Faban is a facility for developing and running benchmarks. Faban supports multi-tier server benchmarks (such as web/cache/database benchmarks) run across dozens of machines. It also supports developing and running a simple micro-benchmark targeting a single component (such as an ftp server.) It has two major components, the Faban Driver Framework and the Faban Harness.

The Faban Driver Framework is an API-based framework and component model to help develop new benchmarks rapidly. The driver framework controls the lifecycle of the benchmark run as well as the stochastic model used to simulate users. It provides built-in support for many servers such as Apache httpd, Sun Java System Web, Portal and Mail Servers, Oracle RDBMS, memcached etc. It provides a well-documented interface to add support for any other server.

The Faban Harness is a tool to automate running of server benchmarks. It also serves as a container to host benchmarks allowing new benchmarks to be deployed in a rapid manner. Faban provides an easy to use web interface to configure and queue runs, and includes extensive functionality to view, compare and graph run outputs.

The Faban Harness not only supports benchmarks developed using the Faban Driver Framework but also supports stand-alone benchmarks. Non-faban benchmarks are supported by defining a benchmark wrapper that identifies the processes involved in preparing and running the benchmark, and reporting results.

We summarize briefly, the features and attributes of Faban

Faban Harness:

1. Web interface for controlling benchmark runs and viewing results
2. Queuing of benchmark runs
3. Benchmark process automation
4. Automated collection of system and application statistics
5. Manages the whole rig consisting of multiple systems across multiple teers
6. Automated benchmark code distribution
7. Centralized logging
8. Pluggable services and tools to control and observe software components in the rig
9. Analysis tools - post processes and graphs and compares detailed run results
10. Automatically integrates and manages workloads defined using the Faban Driver Framework
11. Integrates with any existing workload or benchmark

Faban Driver Framework:

1. Workload component model with high-level APIs and abstractions
2. Driven by declarative workload model/specification
3. Provides, and encourages the use of stochastic models
4. Throughput-oriented measurements with response-time criteria
5. Life-cycle control
6. Time synchronization between all systems
7. Extremely accurate timings with large number of time calibrations built in
8. Automated timing measurements
9. Lightweight and extremely scalable across large number of driver systems
10. Standardized/extensible reporting

Getting Started

Faban has many usage scenarios, depending on your role in benchmarking or stress testing as well as the complexity of the problem at hand. It is best to learn from Installation and Getting Started to use the least amount of time to get you going.

• Installation and Getting Started
• Faban Harness User's Guide - how to use the harness. Start here.
• Faban Driver Framework Developers Guide - how to create your own benchmark
• Faban Harness Developers Guide - how to hook your Faban benchmark to the Harness
• Faban API Javadocs
• Faban Tutorials - the quickest way to move you towards a running benchmark
• Faban Harness Configuration Guide - for the curious who want to configure the harness to your specific needs
• FAQ - quick questions, quick answers

If you have question about using Faban or run into issues, please send email to users@faban.sunsource.net. We also gladly accept feedback through this alias. Note that common questions and answers may be posted on the FAQ. 

System Requirements

• J2SE 1.5.0 or laterfhb
  
  • JavaSE 6 or later is required for the Windows platform, and preferred on all other platforms.
• Operating System
• The Faban driver framework is OS independent and can run on any JVM 1.5 or later.
  
• The Faban harness is designed to adapt to most operating systems, but due to it's functionality which reaches into the OS, adaptation scripts may need to be written to tailor it to a particular operating system. Currently, the Faban Harness has support for Solaris 10 and above on both SPARC and x86, Linux and Windows. Although it will run on Linux and Windows, support for measurement tools needs to be added.
  

Downloads

The packages here are for the latest stable release.

• The Faban Kit - This package is for installation on the Master Faban server.
• Faban documentation - if you don't want to read it online
  
• Issues fixed and implemented since Faban 0.9

• Latest Builds As we continue to enhance Faban and fix bugs, we try to make more recent builds available. These are quite well tested, so please feel free to try it.

Getting Involved

We always welcome bugs, feature requests, and especially contributions. Please use our Issue Tracker on the left panel of this page to enter requests as well as bugs. If you want to have some issues resolved urgently and/or you are willing to contribute, please review our How to Contribute to Faban page.