Stress Testing Repository: Websites & Computers

Eric Palmer with the Phoenix School of Law has a question to ask about stress testing.

"Our school is working on a homebrewed Unix based SAN and we were looking for some good ways to stress test it. Exchange 2010, SQL 2008, IIS, as well as DPM backups will be stored on this SAN and it will be accessed through iSCSI connections. We would like to put it through a similar workload and stress the hardware as much as possible in order to ensure reliability in a production environment. Does anyone have suggestions on any software that may help us accomplish this? Thank you.

Eric Palmer
Senior Systems Engineer
Phoenix School of Law
602-682-6844
epalmer@phoenixlaw.edu"

Can anyone help Mr. Palmer?

The following article is from SQL Servers diaries, by Reubin, about basic stress testing.

"When it comes to testing queries I noticed that most developers usually write the query, verify that it returns the required result set then deploy it in the application or report and move on to the next query. While some might see this as one of the rapid development techniques, the problem with this approach is that most queries will only (most of the time) perform efficiently with a limited user-base and a small data set or small tables.

I have to admit that I sometimes do the same when I’m facing tight deadlines, but I cannot believe that this is a common trend for all application/database development. In the ideal world the hardware would be super-efficient, the database objects would be split into the correct FILEGROUP structures, and the database design would be excellent, each query or part of (whether encapsulated in stored procedures or ad-hoc) would be tested using different approaches and with the execution plan analysed for each approach, the correct indexes would be in place to assist the queries, the queries would have been tested using various workloads to simulate data growth and multiple users, etc.

The following is an article from it.tmcnet.com by Anuradha Shukla.

"Acquia has significantly enhanced the Acquia Network empowering its subscribers with self-guided training for Drupal concepts and best practices.

Acquia Network, claims the company, provides developers and site builders an unparalleled collection of answers, tools, and support for assembling extraordinary web experiences with Drupal.

Running on industry-standard hosting platforms, Drupal is free, open-source software that powers millions of websites and online applications.

These enhancements also enable site testing under a variety of traffic load conditions; makes available an internet marketing report specific to Drupal; and offers enhanced vision and proactive management of site configuration issues.

These apps include Insight, SEO Grader, Blitz and Drupalize.Me.

Insight provides Drupal site owners with a dynamic, real-time, at-a-glance view into their sites.

Powered by Volacci, SEO Grader provides an internet marketing review optimized for Drupal.

Blitz is a self-service load and performance testing platform that enables developers to deploy high-performance websites with confidence.

Drupalize.Me is an extensive library of tutorial videos that speed the acquisition of key Drupal skills.

The following is an article by breakingpointsystems.com on load testing.

"Harden and Optimize Network Infrastructure Used for High-Frequency Trading and Other Low Latency Networks

Financial exchange operators and brokerages operate high-frequency trading networks that must perform with latency measured in nanoseconds. These high-speed infrastructures, driven by huge growth in algorithmic trading, require a new approach to pre-deployment testing.
Low Latency Network Testing Challenges
Given the extreme performance demands of high-frequency trading environments, financial firms must test their network and security devices for themselves. The same goes for service providers, online gaming companies, and others that rely on low-latency transm
issions. Only such testing enables you to:
Accurately understand the performance, security, and stability of each competitive product before purchase and deployment
Find the most cost-effective solutions to deliver sub-microsecond latency performance for your infrastructure
Purchase only what’s needed, hold vendors accountable, and eliminate finger-pointing
Use advance insight into product capabilities to improve IT risk management
BreakingPoint’s Solution for Low Latency Network Testing

The following is an article by breakingpointsystems.com on load testing.

"Harden and Optimize Network Infrastructure Used for High-Frequency Trading and Other Low Latency Networks

Financial exchange operators and brokerages operate high-frequency trading networks that must perform with latency measured in nanoseconds. These high-speed infrastructures, driven by huge growth in algorithmic trading, require a new approach to pre-deployment testing.
Low Latency Network Testing Challenges
Given the extreme performance demands of high-frequency trading environments, financial firms must test their network and security devices for themselves. The same goes for service providers, online gaming companies, and others that rely on low-latency transm
issions. Only such testing enables you to:
Accurately understand the performance, security, and stability of each competitive product before purchase and deployment
Find the most cost-effective solutions to deliver sub-microsecond latency performance for your infrastructure
Purchase only what’s needed, hold vendors accountable, and eliminate finger-pointing
Use advance insight into product capabilities to improve IT risk management
BreakingPoint’s Solution for Low Latency Network Testing

The following is an article by Patrick Gray at techrepublic.com.

