will be using ab from now on for my website benchmarking.
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