Load Testing Blog
Large Load Tests on the Cheap
Need to generate thousands of concurrent users but don’t want to pay big bucks for a large license? You may not know that licenses to generate 1,000 or more concurrent users are available on a week-by-week basis. And now that Load Tester 4 can automatically generate massive amounts of load against data centers, leasing makes even more sense.
For existing customers, this means they can purchase a lower-level license for day-to-day use, and then just lease the larger licenses for a big final round of testing. We’ve had a tremendous response from existing customers who normally test with just a … Continue reading »
How User Ramping Works – Part Two
In part 1 of How User Ramping Works, we discussed how to set up a user ramp configuration for a test. When you’ve done that, recorded and replayed your test cases to perfection, loaded your datasets, configured your load engines, and set up your server agents, what actually happens when you push the big green button?
The first thing Load Tester does is go through a setup sequence that configures the load engines for the coming test. This can take a while, especially if you’ve configured large datasets or large numbers of files to be … Continue reading »
Status code 200 didn’t match expected: 304
Suppose you’ve got a testcase that either worked in the past, or just works sometimes, but now seems to be giving you an error: “The status code of the response (200) did not match the status code of the response in the Testcase (304)”. This particular error message is probably not a serious error, but it usually means that your test isn’t quite emulating what a real browser would do.
Fixing this problem in Load Tester is usually easy. Just right click on your testcase, select Properties, and then go to the “Restart Options” tab. Simply check the last checkbox: “Update … Continue reading »
Configuring and Analyzing Performance Goals
This tutorial will show you how you can use performance goals to customize the reports to give you information that is relevant to the individual performance requirements of your system. The goal is to help you learn to draw better conclusions from the data and get more accurate results. You’ll also spend less time poring through the data.
Load Testing Fallacies: The Test Scenarios Must Be Completely Accurate
Last time, I talked about why it is ok to start testing early in the development process. I’m going to continue that thought process to discuss load testing without complete performance requirements. This Load Testing 101 article says “If the real end user is going to do work with your application in a totally different way than you test you are as good as with no testing at all.” While there is a nugget of truth hidden in there, it is easy to take away the wrong understanding.
One interpretation of that statement would be that “you must have … Continue reading »
When Load Testing Just Works
One of the main features I wanted to design into a load testing tool was the ability to “just work” for most things. Reverse engineering how a website works just to get a load test done is no fun, especially since its possible to automate much of the process and you can spend your time testing instead. Which is why it was great to get an email from someone trying our demo who noticed we handled his dynamic SID configuration in a few minutes where his previous load testing tool took four hours.
The specific thing I was referring to … Continue reading »
Web Performance Load Tests Race Car
At Web Performance we’re interested in things that go fast, whether they’re websites or cars, so it’s only natural that we are sponsoring Jason Tower’s inaugural road racing season in his BMW Spec E30. As a rallycrosser myself, I’m excited to be involved with grassroots racing as Jason – pardon the pun – stress tests his E30 on courses from VIR to Mid Ohio to Road Atlanta. He’s so good, he can turn left AND right!
The Spec E30 concept is cool: drivers compete based on their driving skills, not their wallet, which is where you get the … Continue reading »
Announcing Load Tester 4: Push-button Cloud-based Performance Testing
Web testers are about to discover a whole new level of performance testing with the release of Load Tester, Version 4.0 from Web Performance, Inc. (WPI). Load Tester 4 gives users access to the cloud network—a virtual network of servers spread across the globe—to let developers conduct performance tests outside their own networks and simulate greater numbers of potential site visitors.
“Our latest version of Load Tester was designed to generate loads from both in the lab and outside the network,” says Michael Czeiszperger, founder of WPI. “Along with all the benefits of previous releases, Version 4.0 lets our customers specify … Continue reading »
Web Performance Load Tester 3.6 Gives Web Developers Easier, More Accurate Tests
New software includes click to configure test case development, visual performance indicators, user-level analysis and expanded compatibility with AJAX and .NET.
Durham, NC – May 7, 2009 – Web Performance, Inc. (WPI) released the most recent version of its industry-leading load testing application last week. Web Performance Load Tester version 3.6 includes a number of new features that make it even easier to use and more intuitive for its non-programmer user base.
One of the application’s most appealing new features is its use of visual displays and video demonstrations that let users with zero programming experience create test cases, run load … Continue reading »
Load Testing Services Help Mammoth Mountain Ski Area Gear Up for 2009/2010 Pass Sales
High Anticipated Demand is Met with Aplomb
MAMMOTH LAKES, CA – For the first time in several years, Mammoth Mountain opened up sales of their popular Mammoth Value Pass (MVP) to new purchasers. Given that there were only 38,000 passes available, and those passes were only being sold for one month, Mammoth Mountain’s web site had to be up to speed and capable of handling the load or, as Brahm Goodis, Web Developer for Mammoth Mountain, said, “it was crucial to make sure our site could handle the potential load.” Mammoth Mountain had used the load testing services of … Continue reading »