ASP.NET Benchmarks

The ASP.NET benchmarks measure the throughput and latency of ASP.NET Kestrel web applications under sustained HTTP load. The workloads use a client-server architecture where the server runs an ASP.NET application and the client generates HTTP requests using Bombardier or Wrk.

Two server workloads are supported:

• TechEmpower JSON Serialization — Based on the ASP.NET Benchmarks project (derived from the TechEmpower framework), the server exposes a /json endpoint that serializes a simple JSON object. Supports Bombardier and Wrk as client load generators.
• OrchardCore CMS — Runs the OrchardCore content management system with a Blog recipe, benchmarked with Wrk against the /about endpoint.

Both server configurations support CPU core affinity via the BindToCores and CoreAffinity parameters, allowing the server process to be pinned to specific CPU cores for controlled performance measurement.

• ASP.NET Benchmarks GitHub
• OrchardCore GitHub
• TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks
• Bombardier Documentation
• Wrk/Wrk2 Documentation

Deployment Modes

The ASP.NET benchmark workloads support two deployment modes:

• Multi-VM (Client-Server) — The server and client run on separate machines connected via an environment layout file. This is the recommended mode for production benchmarking as it isolates server and client resource consumption.
• Single-VM — When no layout file is provided, both server and client actions run sequentially on the same machine. The client connects to the server via the loopback address (127.0.0.1). This mode is useful for development, validation, and quick smoke testing.

CPU core affinity profiles (e.g., PERF-WEB-ASPNET-WRK-AFFINITY.json) work in both modes. In single-VM mode, core affinity is especially useful to prevent the server and client from contending for the same CPU cores.

What is Being Measured?

The client tools (Bombardier or Wrk) generate concurrent HTTP requests against the ASP.NET server and capture latency percentile distributions and throughput statistics.

TechEmpower JSON Serialization

The server exposes a /json endpoint that serializes a simple JSON object. This scenario measures raw HTTP request processing performance of the Kestrel server with minimal application logic overhead.

OrchardCore CMS

The server runs a full OrchardCore CMS application with a Blog recipe. The /about endpoint exercises the full CMS rendering pipeline including routing, middleware, and content rendering.

Workload Metrics

The following metrics are examples of those captured by the Virtual Client when running the ASP.NET benchmark workloads.

Bombardier Metrics

When Bombardier is used as the client (e.g., PERF-WEB-ASPNET-BOMBARDIER.json):

Name	Example Value	Unit	Description
Latency Average	133.3698688	milliseconds	Average HTTP response latency
Latency Max	7123.06304	milliseconds	Maximum HTTP response latency
Latency P50	83.39392	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (50th percentile)
Latency P75	160.14336	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (75th percentile)
Latency P90	286.4128	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (90th percentile)
Latency P95	367.4112	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (95th percentile)
Latency P99	637.534208	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (99th percentile)
RequestPerSecond Avg	32768.449018	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (average)
RequestPerSecond Stddev	6446.822354105378	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (standard deviation)
RequestPerSecond P50	31049.462844	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (P50)
RequestPerSecond P75	35597.436614	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (P75)
RequestPerSecond P90	39826.205746	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (P90)
RequestPerSecond P95	41662.542962	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (P95)
RequestPerSecond P99	48600.556224	Reqs/sec	ASP.NET Web Requests per second (P99)

Wrk Metrics

When Wrk is used as the client (e.g., PERF-WEB-ASPNET-WRK.json, PERF-WEB-ASPNET-ORCHARD-WRK.json):

Name	Example Value	Unit	Description
latency_p50	1.427	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (50th percentile)
latency_p75	1.982	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (75th percentile)
latency_p90	2.683	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (90th percentile)
latency_p99	3.960	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (99th percentile)
latency_p99_9	6.930	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (99.9th percentile)
latency_p100	9.770	milliseconds	HTTP response latency (100th percentile)
requests/sec	16305.17	requests/sec	Aggregate throughput
transfers/sec	20.01	megabytes/sec	Data transfer rate

See the Wrk/Wrk2 documentation and Bombardier documentation for the complete list of client metrics.

Profiles

The following profiles are available for the ASP.NET benchmark workloads. See the profile details page for per-profile parameters, dependencies, and usage examples.

