Performance measurement and analytic modeling of a web application

Abstract

The performance characteristics such as throughput, resource utilization and response time of a system can be determined through measurement, simulation modeling and analytic modeling. In this thesis, measurement and analytic modeling approaches are applied to study the performance of a Apache-PHP-PostgreSQL web application. Layered Queueing Network (LQN) analytic modeling has been used to represent the system's performance model. The measurements found from load testing are compared with model analysis results for model validation. This thesis aims to show that LQN performance models are versatile enough to allow development of highly granular and easily modifiable models of PHP-based web applications and furthermore are capable of performance prediction with sufficiently high accuracy. Lastly, the thesis also describes utilities and methods used for load testing and determination of service demand parameters in our research work which would aid in shortening time required in development and study of performance models of similar systems.