We are proud to introduce QASource Perfcast! This new QALounge feature provides a brief overview of the latest performance testing tools to ensure that your application runs without hiccups. In addition to detailing new tools and feature updates for existing ones, Perfcast will offer tips for how to improve performance of your application.
Below is a summary of the information gathered by our experienced performance testing team for Quarter 3:
What to know before load testing starts:
- Objective of the load test
- Environment for the load test – a controlled environment is recommended
- Scenarios to be covered
- Response time benchmark
- Ramp up criteria
- Key performance indicators to be monitored
- Load generator, application server and DB server configuration details
Tips and Tricks:
- Break down scenarios into smaller scenarios to easily identify bottlenecks
- Avoid using heavy test data files
- Record “failure” messages only when load tests are running to allocate more memory to requests
Updates:
Load Impact released 3.0 adding new features such as a new user interface to optimize usability, performance trending, and multiple data stores.
SOASTA 55 introduced new CloudTest and TouchTest features with options such as baseline performance comparisons, remove device integration, globalization and dashboard sharing.
Tools We Evaluated:
Grinder is a freeware, java load testing framework that uses Jython scripts for running the load tests. Grinder supports HTTP, HTTPS, POP3, SMTP, FTP, and LDAP protocols. Grinder is dependent on Grinder Analyzer for analysis and report generation. It can be used to test Web Service interfaces using protocols such as SOAP and XML-RPC.
Gatling is freeware performance testing tool. It uses asynchronous event-driven IO which allows thousands of simulated users from a single machine. Gatling provides a HTTP recorder, produces higher load by using asynchronous non-blocking approach, supports HTTP(S) protocols and comprehensive informative load reports.
Be on the lookout for our next Perfcast! If you have any thoughts about how to improve performance of your team or recommend any tools for us to review, leave a comment and start a discussion below. Also, don’t forget to follow QASource on Facebook and LinkedIn for more quality content!
