comparing ruby 1.9 performance on ec2

benchmarked using ruby's benchmarking suite. all machine are brand new fedora 8 basic instances, not running any additional services. all tests done on ruby 1.9.1p376 (2009-12-07 revision 26041) [i686-linux] compiled from source with --enable-shared flag. benchmarks performed twice on 2 separate instances.

results speak for themselves, don't forget to compare ec2 pricing ;)

		small 32 bit			medium 32 bit			large 64 bit
	test	run 1	run 2	avg	run 1	run 2	avg	run 1	run 2	avg
	app_answer	0.251	0.263	0.257	0.113	0.118	0.1155	0.087	0.111	0.099
	app_erb	2.926	2.911	2.9185	1.2	1.24	1.22	1.178	1.184	1.181
	app_factorial	1.425	1.435	1.43	0.573	0.574	0.5735	0.445	0.459	0.452
	app_fib	2.935	3.071	3.003	1.248	1.291	1.2695	1.137	1.158	1.1475
	app_mandelbrot	1.343	1.348	1.3455	0.566	0.569	0.5675	0.545	0.561	0.553
	app_pentomino	99.62	99.227	99.4235	41.587	41.832	41.7095	38.587	38.976	38.7815
	app_raise	3.155	3.087	3.121	1.309	1.326	1.3175	1.488	1.521	1.5045
	app_strconcat	2.714	2.754	2.734	1.173	1.189	1.181	1.001	1.07	1.0355
	app_tak	4.161	4.174	4.1675	1.743	1.756	1.7495	1.52	1.57	1.545
	app_tarai	3.194	3.164	3.179	1.364	1.392	1.378	1.23	1.281	1.2555
	app_uri	5.652	5.657	5.6545	2.372	2.381	2.3765	2.456	2.412	2.434
	io_file_create	1.345	1.351	1.348	0.579	0.569	0.574	0.872	0.891	0.8815
	io_file_read	1.379	1.372	1.3755	0.652	0.678	0.665	0.757	0.737	0.747
	io_file_write	1.086	1.124	1.105	0.503	0.514	0.5085	0.394	0.413	0.4035
	loop_for	8.137	8.393	8.265	3.485	3.685	3.585	2.924	2.924	2.924
	loop_generator	2.993	3.061	3.027	1.301	1.305	1.303	1.274	1.278	1.276
	loop_times	7.592	6.963	7.2775	3.423	2.857	3.14	2.614	2.657	2.6355
	loop_whileloop	3.335	3.449	3.392	1.463	1.476	1.4695	1.067	1.059	1.063
	loop_whileloop2	0.7	0.725	0.7125	0.33	0.327	0.3285	0.23	0.227	0.2285
	so_ackermann	3.488	3.431	3.4595	1.459	1.479	1.469	1.321	1.336	1.3285
	so_array	8.03	8.002	8.016	3.445	3.477	3.461	3.015	3.077	3.046
	so_binary_trees	2.21	2.157	2.1835	0.892	0.905	0.8985	0.853	0.864	0.8585
	so_concatenate	2.426	2.334	2.38	1.004	1.026	1.015	0.862	0.86	0.861
	so_count_words	1.534	1.583	1.5585	0.682	0.698	0.69	0.631	0.628	0.6295
	so_exception	6.177	5.951	6.064	2.483	2.473	2.478	2.754	2.712	2.733
	so_fannkuch	122.375	122.345	122.36	51.535	51.816	51.6755	54.612	55.241	54.9265
	so_fasta	16.102	15.909	16.0055	6.739	6.653	6.696	6.712	6.567	6.6395
	so_k_nucleotide	9.231	9.204	9.2175	4.021	3.972	3.9965	3.861	3.895	3.878
	so_lists	1.851	1.996	1.9235	0.855	0.845	0.85	0.782	0.778	0.78
	so_mandelbrot	49.539	49.33	49.4345	20.966	21.093	21.0295	19.441	19.679	19.56
	so_matrix	2.18	2.234	2.207	0.945	0.978	0.9615	0.819	0.858	0.8385
	so_meteor_contest	31.53	31.425	31.4775	13.338	13.479	13.4085	12.317	12.254	12.2855
	so_nbody	43.097	42.141	42.619	18.029	18.12	18.0745	18.64	18.931	18.7855
