OpenSTA offers an impressive amount of customization and control over various portions of the test configuration. With scripts
in hand, I returned to Commander and began defining tests. The test setup screen is a spreadsheetlike interface.
To set up the test, developers drag and drop scripts onto the testing grid. Each row in the testing grid depicts a task group,
and each column depicts a task. A single task group can execute as many as 200 tasks, and developers can define as many as
200 task groups. This level of granularity can enable precise testing of the various portions of a Web site or app under varied
conditions.
Within the testing grid, you can also define the number of iterations for a task, task group, or both. Moreover, you can define
metrics, such as startup delays, think times (end-user idle time), and which machines should run which tasks. For example,
in one of my tests I defined 20 task groups and had each of five load-test clients executing four of the task groups.
After the tests have been defined, they are started from the Commander interface. Switching to the monitoring tab, I could
see basic data about the running tests, such as the number of virtual users and the number of successful and failed test calls.
After the test is completed, developers can switch to the results tab to view reporting data.
OpenSTA offers basic built-in reports, such as errors versus the number of requests, and there is some drill down provided.
OpenSTA does not, however, include a test-comparison function as do the other two tools evaluated here. But you can export
data (CSV format) or data and charts to Excel for the purpose of comparison.
With the right price tag -- free -- OpenSTA is a solid, basic Web technology test tool that belongs in every IT toolbox. It
may not have all of the bells and whistles of its counterparts, but it makes fast and accurate Web load testing a simple affair.
Proxy Sniffer Professional Edition 3.7
Of the three tools tested here, Proxy Sniffer gets the nod for offering a full-featured Web load-testing solution at an attractive
price. It goes further than OpenSTA and offers most of the same Web load-testing capabilities as the more expensive PureLoad.
Proxy Sniffer is a Web browser-based solution that supports stand-alone and distributed testing leveraging Unix, Linux, and
Windows load-test clients. The Proxy Sniffer server and GUI are graphically launched on Windows or are started via the command
line on Unix and Linux.
Proxy Sniffer functionality is served up via a series of different browser windows, which launch from one another. In the
initial browser window, I recorded several scripts and edited them. I was able to insert think times and add variables and
the like. Proxy Sniffer scripts can use variable input from files or other variables to simulate end-user interaction during
tests.
E-mail
Printer Friendly
Reprints
(InfoWorld) - In the litigious world we live in, deploying a unified communications platform in your enterprise could...
