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77 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
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MSTONE 4.2
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Mstone is a mail server performance testing tool designed to simulate
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the different types and volume of mail traffic a mail server would
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experience during a peak activity period. Mstone was formerly known
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as Mailstone.
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A quick installation guide is available in INSTALL.
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The full Mailstone 4.15 user manual is available at
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http://developer.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/messaging.html
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Testing strategy
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----------------
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Mstone is capable of opening SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and other protocol
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connections to mail servers. The number and type of connections made
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to the mail server is based on a weighted command list which provides
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the ability to test mail server implementation requirements.
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A series of perl script allow you to setup client machines, run tests,
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and then cleanup client machine files. Each client machine has a copy
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of the mailclient program and SMTP message files. When the test is
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run, the mailclient is started with the proper command line and work load.
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After experimenting with mstone loads, you will notice that there
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are a few factors that can distort server the byte and message
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throughput. You will find that the server byte throughput is related
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to the average SMTP message (file) size. Also, server throughput, in
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bytes and messages, is affected by larger than normal POP3/IMAP4
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mailboxes. So it is important to approach the mstone command
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configuration with data collected from existing mail server
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implementations, for example, a customer might say "during our peak
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activity in the morning, we handle up to two thousand employees
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sending an average of 5 messages of 20K average size and receiving 25
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messages of same size". With input like this, you can begin tuning
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mstone to generate relevant data.
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There are two important things to consider when reviewing the results of
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mstone performance analysis: Was the test run on target for
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simulating the type and volume of mail traffic; and did the server, both
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software and machine, handle the load within an acceptable margin?
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With this information, it can be determined: whether enough SMTP
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connections were made to the server during the run, and how many
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messages were downloaded over how many POP3/IMAP4 connections. If the
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number of SMTP connections is not in the acceptable range, then
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consider adding more client processes/machines or checking the server
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performance during the run. The message/connection ratio for
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POP3/IMAP4 should be checked for soundness, and adjustments should be
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made to the mailboxes before running the next test.
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Monitoring the server performance during test runs is crucial in
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understanding the results. If the number of client connections is not
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being achieved and the server cpu usage and process run queue is not
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settling down after the initial spike, then modifications to the server
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architecture could be in order.
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The analysis of mstone results is an iterative process of client
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(mstone client) and server tuning. The bottom line is to determine
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whether the messaging solution can handle the type of load expected in
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an acceptable manner.
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Server Log Tuning
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-----------------
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The Messaging and Directory server ship with access logging enabled by
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default. This gives the most information about what is going on in
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the system, but can reduce performance. You should test the way the
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system will be run.
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Noticeable performance increases are often obtained by disabling access
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logging on the directory server and by reducing the logging level of
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the messaging servers from "Notice" to "Warning".
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