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1996-07-10
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TESTNET.EXE
Version 1.3
By Scott Taylor
228 Gold Kettle Drive
Gaithersburg, MD. 20878
TESTNET: this utility is intended to test the performance of Local Area
Networks. It may also be used to test stand alone PC's, or compare the two
environments. This application has been designed to allow for many different
testing options, primarily to give more real time results. It is important to
remember that benchmarking Local Area Networks is far from an exact science.
This test will however give you relative performance statistics.
The program checks for the existence of Novell's NetWare. If Novell is running,
TESTNET will display the version of NetWare it is running under. Also if the
test is running under a NetWare environment the filename being used for the test
will have the same extension as the station number in the network.
In version 1.3 the timer check function has been optimized to provide greater
accuracy, and lower overhead, in calculating throughput. I tried to eliminate
as many non-essential instructions as possible in the timing process. I also
added a little bit more functionality to the menu input. You can press return
in a field and the previous values will be retained.
The valuable results of this test will show the total elapsed time in seconds
and total throughput in KB/sec transferred to disk. An additional feature is
a display bar graph of total throughput, for each iteration, in kilobytes per
second. Using a SEQUENTIAL file access method tests server disk and caching
performance. Using OVERLAID file access tests reflects more of the network
interface performance as well as local (workstation) cache techniques. Larger
record sizes are handled more efficiently by most operating systems (especially
DOS). Using larger record sizes (4K and up) demonstrates overall throughput.
Smaller record sizes demonstrates the operating systems ability to deal with
small record blocks. A good example would be to run this test from a workstation
local C: drive. Then run it again from that workstation but to a network drive.
Usually you will see a significant increase in performance. Also try running
the test with the VERIFY option on/off.
Here is another good example, especially for comparing different server hardware
(disk, memory, cpu). This is especially useful on Novell networks since the
server console displays performance characteristics. If using NetWare 2.10 or
greater, FCONSOLE will give some useful information. To compare hard disks
generate a file size, using Testnet, that is larger than the total memory
installed in the server. Then you can compare throughput times displayed by
Testnet. This way the file size is to large to fit in cache memory and tests
raw disk I/O.
To compare CPU's (as servers) or cache memory generate a file size, using
Testnet, that is approximately 512K smaller than the total memory installed in
the server. Then set Testnet to read the file, this will test the raw CPU &
Cache memory performance. Then you can compare the throughput displayed by
Testnet. As the test is in progress you can monitor the server console for peak
"I/O PENDING" and peak "% UTILIZATION".
MENU: The menu keys are UP and DOWN arrow keys to highlight a menu option.
Press RETURN to select a highlighted option, then input the desired value for
that option. Instructions accompany each menu option when the RETURN key is
pressed. <ESC> will exit TESTNET to DOS.
From the main menu <F1> starts the test. <F2> sets the station into the MULTI-
STATION test mode. Simply press <F1> when the last station is set into the
MULTI-STATION test mode, then all stations activated will begin testing. Each
station will then show its average throughput to/from the file server. All
stations running in the MULTI-STATION mode must be able to access the same root
directory. A new feature, of TESTNET version 1.3, is a data recording function.
This is toggled by pressing <F3>. The mode of operation is displayed just above
the menu area. This will record historical data to a file. This data file will
be created in the root of the volume that you are testing on. You should take
care to make sure that all stations testing have access rights to the root of
the volume or share name. The data file is TESTFILE.DAT, and is used by all
stations. The data is written to the file each time all the iterations have been
completed for each test cycle. If Repeat Testing has been selected, the data
is written each time the test restarts. The following is an example of what to
expect in a printout.
STATION OPERATION TIME BUFFER I/O COUNT TOTAL BYTES KB/SEC
TESTFILE.001 WRITE 23.1 1024 1000 1024000 43.2
TESTFILE.001 READ 8.1 1024 1000 1024000 123.8
TESTFILE.001 ALTERNATE 19.6 4096 250 2048000 102.2
TESTFILE.003 WRITE 13.7 2048 500 1024000 73.1
TESTFILE.002 WRITE 16.8 2048 500 1024000 59.7
This data can be used comparatively. If many stations are running the test at
the same time, you can average the throughput. You can also have several
stations perform one pass of testing. Then add the throughput (KB/SEC) to get
the total overall transfer rate between the network. Using 80386 based nodes
will give this type of information more accurate. You can easily sort out the
information by using the DOS SORT utility. At the DOS prompt type just in the
following 'TYPE TESTFILE.DAT|SORT > LPT1:'. This will redirect the sorted
information to the LPT1 printer port. You can also replace the 'LPT1:' with a
file name to have the sorted information dumped into a file for viewing.
MENU OPTIONS: The following describes each of the menu options.
REPEAT TESTING: This will allow testing to be repeated over and over again
until the ESCape key is pressed, then testing will discontinue. This option
will also work in multi-station mode.
I/O DELAY CYCLE: This option is used to create run/stop periods. There are
actually two fields to this. The first is for defining how long transactions
will be exchanged, in seconds, before the test period is delayed. The second
option is for defining how long each delay cycle will last, in seconds. The
values are between 0 and 10 seconds. 0 indicated in any field will negate any
delaying at all. This is useful for creating a pulsed environment that more
closely resembles a true network. You could set the run cycle to 5 seconds and
the delay period to 10 seconds for example. This means that data is exchanged
for 5 seconds, then stops for 10. And this is repeated until all the iterations
have been completed. This will not affect the time counter in any way. This is
an excellent way to measure the amount of degradation in a hard working
environment. Of course you could set many different operating variables to
produce different results depending on what type of network conditions you want
to resemble.
RECORD SIZE: The record size is the size of each record to be read or written,
each time the disk is accessed for I/O. The values range from 1 byte to 32767
bytes. The most common block size for most disks is 4K (4096). Although NetWare
386 is adjustable.
REPETITIONS: Repetitions represents how many times the record, or buffer, will
be transacted (read or written). The values range from 1 to 10000 iterations.
I/O: This is the type of file I/O transactions that will occur. This determines
if you want to use Read, Write, or Alternate between Read & Write.
FILE: This determines how the file will be accessed. Either Sequential access
(each record is appended to the end of the file), or Overlay access (meaning
each record overlays the previous record).
RECORD MANIPULATION: This is how the record size will be maintained. The record
can remain the same size (standard), it can increment from 1 to the value
specified, it can decrement from the value specified down to 1, and it can be
set to a random value between 1 and the value set.
Any questions, comments, or suggestions are welcomed !