Let's Talk About the Benchmark (Score 1)

I would like to discuss how the benchmark could be improved. In its current form: 1) It is a client/server test with web clients talking to an Apache2 web server, 2) The server runs SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, 3) The server's database tables are built on MySQL, 4) The transaction is a gasoline credit card purchase, 5) The test measures power consumed at 7 different transaction activity levels: Idle, 5 different constant transaction rates and the maximum that the server will deliver, 6) At each activity level the benchmark collects power used for 30 minutes, 7) The test reports its data for all levels tested, 8) The transactions are coded so that as the level of user activity increases larger and larger areas of the database tables are accessed. This means that at lower user counts the disk I/O is cached and the test is calculation intensive while at higher user counts the database working set may exceed the kernel disk cache size and thus the test is limited by physical disk I/O.

Many real world servers process web transactions against RDMSs and are idle evenings and weekends. This test lets people: 1) compare the maximum throughput of different machines, 2) Review the power consumed at maximum throughput, 3) Review the power used at various intermediate transaction arrival rates, and 4) Review the power consumed at idle.

Would this be a better benchmark with Oracle rather than MySQL or RedHat rather than SuSE? Would it be a better test without the client/server network traffic? Would it be better if is was based on floating point calculations that did not do any database access or disk I/O? What can be done to make this a more useful benchmark? Neal Nelson