Stress testing
Some potential customers have asked if our product has been stress tested. The answer is that we're not telling them until we figure out if it's possible. Web searches produce lots of hits on this subject, but I thought it would be wise to ask here first to see if anyone has experience and advice. Our app is actually composed of a Silverlight 4 app in the browser client, a C++ COM component at the other, and a WCF service to allow the two to talk to each other via XML. So there are many potential points for performance trouble: Loading the SL app, rendering complex graphics in the SL app, transmitting XML (it's zipped), network speed, IIS performance, and performance of the C++ component which further talks to the file system and contacts a master authentication server using FTP. The author the C++ component says it was not written with multithreading in mind. So we have to think of a way of stress testing this conglomeration. I'll continue reading web search results in the meantime. Greg
Re: Stress testing
I'd start with testing the easiest points first, the actual service and the components behind it. Rig up an application to hit these points in a multi threaded fashion. Eg. In a loop x long, create a new thread and fire off a call to svc or method. Repeat y times with z interval. Grant On 25/01/2012 4:38 PM, "Greg Keogh" wrote: > Some potential customers have asked if our product has been stress tested. > The answer is that we’re not telling them until we figure out if it’s > possible. Web searches produce lots of hits on this subject, but I thought > it would be wise to ask here first to see if anyone has experience and > advice. > > ** ** > > Our app is actually composed of a Silverlight 4 app in the browser client, > a C++ COM component at the other, and a WCF service to allow the two to > talk to each other via XML. So there are many potential points for > performance trouble: Loading the SL app, rendering complex graphics in the > SL app, transmitting XML (it’s zipped), network speed, IIS performance, and > performance of the C++ component which further talks to the file system and > contacts a master authentication server using FTP. The author the C++ > component says it was not written with multithreading in mind.**** > > ** ** > > So we have to think of a way of stress testing this conglomeration. I’ll > continue reading web search results in the meantime. > > ** ** > > Greg >
RE: Stress testing
Rig up an application to hit these points in a multi threaded fashion. It seems unavoidable to write some code as a part of this exercise. Since I own the SL4 code, I was thinking of adding a button (for admins only) that starts a loop of requests for random reports and charts at random intervals. The C++ guy is already thinking of doing something similar at his end. It still leaves so many links in the chain though to test, it's stinker of a problem. Greg
Re: Stress testing
I would start by trying to simulate real users and then crank that up till your server room temperature is a 3 digit ;-) Things to consider: - Network bandwith. Silverlight apps can be quite huge (>1MB). So if 1000 users start up the application at the same time in the morning 8AM. You get >1GB of data that you need to push out over your pipe. Internally that might be OK, but for the internetz you might think about hosting your XAP on a CDN. - Network bandwith #2. Measure the bandwith usage of 1 user using your app, and then 10 users (100 users). Does it scale? Where do the below numbers go? - Make sure to measure on the servers: - CPU, memory, Disk IO, network (perfmon) You can get very fancy with performance testing, till you have an automated stresstest in the cloud that runs every night and sends you a report in the morning. But you can get a very good feeling about performance with jut some manual verifications. Make sure to write your results down for later comparison. Not that I have been bitten by that ;-) .peter.gfader. http://blog.gfader.com fat fingers + tiny touchscreen -> short emails On Jan 25, 2012 8:05 AM, "Grant Molloy" wrote: > I'd start with testing the easiest points first, the actual service and > the components behind it. > > Rig up an application to hit these points in a multi threaded fashion. > Eg. > In a loop x long, create a new thread and fire off a call to svc or method. > Repeat y times with z interval. > > Grant > On 25/01/2012 4:38 PM, "Greg Keogh" wrote: > >> Some potential customers have asked if our product has been stress >> tested. The answer is that we’re not telling them until we figure out if >> it’s possible. Web searches produce lots of hits on this subject, but I >> thought it would be wise to ask here first to see if anyone has experience >> and advice. >> >> ** ** >> >> Our app is actually composed of a Silverlight 4 app in the browser >> client, a C++ COM component at the other, and a WCF service to allow the >> two to talk to each other via XML. So there are many potential points for >> performance trouble: Loading the SL app, rendering complex graphics in the >> SL app, transmitting XML (it’s zipped), network speed, IIS performance, and >> performance of the C++ component which further talks to the file system and >> contacts a master authentication server using FTP. The author the C++ >> component says it was not written with multithreading in mind. >> >> ** ** >> >> So we have to think of a way of stress testing this conglomeration. I’ll >> continue reading web search results in the meantime. >> >> ** ** >> >> Greg >> >
