Comments on: Using Varnish to assist with AB Testing http://cd34.com/blog/webserver/using-varnish-to-assist-with-ab-testing/ This is my blog, there are many others like it but this one is mine. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:05:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: cd34 http://cd34.com/blog/webserver/using-varnish-to-assist-with-ab-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-1632 cd34 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:28:20 +0000 http://cd34.com/blog/?p=896#comment-1632 Modified to add vrt_magic_string_end as per Christopher Cato's debugging and DocWilco in IRC Modified to add vrt_magic_string_end as per Christopher Cato’s debugging and DocWilco in IRC

]]> By: cd34 http://cd34.com/blog/webserver/using-varnish-to-assist-with-ab-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-1413 cd34 Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:22:57 +0000 http://cd34.com/blog/?p=896#comment-1413 Where do you set the cookie? Since most AB Tests are testing landing pages, usually it is the first time we're seeing that particular surfer. So, the decision needs to be made within Varnish. Since we don't see the request hit on the backend, we have a small webbug that reports which page was served for analysis. The only method I could think of to make and cache that decision within Varnish was to use inline C since I didn't have access to a random function in VCL. Where do you set the cookie? Since most AB Tests are testing landing pages, usually it is the first time we’re seeing that particular surfer. So, the decision needs to be made within Varnish. Since we don’t see the request hit on the backend, we have a small webbug that reports which page was served for analysis.

The only method I could think of to make and cache that decision within Varnish was to use inline C since I didn’t have access to a random function in VCL.

]]> By: perbu http://cd34.com/blog/webserver/using-varnish-to-assist-with-ab-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-1409 perbu Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:19:15 +0000 http://cd34.com/blog/?p=896#comment-1409 I've been thinking about this a bit and I don't see why we can't do persistent AB testing with Varnish. If you're set a cookie "abtest" to "A" or "B" and then pick up the cookie in vcl_recv and either rewrite the URL (prepending /1 or /2) or set a request header to the backend based on that cookie you could easily accomplish this. If you set a synthetic request header you could also Vary on this header increasing the cache efficiency. I’ve been thinking about this a bit and I don’t see why we can’t do persistent AB testing with Varnish. If you’re set a cookie “abtest” to “A” or “B” and then pick up the cookie in vcl_recv and either rewrite the URL (prepending /1 or /2) or set a request header to the backend based on that cookie you could easily accomplish this. If you set a synthetic request header you could also Vary on this header increasing the cache efficiency.

]]> By: uberVU - social comments http://cd34.com/blog/webserver/using-varnish-to-assist-with-ab-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-1255 uberVU - social comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:30:01 +0000 http://cd34.com/blog/?p=896#comment-1255 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by mcd34: blog post: Using Varnish to assist with AB Testing http://cli.gs/WYu6n #abtest #analytics #Varnish... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by mcd34: blog post: Using Varnish to assist with AB Testing http://cli.gs/WYu6n #abtest #analytics #Varnish…

]]> By: Scalability links for Feb 28th 2010 | Scalable web architectures http://cd34.com/blog/webserver/using-varnish-to-assist-with-ab-testing/comment-page-1/#comment-1183 Scalability links for Feb 28th 2010 | Scalable web architectures Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:38:46 +0000 http://cd34.com/blog/?p=896#comment-1183 [...] Using Varnish to assist with AB testing – Testing new uncooked features by external customers get more difficult as products become more mature and stable. Tools like “varnish” could be used to test different pages/features. [...] [...] Using Varnish to assist with AB testing – Testing new uncooked features by external customers get more difficult as products become more mature and stable. Tools like “varnish” could be used to test different pages/features. [...]

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