System Installation

Binary Repositories

Precompiled packages are available for major Linux distributions via the official repository script.

# Debian/Ubuntu ecosystems
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/akopytov/sysbench/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install sysbench -y

# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora ecosystems
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/akopytov/sysbench/script.rpm.sh | sudo bash
sudo dnf install sysbench -y

Source Compilation

Building from source provides flexibility for custom environments or specific version requirements.

# Resolve build dependencies
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools" -y
sudo yum install mysql-devel git autoconf automake libtool -y

# Fetch and configure
git clone --branch 1.0.22 https://github.com/akopytov/sysbench.git
cd sysbench
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/sysbench --mandir=/usr/share/man
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Operational Parameters

Sysbench v1.0+ utilizes a subcommand structure: sysbench <test> <command> [options].

Core Configuration Flags

• Concurrency & Timing: --threads=N, --time=60, --max-requests=0 (unlimited)
• Reporting Metrics: --report-interval=5, --percentile=99, --histogram=on
• Randomization Engine: --rand-type={uniform,gaussian,zipfian}
• Database Connectivity: --db-driver=mysql, --mysql-host=addr, --mysql-user=bench_admin, --mysql-password=secret

Workload Execution

Database OLTP Benchmark

The following sequence initializes an InnoDB tablespace, executes mixed read/write transactions, and purges data.

# Connection and concurrency variables
DB_HOST="127.0.0.1"
DB_PORT="3306"
DB_USER="benchmark_admin"
DB_PASS="secure_password"
WORKER_COUNT=16

# Phase 1: Table initialization
sysbench oltp_read_write \
  --db-driver=mysql \
  --mysql-host="$DB_HOST" \
  --mysql-port="$DB_PORT" \
  --mysql-user="$DB_USER" \
  --mysql-password="$DB_PASS" \
  --tables=50 \
  --table-size=100000 \
  prepare

# Phase 2: Transaction execution
sysbench oltp_read_write \
  --db-driver=mysql \
  --mysql-host="$DB_HOST" \
  --mysql-port="$DB_PORT" \
  --mysql-user="$DB_USER" \
  --mysql-password="$DB_PASS" \
  --tables=50 \
  --table-size=100000 \
  --threads="$WORKER_COUNT" \
  --time=120 \
  --percentile=95 \
  run

# Phase 3: Artifact removal
sysbench oltp_read_write \
  --db-driver=mysql \
  --mysql-host="$DB_HOST" \
  --mysql-port="$DB_PORT" \
  --mysql-user="$DB_USER" \
  --mysql-password="$DB_PASS" \
  cleanup

CPU Subsystem

Evaluates integer arithmetic performance through prime number calculation.

sysbench cpu \
  --threads=8 \
  --cpu-max-prime=20000 \
  run

Memory Trhoughput

Measures sequential random access bandwidth across allocated memory blocks.

sysbench memory \
  --memory-block-size=16K \
  --memory-total-size=4G \
  --num-threads=4 \
  --memory-access-mode=seq \
  run

Storage I/O

Provisions temporary files on the target filesystem and measures read/write latency.

TARGET_DIR="/tmp/benchmark_io"
FILE_SIZE="10G"

mkdir -p "$TARGET_DIR" && cd "$TARGET_DIR"

# Provision storage artifacts
sysbench fileio \
  --file-num=16 \
  --file-total-size="$FILE_SIZE" \
  --file-block-size=16384 \
  prepare

# Execute random read pattern
sysbench fileio \
  --file-num=16 \
  --file-total-size="$FILE_SIZE" \
  --file-block-size=16384 \
  --file-test-mode=rndrd \
  run

# Remove generated files
sysbench fileio \
  --file-num=16 \
  --file-total-size="$FILE_SIZE" \
  cleanup