"Takeaway: Rather than effectively outsourcing your testing efforts to subordinates and hoping for the best, consider IT leadership’s involvement and input into the testing process.

Testing a complex new system, whether it’s composed primarily of various technologies, enhanced processes, or both, seems like something “beneath” the average IT leader. There are rafts of project management specialists, testing packages, and consulting houses dedicated to various aspects of testing, and one could almost be forgiven for assuming that this is an area best left to the experts. While many an IT leader has had minimal involvement in testing and been successful, most of the dramatic project failures headline their list of “if only we had” with strong leadership involvement in testing.

When a highly visible system fails outright or requires complex and costly rework to limp through its first few quarters, the blame is going to be firmly focused on IT leadership, not the person or software in the trenches. Rather than effectively outsourcing your testing efforts to subordinates and hoping for the best or wondering “what the heck happened” as your CFO hounds you over millions in lost or missing revenue, consider IT leadership’s involvement and input into the testing process.

Trust your gut

The following is an article from Ramesh Natarajan about planning for an IT disaster recovery.

"Implementing a disaster recovery solution is dependent on three factors — 1) time 2) resources 3) dollar amount.

Most organization doesn’t even think about DR when the IT infrastructure and applications are running without any issues. Most of them think about DR only when something breaks that created a major negative impact on the business.

If you are a sysadmin, or someone who is responsible for keeping the IT running, you should be constantly working on disaster recovery. Whether your company allocated time and budget or not, you can still work on some aspects of DR.

The following is list of various items that you might want to consider while planning for a DR. This list is not comprehensive by any means, but it should give you enough ideas to get started on DR.

The following is about a load testing tool from webresoursesdepot.com.

"loadUI is an open source, cross-platform and free load testing tool that supports all the standard protocols-technologies.

With a slick, drag 'n' drop interface, it allows us to create new tests and fine tune every detail very easily.

The tool consists of various components that play with each other very well like statistics, scheduler or analytics components.

loadUI can send multiple requests from a single machine or the requests can be distributed across any number of remote machines by installing agent apps to them for a real-world simulation.

Multiple tests can be ran at the same time, the details of each test can be viewed live and it is possible to compare them with previously-ran tests.

Also, it has a powerful reporting engine that can auto-generate detailed and easy-to-understand reports with only few clicks."

Sounds like a good load testing tool. Visit their site at click hereg

The following is an article from Stuff.co.nz about load testing.

"TelstraClear has come first and Vodafone last in a speed test run by Wellington testing firm TrueNet that measured how quickly an averaged-sized webpage hosted on Trade Me's servers would load.

TrueNet conducted 25,000 tests and found the page loaded in 0.2 seconds on average on TelstraClear's cable network and took 2.5 seconds to download over Vodafone's DSL network. Telecom's Xtra came second with an average download speed of 0.3 seconds.

TelstraClear's DSL service performed similarly to its cable service, TrueNet said, but those results had not been included because of a small sample size.

Separate data compiled by TrueNet on the performance of mobile networks in Auckland has been seized on by Telecom in television advertisements for its "smartphone network" that compared the download speed of its XT network against Vodafone's 3G network.

TrueNet said "packet loss" that resulted from the management of network congestion appeared to be an issue for some internet providers, which it believed could explain the large variation in webpage download times."

A good article from Stuff.co.nz

The following is an article from NetworkWorld written by Bob Hockman, product manager, Empirex Inc.

"This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

Unified communications (UC) requires many components, protocols, back-end processes and pieces of communication equipment to work together seamlessly. But users don't care about the complexities involved. If they experience poor voice quality, frozen screens or inconsistent performance, they won't use any solution, no matter how cutting-edge.

