Gee. It has been a while since I’ve last written here, and it will be a while again for my next post as I will be on holidays from next Monday (visiting families in Hong Kong and Taiwan). Let me share one small utility program that I wrote quite a while ago.

We all know that the Linux command free(1) is pretty useless inside an OpenVZ VE, even those with meminfo virtualised. So I basically wrote this little util to grab the data from the dreadful user_beancounters and format them into something useful. It’s written in C and only depends on libc so it’s pretty light weight. It also does a little bit of analysis instead of just dumping the data, which I will explain later on.

To install vzfree, do this

apt-get install build-essential

then download the vzfree compressed file from the official website using wget (check the official blog post for updated version if the following one is not working)

wget http://hostingfu.com/files/vzfree/vzfree-0.1.tgz

Extract the file

tar -vxf vzfree-0.1.tgz

then do

cd vzfree-0.1

Now the final step

make && sudo make install

Now try running the utility from shell

root@ed3:~# vzfree
             Total     Used     Free
Kernel:   2048.00M    1.83M 2046.17M
Allocate:  512.00M   60.36M  451.64M (256M Guaranteed)
Commit:    256.00M   23.32M  232.68M (35.6% of Allocated)
Swap:                 0.00M          (0.0% of Committed)
root@ed3:~#

Specs: 1024MB / 60GB OpenVZ running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32bit

Note: This VPS has the best benchmark that I have ever seen, wow, no doubt Adam is having busy managing the best VPS+CPanel combination ever!

   #    #  #    #  #  #    #          #####   ######  #    #   ####   #    #
   #    #  ##   #  #   #  #           #    #  #       ##   #  #    #  #    #
   #    #  # #  #  #    ##            #####   #####   # #  #  #       ######
   #    #  #  # #  #    ##            #    #  #       #  # #  #       #    #
   #    #  #   ##  #   #  #           #    #  #       #   ##  #    #  #    #
    ####   #    #  #  #    #          #####   ######  #    #   ####   #    #

   Version 5.1.2                      Based on the Byte Magazine Unix Benchmark

   Multi-CPU version                  Version 5 revisions by Ian Smith,
                                      Sunnyvale, CA, USA
   December 22, 2007                  johantheghost at yahoo period com

1 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Double-Precision Whetstone  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Execl Throughput  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x Pipe Throughput  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Pipe-based Context Switching  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Process Creation  1 2 3

1 x System Call Overhead  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)  1 2 3

1 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)  1 2 3

8 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8 x Double-Precision Whetstone  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8 x Execl Throughput  1 2 3

8 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks  1 2 3

8 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks  1 2 3

8 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks  1 2 3

8 x Pipe Throughput  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8 x Pipe-based Context Switching  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8 x Process Creation  1 2 3

8 x System Call Overhead  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)  1 2 3

8 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)  1 2 3

========================================================================
   BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.2)

   System: vpslatch: GNU/Linux
   OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5.028stab070.2 -- #1 SMP Tue Jul 6 14:55:39 MSD 2010
   Machine: i686 (unknown)
   Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
   CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.8 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.7 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.8 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.6 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 4: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.6 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 5: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.5 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 6: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.6 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   CPU 7: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3440 @ 2.53GHz (5066.5 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   20:23:21 up 19 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.08, 0.13, 0.12; runlevel 2

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Fri Aug 27 2010 20:23:21 - 20:56:44
8 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       11525914.1 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     2293.8 MWIPS (8.0 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                               3511.7 lps   (29.3 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        458753.7 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks          143068.6 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks       1003490.8 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                              912377.1 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                  16975.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                              10703.4 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   3159.9 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                   1637.5 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                         833256.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   11525914.1    987.7
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       2293.8    417.1
Execl Throughput                                 43.0       3511.7    816.7
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     458753.7   1158.5
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0     143068.6    864.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0    1003490.8   1730.2
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     912377.1    733.4
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      16975.8     42.4
Process Creation                                126.0      10703.4    849.5
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       3159.9    745.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0       1637.5   2729.2
System Call Overhead                          15000.0     833256.4    555.5
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         713.5

