Simulating a heavy load

Trying to benchmark PERL and MySQL on an unvisited site

[MatthewHSE]

I'm thinking of changing my main site to a different host, but before I do, I want to run some comparison tests on the performance of the two servers. I need to run the same PERL/MySQL scripts on both, and see which host's server gives the best performance.

I've already got an account with the new host, and it's no problem to get the same scripts running on it to do the comparison. But obviously, the load will be quite a bit heavier on the old host since the site is live there and handling visitors. So, I need to simulate that kind of load on the new server, before I can run any tests.

So the question is, how can I simulate traffic on the new server so I can run the comparison tests accurately? Are there any tools for this sort of thing?

Also, given that my old host has me on all shared resources (MySQL, memory, CPU, everything), and the new host, while not fully dedicated, does guarantee dedicated memory and MySQL, will the test even be necessary? As in the new host will definitely provide better performance?

Thanks for any input,

Matthew

[PizdusInc]

May want to give a piece of software called <snip> a try... This is used for load balancing so it may work in your case as well.

It can be found on the company web site, <snip>

[edited by: trillianjedi at 11:49 pm (utc) on Mar. 12, 2005]
[edit reason] Please see TOS - thanks [/edit]