Automated Load Testing
Five Ways Load Tester™ Automates Web Stress Testing
Why do something by hand when a tool could do it for you automatically?
| Description | Screencast |
|---|---|
Test AutomationLearn how the Web Performance Load Tester™ automates five important steps in web stress testing. |
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Dynamic Field Configuration
With modern complex websites there are often dozens if not hundreds of hidden fields and variables working behind the scenes to manage application state, database connections, sessions. And each framework, development environment, and library seems to use its own obtuse methods. Why reverse engineer this yourself when our tool will figure it out automatically 95% of the time?
User Identity Wizard
Perhaps the most common task when configuring test cases is setting up usernames and passwords. Our User Identity Wizard leads you through the process, creating usernames and passwords, and then configuring your test case automatically so you don't have to search through HTML to figure it out yourself.
Automatic Page Validation
How do you know if your web
site is actually working? If you're running a 10,000 concurrent user test there's no way you can visually check each and every page. Sure, the HTTP specification says if a web site encounters an error the HTTP return code is supposed to be set to 500.
Guess how many web developers actually do this? Maybe one out of a hundred if you're lucky. That's why we invented our automatic page validation feature: it configures parsers for each page that check to make sure the version of the page the virtual user sees during a test has all the content it's supposed to. And since every site is different, you also have the option of defining your own rules, either site-wide, or on a page-by-page basis.
Automated Performance Analysis
What good is a web stress test if it generates hundreds of pages of charts and tables that no one can figure out? That's why our "How Many Users Can Your Website Handle?" analysis clearly measures your site's capacity based on either simple performance goals or complicated Service Level Agreements (SLA). You can use our default performance goals, or get as detailed or as technical as you like. A high level overview helps you quickly and easily see how many users your site can handle.
But what about your servers? Our Advanced Server Analysis checks your server's performance against a list of performance recommendations and puts a big red checkmark next to all of the stats that are out of spec. You'll never wonder if you're overloading your disks or your network again.
Automatic Load Engine Configuration
Generating large numbers of concurrent simulated users isn't trivial. Multiple computers are required, and to have an accurate test each of the test computers has to make sure that its CPU and memory stays inside a comfortable range. Load Tester™ is the only web stress testing software that monitors the CPU and memory usage of each test computer, and then dynamically changes the test distribution to keep each test computer generating accurate virtual users. The result: guaranteed test accuracy, even when you're using a hodgepodge mix of old computers with different CPUs and memory.
Instant Load Engine
When you're generating a large number of concurrent users, installing the extra software required on each test computer, and then updating it later for new releases is time consuming and tedious. That's why we released the Instant Load Engine. You simply boot the computer off of a CD-ROM and that's it. Not only is there no complicated installation process, but the Instant Load Engine automatically updates itself to the latest release. You'll be ready for a load test in no time.
Customer Experience
"I need solid web testing that I can rely on. I can't spend forever setting up tests and tweaking them a thousand ways. We jam out web code fast and we need a tool that is quick to set up, quick to test and quick to resolve issues. I often don't have more than a day to build the tests and get them done. The tool is a sanity check so nothing bites us after launch. Thanks for making my life easier."
David K. Shepherd, CISSP, CEH
