How to Run Performance Benchmarks on Debian 12 Bookworm System

Performance benchmarking is essential for understanding how your Debian 12 Bookworm system performs under various loads and usage scenarios. Whether you’re optimizing for server workloads, application development, or desktop performance, proper benchmarking tools and methodologies help identify bottlenecks, validate hardware performance, and compare different configurations.

This guide provides a detailed walkthrough of how to run performance benchmarks on a Debian 12 system. We’ll cover tools for CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network performance, including installation, usage examples, and result interpretation.

1. Why Benchmark Your System?

Benchmarking is about measuring the performance of your system’s components—such as CPU, memory, storage, and network—to:

• Ensure hardware is functioning as expected.
• Compare different hardware or configurations.
• Identify system bottlenecks.
• Support capacity planning.
• Validate system tuning or updates.

On Debian 12 Bookworm, many mature and open-source benchmarking tools are available. The default repositories include most of what you need to get started quickly.

2. Preparation: Update Your System

Before installing benchmarking tools, it’s good practice to update your system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

You may also want to install build-essential and linux-perf for compiling and analyzing performance tools:

sudo apt install build-essential linux-perf

3. CPU Benchmarking

Tool: sysbench

sysbench is a versatile benchmarking tool that can test CPU, memory, I/O, and more.

Install sysbench

sudo apt install sysbench

Run a CPU benchmark

sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run

• --cpu-max-prime=20000: Sets the maximum prime number to calculate.
• The output includes events per second, total time taken, and CPU usage.

Interpreting Results

Look at total time, events per second, and 95th percentile latency. Lower latency and higher events/sec indicate better performance.

4. Memory Benchmarking

Tool: sysbench (again)

You can also benchmark memory using sysbench:

sysbench memory --memory-block-size=1M --memory-total-size=10G run

• --memory-block-size: Size of memory block to test.
• --memory-total-size: Total size to allocate during the test.

Alternative Tool: mbw

mbw (Memory Bandwidth Benchmark) measures memory copy bandwidth between buffers.

Install mbw

sudo apt install mbw

Example usage

mbw -n 10 100

• -n: Number of runs.
• 100: Buffer size in MB.

It reports memory bandwidth in MB/s using methods like memcpy, bcopy, and duff.

5. Disk I/O Benchmarking

Tool: fio

fio (Flexible I/O Tester) is a powerful disk benchmarking tool.

Install fio

sudo apt install fio

Random Read/Write Example

fio --name=randrw --ioengine=libaio --rw=randrw --bs=4k --direct=1 \
--size=1G --numjobs=4 --runtime=60 --group_reporting

• --rw=randrw: Mix of random reads/writes.
• --bs=4k: Block size of 4KB.
• --numjobs=4: Simulate 4 concurrent jobs.
• --direct=1: Bypass OS cache.
• --runtime=60: Run test for 60 seconds.

Output Explanation

• IOPS: I/O operations per second.
• Latency: Read/write response time.
• BW: Bandwidth (read/write speed).

Tool: hdparm

For a simple disk read speed test:

sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sdX

Replace /dev/sdX with your actual disk. This gives a rough idea of cached and buffered read speeds.

6. Network Benchmarking

Tool: iperf3

iperf3 is widely used for testing network throughput between two machines.

Install iperf3

sudo apt install iperf3

On the server machine

iperf3 -s

On the client machine

iperf3 -c <server_ip_address>

Output includes

• Bandwidth (Mbps or Gbps)
• Retransmissions
• Transfer time

Tool: nuttcp (Alternative)

nuttcp is another reliable tool for testing TCP/UDP throughput and latency.

sudo apt install nuttcp

Usage is similar to iperf and can provide more detailed statistics.

7. System Monitoring During Benchmarks

It’s important to monitor system stats in real-time during benchmarks to ensure accurate context.

Tool: htop

sudo apt install htop
htop

Gives a live overview of CPU, memory, and process usage.

Tool: iotop (for disk I/O)

sudo apt install iotop
sudo iotop

Shows real-time disk I/O per process.

Tool: nmon

nmon provides a comprehensive live dashboard of CPU, memory, disk, and network usage.

sudo apt install nmon
nmon

8. GPU Benchmarking (Optional)

If you’re running a system with GPU support and drivers installed (e.g., NVIDIA), you can use:

Tool: glmark2

sudo apt install glmark2
glmark2

Runs a series of OpenGL-based tests and outputs a performance score.

Tool: unigine (Proprietary)

For high-end benchmarking, Unigine offers Linux-compatible tools like Heaven and Superposition. These are not in Debian repos but available from the official site.

9. Web Server Benchmarking

Tool: Apache Benchmark (ab)

If you want to test the performance of your web server (e.g., Apache, Nginx):

sudo apt install apache2-utils
ab -n 1000 -c 10 http://localhost/

• -n 1000: Total number of requests.
• -c 10: Number of concurrent requests.

Outputs:

• Requests per second
• Connection times
• Failed requests

Tool: wrk (Advanced)

wrk is a modern HTTP benchmarking tool.

sudo apt install wrk
wrk -t4 -c100 -d30s http://localhost/

10. Comparing Results and Repeating Tests

For accuracy:

• Run tests multiple times.
• Ensure no other heavy processes are running.
• Use consistent configurations.

Create spreadsheets or use tools like gnuplot to visualize results over time or across different systems.

11. Automating Benchmarks

You can write shell scripts to automate benchmarking and output logs. Example:

#!/bin/bash
echo "Running CPU benchmark..."
sysbench cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run >> benchmark_log.txt

echo "Running Memory benchmark..."
sysbench memory --memory-block-size=1M --memory-total-size=1G run >> benchmark_log.txt

echo "Running Disk benchmark..."
fio --name=randrw --ioengine=libaio --rw=randrw --bs=4k --direct=1 \
--size=512M --numjobs=2 --runtime=30 --group_reporting >> benchmark_log.txt

Conclusion

Benchmarking a Debian 12 Bookworm system is both straightforward and essential for understanding your hardware’s capabilities and system behavior under stress. Tools like sysbench, fio, iperf3, and htop provide detailed insight into various subsystems.

Whether you’re a system administrator validating hardware, a developer optimizing workloads, or just curious about your system’s performance, regular benchmarking helps keep things running smoothly and efficiently.

Remember that benchmarks are just indicators—real-world performance depends on many variables including workloads, tuning, and hardware quality. Use benchmarking as a guide, not a gospel.