Testing server's network speed Print

In this article we provide 4 ways to measure your server's network throughput

1) Using external servers and yabs (easiest).

By running:

curl -sL https://yabs.sh | bash -s -- -f -g

By running the above command in your server, you'll be able to benchmark the network speed (throughput) of your server connecting to other internet servers.

This method isn't 100% reliable since it depends on other servers that since they're free for testing their internet capacity can be saturated from tests other users are making. In that case, the testing servers will not be able to provide adequate bandwidth for the test.

If your don't have "curl" installed in your server, you can install it by:

For CentOS / Redhat: 

yum install curl

For Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install curl

2) Using speedtest

 Speedtest is another common method for measuring network throughput. It connects to a nearby Speedtest server to measure your download and upload speeds.

To install the official Speedtest client, you’ll first need to install the package via the repository provided by Ookla. This package is available through for ubuntu/debian systems through apt:

snap install speedtest

And for CentOS/ Redhat:

curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/ookla/speedtest-cli/script.rpm.sh | sudo bash

yum install speedtest

To run a simple speedtest (download, upload, and ping), use the following command:

speedtest

3) Using iperf

In order to reliably check your server's bandwidth, we've setup private iperf servers that you can use as test servers with the following iperf command

iperf3 -P 10 -c $server_ip

For the server IP choose the IP address of the iperf3 server currently residing in your infrastructure (for example a user in New York should choose NY2 iperf3 server IP address).

You can find the IP addresses of the IPerf3 servers bellow:

• UK2 iperf3 server: 185.122.167.199
• NY2 iperf3 server: 185.184.68.65
• Singapore iperf3 server: 51.79.199.42
• Frankfurt iperf3 server: 185.85.241.58

How to install iperf3 on your server?

For CentOS / Redhat: 

yum install iperf3

For Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get install iperf3

For Windows:

• Go to https://iperf.fr/iperf-download.php
• Choose and download the latest version for either 64-bit or 32-bit OS
• Unzip the archived file
• Move into the Iperf3 extracted folder ( example when iperf3 is extracted on Desktop of user bob : Open CMD > cd C:\Users\bob\Desktop\iperf\ )

If you would like any additional help with the setup or your require assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by opening a support ticket

4) By booting from an iperf testing ISO (advanced)

In order to make sure that there is nothing interfering from the Operating System of your server with the network bandwidth, you can boot your server using the Iperf ISO.

With this method, your server won't boot the Operating System you currently have in your disk but will boot the testing Operating System from the ISO. Once you finish the tests you can boot back from the disk. No files on the disk are lost during testing.

Note, that the server will need to be rebooted multiple times.

To run the tests from the testing ISO, please follow the next steps.

1. Login to our secure customer portal (https://portal.massivegrid.com/clientarea.php)
2. Choose the server you want to test the bandwidth of.
3. On the server Information tab, there is a filed under Details that says CD/DVD Disc Image File, press the pencil icon and for Image File choose Tool-iPerf ISO.
4. Press Save changes.
5. Choose noVNC to open up a console window and leave it open.
6. Press reboot, to reboot the server.
7. Upon reboot of the server, you will be presented with the logo of MassiveGRID. Once you see the logo press ESC (escape button) to see the boot options. An alternate solution (for this step only ) is to change the boot order from Disk,CD-ROM, Network to CD-ROM, Disk, Network but we do not recommend this ( remember to put it back to Disk,CD-ROM, Network if you chose to go with this solution).
8. Once you have booted from the iperf3 ISO you can issue the next command to check the bandwidth of your server

iperf3 -P 10 -c $server_ip

For server IP you should choose the IP address of the iperf3 server currently residing in your infrastructure ( for example a user in New York should choose NY2 iperf3 server IP address).

You can find the IP addresses of the IPerf3 servers bellow:

• UK2 iperf3 server: 185.122.167.199
• NY2 iperf3 server: 185.184.68.65
• Singapore iperf3 server: 51.79.199.42
• Frankfurt iperf3 server: 185.85.241.58

Once you have finalized your tests, you can reboot the server and boot from Disk, to boot up with the operating system of your choosing.

If you would like any additional help with the setup or your require assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us by opening a support ticket