BenchmarkXPRT Blog banner

Category: data analytics

Next up: a white paper about the CloudXPRT data analytics workload

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on October 8, 2020

Soon, we’ll be publishing a CloudXPRT white paper that focuses on the benchmark’s data analytics workload. We summarized the workload in the Introduction to CloudXPRT white paper, but in the same way that the Overview of the CloudXPRT Web Microservices Workload paper did, the new paper will discuss the workload in much greater detail.

In addition to providing practical information about the installation package and minimum system requirements for the data analytics workload, the paper will describe test configuration variables, structural components, task workflows, and test metrics. It will also include guidance on interpreting test results and submitting them for publication.

As we’ve noted, CloudXPRT is one of the more complex tools in the XPRT family, with no shortage of topics to explore. Possible future topics include the impact of adjusting specific test configuration options, recommendations for results reporting, and methods for results analysis. If there are specific topics that you’d like us to address in future white papers, please feel free to send us your ideas!

We hope that the upcoming Overview of the CloudXPRT Data Analytics Workload paper will serve as a go-to resource for CloudXPRT testers, and will answer any questions you have about the workload. Once it goes live, we’ll provide links in the Helpful Info box on CloudXPRT.com and the CloudXPRT section of our XPRT white papers page.

If you have any questions, please let us know!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, BenchmarkXPRT, Cloud, CloudXPRT, Clusters, data analytics, Datacenter, Hosted cloud, Hybrid cloud, IaaS, microservices, Performance benchmarking, web microservices |

Fixes for minor CloudXPRT bugs are on the way

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on September 24, 2020

We want to let CloudXPRT testers know that we’re close to releasing an updated version (build 1.01) with two minor bug fixes, an improved post-test results processing script, and an adjustment to one of our test configuration recommendations. None of these changes will affect performance or test results, so scores from previous CloudXPRT builds will be comparable to those from the new build.

The most significant changes in CloudXPRT build 1.01 are as follows:

  • In previous builds, some testers encountered warnings during setup to update the version of Kubernetes Operations (kops) when testing on public-cloud platforms (the CloudXPRT 1.00 recommendation is kops version 1.16.0). We are adjusing the kops installation instructions in the setup instructions for the web microservices and data analytics workloads to prevent these warnings.
  • In previous builds, post-test cleanup instructions for public-cloud testing environments do not always delete all of the resources that CloudXPRT creates during setup. We are updating instructions to ensure a more thorough cleanup process. This change applies to test instructions for the web microservices and data analytics workloads.
  • We are reformatting the optional results graphs the web microservices postprocess program creates to make them easier to interpret.
  • In previous builds, the recommended time interval for the web-microservices workload is 120 seconds if the hpamode option is enabled and 60 seconds if it is disabled. Because we’ve found that the 60-second difference has no significant impact on test results, we are changing the recommendation to 60 seconds for both hpamode settings.


We hope these changes will improve the CloudXPRT setup and testing experience. We haven’t set the release date for the updated build yet, but when we do, we’ll announce it here in the blog. If you have any questions about CloudXPRT, or would like to report bugs or other issues, please feel free to contact us!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, CloudXPRT, Clusters, data analytics, Hosted cloud, Performance benchmarking, web microservices | Tagged , , , , , , |

Coming soon: a white paper about the CloudXPRT web microservices workload

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on September 3, 2020

Soon, we’ll be expanding our portfolio of CloudXPRT resources with a white paper that focuses on the benchmark’s web microservices workload. While we summarized the workload in the Introduction to CloudXPRT white paper, the new paper will discuss the workload in much greater detail.

In addition to providing practical information about the web microservices installation packages and minimum system requirements, the paper describes the workload’s test configuration variables, structural components, task workflows, and test metrics. It also discusses interpreting test results and the process for submitting results for publication.

As we’ve noted, CloudXPRT is one of the more complex tools in the XPRT family, with no shortage of topics to explore further. We plan to publish a companion overview for the data analytics workload, and possible future topics include the impact of adjusting specific test configuration options, recommendations for results reporting, and methods for analysis.

We hope that the upcoming Overview of the CloudXPRT Web Microservices Workload paper will serve as a go-to resource for CloudXPRT testers, and will answer any questions you have about the workload. Once it goes live, we’ll provide links in the Helpful Info box on CloudXPRT.com and the CloudXPRT section of our XPRT white papers page.

If you have any questions, please let us know!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Cloud, CloudXPRT, Clusters, Cross-platform benchmarks, data analytics, Datacenter, IaaS, microservices, Performance benchmarking, Server, web microservices, White papers | Tagged , , , , , , , |

CloudXPRT version 1.0 is here!

