Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2001 12:55:52 +0200 (MEST)
From: Sascha Schumann <sascha AT schumann DOT cx>
To: ircg@lists.scs-web.de
Subject: [ircg] IRCG performance test

    Hi,

    as some of you know, I run performance and load tests from
    time to time.

    Test objective:

    Client simulating a load of 3000 viewers and 15 authors,
    posting one comment every five to ten seconds per author.

    Summary:

    - Linux 2.4.4 handles the produced data stream without a
      hitch;
    - FreeBSD 4.3 cannot cope with the load (overruns in the xl
      driver; using another NIC might cure this problem);
    - IRCG needs about 17KB RAM per user;
    - the Undernet IRC server easily deals with 3000 local users
      and more after appropiate tuning;
    - during the login phase, a steady flow of about 4.5MB/s was
      maintained (about 37MBit/s); note that this only happens,
      if 3000 users try to login within ~four minutes;
    - afterwards, IP traffic declined to about 1-4MBit/s;
    - no memory leaks or crashes or other undefined behaviour
      were observed.

    Test setting:

    Server: P3-750, 256MB RAM, 3c905b
            IRCG-2.4, yesterday's PHP-CVS, thttpd-2.20b,
            ircu2.10.10, Linux 2.4.4
    Client: P3-450, 128MB RAM, Tulip-based NIC
            custom "talkshow" load generator

            100MBit/s switched network

    We used the scripts for the Internationale Kurzfilmtage
    Oberhausen[1].  With regard to the benchmark, they are quite
    similar to the published basic script framework.

    talkshow results after thirty minutes:

    Read Bytes:     1,325,528,950
    Written Bytes:        730,399
    Logins:                 3,837
    Logouts:                  820
    Messages posted:         1125
    Total Messages:     3,237,619
    Elapsed time:        00:30:00

    At this time, the ircg process used 48MB of memory, the ircd
    process used an additional amount of 12MB.

    [1] http://kurzfilmtage.twisd.de/

    - Sascha                                     Experience IRCG
      http://schumann.cx/                http://schumann.cx/ircg