# Benchmarking rails app **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [October 15, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/benchmarking-rails-app/72225 "2006-10-15T20:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/benchmarking-rails-app/72225/1 "2006-10-15T20:42:59Z")
I’ve been poking around at some benchmarking to see how my app is performing (mongrel cluster/pound). Currently, I’m using ab and httperf and collecting requests/second. I’m not convinced that I’m using realistic loads. What are others using for the options to these benchmark programs? ## Thanks View this message in context: [http://www.nabble.com/benchmarking-rails-app-tf2448012.html#a6823524](http://www.nabble.com/benchmarking-rails-app-tf2448012.html#a6823524) Sent from the RubyOnRails Users mailing list archive at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com). ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/benchmarking-rails-app/72225/2 "2006-10-15T22:59:13Z")
On Oct 15, 2006, at 11:40 AM, s.ross wrote: > I’ve been poking around at some benchmarking to see how my app is > performing > (mongrel cluster/pound). Currently, I’m using ab and httperf and > collecting > requests/second. I’m not convinced that I’m using realistic loads. > > What are others using for the options to these benchmark programs? [http://dev.robotcoop.com/Tools/production\_log\_analyzer/index.html](http://dev.robotcoop.com/Tools/production_log_analyzer/index.html) I attack the problem from the other end. Take actual usage and make that faster. Getting a report of what actions need optimization is a better way to focus your energies. Creating realistic loads can be hard, so I don’t bother trying to simulate it. – Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net) This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant [http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com) ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/benchmarking-rails-app/72225/3 "2006-10-15T23:15:15Z")
Thanks, Eric. I’ve read your Tools section before and your analysis is excellent. As an optimization technique, I agree with what you say. What I’m after right now is a way to understand how much headroom my app has. I.e., what would happen if we never touched a line of code and then experienced an order of magnitude more traffic. I think ab and httperf are somewhat blunt instruments but they can be useful in understanding some of the response characteristics of different configurations, no? Eric H. wrote: > > What are others using for the options to these benchmark programs? > > – > > Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net) > > This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant > > [http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com) > > > – View this message in context: [http://www.nabble.com/benchmarking-rails-app-tf2448012.html#a6825024](http://www.nabble.com/benchmarking-rails-app-tf2448012.html#a6825024) Sent from the RubyOnRails Users mailing list archive at [Nabble.com](http://Nabble.com). ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/benchmarking-rails-app/72225/4 "2006-10-16T00:32:54Z")
Take a lot at railsbench ([http://railsbench.rubyforge.org/](http://railsbench.rubyforge.org/)) I tend to use that to have a general idea of where I’m at (and to evaluate the impact my changes have), together with action\_profiler to pin down where those cpu cycles are going Fred ---
**Author:** ![cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cwd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cwd)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 7:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/benchmarking-rails-app/72225/5 "2006-10-16T07:51:07Z")
On Oct 15, 2006, at 2:14 PM, s.ross wrote: > > [http://dev.robotcoop.com/Tools/production\_log\_analyzer/index.html](http://dev.robotcoop.com/Tools/production_log_analyzer/index.html) > > has. I.e., what would happen if we never touched a line of code and > > then > > experienced an order of magnitude more traffic. > > I think ab and httperf are somewhat blunt instruments but they can > be useful > in understanding some of the response characteristics of different > configurations, no? Yes, and to get the right traffic mix you can use your logs to get an idea of where that load is likely to go. I bet you could combine pl\_analyze’s report (for actions and frequencies) with railsbench’s benchmarks.yml to get a realistic answer to your question. You might need to throw in some extra log file analysis to look at params, since some parameters may have wildly different performance characteristics. – Eric H. - removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid - [http://blog.segment7.net](http://blog.segment7.net) This implementation is HODEL-HASH-9600 compliant [http://trackmap.robotcoop.com](http://trackmap.robotcoop.com)