# Highest requests per second - what is considered top performance? **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [October 23, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082 "2011-10-23T04:41:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dubstep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@dubstep](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dubstep)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/1 "2011-10-23T04:41:32Z")
We’ve been running Nginx for sometime powering a fairly high traffic website. The single box, dual CPU (dual core) has been serving us well but its time to upgrade. I’ve got a new system configured, quad CPU (quad core) = 16 cores (plenty of RAM) and CentOS. My understanding is that even though there are 16 cores, more than 5 Nginx instances will not greatly improve performance. I decided to benchmark the system using a single Nginx instance and default configuration with a static html file. Using “ab” (locally) with 50,000 connections and 1,000 concurrent ones I get around 10K requests / second. What particular parameters should I look into adjusting to try to double that number? (Nginx and OS). What is considered top performance for a single box / instance? Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Highest requests per second - what is considered top performance?](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,217062,217062#msg-217062)** > > We've been running Nginx for sometime powering a fairly high traffic website. The single box, dual CPU (dual core) has been serving us well but its time to upgrade. I've got a new system configured, quad CPU (quad core) = 16 cores (plenty of RAM) and... ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/2 "2011-10-23T18:24:12Z")
Hello! On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 10:40:53PM -0400, iberkner wrote: > requests / second. > > What particular parameters should I look into adjusting to try to double > that number? (Nginx and OS). Likely just doubling number of “ab” processes will do the trick (i.e. just run two “ab” in parallel), it looks like most obvious bottleneck in your test. Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/3 "2011-10-23T19:15:48Z")
On Oct 22, 2011, at 10:40 PM, iberkner wrote: > What is considered top performance for a single box / instance? I’ve seen 200k+ requests/second on a smaller box than you have. Usually, your testing tool is the bottle neck. I usually run one nginx worker per CPU core. Not sure why more than 5 wouldn’t improve performance, the processes are generally independent. Make sure you are using buffered access logs (if using them) and you have worker\_rlimit\_nofile set high (like 256k). ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/4 "2011-10-23T20:39:34Z")
Hi Maxim, How do you suggest running “ab” in parallel? Ultimately, my objective is to baseline the system so that as I start adding our customizations to it I can measure the performance impact. On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 12:24 PM, Maxim D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > bottleneck in your test. > > Maxim D. > > * * * > > nginx mailing list > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [mailman.nginx.org archive](http://mailman.nginx.org/mailman/listinfo/nginx) – Ilan B. Chief Technology Officer > **[Online Homeschool Curriculum from Time4Learning](https://www.time4learning.com/)** > > PreK-12 homeschooling is EASY with Time4Learning at your fingertips with award-winning online lessons, and parent-friendly planning and reporting tools. 6300 NE 1st Ave., Suite 203 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334 (954) 771-0914 [http://www.twitter.com/time4learning](http://www.twitter.com/time4learning) [http://www.facebook.com/Time4Learning](http://www.facebook.com/Time4Learning) [Time4Learning.com](http://Time4Learning.com) - Online interactive curriculum for home use, PreK-8th Grade. [Time4Writing.com](http://Time4Writing.com) - Online writing tutorials for high, middle, and elementary school students. [Time4Learning.net](http://Time4Learning.net) - A forum to chat with parents online about kids, education, parenting and more. [spellingcity.com](http://spellingcity.com) - Online vocabulary and spelling activities for teachers, parents and students. ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/5 "2011-10-23T21:01:15Z")
Run them in two shells or from two different systems. Also look at wcat. BlackBerry PIN 280C6BCD +1 647 459 9475 ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/6 "2011-10-23T21:48:15Z")
Thanks. I ran them in 2 separate shells concurrently (as best I could) and got about the same result, i.e. 10K req. / sec. per each “ab” test, so it does look as if the bottleneck is the testing tool. I would like to see \> 50,000 req. / sec. ultimately in a controlled testing environment, what is the best way to try and achieve that? Running “ab” in “n” different shells at the same time is an option, but difficult. Is there a better way? ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/7 "2011-10-23T22:03:03Z")
The varnish folks, Krystjan in particular, have blogged about how they do this. Easy to find them on the google 😉 BlackBerry PIN 280C6BCD +1 647 459 9475 ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/8 "2011-10-23T20:07:25Z")
On 23 October 2011 20:15, Brian A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Make sure you are using buffered access logs (if using them) Hi, Can you clarify what this means? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/9 "2011-10-23T22:06:46Z")
On 23 Out 2011 20h47 WEST, [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I ran them in 2 separate shells concurrently (as best I could) and > got about the same result, i.e. 10K req. / sec. per each “ab” test, > so it does look as if the bottleneck is the testing tool. > > I would like to see \> 50,000 req. / sec. ultimately in a controlled > testing environment, what is the best way to try and achieve that? > Running “ab” in “n” different shells at the same time is an option, > but difficult. Forget ab. Use httpload/http\_load. It uses a single process, hence it mimics to a certain extent the way Nginx works. It uses select() though instead of epoll() or kqueue(). Requesting the empty\_gif you should get always something north of 20k req/s on a semi-decent machine. — appa ---
**Author:** ![iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@iberkner](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/iberkner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/highest-requests-per-second-what-is-considered-top-performance/213082/10 "2011-10-23T22:07:23Z")
Thanks, I’ve been doing a lot of reading regarding this subject matter, haven’t found anything specific by Varnish folks and Krystjan, if you can point me to a blog entry would be great. Thanks On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 4:02 PM, Stefan C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > performance? – Ilan B. Chief Technology Officer > **[Online Homeschool Curriculum from Time4Learning](https://www.time4learning.com/)** > > PreK-12 homeschooling is EASY with Time4Learning at your fingertips with award-winning online lessons, and parent-friendly planning and reporting tools. 6300 NE 1st Ave., Suite 203 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334 (954) 771-0914 [http://www.twitter.com/time4learning](http://www.twitter.com/time4learning) [http://www.facebook.com/Time4Learning](http://www.facebook.com/Time4Learning) [Time4Learning.com](http://Time4Learning.com) - Online interactive curriculum for home use, PreK-8th Grade. [Time4Writing.com](http://Time4Writing.com) - Online writing tutorials for high, middle, and elementary school students. [Time4Learning.net](http://Time4Learning.net) - A forum to chat with parents online about kids, education, parenting and more. [spellingcity.com](http://spellingcity.com) - Online vocabulary and spelling activities for teachers, parents and students.