[gentoo-user] [OT] test lab Quicktime streaming server

[gentoo-user] [OT] test lab Quicktime streaming server

[Uwe Thiem]

Hi folks,

does someone know of a piece of software that runs under linux and swallows a 
stream from a Quicktime Streaming Server but just throws the data away (no 
decoding, no displaying)?

This is for torturing the server hardware to determine how many individual, 
concurrent streams it can maintain. A bit of random ff, fb and pausing would 
be nice but not necessary.

Uwe
  
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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] test lab Quicktime streaming server

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

On Wednesday 14 December 2005 07:59 am, Uwe Thiem wrote:
> does someone know of a piece of software that runs under linux and
> swallows a stream from a Quicktime Streaming Server but just throws
> the data away (no decoding, no displaying)?

You may be able to use socat and a bit of shell to do what you want:

http_request=#Whatever you need to request your stream
socat_remote_address=#Something like TCP:your_server:80
stress_level=10
i=0
while [ "$i" -lt "$stress_level" ]; do
    socat "$socat_remote_address" << ENDREQUEST > /dev/null &
$http_request
ENDREQUEST
done

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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] test lab Quicktime streaming server

[James]

Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. <bss03 <at> volumehost.com> writes:


> On Wednesday 14 December 2005 07:59 am, Uwe Thiem wrote:
> > does someone know of a piece of software that runs under linux and
> > swallows a stream from a Quicktime Streaming Server but just throws
> > the data away (no decoding, no displaying)?

> You may be able to use socat and a bit of shell to do what you want:

> http_request=#Whatever you need to request your stream
> socat_remote_address=#Something like TCP:your_server:80
> stress_level=10
> i=0
> while [ "$i" -lt "$stress_level" ]; do
>     socat "$socat_remote_address" << ENDREQUEST > /dev/null &
> $http_request
> ENDREQUEST
> done


Any ability to easily measure the amount of bandwidth being consumed,
in bits/sec or mbps by these video streams ?  That would tell us if 
it's the number of streams or the bandwidth of the video streams
or both, that bogged down a video master(server).

I have been using 'bwmon: to measure bandwidth consumption
of video streams into an ethernet interface.  However,it does not have the
ability to parse out statistics based on individual video streams, when
multiple video streams are entering the same interface.

I have read discussions that the
2.6 linux kernel can actually measure every bit into/out-of an interface very
accurately, but, I just have not found any detailed information on these
measurements or how to perform these measurement, via token buckets or
whatever kernel mechanisms folks use. It sure would be nice to be able to parse
out video and other forms of ethernet data traffic into an individual
readings with unique stats per application so what can see how much 
server resources a process or video stream is using. I'll be using
mixed mode video, i.e. some mjpeg, some mpeg2 some H.264 some
theora and maybe more. How else does one discern what's bogging down
a video master(server) with lots of activity?


Thoughts or ideas?

James




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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] test lab Quicktime streaming server

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

On Wednesday 14 December 2005 11:44 am, James wrote:
> Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. <bss03 <at> volumehost.com> writes:
> > On Wednesday 14 December 2005 07:59 am, Uwe Thiem wrote:
> > > does someone know of a piece of software that runs under linux
> > > and swallows a stream from a Quicktime Streaming Server but just
> > > throws the data away (no decoding, no displaying)?
> >
> > You may be able to use socat and a bit of shell to do what you
> > want:
>
> Any ability to easily measure the amount of bandwidth being consumed,
> in bits/sec or mbps by these video streams ? 

You could use pv (pipe viewer) in between socat and /dev/null to measure 
the bandwidth of the TCP stream.  I find nettop is also fairly useful, 
although it would group all the HTTP streams on that interface into the 
same numbers. tcpdump is also a tool you may want to check out.

Example use of pv:
socat "$socat_remote_address" << ENDREQUEST | pv > /dev/null
$http_request
ENDREQUEST

pv is meant to be used interactively, so you'd probably want to start 
each stream in a separate pty.  That should be scriptable with screen.

> I have been using 'bwmon: to measure bandwidth consumption
> of video streams into an ethernet interface.  However,it does not
> have the ability to parse out statistics based on individual video
> streams, when multiple video streams are entering the same interface.

Never used it, so I can't really comment. The pv technique may work for 
you. Keep in mind that it won't count any overhead, just the throughput 
of the TCP stream (so, it won't count headers, ACKs, or duplicate 
packets).

Finally, you may be able to use interface aliases and interface 
monitoring tools to do what you want.  You'd just have to figure out a 
way to have socat use a particular interface.

In imaginary land:
alias eth0 eth0:$i
socat -i eth0:$i TCP:$host:$port << ENDREQUEST > /dev/null &
$http_request
ENDREQUEST
bwmon -i eth0:$i

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] test lab Quicktime streaming server

[Eric Bliss]

On Wednesday 14 December 2005 08:44 am, James wrote:
> 
> Any ability to easily measure the amount of bandwidth being consumed,
> in bits/sec or mbps by these video streams ?  That would tell us if 
> it's the number of streams or the bandwidth of the video streams
> or both, that bogged down a video master(server).
> 
> I have been using 'bwmon: to measure bandwidth consumption
> of video streams into an ethernet interface.  However,it does not have the
> ability to parse out statistics based on individual video streams, when
> multiple video streams are entering the same interface.
> 
> I have read discussions that the
> 2.6 linux kernel can actually measure every bit into/out-of an interface 
very
> accurately, but, I just have not found any detailed information on these
> measurements or how to perform these measurement, via token buckets or
> whatever kernel mechanisms folks use. It sure would be nice to be able to 
parse
> out video and other forms of ethernet data traffic into an individual
> readings with unique stats per application so what can see how much 
> server resources a process or video stream is using. I'll be using
> mixed mode video, i.e. some mjpeg, some mpeg2 some H.264 some
> theora and maybe more. How else does one discern what's bogging down
> a video master(server) with lots of activity?
> 

Try looking at iptraf (net-analyzer/iptraf).  It's a curses based interface to 
watch your network interfaces.  The traffic monitor will show traffic flow 
for each different connection, and the interface statistics will show how 
much total traffic is going in and out on each interface, including real-time 
kb/sec data.  As long as you keep track of what IPs your torture streams are 
on, you should be able to see how each stream is going.

-- 
Eric Bliss
systems design and integration,
CreativeCow.Net
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