Windows Azure Storage (Blob, Table, and Queue) Throughput Analyzer Tool by Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research team created a very nice tool called “Azure Throughput Analyzer” to display upload and download throughput between your network and Azure datacenters when you are using Windows Azure Storage. You can use this tool if you are encountering performance problems with Azure storage.

You should run this tool depend on how you are accessing the Windows Azure Storage as:

1. If your Application on Windows Azure is accessing Windows Azure Storage then you will run this tool form Windows Azure VM

2. If you are accessing Windows Azure Storage from your office or some other place then you should run this tool from the same location

More info about the tool:

The Microsoft Research eXtreme Computing Group cloud-research engagement team supports researchers in the field who use Windows Azure to conduct their research. As part of this effort, we have built a desktop utility that measures the upload and download throughput achievable from your on-premise client machine to Azure cloud storage (blobs, tables and queue). The download contains the desktop utility and an accompanying user guide. You simply install this tool on your on-premise machine, select a data center for the evaluation, and enter the account details of any storage service created within it. The utility will perform a series of data-upload and -download tests using sample data and collect measurements of throughput, which are displayed at the end of the test, along with other statistics.

You can download the tool from the link below and give a try:

https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/5c8189b9-53aa-4d6a-a086-013d927e15a7/default.aspx

You can run this test with all 3 types of Windows Azure Storage:

  • Windows Azure Blob Storage
  • Windows Azure Queue Storage
  • Windows Azure Table Storage

You can run test in following category:

  • Large Page
  • Large Block
  • Medium Page
  • Medium Block
  • Small Page
  • Small Block
  • Custom Test

I decided to give a quick try using the following setup:

Test Type: Large Page

BlobSizeinBytes: 104857600

BlobType: Page

ContainerPrefix largetestcontainer

DataMeasurementUnit: Megabytes

MaxRetries 5

NumberOfBlogs 1

NumberOfThreads: 1

UniSizeInBytes: 4194304

The tools took about to 12 minutes finish the test and the result was as below:

Download Throughput Results:

Download - Average Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 3613.166664

Download - End Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:22:13.3440

Download - First Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 3806.2177

Download - Max Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 4994.2857

Download - Min Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 2849.1629

Download - Start Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:20:42.6898

Download - Throughput (Megabytes/sec) 1.10309303304299

Download - Total Data Transferred In Bytes: 104857600

Download - Total Items Transferred: 1

Download - Total Retries: 0

Upload Throughput Results:

Upload - Average Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 15534.728536

Upload - End Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:20:41.6618

Upload - First Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 13895.7948

Upload - Max Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 16562.9474

Upload - Min Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 13263.7586

Upload - Start Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:14:12.9405

Upload - Throughput (Megabytes/sec) 0.257253762738625

Upload - Total Data Transferred In Bytes: 104857600

Upload - Total Items Transferred: 1

Upload - Total Retries: 0

Microsoft Research team created
a very nice tool called “Azure Throughput Analyzer” to display upload and
download throughput between your network and Azure datacenters when you are
using Windows Azure Storage. You can use this tool if you are encountering performance
problems with Azure storage. 

 

You should run this tool depend on
how you are accessing the Windows Azure Storage as:

1.
If your Application on Windows Azure is accessing
Windows Azure Storage then you will run this tool form Windows Azure VM

2.
If you are accessing Windows Azure Storage from your office
or some other place then you should run this tool from the same location

 

More info about the tool:

The Microsoft Research eXtreme
Computing Group cloud-research engagement team supports researchers in the
field who use Windows Azure to conduct their research. As part of this effort,
we have built a desktop utility that measures the upload and download
throughput achievable from your on-premise client machine to Azure cloud
storage (blobs, tables and queue). The download contains the desktop utility
and an accompanying user guide. You simply install this tool on your on-premise
machine, select a data center for the evaluation, and enter the account details
of any storage service created within it. The utility will perform a series of
data-upload and -download tests using sample data and collect measurements of
throughput, which are displayed at the end of the test, along with other
statistics.

You can download the tool from
the link below and give a try:

https://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/5c8189b9-53aa-4d6a-a086-013d927e15a7/default.aspx

 

You can run this test with all 3
types of Windows Azure Storage:

  • Windows Azure Blob Storage
  • Windows Azure Queue Storage
  • Windows Azure Table Storage

 

You can run test in following
category:

  • Large Page
  • Large Block
  • Medium Page
  • Medium Block
  • Small Page
  • Small Block
  • Custom Test

            

I decided to give a quick try
using the following setup:

 

Test
Type: Large Page

 

BlobSizeinBytes: 104857600

BlobType: Page

ContainerPrefix largetestcontainer

DataMeasurementUnit: Megabytes

MaxRetries 5

NumberOfBlogs 1

NumberOfThreads: 1

UniSizeInBytes: 4194304

 

 

The tools took about to 12 minutes finish the test and
the result was as below:

 

Download
Throughput Results:

 

Download - Average Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 3613.166664

Download - End Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:22:13.3440

Download - First Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 3806.2177

Download - Max Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 4994.2857

Download - Min Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 2849.1629

Download - Start Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:20:42.6898

Download - Throughput (Megabytes/sec) 1.10309303304299

Download - Total Data Transferred In Bytes: 104857600

Download - Total Items Transferred: 1

Download - Total Retries: 0

 

Upload
Throughput Results:

 

Upload - Average Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 15534.728536

Upload - End Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:20:41.6618

Upload - First Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 13895.7948

Upload - Max Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 16562.9474

Upload - Min Work Item Duration In Milliseconds: 13263.7586

Upload - Start Time (UTC): 02/03/2011 02:14:12.9405

Upload - Throughput (Megabytes/sec) 0.257253762738625

Upload - Total Data Transferred In Bytes: 104857600

Upload - Total Items Transferred: 1

Upload - Total Retries: 0