Welcome to OpenLC Central

Warning! (as of 04/04/2003)

This project is temporarily parked, and I don't know if I'll work again on it or not. It served to me as an introduction to the Python language, as well as managing XML and large amounts of data in Python. But now, I've changed my focus to PyTables, a Python package designed to deal with extremely large amounts of data. Originally, PyTables was created only as a tool to help process the massive streams of data that OpenLC provides, but now, PyTables has its own entity, and I devote most of my time to it.

However, I'll let this page here just if anybody is intrigued about it and/or wants to get some ideas/code from it.

What is?

OpenLC stands for Open Load Commander, and its aim is to facilitate the making of benchmarks for the different Open Source IT servers by providing a set of tools for processing, comparing and offering a detailed results sheet. You can download OpenLC and use it for free (it's GPL'ed).

You may want to have a look at a preliminary example data plot.

It's definitively worth to have a look at the documentation (PDF , PS).

Why OpenLC?

OpenLC has born because, when dealing with commercial servers, you can nearly always access to detailed benchmarks made by specialized companies or dedicated technical writers. However, in the Open Source arena, there is much to be done in this respect. Of course, to measure the potential of Open Source servers, an Open Source tool is advisable!.

Go for a more-in-depth discussion here

Yet another benchmarking tool? Oh my god!

Although there are certainly a great deal of Open Source benchmarking tools, most of them have a focus on a specific protocol. In contrast, OpenLC is a multiprotocol benchmarking and stress tool, with the next highlights:

• It has a Client/Server architecture: In the server there are modules to generate load on exterior Internet servers, to manage the resulting data, keeping it classified in a run database, to process different client scenarios and to generate reports about was going on. The client is commited to define the run scenario, and to control the different aspects of a run (start, stop, pause, ...), and is, indeed, responsible to present the results to the user.
• XML Centric: From its conception, XML has always had a main role on OpenLC. From using XML for defining scenarios, to generating reports in this format, or by adopting the XML-RPC protocol, the XML is used whenever the server has to communicate with the exterior world.
• It's Multiprotocol by design: It will accept HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, LDAP or whatever you may desire, because it is ...
• Modular and Extensible: Its modular and Object Oriented conception facilitates the addition of new features, like dealing with new protocols or services, the support of new data reduction algorithms, and so on. It's written in Python, so you can write new functional modules very fast.
• It provides an XML-RPC API. The server exposes an API using the XML-RPC protocol, so anybody can write commanders (i.e. clients to control the benchmark process) in any language that support XML-RPC (Perl, Python, Java, Frontier, C/C++, Lisp, PHP, Microsoft .NET, Rebol, Real Basic, Tcl, Delphi, WebObjects and Zope, and more are coming all the time).

Some UML diagrams?

You can see the OpenLC UML class diagram here . And also its internal state diagram.

Getting involved

If you feel that the Open world needs such a powerful and flexible benchmarking tool and you are a convinced developer, get in touch with me . Or if you want to make just a suggestion, please, drop a message to the user's or developer's OpenLC distribution lists.

OpenLC project hosting details

Here you can find more detailed information about the OpenLC project.

As an Open Source project, you can get the latest and coolest sources at the OpenLC CVS repository.

Thanks to the people who have helped to make and distribute this package!:

Have fun!

Francesc Alted, Castelló de la Plana, Spain.
Who am I?

falted AT openlc.org
Public PGP key available here
PGP key fingerprint = E7C4 5203 88FE BEE9 A6A8 9D1F E2A5 DC28 B639 E995

Last update: $Date: 2003/04/04 13:11:00 $

Best viewed with any browser:

You are the visitor: