Run Couchbase Server on Linode: Part 3

In the final post of this series I run Couchbase Server through a simple test, a pillow fight.  This will be short, only showing you how to setup a test bucket, create a test user and then run cbc-pillowfight. Since it's a single node cluster and that node only has two CPUs, the test isn't evaluating performance. It will simply verify the installation.

So we finish with step 6 of these steps

1. Create a Linode
2. Deploy an Image
3. Boot and Connect to the Linode
4. Configure the Operating System
5. Install Couchbase Server
6. Verify the Installation

Part 1 covered how to prepare your Linode for Couchbase, steps 1-4. Part 2 described the installation process, step 5.  On to the verification.

Verify the Installation

Here are a few ways to test your cluster:

• Pillow fight
• Workload generator
• Custom test application

The first two options are command line utilities from Couchbase. The third, a custom application, is needed if the testing must closely reflect your business requirements. 

We'll use the pillow fight utility to quickly demonstrate connectivity.

Create a Test Bucket

The first thing you'll need is a bucket. Navigate to the Buckets tab and click on Add Bucket and name your bucket pfbucket and allocate 256MB to it.

Create a Test User

Click on the Security link and then click on Add a User. Create the user pftester and grant data read and write access to the new bucket.

Install Pillow Fight

Pillow fight comes with the libcouchbase package.  Installation instructions are here.

Run Pillow Fight

From the command line, run pillow fight:

> cbc-pillowfight -U couchbase://12.34.56.789/pfbucket \\
    --num-items=1000 --batch-size=20 --set-pct=50      \\
    --max-size=400 --num-cycles=1000 --timings         \\
    --username pftester --password password

This command

• operates on 1000 items or documents, 
• batches 20 operations at a time  
• mutates items in 50% of the operations
• uses a max payload size of 400 bytes
• runs through 1000 cycles before exiting and
• displays timings.

Here is the first part of the output:

Confirm Bucket Activity

Confirm that the Bucket Operations Per Second chart reflects the work done. View the chart on the Dashboard page.

And that concludes this series. We saw how to provision a Linux node or Linode running Ubuntu, install Couchbase Server using a Debian package and verify the cluster using the Pillow Fight utility.