Another thing to consider is that the Eclipse platform build will using the CBI at some point in the (near?) future. Is it worth the effort to reconfigure all the performance related tests using PDE/Build if these are going to be done using CBI?
Originally the plan was to have CBI in place for the Juno SR2 builds. If this is still the plan, and performance tests are part of the CBI infrastructure, then maybe we can hold off a few more months. Of course, if performance tests are not part of CBI, then we certainly should push forward with setting up PDE/Build performance tests on the foundation hardware.
2) Working through the issues
caused by running the performance tests on shared devices.
[snip]
In a world with potentially
other tasks running on the same machines, wildly variable
network traffic, etc. I don't think our current performance
testing story will work.
Before we discount performance tests on shared hardware, it might be
worth a try.
In https://bugs.eclipse.org/33359 I set up a virtual server with one
dedicated CPU core and a few gigabytes of dedicated RAM as a
proof-of-concept. The same host server also supports other virtual
servers used by hudson.eclipse.org as Hudson slaves.
When I timed a 3.5 second operation executed repeatedly over the
course of a normal 24-hour period (24,000 times), the results were
remarkable consistent (to a few hundredths of a second). The actual
methodology and results are described in comment
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=333594#c20.
If need be, we can dedicate a physical disk to the virtual server if
startup times or disk I/O need to be benchmarked, and we can
dedicate additional CPU cores and RAM if the current setup is
insufficient.
Physical hardware dedicated to a single task is costly in terms of
maintenance, rack space, power and cooling.
Denis
If that's true, it means it
will be a *lot* of work to get them running again. Btw, if
anyone has good insights on this and/or wants to help us get
the tests running again, we'd love to get your help.
McQ.
"Andrey Loskutov"
---2012/09/05 16:16:17---Hi, Listening to all this 4.2
performance discussions here and for example at
Listening to all this 4.2 performance discussions here and for
example at
[1] I would like to ask if the is a plan to re-enable
performance
regression tests for Eclipse (3.8.x / 4.2.x) platform as we
had in the
past before they were disabled in Juno (see [2]).
If there is no such plan yet, shouldn't we have one?
> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 09:21:10 -0400
> From: John Arthorne <John_Arthorne@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: Cross project issues
<cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Performance, 3.8
versus 4.2
> Message-ID:
>
<OF6B7596FB.B62EF228-ON85257A70.0048E946-85257A70.0049582F@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I suggest anyone having problems to add constructive
details on that bug.
> For example profiler output when repeatedly performing a
slow operation,
> what plugins are installed, whether it is reproducible
with vanilla
> Eclipse SDK, etc. There are some users reporting
pervasive slowdowns, and
> for many others it is performing well. Something like a
listener leak
> could have effects like this in conjunction with
particular installed
> plugins. It takes time after any major release to isolate
and resolve
> problems like this.
>
> John
>
> On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Thomas Hallgren
<thomas@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> For various reasons I had to switch my development
environment from 4.2
> to
> 3.8 today. I was stunned by the performance improvement
after the switch.
> The 3.8 platform is much MUCH faster. It boots faster, it
closes windows
> faster, it shows menus faster, etc. It also seems to
consume less memory
> and be less buggy. The way things stand right now,
there's just no way
> I'll switch back to 4.2!
>
> I must say I was very surprised by this. Why is the 4.2
platform what's
> being fronted on the Eclipse download page when it's user
experience and
> quality is lagging behind this much? Is it just me who
have had this
> experience?
>
> Regards,
> Thomas Hallgren
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 06:29:22 -0700
> From: "Konstantin Komissarchik"
<konstantin.komissarchik@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "'Cross project issues'"
<cross-project-issues-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] Performance, 3.8
versus 4.2
> Message-ID:
<001201cd8b6a$76b74950$6425dbf0$@komissarchik@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Thomas,
>
>
> You are certainly not the only one seeing performance
issues with 4.2. I
> go back and forth between 4.2 and 3.8 every day depending
on the project
> I need to work on and the difference is quiet noticeable
even on very
> fast hardware. The part I notice the most is the lengthy
close all
> editors process. After drilling down into some task and
opening a few
> dozen editors, clearing workbench of open editors takes
several seconds.
> I can literally watch tabs disappear one by one. The same
operation is
> practically instantaneous on 3.8.
>
>
> For stability, user experience and performance reasons,
you will find
> that many third party distros have stayed on 3.8 for
Juno.
>
>
> I don?t begrudge 4.x its growing pains. It is a complex
technological
> shift with a lot of promise. What I find most troubling
is the decision
> process that led to the use of 4.2 for Juno distros. When
the decision
> was made, it was plainly evident that 4.2 wasn?t going to
match 3.8 on
> any of the quality metrics. IDE users might have been ok
with quality
> drop if 4.2 delivered compelling new functionality that
you couldn?t get
> in 3.8, yet there is no tangible functional delta. The
value of 4.x
> platform is for RCP developers and to certain limited
extent for IDE
> plugin developers. Certainly not for IDE users. The
refreshed
> look-n-feel has been touted as a big end user feature of
4.2, but the
> new look-n-feel itself has numerous issues that leave it
looking like an
> unfinished project.
>
>
> Sadly, the user reaction that we?ve been seeing over the
last several
> months has been entirely predictable.
>
>
> - Konstantin
--
Kind regards,
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Andrey Loskutov