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Fri Aug 27 2010 20:56:44 - 21:29:45
8 CPUs in system; running 8 parallel copies of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       58812113.0 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                    18001.3 MWIPS (10.2 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                              20114.1 lps   (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        533044.1 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks          188915.8 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks       1352929.0 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                             5495180.2 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                1548613.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                              54771.6 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                  18879.4 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                   2446.6 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                        5667263.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   58812113.0   5039.6
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0      18001.3   3273.0
Execl Throughput                                 43.0      20114.1   4677.7
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     533044.1   1346.1
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0     188915.8   1141.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0    1352929.0   2332.6
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0    5495180.2   4417.3
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0    1548613.4   3871.5
Process Creation                                126.0      54771.6   4346.9
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4      18879.4   4452.7
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0       2446.6   4077.6
System Call Overhead                          15000.0    5667263.4   3778.2
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                        3254.2

root@vpslatch:~/unixbench-5.1.2#

Since I use twitter more, even when Im on the road, notifications via email is a bit slow for me. Luckily I found a great tutorial online to do that.

Twagios – Use Twitter for Nagios notifications

I registered a new twitter account for this purpose @twitgios, made its tweets private and followed this newly created account from my primary twitter account @asimzeeshan. Configured NAGIOS with twitter-nagios plugin and Viola! it now tweets status and updates as mentions to my personal account.

Update (26-Aug-2010): From my experience, they have very huge iowait and hence I/O problems on their VPS servers. You have to wait for like 10-15 seconds for a ‘uptime’ command to execute which is pretty pathetic. So in my opinion, it was useless for me.

Unix Benchmark results from Spacerich (OpenVZ running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32bit on their Munich, Germany node) using unixbench v 5.1.2

Specs: 256MB / 25GB OpenVZ running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32bit

Note: Being in Europe, it has the best response time to Asia especially Pakistan

   #    #  #    #  #  #    #          #####   ######  #    #   ####   #    #
   #    #  ##   #  #   #  #           #    #  #       ##   #  #    #  #    #
   #    #  # #  #  #    ##            #####   #####   # #  #  #       ######
   #    #  #  # #  #    ##            #    #  #       #  # #  #       #    #
   #    #  #   ##  #   #  #           #    #  #       #   ##  #    #  #    #
    ####   #    #  #  #    #          #####   ######  #    #   ####   #    #

   Version 5.1.2                      Based on the Byte Magazine Unix Benchmark

   Multi-CPU version                  Version 5 revisions by Ian Smith,
                                      Sunnyvale, CA, USA
   December 22, 2007                  johantheghost at yahoo period com

1 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Double-Precision Whetstone  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Execl Throughput  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x Pipe Throughput  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Pipe-based Context Switching  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Process Creation  1 2 3

1 x System Call Overhead  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)  1 2 3

1 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)  1 2 3

========================================================================
   BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.2)

   System: spacerich.li-node.com: GNU/Linux
   OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.18-194.3.1.el5.028stab069.6 -- #1 SMP Wed May 26 18:31:05 MSD 2010
   Machine: i686 (unknown)
   Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="ANSI_X3.4-1968", collate="ANSI_X3.4-1968")
   CPU 0: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (5346.8 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext, SYSENTER/SYSEXIT, SYSCALL/SYSRET, Intel virtualization
   14:13:03 up 7 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.50, 0.57, 0.28; runlevel 2

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Sat Aug 14 2010 14:13:03 - 15:08:10
1 CPU in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       12575216.5 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     2497.3 MWIPS (10.1 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                               3557.9 lps   (29.5 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        421088.5 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks          121289.6 KBps  (30.1 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks       1117419.3 KBps  (30.1 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                              818415.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                 251880.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                              11495.8 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   5067.7 lpm   (60.1 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                    657.5 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                         638652.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   12575216.5   1077.6
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       2497.3    454.0
Execl Throughput                                 43.0       3557.9    827.4
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     421088.5   1063.4
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0     121289.6    732.9
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0    1117419.3   1926.6
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     818415.4    657.9
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0     251880.4    629.7
Process Creation                                126.0      11495.8    912.4
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       5067.7   1195.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0        657.5   1095.9
System Call Overhead                          15000.0     638652.8    425.8
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         842.6

root@spacerich:~/unixbench-5.1.2#

Update (25-Aug-2010): Rus Foster from ThrustVPS.com is a blackmailer and a person with low self-esteem. He actually blackmailed me to hand him over certain domain names which he thinks believes is breaching the AUP. My accounts, VPS and the $60 of affiliate commission was terminated. I will advise everyone to KEEP AWAY from Rus Foster and ThrustVPS.com (click here to read the full review)

Unix Benchmark results from ThrustVPS (XEN HVM running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on their West Coast (LA) node) using unixbench v 5.1.2

Specs: 512MB / 15GB XEN HVM running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32bit

Note: Although the test results from the previous bechmark on their XEN PV is just average, this one is the best benchmark I had on a 512MB VPS ever!

