ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool for apache stress test

What is apache ab?

ab is a tool for benchmarking your Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to give you an impression of how your current Apache installation performs. This especially shows you how many requests per second your Apache installation is capable of serving.

Installing apache ab in debian

If you want to install apache ab in debian you need to install a package called "apache2-utils".

This package contains utility programs for webservers

Provides some add-on programs useful for any webserver. These include:

- ab (Apache benchmark tool)
- logresolve (Resolve IP addresses to hostname in logfiles)
- htpasswd (Manipulate basic authentication files)
- htdigest (Manipulate digest authentication files)
- dbmmanage (Manipulate basic authentication files in DBM format, using perl)
- htdbm (Manipulate basic authentication files in DBM format, using APR)
- rotatelogs (Periodically stop writing to a logfile and open a new one)
- split-logfile (Split a single log including multiple vhosts)
- checkgid (Checks whether the caller can setgid to the specified group)
- check_forensic (Extract mod_log_forensic output from apache log files)

If you want to install this run the following command

#apt-get install apache2-utils

If you want to test the apache ab command example as follows

#ab -kc 10 -t 30 http://localhost/

This will open 10 connections, using Keep-Alive on them and hammering localhost for 30 seconds through those connections. When done, you'll get some charts about test.For best results, you should run this program for another machine.

If you want to know more options and how to user apache ab check the apache ab man page click here for this man page