Rails + New Relic: What does RPM mean?

Question

I just started using New Relic RPM with my rails app, and one of the metrics they provide is "Throughput RPM". I have googled everywhere and thoroughly combed the New Relic docs, and I cannot find ANY written explanation of the RPM throughput metric.

Is it "requests per minute" or "requests per millisecond" or something else? ** combustion engines and revolutions per minute make this impossible to find answers about in Google.

What is throughput RPM? Is a good number higher or lower, what are some average benchmarks, etc?

I'd greatly appreciate an explanation of this metric, thanks!!

score 225 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '13 at 15:26

225

The product name "RPM" stands for "Rails Performance Management" - which is an anachronism, now that we support Ruby, Java, PHP and .NET (stay tuned for other languages).

The suffix "rpm" stands for "Requests per Minute". Typically used to measure throughput, either for the whole application, or a specific Web Transaction (Controller Action in Rails).

Lew Cirne
Founder and CEO
New Relic

edited Jun 17 '13 at 15:26

BenMorel

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answered Mar 10 '11 at 00:00

Lewis Cirne

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It's nice to have an answer from the CEO! – Shlomo Zalman Heigh Mar 10 '11 at 00:07
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Yeah, is rpm (lowercase) requests MADE per minute or requests SERVED per minute? Meaning, does it take queuing into account? – swrobel Mar 28 '13 at 17:17
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CEO like who are caring about their customers and answering their questions themselves ,are really amazing people ,thanks a lot – Remon Amin Jun 17 '13 at 15:36

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 10 '11 at 04:12

I believe Throughput:RPM means the number of http "Requests per minute" being handled by your web application/application container. This would give you an idea of the volume of requests moving through the app and therefore context to understand how well various pieces or components of your app are handling that load on the App.

Hope that helps.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 21:49

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RPM = Ruby Performance Management.

answered Mar 09 '11 at 21:49

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Ok, great, but what does "Throughput: RPM ______" with some number attached to it mean? – Andrew Mar 09 '11 at 21:51
from their website : "In a single view you see key metrics such as customer experience, response time, errors, and **throughput.**" So it looks like bandwidth (KB per second etc). – Mar 09 '11 at 21:53
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http://support.newrelic.com/discussions/support/1487-throughput-graph-is-it-rpm-or-cpm – Tayyab Mar 09 '11 at 21:56
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Per the above link, it refers to req per min (RPM). Too many damn acronyms! – Mar 09 '11 at 21:59
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Ok, there we go! Two answers: Ruby Performance Management in general and requests per minute when used to describe throughput. Thank you! – Andrew Mar 09 '11 at 22:06
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@Andrew: Lewis' answer should be the accepted answer since it is from the horses mouth (so to speak). – Mar 10 '11 at 00:23
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That's noble of you since he answered after I had accepted yours. Kudos, sorry there's not a badge for chivalry or something... – Andrew Mar 10 '11 at 00:46

score -2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 21:52

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Its Ruby Performance Management

answered Mar 09 '11 at 21:52

Tayyab

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I don't think that's what @Andrew meant. He's asking what the Throughput RPM metric is. Not what New Relic RPM stands for. – Paul Russell Nov 20 '12 at 01:09

Rails + New Relic: What does RPM mean?

4 Answers4