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on August 27, 2020

The CloudXPRT Preview period has ended, and CloudXPRT version 1.0 installation packages are now available on CloudXPRT.com and the BenchmarkXPRT GitHub repository! Like the Preview build, CloudXPRT version 1.0 includes two workloads: web microservices and data analytics (you can find more details about the workloads here). Testers can use metrics from the workloads to compare IaaS stack (both hardware and software) performance and to evaluate whether any given stack is capable of meeting SLA thresholds. You can configure CloudXPRT to run on local datacenter, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure deployments.

Several different test packages are available for download from the CloudXPRT download page. For detailed installation instructions and hardware and software requirements for each, click the package’s readme link. On CloudXPRT.com, the Helpful Info box contains resources such as links to the Introduction to CloudXPRT white paper, the CloudXPRT master readme, and the CloudXPRT GitHub repository.

The GitHub repository also contains the CloudXPRT source code. The source code is freely available for testers to download and review.

Performance results from this release are comparable to performance results from the CloudXPRT Preview build. Testers who wish to publish results on CloudXPRT.com can find more information about the results submission and review process in the blog. We post the monthly results cycle schedule on the results submission page.

We’re thankful for all the input we received during the CloudXPRT development process and Preview period. If you have any questions about CloudXPRT, please let us know.

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Cloud, CloudXPRT, data analytics, Datacenter, GitHub, Google, Hosted cloud, Hybrid cloud, IaaS, microservices, Performance benchmarking, Server, web microservices | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

Check out our new CloudXPRT video!

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on August 13, 2020

Many businesses want to move critical applications to the cloud, but choosing the right cloud-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform can be a complex and costly project. We developed CloudXPRT to help speed up and simplify the process by providing a powerful benchmarking tool that allows users to run multiple workloads on cloud platform software in on-premises and popular public cloud environments.

To help spread the word about what CloudXPRT can do and why it matters to businesses, we’ve published a new video, Choose the best IaaS configuration for your business with CloudXPRT, on YouTube and CloudXPRT.com. If you know anyone who is evaluating cloud options, or who would be interested in CloudXPRT testing or results, we encourage you to share the video with them. As always, if you have any questions about CloudXPRT, please let us know!

Justin

Video: Choose the best IaaS configuration for your business with CloudXPRT.

Posted in benchmark, Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, Cloud, CloudXPRT, data analytics, IaaS, On-premise, Performance benchmarking, Server, Servers, Video, web microservices | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Improving the CloudXPRT results viewer

Justin Greene
By Justin Greene
on July 30, 2020

This week, we made some changes to the CloudXPRT results viewer that we think will simplify the results-browsing experience and allow visitors to more quickly and easily find important data.

The first set of changes involves how we present test system information in the main results table and on the individual results details pages. We realized that there was potential for confusion around the “CPU” and “Number of nodes” categories. We removed those and created the following new fields: “Cluster components,” “Nodes (work + control plane),”  and “vCPUs (work + control plane).” These new categories better describe test configurations and clarify how many CPUs engage with the workload.

The second set of changes involves the number of data points that we list in the table for each web microservices test run. For example, previously, we published a unique entry for each level of concurrency a test run records. If a run scaled to 32 concurrent instances, we presented the data for each instance in its own row. This helped to show the performance curve during a single test as the workload scaled up, but it made it more difficult for visitors to identify the best throughput results from an individual run. We decided to consolidate the results from a complete test run on a single row, highlighting only the maximum number of successful requests (throughout). All the raw data from each run remains available for download on the details page for each result, but visitors don’t have to wade through all that data to find the configuration’s main “score.”

We view the development of the CloudXPRT results viewer as an ongoing process. As we add results and receive feedback from testers about the data presentation formats that work best for them, we’ll continue to add more features and tweak existing ones to make them as useful as possible. If you have any questions about CloudXPRT results or the results viewer, please let us know!

Justin

Posted in benchmark, Benchmark metrics, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Cloud, CloudXPRT, Clusters, data analytics, Datacenter, Hosted cloud, Hybrid cloud, Kubernetes, On-premise, Performance benchmarking, Server, web microservices | Tagged , , , , , , , , |

Check out the other XPRTs:

Forgot your password?
© Principled Technologies, Inc. 2024   |   Privacy policy

Cookie Notice: Our website uses cookies to deliver a smooth experience by storing logins and saving user information. By continuing to use our site, you agree with our usage of cookies as our privacy policy outlines.

x