Technical Reports
HPL-2010-163
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Web Workload Generation Challenges - An Empirical Investigation
Hashemian, Raoufehsadat; Krishnamurthy, Diwakar; Arlitt, Martin
HP Laboratories
HPL-2010-163
Keyword(s): Workload Generator, Performance Testing, Benchmarking Tools
Abstract: Workload generators are widely used for testing the performance of Web-based systems. Typically, these tools are also used to collect measurements such as throughput and end user response times that are often used to characterize the Quality of Service (QoS) provided by a system to its users. However, our study finds that Web workload generation is more difficult than it seems. In examining the popular RUBiS client generator [1], we found that reported response times could be grossly inaccurate, and that the generated workloads were less realistic than expected, causing server scalability to be incorrectly estimated. Using experimentation, we demonstrate how the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Java network library are the root causes of these issues. Our work serves as an example of how to verify the behaviour of a Web workload generator.
23 Pages
External Posting Date: October 21, 2010 [Fulltext]. Approved for External Publication
Internal Posting Date: October 21, 2010 [Fulltext]