Linux Journal - September 2011

combine a Buildbot setup with Gauger. Buildbot is used to execute regression and performance tests, and Gauger visualizes the development of performance metrics over time.

Another tool for monitoring performance is Munin. Like Gauger, Munin allows users to specify which performance measurements should be created. In contrast to Gauger where execution hosts push data to the server, the Munin server periodically pulls all participating systems for a performance score. As a result, NATed systems are not easily supported. Also, because Munin stores the data indexed by time and not revision number, and given that software performance may differ widely between different platforms, not all systems may have performance scores ready at fixed time intervals. Although Munin is not a good fit for performance regression analysis for developers, it likely is a better fit for system administrators who need to monitor system performance.

Conclusion

Gauger offers a lightweight and
language-independent approach for
integrating performance regression
testing with existing development pro-
cesses for projects using a wide range
of version control systems. With Gauger,
performance regressions are detected
early, providing users with software
that finally is improving consistently in
both correctness and performance.;

Bart Polot is working on his PhD as a researcher at the Technische Universität München. His research interests include security, networking, routing and botnets.

Christian Grothoff is an Emmy-Noether research group leader at the Technische Universität München. His research interests include compilers, programming languages, software engineering, networking and security.