Apache-modSSL performance problems

[Magid Latif <ap...@cybermagid.com>]

Greetings all,

I noticed a posting to the modssl-users list concerning performance figures
of Apache-modSSL.  I thought some of you might've experimented with
performance
tests on apache with/without modSSL.  I was wondering if you've came across
any information in that regard. I am getting quite bad performance with
apache-modSSL on a SPARC Solaris 8 platform.

Iplanet is achieving 98 hits/second versus 6.8 hits/second with
apache-modssl on average.
I am using a very simple test scenario by LoadRunner 7.02. See tests
details below :

Background:
------------------
During my performance tests I used the following versions subjected to the
tests :

Test Versions:
------------------
apache-1.3.19-modSSL-2.8.3 without MM file-based SSL session caching.
apache-1.3.19-modSSL-2.8.3 with MM and shared memory based SSL session
caching.
apache-1.3.23-modSSL-2.8.6 with MM and shared memory based SSL session
caching.
iplanet 6.0sp1-128bit - default (out of the box) configuration

Test Platform:
------------------
Webserver : SPARC Solaris 8 10/01 with latest patches installed
Load generator: Pentium III 512MB, win2k, LoadRunner 7.02 - Emulating IE 5.5

Test Scenario:
------------------
I created a simple load test scenario using LoadRunner. The scenario
consists of
accessing three static HTML pages. Those pages contain no images.
Running the scenario with 3 concurrent users (loadrunner virtual users)
resulted in the following :

Test Results:
------------------

+ apache-1.3.19-modSSL-2.8.3-openSSL-0.9.6a without MM - Concurrent Users:
03
    Running time   : 11 minutes
    Hits/Second    : 4.72 (average)
    Webserver load : 3.2 (average)

+ apache-1.3.19-modSSL-2.8.3-openSSL-0.9.6a with MM - Concurrent Users: 03
    Running time: 11 minutes
    Hits/Second : 6.57 (average)
    Webserver load : 3.2 (average)

+ apache-1.3.23-modSSL-2.8.6-openSSL-0.9.6c with MM - Concurrent Users: 03
    Running time: 11 minutes
    Hits/Second : 6.79 (average)

+ iplanet 6.0sp1-128bit - Concurrent Users: 03
    Running time: 11 minutes
    Hits/Second : 98.2 (average)
    Webserver load : 4.2 (average)

+ apache-1.3.19-modSSL-2.8.3-openSSL-0.9.6a with MM - Concurrent Users: 90
with modSSL DISABLED.
    Running time: 11 minutes
    Hits/Second : ~ 170+ (average)
    Webserver load : 1.0 (average)


I turned off modSSL within the same apache configuration and increased the
number of concurrent users in LoadRunner to 90 as shown in one of the test
results.
This resulted in a bit more than 170 hits/second. Therefore, I concluded
that modSSL
is having some severe performance problems.

Perhaps I am missing some tuning parameters specific for modSSL or even
apache itself ?

Any input very welcome.

Cheers,

Magid.

=================================
Magid Latif
Systems Engineer
iPIN
19 Davis Drive
Belmont, CA 94002
Direct: +1 (650) 232 3704
Main:   +1 (650) 232 3700 x3704
Fax:    +1 (650) 232 5116
http://www.iPIN.com



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