SPECweb99 Support FAQ
The following two simple steps can answer 90% of SPECweb99 technical support
questions:
- Read the User's Guide.
- Read the error messages provided by manager and act on the suggestions
provided.
Q1: Is SPECweb99 easy for a novice to install and run?
A1: No. SPEC provides the tools to benchmark
your web server. These tools require a medium amount of expertise in network
and software setup, as one would expect of a client-server test setup. Web
server setup difficulty ranges from medium to high. If you are not familiar
with configuring a web server's directories, enabling the execution of Perl
scripts, or making simple changes to Perl scripts, you may not have the
expertise required to run this benchmark.
Client Setup and Execution
Q2:What is the best installation method for Red Hat Linux 6.x?
A2: Don't run the java setup program. Run the
install.sh program from the CD and select the redhat-x86 choice.
Q3: I compiled the SPECweb99 client on Solaris for x86
and it does not appear to work. It is stuck in an infinite loop, generating the
following messages in the client log file when run with "client -D 511":
Q4: The client gets the error message "
Can't allocate shared memory" when a run starts?
A4: Try running the client with more shared memory,
as in "client -m 20000000".
Q5: (NT) When I run the client from a command prompt, manager
gets the error "Can't open socket to 'client_x'" and quits.
A5: You must run "client -Z" from the command prompt.
Problems Running Manager
Q6: (NT) I get the following error message when I run
"specperl manager":
Q7: (Unix) I get the following error messages when I run
"specperl manager":
"Can't locate Getopt/Std.pm in @INC (@INC contains: < . . . > .) at manager line 114.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at manager line 114."
A7: You haven't sourced the shrc script properly.
Depending on the shell you are using, you may need to type
". ./shrc" or "source ./shrc"
or some other command.
Server Setup with specweb99-cgi.pl
Q8: Why aren't complete setup instructions included for my
web server and OS?
A8: Because there are a nearly infinite number of
combinations. SPECweb99 is a cross-platform, cross-OS test, and there is no way
for SPEC to provide specific instructions for every possible combination. Generic
instructions are available in the
User's Guide, section 2.3.
Q9: How do I get Perl scripts to run with Microsoft's IIS?
A9: The easiest way is to install ActivePerl from
www.activestate.com on the server.
Add "Perl for ISAPI" support for better performance.
Q10: CAD GETs fail, and when I look at dyncadget.out or try one
manually, I get the source code of specweb99-cgi.pl.
A10: Your web server is not set up correctly to execute
.pl scripts. Check your web server documentation.
Q11: Why do I get errors in the POST validation running Netscape
Enterprise Server?
A11: There appears to be a bug in Netscape Enterprise
Server where it does not pass the POST data to stdin of the Perl cgi script
correctly.
Q12: CAD GETs fail on Apache with mod_perl using the supplied
specweb99-cgi.pl with the error "ERROR: seek failed in
/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/User.Personality: Invalid argument" in dyncadget.out.
A12: specweb99-cgi.pl does not appear to work
correctly with mod_perl. Reconfigure Apache to not use mod_perl for your SPECweb99
dynamic content.
Q13: CAD GETs fail on Apache with error 500. Apache's error
log says "Premature end of script headers:
/home/httpd/html/spec/cgi-bin/specweb99-cgi.pl"
A13: The first line of specweb99-cgi.pl must point to
the location of the perl executable on your server.
Q14: I get the error "Can't find top
of document tree, please configure value CGI script manually". What do I do?
A14: Some web servers do not pass DOCUMENT_ROOT or
PATH_TRANSLATED to CGI scripts correctly. In this case the only solution is to
manually edit specweb99-cgi.pl and change $topdir to point to your document root.
Q15: I get the following errors in checking the dynamic CAD GET:
Checking dynamic custom ad (CAD) GET with
'http://xxx/scripts/specweb99-cgi.pl?/wwwroot/file_set/dir00024/class1_2'
**ERROR**: Improper file returned. See dyncadget.out for returned text
**ERROR**: No Custom Ad substitution was found -- see runrules for information
on the WEB99CAD string substitution
NOTE: errors in Custom Ad Rotation may be caused by problems in command/Reset.
Check that upfgen and cadgen get run correctly
A15: Check the output of the reset command in
dynreset.out. Chances are that upfgen99 or cadgen99 did not run correctly to
generate User.Personality and Custom.Ads files. In your document root do you have
files called User.Personality and Custom.Ads? If not, do you have the executables
called upfgen99 and cadgen99 in the right place for the web server to execute them?
Do cmd1 and cmd2 in dynreset.out work if you run them from the command line? Check
the source of specweb99-cgi.pl and see if the path info to these two executables
needs to be updated.
General Support Questions
Q16: Why can't I get more than x simultaneous connections on
my server? The results pages show much higher results for the same server.
A16: If you are running the Perl cgi, that is one
explanation. All of the submitted results use compiled API implementations for
the dynamic content, which are orders of magnitude faster than an interpreted
Perl script. Your network bandwidth may also be a limitation - see the next
question.
If running the Perl cgi is the bottleneck, then you can check the published
SPECweb99 results and see if anyone has used the same webserver software that
you are using. If so, you may be able to use one of the API implementations
that have been submitted to SPEC. See the SPECweb99 Dynamic API Sources at
http://www.spec.org/osg/web99/results/api-src/.
Alternately, you may wish to implement the dynamic content using your API of
choice following the implementation as defined in the detailed pseudo code that
appears in the Run and Reporting Rules.
Q17: Why can't I get more than 250 simultaneous connections
from my server running SPECweb99?
A17: If you have only 1 100Mbit connection to the
server, you are bandwidth-limited at between 200 and 250 simultaneous connections.
You will need to add more network cards or go to a higher-bandwidth connection
such as gigabit Ethernet.
Q18: How many clients should I set up?
A18: The answer is: it depends. It depends on: the
type of network(s) you are using between the clients and the server, the
strength/performance of the client(s), and the strength/performance of the server
being tested.
Try looking at the published results to see the type and number of
clients and how they are networked into the server. Then, take one of the clients
you have available and determine how much load it can drive and still have roughly
20% idle cycles on the client. Then, make the best guess at how many simultaneous
connections the server can do. Then, divide that by your single client value to
get a rough estimate of the number of clients you'll need.
Last updated: Tue Jul 25 12:40:14 EDT 2000
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