Benchmarking with Phoronix Test Suite (II)

This is the second and final part of the article Benchmarking with Phoronix Test Suite.

If we want to carry out the test or suite with the default options, we must aggregate the default-run parameter. Also mention that we can type multiple tests or suites with the run or default-run order.

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite run iozone

Phoronix Test Suite v3.0.1
IOzone Test Configuration


Record Size:

1: 4Kb
2: 64Kb
3: 1MB
4: Test All Options

Enter Your Choice: 2

File Size:

1: 512MB
2: 2GB
3: 4GB
4: 8GB
5: Test All Options

Enter Your Choice: 1

Disk Test:

1: Write Performance
2: Read Performance
3: Test All Options

Enter Your Choice: 3
Would you like to save these test results (Y/n): Y
Enter a name to save these results: ubuntu-server

Current Test Identifiers:
- apache

Enter a unique name for this test run: iozone
...

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite default-run iozone

Where are the results and the test environments stored on the filesystem?

root@ubuntu-server:~# tree -d .phoronix-test-suite/test-results/
.phoronix-test-suite/test-results/
├── pts-results-viewer
└── ubuntu-server
├── result-graphs
└── system-logs
├── apache
└── iozone

root@ubuntu-server:~# tree -d .phoronix-test-suite/installed-tests/
.phoronix-test-suite/installed-tests/
└── pts
├── apache-1.3.0
└── iozone-1.7.0

So as to get information about the saved test results and the installed tests and their usage, we have the next options.

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite list-saved-results
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Phoronix Test Suite v3.0.1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
1 Saved Results                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Saved Name: ubuntu-server      Title: ubuntu-server                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
- apache                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
- iozone

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite list-test-usage

Phoronix Test Suite v3.0.1
2 Tests Installed

TEST                 VERSION  INSTALL DATE  LAST RUN    AVG RUN-TIME  TIMES RUN
pts/apache-1.3.0   - 1.3.0    2011-04-01    2011-04-01  5m15s         1
pts/iozone-1.7.0   - 1.7.0    2011-04-02    2011-04-02  2m10s         2

And further, if we want to acquire more details about an executed result, the info parameter will be our choice.

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite info ubuntu-server

Title: ubuntu-server
Identifier: ubuntu-server

Test Result Identifiers:
- apache
- iozone

Contained Tests:
- Apache Benchmark
- IOzone

Finally, we also have the option to export the results in other formats (csv, text and pdf).

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite result-file-to-text ubuntu-server > ubuntu-server.txt

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite result-file-to-csv ubuntu-server > ubuntu-server.csv

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite result-file-to-pdf ubuntu-server

Saved To: /root/ubuntu-server.pdf

As well, we will always have the possibility to treat directly the results by means of the html structure.

root@ubuntu-server:~# ls -l .phoronix-test-suite/test-results/ubuntu-server/
total 32
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3291 2011-04-02 18:00 composite.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  192 2011-04-02 18:00 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5163 2011-04-02 21:32 pts-results-viewer.xsl
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-04-02 21:32 result-graphs
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2011-04-02 18:00 system-logs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1491 2011-04-02 17:51 test-1.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2210 2011-04-02 18:00 test-2.xml

With html or pdf formats, apart from the numeric data, we will be able to appreciate that Phoronix generates several graphics through the results.

Also point out another useful utility: we can merge several results and obtain a new combination from all of them. For this purpose, we first have to copy the other outcomes into the test-results directory.

root@ubuntu-server:~/phoronix-test-suite# ./phoronix-test-suite merge-results ubuntu-server centos
Merged Results Saved To: /root/.phoronix-test-suite/test-results/merge-8136/composite.xml

The key of this benchmarking application is to apply correctly in each moment the suitable tests. Due to the large variety of available tests, we can get much information. On the contrary, the main problem under my personal opinion is that the options which you can choose to run a test are very limited. If you wanted to gather more information from a specific tool (for instance iozone), you should execute it manually.

But in short, I think that Phoronix Test Suite is a great tool for measuring the perfomance of a system.