Bottlenecks and Their Performance Implications in E-commerce Systems

Abstract. We present a detailed workload characterization of a multi-tiered system that hosts an e-commerce site. Using the TPC-W workload and via experimental measurements, we illustrate how workload characteristics affect system behavior and operation, focusing on the statistical properties of dynamic page generation. This analysis allows to identify bottlenecks and the system conditions under which there is degradation in performance. Consistent with the literature, we find that the distribution of the dynamic page generation is heavy-tailed, which is caused by the interaction of the database server with the storage system. Furthermore, by examining the queuing behavior at the database server, we present experimental evidence of the existence of statistical correlation in the distribution of dynamic page generation times, especially under high load conditions. We couple this observation with the existence (and switching) of bottlenecks in the system.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: WCW
• Authors: Qi Zhang, Alma Riska, Erik Riedel, Evgenia Smirni
• Keywords: Database Server, Dynamic Page Generation, Internet Technology, WCW 2004, Workload