Whether You Need Detailed Results

During the test run, LoadComplete gathers various information on simulated virtual users, requests sent to your tested web server, responses received from it, and so on. For each test run, LoadComplete can generate the following logs:

• Report - Provides various metrics that show the performance of the tested web server. For instance, time metrics (Time to First Byte, Time to Last Byte, Page Load Time), speed metrics (Request transfer speed and Response transfer speed) and so on.

• Details - Provides detailed information on the operations simulated by each virtual user during the test run. It also shows the errors and warnings that occurred during the run. For simulated requests and received responses, it also can show headers and body contents.

You set the logging level by using the Logging > Store log data option in the Tools > Options > Simulating > General dialog. You can select one of the following logging levels:

• None
• Report data only (no Details)
• Report data + Details for unsuccessful VS simulations
• All data (Report + Details)

In large load tests (those that simulate more than several hundred virtual users), collecting detailed information on simulated virtual users and operations consumes a lot of CPU time and disk space. In addition, if you simulate virtual users on remote computers, copying the Details logs from the remote computers can take much time.

To avoid possible performance issues, we recommend that you disable gathering detailed information if you do not need it. For example, if your load test runs smoothly, and you do not expect errors or warnings, you can run the test with a reduced level of detailed results. This way, you will obtain performance metrics at the end of the test run, but the results will not consume too much memory.

We recommend that you enable detailed logging in the following cases:

• You are developing a new load test and you need information on the requests it sends and on the responses it receives. You may need them, for example, to configure data correlation or set up validation rules.

• Your load test runs with errors or warnings. You may need detailed information to explore the cause of the issue and debug your test.

If you enable detailed logging, we recommend that you decrease the number of simulated virtual users. It is easier to debug a load test when there is a small number of VUs. You can then increase this number when your test runs smoothly.

To reduce the logging level:

• Before running your test, go to Tools > Options > Simulating > General and set the Store log data option in the Logging section to Report data only (no Details).

– or –

• You can also disable detailed logging when starting your test: if you run a large load test with detailed logging enabled, LoadComplete will display a message box to notify you about possible issues. In this message box, you can select to reduce the logging level and run the test. This is equal to setting the Store log data option to “Report data only (no Details)”.

Open the Tools > Options > Simulating > General dialog and set the Logging > Store log data option to “Report data + Details for unsuccessful VU simulations” or to “All data (Report + Details)”.

We would like to remind you that we recommend that you turn detailed logging on only if you are creating or debugging your load test.