Running the Performance Tests

The test tool used to test the PT application was full featured enough to run the entire test. This meant that testers had to follow only a few steps to prepare for the test.

To prepare performance tests

  1. Deploy the test tool (in this case, RadView's Webload) on all necessary computers. In the case of PT application testing, this means deploying the control application on the console computer and the remote test application on each of the three client computers. Every test tool's documentation should explain thoroughly how to deploy it.
  2. Indicate to the console computer which client computers will run the PT application scripts. Technically, this step is part of the deployment of the test tool and should be explained in the tool's documentation.
  3. Create and save test scripts. Most commercially available test tools have a feature for recording scripts. PT application testers used this feature to create the five scripts used in this test. For more information, see Using Test Scripts. After this step, you can start the test (see the following section).
  4. Program the test tool application to execute tests as the test plan requires. This means setting, for example, the rate at which workload will be increased, the number of virtual users to increase it to, and the ways to weight (see Scripts Used for the PT Application) the various test scripts. These types of tuning should be explained in the test tool's documentation.

Starting the Test

Each time you run a performance test to contrast different test conditions (in this case, operating systems), you should hold other factors constant. In the case of the PT application, this means returning the available system memory and the state of a SQL Server database to known starting points. The test team accomplished this with the following steps:

To start testing the PT application

  1. Delete all new data added to the Eval SQL Server database. The PT application ships with a set of data that you cannot delete. To return to this initial state, delete all other data created by test scripts during previous tests. These tests added entries to four tables: Person, Location, Activity, and Logon. You can delete this data in either of two ways: Use the SQL Server Query Analyzer to run a series of queries such as 'Delete from Person Table where LastName = Student' or use the SQL Enterprise Manager to delete the newly added entries from the Person table.
  2. Restart all the test computers.
  3. Restart the remote (client-side) application of the test tool. For WebLoad, this remote application is called TestTalk.