Benchmarking
= Benchmarking Your MediaWiki Server =
This article provides a guide to benchmarking your MediaWiki 1.40 server to understand its performance characteristics and identify potential bottlenecks. Regular benchmarking is crucial for maintaining a responsive wiki, especially as content and user base grow. We will cover various tools and metrics useful for assessing server performance. This guide assumes a basic understanding of server administration and command-line tools.
Why Benchmark?
Benchmarking helps you:
- Identify Bottlenecks: Determine if performance limitations stem from the CPU, memory, disk I/O, or database.
- Plan for Scalability: Understand how your server will perform under increasing load, allowing you to proactively upgrade hardware or optimize configurations.
- Measure the Impact of Changes: Evaluate the effectiveness of software updates, configuration tweaks, or caching strategies.
- Establish Baselines: Create a performance baseline to track degradation and identify issues before they impact users. See also: Server Performance Monitoring.
- ApacheBench (ab): A command-line tool for measuring the performance of HTTP web servers. Useful for simulating user load. See: Apache HTTP Server.
- wrk: A modern HTTP benchmarking tool designed for high-load testing. Often faster and more efficient than `ab`.
- MySQL Benchmark Tools: Tools like `mysqlslap` can benchmark the MySQL/MariaDB database server. See: Database Administration.
- vmstat: A system monitoring tool that reports virtual memory statistics, processes, CPU activity, and I/O.
- iostat: Reports CPU statistics and input/output statistics for devices and partitions.
- top/htop: Real-time process monitoring tools. See: Server Processes.
- PHPBench: A dedicated benchmarking tool for PHP code, useful for testing specific MediaWiki extensions or customizations. See: PHP Configuration.
Tools for Benchmarking
Several tools can be used to benchmark a MediaWiki server. Here are some common options:
Benchmarking the Web Server (Apache/Nginx)
We'll use `ab` to benchmark the web server's ability to handle requests. First, install `ab` if it isn’t already available. (On Debian/Ubuntu: `sudo apt-get install apache2-utils`).
A basic `ab` command looks like this:
ab -n 1000 -c 10 http://yourmediawiki.example.com/
Analyze the output of `ab`. Key metrics include:
Here's an example of how to interpret some results:
| Metric | Value | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Requests per second | 150 | The server can handle 150 requests per second. |
| Time per request (ms) | 66.67 | Each request takes approximately 67 milliseconds to process. |
| Transfer rate (KB/sec) | 1200 | Approximately 1.2 MB of data is transferred per second. |
Benchmarking the Database Server (MySQL/MariaDB)
Database performance is critical for MediaWiki. `mysqlslap` is a useful tool.
mysqlslap --auto-generate-test --number-of-queries=1000 --concurrency=10 --engine=innodb --create-schema=mediawiki
Here's an example:
| Metric | Value | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Queries per second | 80 | The database can process 80 queries per second. |
| Average latency (ms) | 12.5 | Queries take an average of 12.5 milliseconds to execute. |
| Minimum latency (ms) | 1.0 | Fastest query execution took 1 millisecond. |
See also: Database Query Optimization. Consider using a database connection pool like PdoConnectionPool.
Benchmarking MediaWiki Specific Operations
Beyond the web and database servers, it's useful to benchmark specific MediaWiki operations, such as page viewing and editing.
You can use `ab` or `wrk` to simulate these:
Here's a table summarizing typical server specifications for different wiki sizes:
| Wiki Size | CPU | Memory (RAM) | Disk Space | Database |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (Under 1000 pages) | 2 cores | 4 GB | 50 GB | MySQL/MariaDB (Small Instance) |
| Medium (10,000 - 50,000 pages) | 4-8 cores | 8-16 GB | 250 GB | MySQL/MariaDB (Medium Instance) |
| Large (Over 50,000 pages) | 8+ cores | 32+ GB | 500 GB+ | MySQL/MariaDB (Large Instance) / Database Cluster |
Finally, consider monitoring resource usage during benchmarking with `vmstat` and `iostat` to identify specific bottlenecks. For example, high CPU usage suggests a CPU bottleneck, while high disk I/O indicates a disk bottleneck. See also: Server Security.
Intel-Based Server Configurations
| Configuration | Specifications | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Core i7-6700K/7700 Server | 64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 512 GB | CPU Benchmark: 8046 |
| Core i7-8700 Server | 64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2x1 TB | CPU Benchmark: 13124 |
| Core i9-9900K Server | 128 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 1 TB | CPU Benchmark: 49969 |
| Core i9-13900 Server (64GB) | 64 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i9-13900 Server (128GB) | 128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i5-13500 Server (64GB) | 64 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i5-13500 Server (128GB) | 128 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD | |
| Core i5-13500 Workstation | 64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2 NVMe SSD, NVIDIA RTX 4000 |
AMD-Based Server Configurations
| Configuration | Specifications | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 5 3600 Server | 64 GB RAM, 2x480 GB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 17849 |
| Ryzen 7 7700 Server | 64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2x1 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 35224 |
| Ryzen 9 5950X Server | 128 GB RAM, 2x4 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 46045 |
| Ryzen 9 7950X Server | 128 GB DDR5 ECC, 2x2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 63561 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/1TB) | 128 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/2TB) | 128 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/4TB) | 128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/1TB) | 256 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/4TB) | 256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe | CPU Benchmark: 48021 |
| EPYC 9454P Server | 256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe |
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⚠️ Note: All benchmark scores are approximate and may vary based on configuration. Server availability subject to stock. ⚠️