Testing new web server behind cloudflare

[envo]

Hi guys, so recently moved my hosting, and since my 2 hosts overlap in time, figured I'd do some speed tests before cancelling the one I moved from.

However, my websites are behind cloudflare, so either way loads quite quick.

The setup on both servers are the same, but the location of the data centers is different (as well as the hardware)

Any tips on how to test both old and new servers? Just as a comparison?

 

[deweyzeph]

Hi guys, so recently moved my hosting, and since my 2 hosts overlap in time, figured I'd do some speed tests before cancelling the one I moved from.

However, my websites are behind cloudflare, so either way loads quite quick.

The setup on both servers are the same, but the location of the data centers is different (as well as the hardware)

Any tips on how to test both old and new servers? Just as a comparison?

What exactly do you want to test? There are a lot of different metrics to choose from.

 

[Idiosyncratic]

It is my understanding that this isn't exactly set in stone - as in, if there's a performance increase, you'll notice it, whether cloudflare is activated or not. Personally, I'd pause cloudflare, but this isn't to say that you won't be able to tell which website is on faster hosting while it's activated. When I recently migrated one of my clients' websites from Elitehost to Web Crew, I noticed a massive difference in speeds (Web Crew being around 280% faster) even though cloudflare was still active on both.

Edit: With cloudflare off the difference in performance was even more noticeable - so just pause cloudflare if you want to do accurate testing.

 

[Jade @ Absolute Hosting]

What exactly do you want to test? There are a lot of different metrics to choose from.

+1

Setting up temp url's to access the same application on both servers, and using cloudflare's bypass will give you direct access to each application without its caching technologies.

 

[envo]

Just some loadimpact and pingdom tests would be fine. Thanks for the direct access tip.

How quick is the update on IP if I change back to my old server?

 

[koffiejunkie]

What webserver are you running? If it's apache, you can set up your vhosts to listen on multiple ports, something like:

Listen *:80
Listen *:8080
<VirtualHost *:80 *:8080>

And then point your browser to http://mysite.xxx:8080

 

[envo]

Thanks. Cloudflare has "development mode" that will bypass their cache and go straight to your server. It's nice to see I'm indeed upgrading. Average response time for my previous host was around 600ms with quite a number of spikes above 1s loading my site. Another test on the new server showed a consistent 250ms with a few spikes to 380ms in response time. Putting cloudflare back on, my response time went from 250ms to 88ms

 

[Jade @ Absolute Hosting]

Hi Envo

Glad its sorted.

Where is the server located?

 

[envo]

Hi Envo

Glad its sorted.

Where is the server located?

My international hosting is now with OVH, whom I believe is in Canada for Northern America. It used to be with a privately owned company that had quite nice/fast features as well (step up from Shared hosting)

My south african based sites are currently on Elitehost's cloud SSD shared server, freaking fast compared to any other shared hosting I've been on (including hostgator)