Use Sysbench to test the performance of a PostgreSQL instance - ApsaraDB RDS

Run a Sysbench stress test against an ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance to measure Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) performance. The test uses the OLTP combined read-write workload and consists of three phases: load test data, run the stress test, then clean up.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have:

An ApsaraDB RDS for PostgreSQL instance with a database named sbtest
Sysbench installed on your client machine
The instance endpoint, port, username, and password

Run the stress test

Each phase uses --time=180, so each phase runs for 180 seconds.

Step 1: Load test data

Load the test dataset using 20 concurrent threads.

sysbench ./tests/include/oltp_legacy/oltp.lua \
  --db-driver=pgsql \
  --pgsql-db=sbtest \
  --pgsql-user=<username> \
  --pgsql-password=<password> \
  --pgsql-port=5432 \
  --pgsql-host=<host> \
  --oltp-tables-count=64 \
  --oltp-table-size=10000000 \
  --time=180 \
  --max-requests=0 \
  --threads=20 \
  --report-interval=5 \
  --forced-shutdown=1 \
  prepare

Step 2: Run the stress test

Run the OLTP combined read-write workload using 64 concurrent threads.

sysbench ./tests/include/oltp_legacy/oltp.lua \
  --db-driver=pgsql \
  --pgsql-db=sbtest \
  --pgsql-user=<username> \
  --pgsql-password=<password> \
  --pgsql-port=5432 \
  --pgsql-host=<host> \
  --oltp-tables-count=64 \
  --oltp-table-size=10000000 \
  --time=180 \
  --max-requests=0 \
  --threads=64 \
  --report-interval=5 \
  --forced-shutdown=1 \
  run

Step 3: Clean up test data

Remove the test dataset using 200 concurrent threads.

sysbench ./tests/include/oltp_legacy/oltp.lua \
  --db-driver=pgsql \
  --pgsql-db=sbtest \
  --pgsql-user=<username> \
  --pgsql-password=<password> \
  --pgsql-port=5432 \
  --pgsql-host=<host> \
  --oltp-tables-count=64 \
  --oltp-table-size=10000000 \
  --time=180 \
  --max-requests=0 \
  --threads=200 \
  --report-interval=5 \
  --forced-shutdown=1 \
  cleanup

Sysbench parameter reference

Replace the placeholders in the commands with your instance values before running.

Parameter	Description	Value
`--pgsql-host`	Internal endpoint of the RDS instance	`<host>`
`--pgsql-port`	Port of the RDS instance	`5432`
`--pgsql-user`	Database username	`<username>`
`--pgsql-password`	Password for the database user	`<password>`
`--pgsql-db`	Target database name	`sbtest`
`--oltp-tables-count`	Number of test tables	`64`
`--oltp-table-size`	Number of rows per table	`10000000`
`--threads`	Number of concurrent threads (varies by phase)	`20` (prepare) / `64` (run) / `200` (cleanup)
`--time`	Duration of each phase in seconds	`180`
`--max-requests`	Maximum number of requests; `0` means unlimited	`0`
`--report-interval`	Progress report interval in seconds	`5`
`--forced-shutdown`	Force shutdown after `--time` expires; `1` means enabled	`1`