defining service ceilings

[Sebastian Castro Avila]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 13:38:07 -0500, Tim Peiffer <peiffer at umn.edu> wrote:

> Are there any BCP documents that cover methodologies for measuring or
> defining the maximum number of queries that a DNS server is capable
> of?    Are there any defined test suites that we should be running?  I
> am looking for documentation that would help validate the testing that
> we have already done.
>
> Example:
> We recently installed new hardware that replaced our authoritative
> nameservers.  The hardware used to be run on FreeBSD 4.X, and Bind 8.X.
> Daily  query averages are running approximately 600 qps total across all
> of the servers.  After replacing the hardware with Sun V60 and RedHat
> AS,  we were able to create a query source file and use the queryperf
> utility, we were able to establish a service ceiling of approximately
> 5500qps.
>

That looks like a very short number.

In testing conducted by our engineers, we reach a limit of 55,000 qps  
under a Giga Ethernet link, Pentium Xeon 3.0 Ghz (SMP) and using NSD.

Using a FastEthernet link, we got 30,000 qps (all traffic that network  
card could handle) with NSD or BIND 9.

Also we run some authoritative servers for a TLD and we have received  
peaks of 2500 qps, and a bunch of servers acting as slaves for many of our  
child zones receiving peaks of 4000 qps. IMHO, you should try to repeat  
your tests.

Best Regards


> Tim Peiffer
> Networking and Telecommunications Services.
> University of Minnesota
>
-- 
Sebastian E. Castro Avila             sebastian at nic.cl
Administrador de DNS, NIC Chile
Fono: (2) 9407705                  Fax  : (2) 9407701