CouchDB Authentication Cache Test

Authentication is the process of recognizing a user’s identity. It is the mechanism of associating an incoming request with a set of identifying credentials. Authentication caching is a concept which an appliance sits on the network edge and caches authentication requests. Caching reduces internal traffic by minimizing hits to authentication, application and database servers. This test reveals whether/not the cache for authentication has been effectively utilized and helps assess the impact of this cache usage on the target server. From the metrics reported by this test, administrators can also figure out if the cache needs any further fine-tuning.

Target of the test : Apache CouchDB Server

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the target Apache CouchDB Server.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the target server that is being monitored.
Port	The port number through which the Couchdb server communicates. The default port is 5984.
Username	In order to monitor an Apache CouchDB server, a special database user account with Admin privilege has to be created in every Apache CouchDB server instance that requires monitoring. In the Username text box, specify the Username for monitoring the target Apache CouchDB server instance.To create a new user, refer Pre-requisites for Monitoring Apache CouchDB topic.
Password	Specify the password of the specified Username.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Authentication cache hits	Indicates the number of authentication requests serviced by the cache.	Hits/sec	A high value is desired for this measure.
Authentication cache misses	Indicates the number of authentication requests that were not serviced by the cache.	Misses/sec	A low value is desired for this measure.