httperf results with nginx and apache

[Joe Williams]

I am attempting to do a bit of a comparison between nginx and apache 
using httperf but my results are coming out a little strange. I am 
running the following against both apache and nginx:

>  httperf --timeout=5 --client=0/1 --server=DOMAIN --port=80 
> --uri=/robots.txt --rate=200 --send-buffer=4096 --recv-buffer=16384 
> --num-conns=5000 --num-calls=10

The results I am seeing are the following:

NGINX:

> <snip>
> Total: connections 5000 requests 50000 replies 50000 test-duration 
> 25.001 s
> <snip>
> Connection rate: 200.0 conn/s (5.0 ms/conn, <=5 concurrent connections)
> <snip>
> Request rate: 2000.0 req/s (0.5 ms/req)

Apache:

> <snip>
> Total: connections 5000 requests 10000 replies 5000 test-duration 24.998 s
> <snip>
> Connection rate: 200.0 conn/s (5.0 ms/conn, <=1 concurrent connections)
> <snip>
> Request rate: 400.0 req/s (2.5 ms/req)


Shouldn't the 'Total' numbers be the same against both web servers since 
I am using the same command to test them? Why is the 'requests' number a 
1/5 of number that nginx responds with. Has anyone see this sort of 
result in the past?

I have attempted this with a few different connection, rate and call 
counts and seem to get similar results with each.

I have verified that my MaxClients and Servers setting in Apache is high 
enough as well.


Thanks.
-Joe

-- 
Name: Joseph A. Williams
Email: joe at joetify.com