To ensure workforce acceptance organizations need an effective UC Assurance Program that offers a methodical, end-to-end approach to performance evaluation. User experience cannot be understood by making a few test calls or sporadically checking video streams. UC solutions must be evaluated under conditions that accurately reflect how -- and how often -- they will be used.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF UC: Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

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The following is an article from Ixia about performance testing.

The following is an article from Sys-Con Media Inc. about performance testing.

"(www.panologic.com), the leader in zero client desktop virtualization, today announced that Pano Logic outperformed alternative thin clients during the PC Challenge, a double-blind performance test conducted at BriForum in Chicago, Ill., July 19-21, 2011.

The PC Challenge invited users to compare competitive desktop virtualization offerings, including Pano Logic G2, Wyse P20 and Wyse Xenith. Users were asked to grade performance based on Microsoft Office application responsiveness, such as scrolling through PowerPoint, as well as video quality and playback.

According to the results of more than 100 individual scores from BriForum attendees and course instructors, two-out-of-three users preferred Pano Logic zero client desktop virtualization. Additionally, Pano Logic achieved the highest overall average score across all four tests, earning the highest average score in video playback and PowerPoint comparisons.

The following is an article from Softsmith Infotech about performance testing.

"Softsmith Infotech has launched 1000 virtual user load testing solution for ISVs who develop web based applications. Crossing the 1000 concurrent user load test hurdle is the foremost factor that determines the success of any online portal or SaaS applications. Softsmith assists all ISVs on this space, within the shortest time frame and at a price point that can be met by any SME organization.

"We had serviced 9 ISVs within the first 4 days of launch. Our load tests have helped our customers to go-live with confidence", says P. Nagarajan, CEO, Softsmith. In this offering, the web application will be stressed for a maximum of 1000 users for 2 to 3 hours with large amount of data. This will expose any performance issues in the application and Softsmith team will assist customers to optimize the performance as well. Softsmith's partnership with Neotys (NeoLoad tool), enables the clients to get the load testing done, in the shortest possible timeframe.

The following article is from Shundra about mobile application performance.

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) August 24, 2011

Shunra, the leading authority in application performance engineering solutions, announced today the upcoming release of vCat™ 7.0, a Windows-based network emulation software solution. Along with the August release of PerformanceSuite™ 7.0 and NetworkCatcher™ 7.0, the newest version of vCat™ continues Shunra’s commitment to mobile application performance testing.

vCat™ 7.0 transforms a PC into a real-world Wide Area Network (WAN) test environment. The solution’s newest version tests the quality of network performance for users, under a variety of current and potential network conditions directly from the desktop.

The following is an article from Spirent Communications PLC(SPT) on performance testing.

"SGS Chooses Spirent for LTE Device Performance

Print
08/24/2011 | 09:35 am
SPIRENT : SGS Chooses Spirent for LTE Device Performance Testing
SGS Electrical and Electronics, a leading testing and certification company, has selected Spirent Communications' mobile device testing equipment for its new Basking Ridge, New Jersey laboratory. The Basking Ridge site will provide substantial 3G/LTE device testing support in cooperation with a major wireless network operator. Spirent's 8100 Mobile Device Test System will be used to test the performance of CDMA/EV-DO, LTE and multi-mode mobile devices intended for the US market.

"Spirent's automated system gives us a wide range of testing on a single platform," said Michael Spitzer, Global Wireless manager at SGS. "In addition to testing basic mobile device performance, we'll use the system to test performance in several specific areas. This testing helps the operator ensure high quality, trouble-free cellular service."

The following is a good article from Intellipro Solutions Pvt, Ltd about load and performance testing.

"Process of load & performance testing of newly developed software is mandatory for ensuring the proper working of the delivered product and in getting the satisfaction of customers. IntelliPro always provide its customers the best quality product. The quality is ensured by applying heavy load and tune the application accordingly by analyzing the performance indicators.

Performance and load testing is of highly critical for the web applications related to online businesses. The business website if not performing well i.e. taking much time in loading or processing of the information, then viewer/ customer will get fed up and will leave that website which results into losing a valued customer. But here at IntelliPro, we do keep in mind these critical points and provide the solutions with no compromise on quality.

