From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2002 13:06:31 -0400 From: Benjamin LaHaise Subject: Re: Benchmarking Tool Message-ID: <20020704130631.B21370@redhat.com> References: <20020703060446.GA2560@SandStorm.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20020703060446.GA2560@SandStorm.net>; from abhi@kernelnewbies.org on Wed, Jul 03, 2002 at 11:34:46AM +0530 Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org Return-Path: To: Abhishek Nayani Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org List-ID: On Wed, Jul 03, 2002 at 11:34:46AM +0530, Abhishek Nayani wrote: > There was a discussion about the current benchmarking tools being > not suitable or sufficient for testing the performance of the Linux VMs. > I am interested in writing one and would like to have your opinions on > the matter. I would like to know what is missing in the current set of > tools (lmbench, dbench..) and what is required. dbench essentially produces a random number for "performance", as it is overly dependent on small changes in timing, available memory and execution patterns. lmbench doesn't really test the vm at all. What is needed are a series of tests that represent the kinds of loads that various Linux users run. This includes: - software development - scientific apps - desktop - various server workloads Most of the time results are presented, they tend to be lacking in some areas -- much of the high end work being done on >8GB systems tends not to rerun tests on small systems to make sure behaviour isn't badly affected. Of the cases listed above, the desktop workload is probably the most badly represented with current tests. >>From a few of the discussions at OLS, it became apparent that more important than the actual benchmarking tools is the collection of the results. Common tests, like compiling the kernel, are useful metrics for noticing changes in kernel behaviour if all other aspects of the test environment are held constant, but only if we have a set of data to compare the results against. -ben -- "You will be reincarnated as a toad; and you will be much happier." -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/