Monitoring and Tuning Your Server

As a rule, use between 10 and 100 threads per client machine. If you find that you need to run a stress test that requires more than 100 threads per client machine, consider adding more client machines.
Monitor processor utilization on the clients; anything below 80 percent should work well. A client machine may not be capable of sustaining the stress loads when its processor utilization is greater than 80 percent. If this occurs, the test becomes invalid.
When you are adjusting the threads and sockets for a Web Application Stress Tool test, use just one socket (stress multiplier) unless you are performing a special type of test. For more information about this setting, see the Web Application Stress Tool online documentation help topic “Stress Level vs. Stress Multiplier.”
Limit the number of users to less than 1,000 unless there is a specific reason that you require more unique users. Although the number of users allowable is limited only by the amount of memory on the client machine(s), you may find that it takes too long for a test to initialize when you have a large number of users.
Avoid creating scripts with more than 1,000, script items. The number of scripts is limited only by the amount of memory on the client machine, but you may find that it takes too long for a test to initialize when your scripts contain large numbers of script items.