Benchmarking Linux With the Phoronix Test Suite

“Knowing how to measure your own computer performance gives you
mighty system and network tuning powers. It’s also fun to run
various benchmarks on commercial products because most of them
forbid publishing any kind of benchmark results–but they can’t
stop you from talking to friends. We’re going to take a look at the
brand-new Phoronix Test Suite, which is so new the black tape and
alligator clips are still visible. The Phoronix Test Suite is for
testing hardware performance under Linux. It’s still very young and
incomplete, but it’s worth getting acquainted with–it is based on
the the scripts developed by the fine folks (mainly Michael
Larabel, it seems) at Phoronix for hardware testing. Phoronix Test
Suite is intended to be more than another benchmarking utility; it
is an open, extensible platform for creating and customizing all
kinds of Linux benchmarking.

“Benchmarks are useful, but they’re not always precise. They
aren’t exact matches to real-world use, so it’s no good getting all
excited over small differences. There is a saying about lies,
damned lies, and benchmarks. Presumably the ace Linux administrator
is looking for trends, bottlenecks, and what happens when they make
changes. What, you say, you mean the purpose isn’t to engage in
endless arguments over the results, and rig the tests for bigger
bragging rights? Well, you can if you want to. I’d rather get
useful results…”

Complete
Story