Just updated my nginx sites to use http2. nginx 1.10 package in Alpine linux already have this feature built. All I did is to enable it: changing listen 443 ssl; to listen 443 ssl http2;.
The following benchmark is done with ab / nghttp2 and a static site hosted by nginx 1.10.3 / alpine 3.5 / 1cpu / 512M mem.
% h2load -n 500 -c 50 https://some-site.jokester.io/
finished in 2.37s, 210.62 req/s, 7.47MB/s
requests: 500 total, 500 started, 500 done, 500 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 errored, 0 timeout
status codes: 500 2xx, 0 3xx, 0 4xx, 0 5xx
traffic: 17.74MB (18606450) total, 103.52KB (106000) headers (space savings 31.39%), 17.62MB (18471000) data
min max mean sd +/- sd
time for request: 307.92ms 937.78ms 658.94ms 157.61ms 61.00%
time for connect: 478.13ms 1.45s 905.85ms 279.07ms 57.00%
time to 1st byte: 641.92ms 1.63s 1.15s 234.91ms 68.00%
req/s : 4.21 8.23 5.95 1.05 60.00%% ab -n 500 -c 50 https://some-site.jokester.io/
Concurrency Level: 50
Time taken for tests: 10.139 seconds
Complete requests: 500
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 18661500 bytes
HTML transferred: 18471000 bytes
Requests per second: 49.32 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 1013.864 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 20.277 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 1797.49 [Kbytes/sec] received
Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 456 572 116.5 549 1209
Processing: 290 334 19.0 331 394
Waiting: 145 175 12.4 174 215
Total: 762 906 122.5 880 1579
Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 880
66% 906
75% 921
80% 933
90% 970
95% 1183
98% 1382
99% 1477
100% 1579 (longest request)% h2load -n 1000 -c 100 https://some-site.jokester.io/
finished in 3.41s, 293.48 req/s, 10.42MB/s
requests: 1000 total, 1000 started, 1000 done, 1000 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 errored, 0 timeout
status codes: 1000 2xx, 0 3xx, 0 4xx, 0 5xx
traffic: 35.49MB (37212900) total, 207.03KB (212000) headers (space savings 31.39%), 35.23MB (36942000) data
min max mean sd +/- sd
time for request: 313.89ms 964.01ms 652.30ms 152.53ms 64.50%
time for connect: 495.74ms 2.49s 1.44s 604.65ms 54.00%
time to 1st byte: 668.02ms 2.68s 1.65s 571.72ms 52.00%
req/s : 2.94 7.99 4.81 1.44 61.00%% ab -n 1000 -c 100 https://some-site.jokester.io/
Concurrency Level: 100
Time taken for tests: 17.420 seconds
Complete requests: 1000
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 37323000 bytes
HTML transferred: 36942000 bytes
Requests per second: 57.40 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 1742.013 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 17.420 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 2092.31 [Kbytes/sec] received
Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 483 1255 147.0 1257 2007
Processing: 304 342 17.8 341 402
Waiting: 157 183 9.8 183 220
Total: 793 1598 155.2 1599 2388
Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 1599
66% 1622
75% 1637
80% 1648
90% 1679
95% 1734
98% 2068
99% 2227
100% 2388 (longest request)% h2load -n 10000 -c 1000 https://some-site.jokester.io/
finished in 56.44s, 174.35 req/s, 6.19MB/s
requests: 10000 total, 9840 started, 10000 done, 9840 succeeded, 160 failed, 160 errored, 0 timeout
status codes: 9840 2xx, 0 3xx, 0 4xx, 0 5xx
traffic: 349.21MB (366174936) total, 1.99MB (2086080) headers (space savings 31.39%), 346.67MB (363509280) data
min max mean sd +/- sd
time for request: 292.37ms 1.64s 671.62ms 185.01ms 76.52%
time for connect: 508.90ms 55.53s 14.23s 10.82s 66.67%
time to 1st byte: 677.41ms 55.71s 14.45s 10.82s 66.67%
req/s : 0.00 7.94 1.23 1.31 88.70%% ab -n 10000 -c 1000 https://some-site.jokester.io/
Concurrency Level: 1000
Time taken for tests: 147.935 seconds
Complete requests: 10000
Failed requests: 939
(Connect: 0, Receive: 0, Length: 939, Exceptions: 0)
Write errors: 0
Total transferred: 338405805 bytes
HTML transferred: 334949373 bytes
Requests per second: 67.60 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 14793.489 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 14.793 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 2233.92 [Kbytes/sec] received
Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 0 4101 4893.8 2652 69653
Processing: 298 8098 27087.2 345 110250
Waiting: 0 169 51.8 182 272
Total: 787 12199 26345.0 3252 110250
Percentage of the requests served within a certain time (ms)
50% 3252
66% 4386
75% 6242
80% 7069
90% 18392
95% 110146
98% 110186
99% 110201
100% 110250 (longest request)