The performance of web applications are monitored by looking at different parameters i.e. requests per second approach in which the application performance is measured by looking at the picture that how many transactions or requests can be entertained in a second by a software application especially web application.

The following is an article from Skills Matter written by Simon Brown.

"Have you ever built a software system and your users have complained that it’s too slow? I have; debugging live performance and scalability issues with business sponsors watching over your shoulder isn’t fun! Load testing is an often forgotten and seemingly difficult task that many people shy away from but a basic level of load testing is often enough to give you confidence that you've satisfied expectations regarding performance and scalability. This tutorial will look at how to load test your website and you’ll learn: - What load testing is all about. - How to implement a load testing script using the free and open source Apache JMeter tool. - How to run a load test and monitor the environment (the load testing client and your website server environment). - How to process, analyse and present the results.

Prerequisites

You'll need the following installed on your laptop:
Microsoft Visual Studio (2008 or 2010; to run a C#/ASP.NET 3.5 web application).
Java SE Development Kit (version 6 or 7).
Apache JMeter 2.5 (download the ZIP version and unzip it somewhere obvious).
Think this is interesting? Join the discussion! Follow us on Twitter and use the tags #prognet11 and #dotnetsm, "Like" us on Facebook, and join our dedicated LinkedIn group."

A good article from Simon.

BrowserMob has written a good blog about load testing and load testing best practices.

"Introduction

Welcome to the 5th and final blog in our Load Testing Best Practices series. Today we’ll be focusing on how to make sense of your load test once it’s complete and then dig into the data to help locate the cause of any problems you’ve uncovered.

What do we mean by Analysis?

The goal of running a load test is to identify if your website has any performance or capacity issues, and if so to use the test results to zero in on the possible causes. You want to point your developers and system administrators in the right direction to fix the problem.

In short, it’s about turning this:

“We have a problem: we need our website to support 500 users but it can’t”

Into this:

“We have a problem: In Use Case #4(Update my Profile) there is a problem on Page 5(Change Address); the application is taking much longer to return any data to the user than it should be, probably because of a slow SQL query. The problem seems to appear when the test ramps up from 300 to 400 concurrent users.”

The more specific we can get the faster and more reliably the problem will get fixed.

Charts & Graphs

The following is an article from the BrowserMob Blog about load testing and load testing tips.

"Do you know where your website traffic is coming from? How about the percentage of traffic coming from various regions?

A new report from, comScore, a market research firm, found that nearly 24.1% of total number of users visiting Amazon’s retail website in the month of June, came from the Asia Pacific region. Similarly, 24.9% of the total traffic on Apple’s website are from this same region.

As companies continue to expand their brands globally, it becomes increasingly important to keep track of where traffic is coming from, as load times and performance may vary depending on the region.

So how can you make sure you are running load tests that encompass traffic from around the world? Select a load testing tool that will allow you to test various traffic scenarios from around the world. For instance, BrowserMob offers Tokyo as a location from which you can generate traffic for your load test, as well as five other locations around the world.

For more information on load testing best practices, read the series: http://blog.browsermob.com/tag/load-testing-best-practices/

A good article from BrowserMob.

Aeroflex EAST500 LTE Network Capacity Tester Receives 2010 TMC Communications Solutions Product Of The Year Award.

"Aeroflex Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aeroflex Holding Corp. (NYSE:ARX), announced today that TMC, a global media company, has named the Aeroflex's EAST500 Network Capacity Tester a recipient of a 2010 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award. "Aeroflex was chosen to receive a 2010 Product of the Year for exceptional advancements in mobile network testing," said Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC. "The EAST500 demonstrated significant benefits for customers deploying LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile communications networks around the world. Congratulations to the entire team."

"We are very proud to receive this important award which recognizes the value of the EAST500 Network Capacity Tester to the operators and network equipment vendors," commented Evan Gray, Product and Marketing Director at Aeroflex Limited. "The EAST500 enables our customers to meet the challenge of load and stress testing an LTE network, under real world conditions, to validate and assess operation, diagnose and find problems and to optimize performance," he added. "It is also built upon the proven platform of our highly successful TM500 network infrastructure test product, which has been in widespread use for LTE network testing since 2008."