This tip is more for those users who have developed a sophisticated data-crunching interface to their app. On one screen, for simplicity, the app gives a long list of data, without pagination controls being created by the user (such as a “View All” feature). To keep it pretty, each line has a visual icon or some surrounding images. Sound familiar? For example, let’s say the list is created by a testing system, indicating which tests were passed and which failed. The list may look something like:
For this example, we’ve created a few lengthy files to measure IE’s rendering performance. They … Continue reading »
The overwhelming majority of dynamic internet-facing applications are built on garbage collected runtimes such as Java and .NET. Garbage collection is popular because it promotes rapid application development. On the other hand, whenever a system is demonstrating unexpectedly poor performance, the garbage collector invariably surfaces as a possible suspect. Our advanced server analysis module even hooks into garbage collection performance monitoring on the .NET platform.
The reality, however, is that modern garbage collectors are very good.
Fact: Our company has been in business since 1999. In this time, no one can recall ever encountering a system with a performance problem that could … Continue reading »
Note: This is Part 4 of an ongoing series on Drupal performance and load testing. If you haven’t already, read the introduction.
Summary
We measured Drupal’s performance with respect to database size, demonstrating flat performance regardless of the size of the database. We also got some good data demonstrating Drupal’s behavior with caching.
Procedure
We re-created our previous test platform: a stock Drupal installation on an Amazon Elastic Cloud m1.large instance with both the Alternative PHP Cache (APC) and Drupal’s built-in caching capabilities. In this test, however, instead of scaling the number of simultaneous users, we instead held the test at 400 … Continue reading »
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 »
We’ve got a lot of new exciting progress making it’s way into Load Tester 4.2. Among these features, Load Tester 4.2 will be introducing an Advanced Server Analysis™ module designed for AIX servers. Like our other Advanced Server Analysis™ agents, the AIX module is capable of running offline, and will continue to collect data about your server even when normal connectivity to the server has been overloaded (unlike some of our competitors solutions). The monitoring agent can collect vital information from your server, including:
CPU
Memory
Disk activity (reads / writes / % utilization)
Network activity (bandwidth in & … Continue reading »
Note: This is Part 3 of an ongoing series on Drupal performance and load testing. If you haven’t already, read the introduction.
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 »
In this example case, we ran into a situation where a load engine could not resolve the hostname of the server being tested, even though Load Tester was able to record & replay against the server without any difficulty. This problem appears immediately, but only when running a Load Test with the troubled load engine. By using the Engines View in Load Tester, we were able to select and use each Load Engine separately in a Load Test, until the faulty engine had been isolated (this sort of problem will show errors coming back from the engine within seconds, and … Continue reading »
This tutorial will outline the steps to configure a custom extractor in Load Tester. Extractors are used to recognize small pieces of data in your application and apply them to future transactions within a test case.
Recently we have been getting a lot of questions regarding how to use Load Tester to record against local host. While it is possible to record a local server, and may be useful for testcase development, it is however not recommended to run a load test on the same machines as the local server. Running a load test on the server can produce confusing and misleading results as well as cause resource issues. In order to get useful results, Load Tester and the web server need to be on separate machines.
In order to record against the local host; use the … Continue reading »
Occasional load-testing tips, performance-engineering notes, and product updates. No spam — unsubscribe anytime.