   #    #  #    #  #  #    #          #####   ######  #    #   ####   #    #
   #    #  ##   #  #   #  #           #    #  #       ##   #  #    #  #    #
   #    #  # #  #  #    ##            #####   #####   # #  #  #       ######
   #    #  #  # #  #    ##            #    #  #       #  # #  #       #    #
   #    #  #   ##  #   #  #           #    #  #       #   ##  #    #  #    #
    ####   #    #  #  #    #          #####   ######  #    #   ####   #    #

   Version 5.1.2                      Based on the Byte Magazine Unix Benchmark

   Multi-CPU version                  Version 5 revisions by Ian Smith,
                                      Sunnyvale, CA, USA
   December 22, 2007                  johantheghost at yahoo period com

1 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Double-Precision Whetstone  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Execl Throughput  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks  1 2 3

1 x Pipe Throughput  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Pipe-based Context Switching  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Process Creation  1 2 3

1 x System Call Overhead  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)  1 2 3

1 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)  1 2 3

4 x Dhrystone 2 using register variables  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 x Double-Precision Whetstone  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 x Execl Throughput  1 2 3

4 x File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks  1 2 3

4 x File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks  1 2 3

4 x File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks  1 2 3

4 x Pipe Throughput  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 x Pipe-based Context Switching  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 x Process Creation  1 2 3

4 x System Call Overhead  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4 x Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)  1 2 3

4 x Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)  1 2 3

========================================================================
   BYTE UNIX Benchmarks (Version 5.1.2)

   System: localhost: GNU/Linux
   OS: GNU/Linux -- 2.6.32-24-generic -- #39-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 28 06:07:29 UTC 2010
   Machine: i686 (unknown)
   Language: en_US.utf8 (charmap="UTF-8", collate="UTF-8")
   CPU 0: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5620 @ 2.40GHz (4787.3 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext
   CPU 1: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5620 @ 2.40GHz (4788.7 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext
   CPU 2: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5620 @ 2.40GHz (4793.6 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext
   CPU 3: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5620 @ 2.40GHz (4788.9 bogomips)
          Hyper-Threading, x86-64, MMX, Physical Address Ext
   08:38:41 up 1 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.24, 0.14, 0.05; runlevel 2

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Thu Aug 12 2010 08:38:41 - 09:07:10
4 CPUs in system; running 1 parallel copy of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       16188739.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     2503.0 MWIPS (10.1 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                               2909.4 lps   (29.6 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        533447.8 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks          147009.5 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks       1292546.5 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                              898724.3 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                  11947.9 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                               6958.8 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                   5266.9 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                   1807.2 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                         968404.3 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   16188739.8   1387.2
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       2503.0    455.1
Execl Throughput                                 43.0       2909.4    676.6
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     533447.8   1347.1
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0     147009.5    888.3
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0    1292546.5   2228.5
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0     898724.3    722.4
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0      11947.9     29.9
Process Creation                                126.0       6958.8    552.3
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4       5266.9   1242.2
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0       1807.2   3012.1
System Call Overhead                          15000.0     968404.3    645.6
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                         752.2

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benchmark Run: Thu Aug 12 2010 09:07:10 - 09:35:45
4 CPUs in system; running 4 parallel copies of tests

Dhrystone 2 using register variables       63458442.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Double-Precision Whetstone                     9814.8 MWIPS (10.1 s, 7 samples)
Execl Throughput                              13593.1 lps   (29.9 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks        422856.7 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks          114278.2 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks       1403251.2 KBps  (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Pipe Throughput                             3312735.5 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Pipe-based Context Switching                 717177.8 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)
Process Creation                              39660.5 lps   (30.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                  15456.3 lpm   (60.0 s, 2 samples)
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                   2031.6 lpm   (60.1 s, 2 samples)
System Call Overhead                        3128398.4 lps   (10.0 s, 7 samples)