	so_nested_loop	6.564	6.656	6.61	2.668	2.796	2.732	2.219	2.275	2.247
	so_nsieve	15.524	15.361	15.4425	6.54	6.718	6.629	6.526	6.544	6.535
	so_nsieve_bits	20.059	20.106	20.0825	8.496	8.534	8.515	6.785	7.031	6.908
	so_object	4.818	4.795	4.8065	2.066	2.068	2.067	1.844	1.825	1.8345
	so_partial_sums	56.984	57.449	57.2165	24.446	24.164	24.305	24.598	24.707	24.6525
	so_pidigits	9.494	9.554	9.524	3.944	3.925	3.9345	2.865	2.846	2.8555
	so_random	2.318	2.349	2.3335	0.992	1.016	1.004	0.915	0.941	0.928
	so_reverse_complement	26.634	31.414	29.024	11.043	11.656	11.3495	12.476	12.484	12.48
	so_sieve	0.428	0.452	0.44	0.21	0.227	0.2185	0.135	0.169	0.152
	so_spectralnorm	22.134	22.296	22.215	9.6	9.451	9.5255	8.536	8.462	8.499
	vm1_block*	7.212	7.208	7.21	3.409	3.134	3.2715	2.769	2.819	2.794
	vm1_const*	2.143	1.988	2.0655	1.296	0.872	1.084	0.661	0.672	0.6665
	vm1_ensure*	0.385	0.368	0.3765	0.15	0.168	0.159	0.143	0.153	0.148
	vm1_ivar*	7.196	7.12	7.158	2.989	3.004	2.9965	2.735	2.741	2.738
	vm1_ivar_set*	7.063	6.819	6.941	2.803	2.974	2.8885	2.492	2.502	2.497
	vm1_length*	3.93	3.694	3.812	1.638	1.678	1.658	1.124	1.159	1.1415
	vm1_neq*	2.814	2.818	2.816	1.221	1.236	1.2285	0.887	0.888	0.8875
	vm1_not*	1.531	1.526	1.5285	0.651	0.702	0.6765	0.519	0.547	0.533
	vm1_rescue*	0.324	0.208	0.266	0.133	0.153	0.143	0.112	0.144	0.128
	vm1_simplereturn*	4.372	5.532	4.952	1.929	2.352	2.1405	1.731	1.661	1.696
	vm1_swap*	1.714	1.631	1.6725	0.73	0.724	0.727	0.484	0.522	0.503
	vm2_array*	2.747	2.719	2.733	1.164	1.142	1.153	1.034	1.04	1.037
	vm2_case*	0.591	0.6	0.5955	0.254	0.259	0.2565	0.256	0.275	0.2655
	vm2_eval*	102.12	104.003	103.0615	42.756	42.905	42.8305	42.582	43.292	42.937
	vm2_method*	6.839	7.739	7.289	2.926	2.914	2.92	2.515	2.531	2.523
	vm2_mutex*	6.675	6.75	6.7125	2.827	2.857	2.842	2.435	2.381	2.408
	vm2_poly_method*	10.517	10.217	10.367	4.385	4.578	4.4815	3.747	3.577	3.662
	vm2_poly_method_ov*	0.905	0.821	0.863	0.357	0.408	0.3825	0.385	0.412	0.3985
	vm2_proc*	2.923	2.917	2.92	1.31	1.219	1.2645	1.118	1.115	1.1165
	vm2_regexp*	7.88	7.773	7.8265	3.438	3.377	3.4075	2.713	2.722	2.7175
	vm2_send*	1.066	1.085	1.0755	0.463	0.463	0.463	0.427	0.428	0.4275
	vm2_super*	1.866	1.87	1.868	0.788	0.869	0.8285	0.696	0.735	0.7155
	vm2_unif1*	0.845	0.884	0.8645	0.41	0.415	0.4125	0.343	0.368	0.3555
	vm2_zsuper*	1.937	2.042	1.9895	0.821	0.849	0.835	0.742	0.777	0.7595
	vm3_gc	5.348	5.301	5.3245	2.234	2.251	2.2425	2.357	2.366	2.3615
	vm3_thread_create_join	5.113	5.263	5.188	2.353	2.289	2.321	3.317	3.288	3.3025
	vm3_thread_mutex	1.818	1.862	1.84	32.556	35.779	34.1675	4.661	6.225	5.443

rails on ruby 1.9.1 on ec2

amazon ec2 currently offers fedora servers preinstalled with ruby 1.8.6 which is used by its ami tools. while this is a good basic configuration, one may want to upgrade to ruby 1.9.1 which offers many improvements, performance being the key one.

