How do I measure response time in seconds given the following benchmarking data?

Question

We recently got some data back on a benchmarking test from a software vendor, and I think I'm missing something obvious.

If there were 17 transactions (I assume they mean successfully completed requests) per second, and 1500 of these requests could be served in 5 minutes, then how do I get the response time for a single user? Is this sort of thing even possible with benchmarking? I have a lot of other data from them, including apache config settings, but I'm not sure how to do all the math.

Given the server setup they sent, I want to know how I can deduce the user response time. I have looked at other similar benchmarking tests, but I'm having trouble measuring requests to response time. What other data do I need to provide here to get that?

Answer 1

If only 1500 of these can be served per 5 minutes then: 1500 / 5 = 300 transactions per min can be served 300 / 60 = 5 transactions per second can be served

so how are they getting 17 completed transactions per second? Last time I checked 5 < 17 !

This doesn't seem to fit. Or am I looking at it wrongly?

I presume be user response time, you mean the time it takes to serve a single transaction:

If they can serve 5 per second than it takes 200ms (1/5) per transaction If they can serve 17 per second than it takes 59ms (1/17) per transaction

That is all we can tell from the given data. Perhaps clarify how many transactions are being done per second.

Answer 2

If your looking for a way to measure and manage response time, especially when it comes to end users there is a free tool for you to use. link text