> > >I am running the server/client on the > > >same machine. > > > > You will not get reliable results by doing this. > > Can you elaborate why? Plus we were forced to do this, > but would like to avoid in the future if it really affects > our results.
Because the client will contend very heavily with the server for many system resources. It's indeterminate which one (client or server) requires more resources, which one wins more, and how much more of which resources. Running both on the same machine will certainly stress the machine pretty well, but you can't compare any measurement you get with what the same machine will perform if Apache doesn't have to contend with a client for its resources, it won't be the same result at all. In the real world apache doesn't have a client stealing its system resources, therefore an accurate test of how apache would behave in the real world can only be done if you set up a test with the same situation. This could be why apache is performing better when you let your client sleep a little (then again, it could be something else, that's why I say it's "indeterminate" (unknown) how much of the resources the client itself is stealing away from the server). To measure the effect of anything, you have to limit the number of variables that can influence the result. Dave
