Globe Free Load Generator
Nadia Grubb
We are in a process of testing SAP GUI application using loadrunner. The plan is to run 15,000 Vuser load from different Load Generators located across different parts of globe. We never performed load testing with such big VUser load. I have following questions:
1. What is the maximum VUsers we can generate on a Load Generator? ( As per HP Documents, For SAP GUI, we can generate 50 VUsers on a LG with 512 MB RAM), this means, 100 VUsers per GB, so if we increase the GB to 50 GB, would we be able to run 5000 VUsers from each Load Generator? Is this practically feasible? Can anyone share their experience of generating such a huge load for a Load Generator? Do we need to do any special settings to run Vusers of this magnitude?
2. We have 100 plus SAP GUI scripts that we are planning to run from different locations at the same time with 15,000 Vuser load. Would it be possible to add all 100 scripts to One controller? What are the maximum number of scripts that can be added to a Controller?
I have read this document. I was exactly thinking to do the same; increasing the load gradually and seeing how many VUsers it will take. Since this document does not talk about the maximum limit, I hope with good RAM it can support large number of VUsers. Let me do some experiment on it and will get back again.
The benefit of running full browser automation for load testing comes from driving the browser itself. Being able to run existing browser based automation suites as a control sample in conjunction with more traditional load testing tools and techniques is valuable for the increased fidelity of the simulation. However there's nothing stopping you from running larger grids with multiple nodes to increase the level of concurrency if you want to run Selenium only load tests.
We use Docker containers that run standalone Selenium Node images provided by the Selenium project for Chrome and Firefox. Inside those our Java plugin makes calls to the same internal reporting API using Elastic that all of our load test runners use. The plugin itself is using the JavascriptExecutor within WebDriver to parse the Navigation Timing API, something along the lines of:
Beyond that, results are formatted in the same fashion as all of our load test reports. Importantly we're not relying on any proxies in between your browser and the target site so as to minimize impact on your test results as much as possible. More information on getting started can be found in our getting started guide for selenium.
Unlike common components, the Load Generator does not appear as a standalone component when dragged onto the job canvas. Instead, the Load Generator takes the form of a wizard that lets you load and view files on the fly, altering load component properties and observing their effects without the need for a separate Transformation job. The generator can also guess the Schema of a table, relieving much your work.
Load Testing ensures that your application can perform as expected in production. Just because your application will pass a functional test, this does not mean that it can perform the same under a load. Load testing identifies where and when your application breaks, so you can fix the issue before shipping to production.
Businesses and consumers rely heavily on digital applications for critical functions, so it's important to validate that it can withstand realistic load scenairos. With a higher adoption of digital applications comes higher expectations of quality, and if your application fails in production, it can become costly. According to Gartner, The average cost of network downtime is around $5,600 per minute. That is around $300,000 per hour on average. Avoiding downtime in production is essential, and load testing helps ensure that your application is ready for production.
Getting started with load testing isn't as hard as it has been historically. In the past, learning to load test - creating a realistic scenario, scripting a test, replaying a test, and analyzing test results - required an immense amount of skill and time. Plus, every load testing tool is different. So learning how to use each tool to get the test runs to function how you intend it to is always a challenge. With LoadNinja though, you can skip this whole process without sacrificing quality or test coverage.
Think like a user would. What is important to your user base? What functions of your application are critical for them? Do they use different devices? By creating realistic load tests, you're able to more closely understand how your application behaves or would behave in production with real users. Real users to a certain extent are unpredictable, so keep randomness and variablilty in mind when evaulating the steps to take in your tests. Mix up the device and browser type so you can feel confident that your application is ready for deployment.
Whether your team is adopting an agile, devops, or shift left mentality, it's essential to test early and test often. Frequently performance testing is siloed and starts when a development project is over. However, in the last few years increasing the amount of feedback throughout your software development lifecycle has proved immensely valuable in finding and fixing issues rapidly. Prioritize making performance testing, and load testing in particular, a part of your agile, continuous integration, and automation practices.
Optimizing performance requires a deep understanding your application and it's users. Identify practical & realistic tests that can reflect reality, whether that means selecting devices, browsers, number of users, etc. Plus, load tests can't start from zero. In the real world, it's unlikely that the systems you're looking to update will not be running under load already. So rather than starting from zero and incrementally adding virtual users slowly until you reach the desired load, try running tests after your systems are already under load. This way you avoid the 'false-positives' that can come from starting your load tests from zero.
To achieve realistic benchmarks and scenarios, leverage data you already have. Reusing data from your monitoring tools can help illuminate what 'realistic' means in your specific case. In most cases, monitoring tools are running from a proactive and reactive point of view - meaning you can use synthetic and real user data to map out scenarios that failed in production with a synthetic monitor and/or add interactions that your users are already taking with your application into your test scenarios. This can include user driven data, like browsers, devices, user paths, dropoff points, and system based data, like DOM load, time to first byte, and more.
After running your load tests, the first obvious step is to identify any problem areas & take the next best steps to improving performance for that component. This means correlating performance bottlenecks with code to isolate the root-cause of the problem. Oftentimes this can be difficult if you're using a traditional testing tool because it requires 'translating' the test results into metrics you can leverage to share with your development team (or to use yourself) to dig deeper into the core code instigating the issue. If you're using LoadNinja, this step is no problem, since you're load tests results are browser-based metrics, which you can inspect & debug in real time.
Finding a tool that can support your team is essential. We know that performance testing practices can take a bit of time in the release cycle, but often they are the indicators for success in production. With performance testing, you can understand how your application is going to perform in production before you deploy, so you can find and fix issues before going live. Testing reveals if your website performs differently under load, whether your code change has unexpected changes, and saves money in the long run by identifying issues before they become costly problems in production. When evaulating a load testing tool, be sure to keep the following factors in mind:
Understanding what tool will fit best into your workflows is essential. Luckily, LoadNinja helps teams load test faster without sacrificing accuracy, so teams can continuously release quality software.
While the majority of legacy tools features are irrelevant for most load testers, we focus on the most important ones, refining and polishing OctoPerf to offer you the best possible user experience.
With CloudTest, we gain access to servers in countries across the globe and can therefore easily test and simulate a geographically dispersed user base. This also allows us to properly test applications that leverage CDNs. CloudTest supports most of the major cloud providers such as Amazon, Google, Azure, Rackspace, GoGrid and more.
High Scalability
CloudTest can test thousands to millions of users concurrently generating traffic on your site or app. Due to the flexible nature of the architecture, setting up to test for a 100 user test versus a 100K user test does not require much more effort. Basically, as soon as testing needs and test windows are defined, spin up the environment and load generators required and start testing.
The syntax for defining a Pipeline with either approach is the same, but whileJenkins supports entering Pipeline directly into the classic UI, it isgenerally considered best practice to define the Pipeline in a Jenkinsfilewhich Jenkins will then load directly from source control.
The Pipeline syntax snippet generator assists users as they define Pipeline steps with their arguments.It is the preferred tool for Jenkins Pipeline creation, as it provides online help for the Pipeline steps available in your Jenkins controller.It uses the plugins installed on your Jenkins controller to generate the Pipeline syntax.Refer to the Pipeline steps reference page for information on all available Pipeline steps.
Navigate to the Pipeline Syntax link (referenced above) from a configured Pipeline,and then click on the Declarative Directive Generator link in the sidepanel,or go directly to $YOUR_JENKINS_URL/directive-generator.
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