I got into a discussion in the Performance Testing group on LinkedIn which raised a question that we had answered internally, but had neglected to share with our customers – how much bandwidth do our cloud engines have available?
Before I proceed, I must make this disclaimer: our cloud engines run on Amazon’s EC2 infrastructure, so the rules that apply there also apply to our cloud engines. Amazon does not make any guarantees for bandwidth, so anytime your test results look suspicious, we recommend doing a quick bandwidth test. Note that there is a Bandwidth Test wizard in Load … Continue reading »
From time to time we get support questions from customer asking us how to update a recorded testcase to a different URL without having to re-record the testcase. If the content of the new URL/server is very similar to the original URL/server, then a re-recording of the testcase may not be necessary. Simply updating the recorded URLs with the new URLs should be all that is needed to get the original recording working with the new URL/server. Below are the steps on how to update recorded URLs in Load Tester 4.2.
Updating recorded URLs
In order to change the transaction URLs, switch to … Continue reading »
Proxy servers are nothing new to corporate users, and Load Tester has supported test development through a proxy server for those testers that were required to use one. However, we’re excited to introduce two new improvements to Load Tester’s proxy support for Load Tester 4.3: more detailed recordings and replays of proxy traffic, and support for proxy authentication.
In all versions of Load Tester, it is possible to change the proxy configuration, and then play an existing testcase correctly using the new proxy settings. Since proxies may require the use of additional HTTP messages to create a tunnel and / or … Continue reading »
Load Tester 4.2 offers a substantial number of enhancements over the 4.1 release. One of the last features, which was not available in the 4.2 beta cycle, is completely redesigned support for Connection Authentication Negotiation. For IIS users, just think of “Connection Authentication Negotiation” as support for IIS’ “Integrated Windows Authentication”. Load Tester’s CAN support is a bit more abstract to encompass other servers as well. In fact, the term “Connection Authentication Negotiation” is used to provide support for negotiation of an authentication scheme at the HTTP layer, which may be used to authenticate the browser’s connection to the … Continue reading »
The most commonly used authentication method for websites is a login form on a web page. We’ve all seen them – enter your username and password into fields on the web page and press the Submit or Login button. From the standpoint of the underlying technology, this is no different than submitting any other form – only the names of the fields distinguish them as login or password fields and the security mechanism is implemented within the web application.
Web Performance Consulting
Our experts … Continue reading »
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 »
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 »
One of the things that makes Web Performance software great is the tight cooperation between our load testing services and software developers. Our load testing engineers are always running over to the software engineers and begging for changes to make their lives easier, and the 4.2 beta is the first in a series of upgrades designed to put these internal upgrades into your hands.
One of the tasks that takes a load testing engineer a significant amount of time is configuring fields, the way that each virtual user can enter unique data during a testcase. Load Tester 4.2 includes an enhanced … Continue reading »
A common problem when setting up a load testing configuration in Load Tester is figuring out how many rows of data you need for a particular test. For example, you need to have a set of user names and passwords to be used during the test, but how many do you need to ensure that the test will complete?
To answer this question, you need to know three things: the duration of the test, the expected duration of the test case, and how many concurrent users the test will simulate. Fortunately, these things are usually easy to determine. The test duration … Continue reading »
In older versions, Load Tester provided a simple interface for modifying the URI portion of an HTTP request. For example, you could add a query parameter or a path segment by adding it directly to the request line in the Edit HTTP Request-line/URL dialog.
In Load Tester 4.2, this process has been made slightly more complex but vastly more powerful. We’ll start by manipulating the URI field directly. To do so, select the specific transaction you wish to edit, then select the Fields View, then choose “Customize” from the “Choose customization” drop-down menu in the upper right … Continue reading »
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