Profile Name	Description	Client Tool	Server	Platforms
PERF-WEB-ASPNET-WRK.json	TechEmpower JSON serialization benchmark using Wrk with warm-up pass.	WrkExecutor	AspNetServerExecutor	linux-x64, linux-arm64, win-x64, win-arm64
PERF-WEB-ASPNET-WRK-AFFINITY.json	TechEmpower JSON serialization benchmark using Wrk with CPU core affinity.	WrkExecutor	AspNetServerExecutor	linux-x64, linux-arm64, win-x64, win-arm64
PERF-WEB-ASPNET-BOMBARDIER.json	TechEmpower JSON serialization benchmark using Bombardier with 256 connections.	BombardierExecutor	AspNetServerExecutor	linux-x64, linux-arm64, win-x64, win-arm64
PERF-WEB-ASPNET-ORCHARD-WRK.json	OrchardCore CMS benchmark using Wrk with warm-up pass.	WrkExecutor	AspNetOrchardServerExecutor	linux-x64, linux-arm64

Server Parameters

The following tables describe the key parameters supported by the ASP.NET server executors.

AspNetServerExecutor

Parameter	Description	Default
PackageName	The name of the ASP.NET Benchmarks dependency package.	required
DotNetSdkPackageName	The name of the .NET SDK dependency package.	dotnetsdk
TargetFramework	The .NET target framework (e.g., net8.0, net9.0).	required
ServerPort	The port the Kestrel server listens on.	9876
AspNetCoreThreadCount	The ASPNETCORE thread count environment variable.	1
DotNetSystemNetSocketsThreadCount	The DOTNET_SYSTEM_NET_SOCKETS_THREAD_COUNT environment variable.	1
BindToCores	When true, the server process is pinned to specific CPU cores.	false
CoreAffinity	CPU core affinity specification (e.g., 0-7). Required when BindToCores is true.	none

AspNetOrchardServerExecutor

Parameter	Description	Default
PackageName	The name of the OrchardCore dependency package.	required
DotNetSdkPackageName	The name of the .NET SDK dependency package.	dotnetsdk
TargetFramework	The .NET target framework (e.g., net9.0).	required
ServerPort	The port the OrchardCore server listens on.	5014
BindToCores	When true, the server process is pinned to specific CPU cores.	false
CoreAffinity	CPU core affinity specification (e.g., 0-7). Required when BindToCores is true.	none

Packaging and Setup

The following section covers how to create the custom Virtual Client dependency packages required to execute the workload and toolset(s). This section is meant to provide guidance for users who would like to create their own packages with the software for use with the Virtual Client. For example, users may want to bring in new versions of the software. See the documentation on Dependency Packages for more information on the concepts.

TechEmpower JSON Serialization Setup

1. Virtual Client installs the .NET SDK via the DotNetInstallation dependency.
2. Virtual Client clones the ASP.NET Benchmarks GitHub repository.
3. The src/Benchmarks project is built using dotnet build.
4. The server is started using dotnet run:

dotnet <path_to_binary>/Benchmarks.dll \
  --nonInteractive true \
  --scenarios json \
  --urls http://*:9876 \
  --server Kestrel \
  --kestrelTransport Sockets \
  --protocol http \
  --header "Accept: application/json,text/html;q=0.9,application/xhtml+xml;q=0.9,application/xml;q=0.8,*/*;q=0.7" \
  --header "Connection: keep-alive"

5. The client tool (Bombardier or Wrk) generates HTTP load against the server:

# Bombardier example
bombardier -d 15s -c 256 -t 2s --fasthttp --insecure -l http://<server_ip>:9876/json --print r --format json

# Wrk example
wrk --latency --threads 64 --connections 4096 --duration 15s --timeout 10s http://<server_ip>:9876/json

OrchardCore CMS Setup

1. Virtual Client installs the .NET SDK via the DotNetInstallation dependency.
2. Virtual Client clones the OrchardCore GitHub repository.
3. The OrchardCore.Cms.Web project is published using dotnet publish.
4. The server is started:

nohup <path_to_publish>/OrchardCore.Cms.Web --urls http://*:5014

5. Wrk generates HTTP load against the /about endpoint:

wrk -t 64 -c 128 -d 20s http://<server_ip>:5014/about