System Benchmarks Index Values               BASELINE       RESULT    INDEX
Dhrystone 2 using register variables         116700.0   63458442.8   5437.7
Double-Precision Whetstone                       55.0       9814.8   1784.5
Execl Throughput                                 43.0      13593.1   3161.2
File Copy 1024 bufsize 2000 maxblocks          3960.0     422856.7   1067.8
File Copy 256 bufsize 500 maxblocks            1655.0     114278.2    690.5
File Copy 4096 bufsize 8000 maxblocks          5800.0    1403251.2   2419.4
Pipe Throughput                               12440.0    3312735.5   2663.0
Pipe-based Context Switching                   4000.0     717177.8   1792.9
Process Creation                                126.0      39660.5   3147.7
Shell Scripts (1 concurrent)                     42.4      15456.3   3645.3
Shell Scripts (8 concurrent)                      6.0       2031.6   3385.9
System Call Overhead                          15000.0    3128398.4   2085.6
                                                                   ========
System Benchmarks Index Score                                        2293.4

root@wc:~/unixbench-5.1.2#

For example, the following should be there in the sources.list file if you are running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (codename lucid)

## main & restricted repositories
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-updates main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-updates main restricted

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted

## universe repositories - uncomment to enable
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid universe

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu lucid-security universe

UnixBench is the original BYTE UNIX benchmark suite, updated and revised by many people over the years.

The purpose of UnixBench is to provide a basic indicator of the performance of a Unix-like system; hence, multiple tests are used to test various aspects of the system’s performance. These test results are then compared to the scores from a baseline system to produce an index value, which is generally easier to handle than the raw scores. The entire set of index values is then combined to make an overall index for the system.

Some very simple graphics tests are included to measure the 2D and 3D graphics performance of the system.

Multi-CPU systems are handled. If your system has multiple CPUs, the default behaviour is to run the selected tests twice — once with one copy of each test program running at a time, and once with N copies, where N is the number of CPUs. This is designed to allow you to assess:

* the performance of your system when running a single task
* the performance of your system when running multiple tasks
* the gain from your system’s implementation of parallel processing

Do be aware that this is a system benchmark, not a CPU, RAM or disk benchmark. The results will depend not only on your hardware, but on your operating system, libraries, and even compiler.

First install required libraries for compilation :

apt-get install libx11-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libxext-dev perl  perl-modules make

Then get the unixbench and run it :

wget http://byte-unixbench.googlecode.com/files/unixbench-5.1.2.tar.gz
tar xvf unixbench-5.1.2.tar.gz
cd unixbench-5.1.2
./Run

If you are not getting a package on Ubuntu, please check to see if your /etc/apt/sources.list file is updated. This is common with most VPS providers

On VPS, especially with challenging small memory limit (e.g. 64MB or 128MB) lighttpd is the best option instead of Apache. In this article I will show you how to do that. On a fresh box (which has no apache installed) type this to get lighttpd webserver installed

apt-get install lighttpd

Now install PHP5 CGI package and PHP5 command line package

apt-get install php5-cgi php5-cli

Edit the following file

nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

and uncomment this line

cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1

Now enable fastcgi module

lighty-enable-mod fastcgi

Restart Lighttpd

/etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

You get the welcome page

Lets install MySQL 5.1 server and client

apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

and optionally phpMyAdmin

apt-get install phpmyadmin

Now create a test page to see if phpinfo is all Ok

nano /var/www/info.php

Type in the following

<?php
phpinfo();

php -v

would be giving you certain PHP Depreciated warning like these

root@sea:~# php -v
PHP Deprecated:  Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/idn.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
PHP Deprecated:  Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/imagick.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
PHP Deprecated:  Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/imap.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
PHP Deprecated:  Comments starting with '#' are deprecated in /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/mcrypt.ini on line 1 in Unknown on line 0
PHP 5.3.2-1ubuntu4 with Suhosin-Patch (cli) (built: Apr  9 2010 08:23:39)
Copyright (c) 1997-2009 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies

Its a noted bug with Ubuntu and changes may be pushed soon but to fix this just edit each of these files and replace comments starting with ‘#‘ to ‘;‘.

mysql

UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass') WHERE User='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;