calculate request performance

[Chris Buxton]

On Apr 3, 2009, at 2:43 AM, Jeff Pang wrote:
> I have a bind server with common installtion (not with DLZ etc).
> CPU for this server box is 2.0G (one core), memory is 1G DDR2, OS is
> Linux, named version is 9.6.0-P1.
> How many requests per second can bind handle under this hardware
> environment?
> (or please tell me how to calculate request performance of it).


There are way too many variables to answer this, and there is no hard  
and fast calculation to be made. The only way to find out is an  
empirical test. Load it up with realistic data and then use something  
like dnsperf to throw representative query traffic at it.

Note that the choice of recursive queries vs iterative queries will  
make a huge difference in your results.

Some of the variables left unanswered:

- Recursive or iterative queries, or a combination?
- Network speed, latency, and traffic level
- CPU type (i.e. an Intel Pentium 4 is much more efficient per clock  
cycle than a Via C3)
- Exact memory speed, bandwidth, and latency
- System tuning

And even if you could quantify all of this somehow, there's still no  
calculation that I know of to turn that into any kind of realistic  
"queries/sec" value.

Chris Buxton
Professional Services
Men & Mice