Node.js response time >= 200ms?

Question

I am working on a Node.js workload test and I have just encountered an interesting behavior. The minimum response time of an HTTP server is 200 ms, even for simplest logic:

var http = require("http");

http.createServer(function(request, response) { 

  response.write("Hello World");
  response.end();

}).listen(8080);

Ran on Windows Server 2003:

> node main.js

I searched the web, but have not found any information about this. The test is done on local network, furthermore with the use of other webserver (namely IIS) I can achieve instant response time. Don't get me wrong, I see rational explanation behind this behavior, so this is my question:

Is this the default behavior coming with node.js, or could it be the result of something else?

Clarification on demand:

Node js version: 0.6.11
OS: Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
Server environment: VMWare Workstation 8.0.0
Workload utility: jMeter 2.6 (1 thread workload)

Update

The delay behavior only appear during remote requests. If a local workload test is executed, the latency will be close to zero. However, it cannot be a network latency issue, because a remote request against IIS on the same server does not give latency. I am going to try this out on other OSes.

no, it's not what I'd expect. How do you measure request time? What results `ab` gives you? Which version of node you are using? — Andrey Sidorov, Feb 20 '12 at 01:51

Yosef Dinerstein · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-16T18:00:29.883

3

It is Nagle algorithm set by default on Windows (reproducible also on Windows 2008 R2 on Azure).

Workaround - disable it on response socket, like this:

response.connection.setNoDelay(true);

edited Apr 16 '12 at 18:00

answered Apr 16 '12 at 17:41

Yosef Dinerstein

86
4

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 20 '12 at 03:15

2

Getting 5ms latency, 3ms download for a total of 8ms here. It varies but the highest I've seen is about 14ms total.

Ran on OS X 10.7.3 though. I will have to try on Windows and see.

answered Feb 20 '12 at 03:15

Rodger

21
1

I tried on Windows Server 2008 R2 too, the additional latency did not occur, so it seems this is a platform specific problem. – tamasf Feb 21 '12 at 00:22

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 20 '12 at 02:37

1

I'm running Ubuntu 64bit and node version 0.6.10 and at most I get a 20ms delay. I believe it is a windows problem, since Node is still not perfect on windows, have to wait for some more stability. I suggest you to post your problems to the mailing list.

answered Feb 20 '12 at 02:37

Farid Nouri Neshat

29,438
6
74
115

2

It could be anything, node is pretty stable on windows, more likely to be an issue with his network/hardware – Raynos Feb 20 '12 at 03:17

Node.js response time >= 200ms?

3 Answers3