How to test performance of VPS, Cloud or dedicated server?

When it comes to choose the right VPS or dedicated server for your solution, you may want to test its performance.

Some time ago, I stood before such choice. To optimize the testing process, I wrote a bash script for Ubuntu distributions based on SysBench.

• You can also use it to test performance of any PC machine.
• You will need root access.
• Script will perform CPU, I/O and MySQL performance test, ten times each, so it should be 30 log files to take medium values and comapre with other machines results

#!/bin/bash

# Package sources update
apt-get update

sleep 5s

# mysql install and set root password to 123PAssword
debconf-set-selections <<< 'mysql-server mysql-server/root_password password 123PAssword'
sleep 1s
debconf-set-selections <<< 'mysql-server mysql-server/root_password_again password 123PAssword'
sleep 1s
apt-get -y install mysql-server

sleep 5s

# Installation of Sysench - benchmarking tool
apt-get install sysbench

sleep 1s

# create directory for logs
mkdir /root/sysbench_log/

# Create directory for CPU logs
mkdir /root/sysbench_log/cpu/

echo "Starting CPU test"

# 10x CPU test for up to 20 threads
for i in `seq 1 10`;
    do
        echo "test cpu $i"
        sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 --num-threads=2 run > /root/sysbench_log/cpu/$i.log
    done

    echo "CPU test finished"

# Create directory for I/O logs
mkdir /root/sysbench_log/io/

# Create 500MB sample file fot I/O test
sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=500M prepare

echo "Starting IO test"

# 10x I/O test
for i in `seq 1 10`;
    do
        echo "IO test $i"
        sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=500M --file-test-mode=rndrw --init-rng=on --max-time=300 --max-requests=0 run > /root/sysbench_log/io/$i.log
    done

    echo "IO test finished"

# Remove sample file
sysbench --test=fileio --file-total-size=500M cleanup

echo "Starting MySQL test"

# Create database
mysql -uroot -p123PAssword -e 'CREATE DATABASE test;' 

# Create directory for MySQL test logs
mkdir /root/sysbench_log/mysql/

# Creation of sample record in test database 
sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-db=test --mysql-user=root --mysql-password=123PAssword prepare

# 10x MySQL test
for i in `seq 1 10`;
    do
        echo "MySQL test $i"
        sysbench --test=oltp --oltp-table-size=1000000 --mysql-db=test --mysql-user=root --mysql-password=123PAssword --max-time=60 --oltp-read-only=on --max-requests=0 --num-threads=8 run > /root/sysbench_log/mysql/$i.log
    done

    echo "MySQL test finished"

# Remove sample records form test database
sysbench --test=oltp --mysql-db=test --mysql-user=root --mysql-password=123PAssword cleanup

echo "All test finished. Check results at /root/sysbench_log/"

Related links:

• SysBench on GitHub
• HowtoForge – How To Benchmark Your System (CPU, File IO, MySQL) With sysbench
• Mike Jung Wiki – Sysbench