Load Testing Blog
How to upgrade NTLM testcases from Load Tester 4.1 to 4.2
Due to the scope of changes in the 4.2 release and the improvements to our NTLM support, testcases using NTLM that were created in Load Tester 4.1 and earlier versions are not automatically upgraded with the required 4.2 configuration settings. The result is testcases that will not be able to perform the NTLM authentication – therefore causing a failure of every transaction that requires authentication. Fortunately, the manual upgrade process is relatively easy:
Step 1: Select the testcase and run the Testcase Configuration wizard. You can do this from the pop-up menu in the Navigator view (Configure > Configure for Replay) … Continue reading »
What’s new in Load Tester 4.2
The 4.2 release focuses on platform compatibility and productivity increases from our services work in the past year with such clients as the US Census and the New York Marathon.
With a slew of new browsers and operating systems available, this release also includes support for 64-bit Windows and AIX operating systems, the latest versions of Internet Explorer, as well as the Chrome and Safari browsers.
On the productivity side there are some pretty big changes to allow testers to configure more complex testcases with less effort than ever before. Some of those changes are evident in the new Fields View and … Continue reading »
New field editing options in Load Tester 4.2
In my previous post, I detailed some of the UI customizations included in the new Fields view. While I know testers will appreciate those, I think you will like the new field configuration options even more.
The most important change is the increase of the number of supported datasources. The three existing options (constant, dataset and user variable) have been augmented with Recorded, Text with replaced regions, Concatenation, File upload and Transform datasources:
These new datasources, some of which were previously available in limited contexts, are now available wherever you need them. The Text with replaced regions source allows any sub-part … Continue reading »
Fields View customizations added in Load Tester 4.2
The Fields View is one of the most frequently used parts of Load Tester. As a result of some of the features added in the upcoming 4.2 release it was going to need a lot of enhancements – so we decided to give it a complete overhaul. Current users of Load Tester will find it very familiar, but much more powerful than the previous iteration. One aspect is the ability to customize what is shown in the view and how it is presented.
One of the first things you will notice is the fields are now color coded, to help you … Continue reading »
IE8, favicon.ico and silly server stunts
At first glance, load testing software seems like it should be pretty straightforward. And like most things, it turns out to be really complex — at least, if you want to do it well. Simulating a browser could be pretty easy – except for the need to do it very, very, very efficiently, so that the solution can scale to simulate hundreds or thousands of virtual users per computer.
What does this have to do with favicon.ico and IE8? Occasionally while helping a customer use Load Tester, we run into some behavior that is difficult to explain, and this was one … Continue reading »
Load Testing Anti-Patterns: Building the Perfect Test
We run into a wide variety of customers who need load testing software and/or services. While many are working their way through the process on-the-fly, others have toiled long and hard to develop a thorough testing plan, complete with detailed descriptions of exactly how the load test should be performed. On occasion, this testing plan is incredibly specific – detailing exactly how many users should be doing this or doing that, exactly how many users should click a button at the same time, exactly which search result the user should follow, etc.
While I applaud the amount of effort put into … Continue reading »
Choosing the scenarios for a load test
What to test?
Occasionally, we encounter customers who have only a single scenario to test. For example, one client developed an application in which the only scenario of interest involved a user registering him/herself with the system and scheduling an appointment. When this happens, the tester may devote their efforts to the accurate simulation, testing and analysis of this single scenario. You are unlikely to be so lucky.
In any moderately complex system, there are dozens or even hundreds of scenarios that are candidates for load testing. You are not likely to have the time or resources to test them all. As … Continue reading »
The Purpose of Load Testing
Why am I doing this?
Even a well-executed Load Testing effort may fail if it does not answer the right questions…or answer them in the right way. The “right questions” might appear obvious, such as “How many hits/sec can the server handle?” Such questions, while well-intentioned, may not be the questions that really need to be answered. They may simply be the easiest questions to ask…and answer.
From a higher-level strategic level, the real questions sound something like:
1. Is this system ready to deploy?
2. Can we make this system available to another 350 users?
3. We deployed the system and the performance is … Continue reading »
Configuring File Downloads
In most cases Load Tester handles a file download during a testcase automatically. Fundamentally, there is no difference between downloading a spreadsheet or an image on the page. But in some cases, Load Tester does not automatically handle the dynamic URLs used in certain situations. Most commonly, these are cases where the file is being generated on-demand and is assigned a unique identifier that is part of the URL path, rather than a query parameter. In these cases, because there is no unique identifier that can be used to locate the value (i.e. a form field name or query parameter … Continue reading »
Load Tester for 64-bit Windows on the horizon
We are well into the development schedule for the next release of Load Tester – version 4.2. There are a number of great new features on the way as well as some enhancements to our underlying architecture that will enable Load Tester to handle far more complicated testcases in future versions.
One of the features coming soon is a version of Load Tester for 64-bit Windows. Load Tester can run on 64-bit Windows, of course, but it currently runs as a 32-bit process and is subject to the same limitations as if it were running on 32-bit Windows. Testers working … Continue reading »