Stress Test

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Posted by Mastermind Networks, 06-04-2013, 02:28 PM
Due to recent events I need to stress test a server running Shoutcast. The server is a bit of a monster so just asking people to use it's services is not gonna cut it. A few days ago a cloud server tried to fill up all the radio slots. We stopped it at ~300 listers. Since the server can take up to 20000 listers I want to see how the server reacts when it faces 17000 listeners. I've looked up scripts or solutions but i came out with nothing concrete. I'm thinking to use my cloud to rain hell on the server. I'm thinking running 17000 instances of MPlayer or something similar unfortunately I don't really know from were to start. Ideally I wish I could make the server simulate 17000 listers by itself without any outside assistance. However for some strange reason this subject seems tabu. I'm sure that this has been done before especially by people like us. Also if you have some bash commands to put some stress on Apache I'd love to see them. All your proposed solutions and opinions are more then welcomed. Last edited by Mastermind Networks; 06-04-2013 at 02:34 PM.
Posted by evOwl, 06-04-2013, 03:07 PM
Have you tried the test that icecast.org used?
Posted by Ramprage, 06-04-2013, 03:09 PM
Some load testing apps: You can use Google's python script https://developers.google.com/appeng...cles/load_test mechanize - python, can perform user logins. jMeter Online services like Blitz.io
Posted by Mastermind Networks, 06-05-2013, 01:03 AM
Looks like what I was looking for. Thanks
Posted by FastServ, 06-05-2013, 09:23 AM
No single instance of a Shoutcast 1.x server can handle more than 500-700 listeners or so before degrading (depending on hardware). This is due to the fact that it's single threaded. The higher the bitrate the worse degradation you'll see. The workaround is to set up multiple instances with 500-600 listeners each as a relay cluster. Shoutcast 2.x may have fixed this issue and Icecast has never had this problem. Honestly I've never stress tested Shoutcast 2.0, as all our larger streaming clients are on Icecast.