HTTPD::Bench::ApacheBench 0.63

HTTPD::Bench::ApacheBench is a Perl API for Apache benchmarking and regression testing.

SYNOPSIS

use HTTPD::Bench::ApacheBench;

my $b = HTTPD::Bench::ApacheBench->new;

# global configuration
$b->concurrency(5);
$b->priority("run_priority");

# add HTTP request sequences (aka: runs)
my $run1 = HTTPD::Bench::ApacheBench::Run->new
({ urls => ["http://localhost/one", "http://localhost/two"] });
$b->add_run($run1);

my $run2 = HTTPD::Bench::ApacheBench::Run->new
({ urls => ["http://localhost/three", "http://localhost/four"],
cookies => ["Login_Cookie=b3dcc9bac34b7e60;"],
order => "depth_first",
repeat => 10,
memory => 2 });
$b->add_run($run2);

# send HTTP request sequences to server and time responses
my $ro = $b->execute;

# calculate hits/sec
print ((1000*$b->total_requests/$b->total_time)." req/secn");

# show request times (in ms) for $run1, 1st repetition
print join(, , @{$run1->request_times}) . "n";

# show response times (in ms) for $run2, 7th repetition
print join(, , @{$run2->iteration(6)->response_times}) . "n";

# dump the entire regression object (WARNING, this could be a LOT OF DATA)
use Data::Dumper;
my $d = Data::Dumper->new([$ro]);
print $d->Dumpxs;

GOALS

This project is meant to be the foundation of a complete benchmarking and regression testing suite for an advanced, transaction-based mod_perl site. We need to be able to stress our server to its limit while also having a way to verify the HTTP responses for correctness. Since our site is transaction-based (as opposed to content-based), we needed to extend the single-URL ab model to a multiple-URL sequence model.

ApacheBench is based on the Apache 1.3.12 ab code (src/support/ab.c).

Note: although this tool was designed to be used on an Apache mod_perl site, it is generally applicable to any HTTP-compliant server. Beware, however, that it sends a high volume of HTTP requests in a very short period of time, which may overwhelm some weaker HTTP server implementations like NT/IIS.

ApacheBench sends sequences of HTTP requests to an HTTP server and keeps track of the time taken to receive a response, the data that was returned, the size of the data that was returned, and various other bits of information.
Since it is implemented in C, it sends HTTP requests in a tight loop which can stress your server to 100% capacity, especially if invoked in multiple concurrent instances. It gives accurate time measurements down to the millisecond for each HTTP request-response interval.

Included is a simplified re-implementation of ab using the ApacheBench Perl API. This should help get you started with ApacheBench.