MaxiScale Releases New Web Workload Testing Tool for Storage Infrastructures
New file staging utility complements siege for test, design, deployment of ideal infrastructures to support Web-scale applications
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MaxiScale, Inc. today announced the availability of Generator, an open source test tool that stages Web-scale file repositories for benchmarking file-serving capabilities. Generator is a freely-available file-staging utility that complements the popular open source test tool Siege, an HTTP load testing and benchmarking utility.
Used in conjunction with Siege, MaxiScale’s Generator provides Web applications administrators and architects with a tool that streamlines Web workload test design and execution. The result: IT departments now have a streamlined and efficient process for testing Web scale applications and workloads, enabling them to quickly identify and deploy new file serving and storage architectures.
“It is encouraging to see the community recognize the need for new methods to test Web workloads,” said Jeffrey Fulmer, creator of Siege. “Tools like Generator make it easier for people to use Siege in a variety of environments, streamline testing, and ultimately create more scalable Web applications.”
One of the most pressing challenges for Web developers is the lack of an efficient or comprehensive solution to benchmark file server performance, specifically when dealing with Web-scale workloads involving millions of simultaneous connections to billions of files. Unless a large enough test set is created, test results can be skewed by caching, which rarely offers benefits in highly random real-world workloads.
To address this challenge, MaxiScale developed Generator to provide a simple, accessible tool for testing modern scale Web workloads. By simulating high file count Web environments, the Generator utility enables developers to test a random file set for which they can specify parameters and workload size. In concert with Siege, administrators can stage parallel requests to a high file count data set across numerous web servers and file serving nodes. This results in faster product testing and deployment in comparison to traditional approaches of testing application workloads with single-threaded requests to just one disk.
“With just a few parameters, MaxiScale’s Generator can stage a specified number of files, across a set file size range with a specified directory layout. This enables users to easily mimic real workloads,” said Francesco Lacapra, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering, MaxiScale. “Generator provides a reliable, scalable and powerful solution for Web-facing organizations that recognize that Web workloads need to be tested differently than traditional enterprise workloads.”
The open source Generator project is hosted at Google Code and is immediately available at http://code.google.com/p/filegenerator/. For more information about using Siege and Generator to benchmark file serving capabilities, please visit www.maxiscale.com/testing.