LoadComplete is a tool for creating website load tests. Load testing involves simulating multiple virtual users that send requests to the tested web site concurrently and evaluating the web site performance under the massive load.

Virtual users are not real users. LoadComplete simulates recorded requests and the tested server “thinks” that it works with an actual user. Each virtual user works according to its task, or scenario. A scenario is a sequence of requests sent to the server and the server’s responses to them. In other words, the scenario emulates user actions on the tested web site.

Load testing of websites with LoadComplete includes the following steps:

Recording a scenario.

You create scenarios by recording interactions with your tested web application or server. During the recording, LoadComplete captures all HTTP, HTTPS, and WebSocket traffic between your computer and the target server. To record a scenario, you need to start the recording, perform all desired actions against the tested web server and then stop the recording. When you start the recording, LoadComplete creates a load test based on the scenario. After you finish the recording, LoadComplete automatically saves it.
Modifying the recorded traffic (optional).

After you record a scenario, you may want to modify the recorded traffic. For example, you may want to remove unnecessary requests, change information sent to the web application and so on. You can do this in LoadComplete Scenario editor.
Verifying the recorded scenario.

It is a good practice to verify that the recorded scenario works fine. To do this, run the Verify Scenario command for the scenario. LoadComplete will run a scenario for one virtual user and check whether the recorded traffic simulates correctly.

Another way to check if the scenario works correctly is to run the single-user test that LoadComplete creates automatically after recording a scenario. The difference from verifying the scenario is that you can check if the scenario works correctly with various settings available for load tests (SLA, Random think time, and so on).
Creating load tests that will simulate recorded traffic.

You create a load test on the basis of a verified scenario. You can record several scenarios that will simulate various user actions on the tested web site and create a load test that will run these scenarios simultaneously.

You can also use a single-user test that LoadComplete creates automatically for a recorded scenario.

Assigning recorded scenarios to desired virtual users.

After you create a load test, you assign the desired number of virtual users to it. The maximum number of concurrent virtual users that can be simulated on a single workstation is 2000. To simulate more virtual users, you can distribute them among several workstations.

If you simulate traffic on Amazon cloud computers, you can assign any number of virtual users to the cloud computers in your load tests. LoadComplete will launch the needed number of instances and distribute the virtual users among them automatically.

Note:

For Amazon cloud computers, you can manually set the maximum number of virtual users that can be simulated on a single instance (the default value is 400). LoadComplete will use the value to calculate the number of instances to launch from the machine image.

Running load tests.

When you run a load test, LoadComplete runs the Remote Agent processes (RAS.exe) to simulate virtual users. This process sends all the recorded requests to the target web server and then compares the received responses with the recorded responses. During the test run, LoadComplete neither opens the browser, nor loads any web pages to it.

Note:

One Remote Agent process can simulate a limited number of virtual users. If your load test simulates more virtual users, LoadComplete launches additional RAS.exe processes. After the testing is over, LoadComplete closes all extra RAS processes.

Analyzing load test results.

After the load test run is over, LoadComplete provides you with detailed information on simulated requests and received responses. It automatically shows the panel that contains detailed information on the test run and assists you in dealing with errors and warnings that occurred while the test was being executed (if any).

Note: You can export test results and send them via email.

You can follow the Creating Your First Test tutorial to learn more about creating load tests with LoadComplete. After completing this tutorial you will be able to create your own website load tests with LoadComplete, run them and analyze test run results.

Load Testing - Basic Concepts

See Also