BENCHMARKING (was: [mapserver-users] professional MapServer services list? / ArcIMS-MapServer choice)

[Paul Spencer]

Tyler, for php there is a package called dbg (http://dd.cron.ru/dbg/) 
that provides debugging and profiling support.  My interest in this 
package stems from trying to optimize maplab using the profiler.  We 
abandoned the package early on because we couldn't get a stable front 
end for it.  Recently, the author added a php-accessible interface for 
retrieving profiling results and we tried it again with some success. 
We were able to pin-point a problem in our code and identify that amap 
was taking several seconds to draw.  Unfortunately, it didn't tell us 
what was wrong with the map file, so we resorted to hacking mapserver to 
find the layer that was causing the problem.

All that to say that you can now quite easily profile a php application.

I would suggest that for a benchmarking process to be useful it has to 
be compared to other products under the same conditions.  I believe some 
else pointed out that with poor data and poor server configuration, it 
would be easy to bring mapserver to a grinding halt (as with any other 
product as well).  I also think that a benchmark should try to equalize 
results based on different data, hardware, web servers, etc but I have 
no idea how one would approach that.

Cheers,

Paul

Tyler Mitchell wrote:
> I too would be interested in discussing benchmarks - obviously, we would
> first have to develop the criteria that goes into a benchmark.  What kinds
> of processes or functions would need to be done?
> Off the top of my head:
> -time (t) from request to image output  (has anyone already created php
> scripts, etc. to benchmark mapserver like this - I'd bet someone has!)
> -average t / # of requests / min
> -what else...?
> 
> 
> |---------+--------------------------------------->
> |         |           Dave McIlhagga              |
> |         |           <mcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca>  |
> |         |           Sent by:                    |
> |         |           owner-mapserver-users at lists.|
> |         |           gis.umn.edu                 |
> |         |                                       |
> |         |                                       |
> |         |           09/16/2002 04:11 PM         |
> |         |                                       |
> |---------+--------------------------------------->
>   >--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
>   |                                                                                                                                                  |
>   |       To:       john1zastrow at yahoo.com                                                                                                           |
>   |       cc:       Mark Phillips <mbp at geomtech.com>, mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu                                                              |
>   |       Fax to:                                                                                                                                    |
>   |       Subject:  Re: [mapserver-users] professional MapServer services list? /  ArcIMS-MapServer choice                                           |
>   >--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
> 
> 
> 
> 
> John,
> 
> In fact, there are numerous examples that if anything may indicate the
> contrary.  Ourselves, we have been involved with a project that can
> comfortably generate over 100,000 map draws a day.  There was also an
> example a couple of years ago covering the Canadian Federal election
> where a MapServer based application was the only one able to handle the
> enormous traffic that resulted.
> 
> I believe there are a few other groups using MapServer on this list who
> have also indicated that they have been using it for high volumes.
> 
> I'm not sure if anyone has done a thorough comparison of ArcIMS with
> Oracle vs. MapServer with either tuned flat files, connection to Oracle
> Spatial, SDE or PostGIS, but I suspect that MapServer would come out on
> top hands down.
> 
> Now that this has been brought up - has anyone done any kind of
> benchmarking like this?  I'd love to have that at my disposal in the
> ongoing argument to potential clients for using MapServer.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> 
> John Zastrow wrote:
> 
>>Mark and List,
>>
>>I'm a similar boat, except that it's my own group that I'd be 'selling'
>>Mapserver to. It's my impression that for small to moderate sized
> 
> projects,
> 
>>mapserver does just fine. But moderate to semi-large projects (size being
> 
> user
> 
>>load and data load) one needs to use a commercial map server (ArcIMS on
>>Oracle).
>>
>>Has anyone done a feature matrix of the various mapsevers out there? I
> 
> just
> 
>>started lurking on this list. Standard apologies if this has been covered
>>already. I'd be interested to see Mark's compilation and information from
> 
> folks
> 
>>who have comparative information.
>>
>>
>>--- Mark Phillips <mbp at geomtech.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Hi List,
>>>
>>>I'm interested in compiling a list of companies and individuals who
>>>provide MapServer support and development services.  If you are such a
>>>company or individual, could you drop me a note?
>>
>>
>>__________________________________________________
>>Do you Yahoo!?
>>Yahoo! News - Today's headlines
>>http://news.yahoo.com
>>
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Dave McIlhagga
> President, DM Solutions Group
> 
> http://www.dmsolutions.ca
> EMail : mcilhagga at dmsolutions.ca
> Phone : 613-565-5056 x15
> Fax : 613-565-0925
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Paul Spencer
Applications and Software Development
DM Solutions Group