upgrading to ruby 1.9.1 on an ec2 fedora server, and running a rails application on top of it is a multi step process but a straight forward one. below are the steps I took to get my amazon ec2 hosted production environment migrated to ruby 1.9.1

step I: launch your ec2 instance
this post assumes you know how to launch an ec2 instance, in my case i used ec2's 64bit basic fedora ami, i found the 32bit unusable due to stability issues i experienced with the original kernel. more details on this are logged here

step II: install ruby 1.9.1
first we want to get the dependancies out of the way, in my case i needed to install several libraries that will be later used by my rails app, you may have a smaller or larger dependencies list depending on the gems you need to run.

yum update
yum install httpd httpd-devel mysql mysql-devel libxml2 libxml2-devel gcc-c++

now lets install ruby 1.9.1, I choose to install in in my /opt directory, but you may choose elsewhere. we will be suffixing ruby with the "19" suffix so that we can run ruby 1.9.1 side by side with the existing ec2's ruby 1.8.6

cd /opt
wget ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.1-p376.tar.gz
tar xvfz ruby-1.9.1-p376.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.9.1-p376
./configure --enable-shared --program-suffix=191
make
make install

now that we have ruby 1.9 compiled and installed, it's time to do some renaming and symbolic linking so that the system uses ruby 1.9.1 by default while overcoming ec2's hard-wired ruby 1.8.6 installation

mv /usr/bin/ruby /usr/bin/ruby186
mv /usr/bin/irb /usr/bin/irb186
mv /usr/bin/erb /usr/bin/erb186
mv /usr/bin/testrb /usr/bin/testrb186
mv /usr/bin/gem /usr/bin/gem186
mv /usr/bin/rake /usr/bin/rake186
mv /usr/bin/ri /usr/bin/ri186
mv /usr/bin/rdoc /usr/bin/rdoc186

ln -s /usr/local/bin/ruby191 /usr/bin/ruby
ln -s /usr/local/bin/rake191 /usr/bin/rake  
ln -s /usr/local/bin/gem191 /usr/bin/gem  
ln -s /usr/local/bin/irb191 /usr/bin/irb  
ln -s /usr/local/bin/erb191 /usr/bin/erb  
ln -s /usr/local/bin/ri191 /usr/bin/ri  
ln -s /usr/local/bin/rdoc191 /usr/bin/rdoc  
ln -s /usr/local/bin/testrb191 /usr/bin/testrb  

To confirm you are running the correct ruby version, run
>> ruby -v
you should see (assuming you download same revision as i did)
ruby 1.9.1p376 (2009-12-07 revision 26041) [i686-linux]

step III: installing rails
this step can prove to be more involved than others, depending on the gems you need to run. I have a detailed post on this here. the original post was written for OSX, but with the minor differences in ruby's location is perfectly correct any *nix.

step IV: bundling your custom AMI
now that we are done setting up the server, the next natural step is to bundle it as a custom ami so we can reuse it.

an issue we run into is that ec2's ruby based ami tools are not ruby 1.9 compatible, more specifically the ec2_upload_bundle tool which we need to use in order to bundle. luckily, we installed ruby 1.9.1 side by side to the original 1.8.6, so we have an easy way out: simply use ruby 1.8.6 to run the tools. to do so, change ec2 wrapper scripts in /usr/local to use ruby18 instead of ruby. for example change /usr/local/bin/ec2-bundle-vol from

#!/bin/bash
ruby /usr/lib/site_ruby/ec2/amitools/bundlevol.rb $*

to

#!/bin/bash
ruby186 /usr/lib/site_ruby/ec2/amitools/bundlevol.rb $*

apply the same principle to the rest of the ec2 wrapper scripts in /usr/local