Install and Test with Apache Bench

2012-01-05

Apache Bench is an easy-to-use tool for load testing and is available in most Linux distros. This article shows how to setup three tests: a static file test, a dynamic file (PHP) test, and a database (MySQL) access test.

Apache Bench is a load testing tool for web servers.

Install Apache Bench

sudo aptitude install apache2-utils

Run Apache Bench

The following line uses keepalive for 50,000 connections, at a concurrency of 100 and a timeout of 20 seconds. Be sure to end root domains with a slash.

ab -k -n 50000 -c 100 -t 20 http://example.com/

Create a Static HTML Test File

sudo vi /srv/www/example.com/web/testhtml.htm

Add the following content to the test file:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head><title>#1 HTML Test</title></head>
<body>
This is a web server test page.
</body>
</html>

Create a Dynamic PHP File

sudo vi /srv/www/example.com/web/testhtml.htm

Add the following content to the test file:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<?php echo '<html>'; ?>
<?php echo '<head><title>#2 PHP Test</title></head>'; ?>
<?php echo '<body>'; ?>
<?php echo 'This is a web server test page.'; ?>
<?php echo '</body>'; ?>
<?php echo '</html>'; ?>

Create a Dynamic MySQL File

sudo vi /srv/www/example.com/web/testmysql.php

Add the following content to the test file:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<?php
   $link = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");
   mysql_select_db("mytest");

   $query = "SELECT * FROM mytest";
   $result = mysql_query($query);

   while ($line = mysql_fetch_array($result))
   {
       print "$line[0]\n";
   }
   mysql_close($link);
?>

Configure the database for the test file:

USE mytest
CREATE TABLE mytest (content text) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=11 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
INSERT INTO mytest (content) VALUES('<html><head><title>#1 HTML Test</title></head><body>This is a web server test page.</body></html>');