eValid™ -- Automated Web Quality Solution Browser-Based, Client-Side, Functional Testing & Validation, Load & Performance Tuning, Page Timing, Website Analysis, and Rich Internet Application Monitoring.

Synopsis
Using eValid developed functional tests and a battery of DSL-based test machines, eValid LoadTests were able to overload the website of a well known document storage and manipulation website and identify major system bottlenecks.

Background
This customer's service involved storing, editing, and re-storing complex sets of documents and was implemented primarily as a server side database application with client-side control and access of creation, update, and disposition of records. Because of the database nature of the application, performance of the interior structure became a serious issue when more than a threshold number of users attempted to access the system.

The goal of our work was to create realistic sequences of tests that provided loads similar to what real users were doing. Once the loading scripts were developed, our objective was to drive the system as heavily as possible and determine where the bottlenecks to the application were.

eValid Application Description
Most of the work involved perfecting a suite of tests for the LoadTest scenario that involved these kinds of actions:

1. Logging into the website;
2. Creating a new database entry and populating it with data;
3. Uploading data into the database from the client machine;
4. Accessing and editing an existing record; and,
5. Selectively deleting data records.

The suite of functional tests developed was then merged into a set of LoadTest scenarios that was carefully balanced to emulate an actual user activity load. These scenarios were applied in increasing numbers of parallel session using increasing numbers of machines and DSL connections, until adequate loading information could be seen on the server machines. At one point our maximum upload rate was in the 2 MBytes/second range.

Results Achieved
After the series of ramp-up tests was completed we were able to analyze performance data from the servers that let us recommend simple architectural changes to eliminate the previously existing bottlenecks. We estimate that performance/capacity of the website was improved by about a factor of 10 as a result of these changes.

Customer Comments
"The use of 100% real tests made all the difference in the world, and the eValid team did a super job in helping us tune our servers for maximum performance." -- M. B.