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Tuesday 13 September 2016

Why should you choose Microfocus LoadRunner?

Why Microfocus LoadRunner?
There are many reasons to choose Microfocus LoadRunner (previously named as HP LoadRunner) as a Performance Testing tool:
  • Microfocus LoadRunner removes the drawbacks of manual performance testing with its user-friendly components.
  • LoadRunner reduces manual intervention requirements by replacing human users with virtual users (Vusers). 
  • Vusers emulate the behaviour of real users and create real-world load on the server.
  • LoadRunner reduces the amount of hardware required for testing because numerous Vusers can run on a single computer. That is called Load Generator.
  • Microfocus LoadRunner Controller is a single point of control over all the Vusers and also allows you to easily and effectively create test scenario according to your need.
  • LoadRunner monitors the application performance online and enabling you to fine-tune your system as per given SLA.
  • LoadRunner automatically records the performance of the application during a test. You can choose from a wide variety of graphs and reports to view the performance data.
  • LoadRunner checks where performance delays occur: network or client delays, CPU performance, I/O delays, database locking, or other issues on the database server.
  • LoadRunner monitors the network and server resources to help you improve performance.
  • LoadRunner tests are fully automated, so you can easily repeat them as often as you need.
  • LoadRunner supports multiple protocols related to latest technology.
  • LoadRunner can be easily integrated with other monitoring and profiling tools like Microfocus SiteScope, Microfocus Diagnostic etc.
  • Dedicated support is provided by Microfocus on LoadRunner issues.
Disclaimer: Brand Name, Logo and Links are subject to change as per product and company policy. It is advisable to refer to official LoadRunner site.

Monday 12 September 2016

Why should you choose Microfocus (HP) SiteScope?

HP SiteScope
Microfocus (HP) SiteScope is an agentless monitoring solution designed to ensure the availability and performance of servers, operating systems, network devices, applications and application components. This can be easily configured with Microfocus LoadRunner or Performance Center. This web-based infrastructure monitoring solution is lightweight, highly customizable, and does not require data collection agents to be installed on your production systems. With SiteScope, you gain the real-time information you need to verify infrastructure operations, stay apprised of problems, and solve bottlenecks before they become critical. SiteScope also includes templates that enable development of standardized monitoring organization and speeding up of monitor deployment. SiteScope also includes alert types that you can use to communicate and record event information in a variety of media. You can customize alert templates to meet the needs of your organization. While native monitoring in Performance Center may cover most of an organization's average needs, it is SiteScope, with its vast collection of monitors along with pre-packaged templates that are built to answer all possible monitoring requirements. SiteScope was pioneered as the industry's first agentless monitoring solution. SiteScope users have benefited from its industry-proven, agentless monitoring architecture. Unlike agent-based monitoring approaches, SiteScope reduces total cost of ownership by: 
  • Gathering detailed performance data for infrastructure components
  • Reducing the time and cost of maintenance by consolidating all monitoring components to a central server
  • Eliminating the possibility of an unstable agent affecting system performance.
SiteScope has many features like:
  • Configure and automate application monitoring for today’s dynamic cloud environments using APIs, Operation Orchestration flows, and Cloud Service Automation.
  • Dynamically update by adding and removing counters and thresholds as virtual machines move from one host system to another, and change thresholds based on historical monitoring data.
  • Achieve fast ROI—zero to value in less than 60 minutes—through rapid installation, updating, monitoring, and deployment by using mass-deploy templates and the Publish Changes feature.
  • Monitor utilization, response time, usage, and availability across a variety of host types and application platforms including Cisco, Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, WebLogic, and many more.
  • Incorporate a broad range of virtualization platform and monitoring types including Amazon Web Services monitoring and Amazon Cloud Watch integration for auto-scaling, alerting, and reporting support.
  • Monitor products from multiple vendors to predict potential problems in critical applications before users are affected.
  • SiteScope has Browser-based Interface which manages end-user status information requests, configuration change requests, and access control.
  • Using Scheduler option you can create a different type of running of monitors for the particular time period, alert creation and report generation.
  • Monitors collect different type of performance and availability information about the system being monitored which help to find out bottleneck.
  • Micro Focus Sitescope alert is one of the best feature, based on the configuration the alerts will be triggered automatically to our e-mail.
  • Different type of monitoring reports can be generated for analysis and debugging purposes.
There are a couple of drawbacks/limitations also associated with SiteScope:
  • Micro Focus SiteScope works by repeatedly logging in to the server remotely from the console, collecting the parameters, and generating the alerts. 
  • SiteScope does not monitor certain physical components. For example, SiteScope cannot monitor power supplies failing, failed hard drives (it DOES monitor disk space), array controllers, etc.
  • SiteScope does not offer to cascade alerting
  • It is not appropriate for a very large scale environment as the tool has some scalability issues
SiteScope Monitors
SiteScope monitors more than 100 different target types for critical health and performance characteristics. You can also extend your monitoring environment by creating your own monitor types and customizing existing monitors.
Application Monitors
  • Active Directory Replication Monitor
  • Apache Server Monitor
  • BroadVision Application Server Monitor
  • Check Point Monitor
  • Cisco Works Monitor
  • Citrix Monitor
  • ColdFusion Server Monitor
  • COM+ Server Monitor
  • F5 Big-IP Monitor
  • HAProxy Monitor
  • Mail Monitor
  • MAPI Monitor
  • Memcached Statistics Monitor
  • Microsoft ASP Server Monitor
  • Microsoft Exchange Monitor
  • Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Monitor
  • Microsoft Exchange Message Traffic Monitor
  • Microsoft Exchange Public Folder Monitor
  • Microsoft IIS Server Monitor
  • News Monitor
  • Oracle 9i Application Server Monitor
  • Oracle 10g Application Server Monitor
  • Radius Monitor
  • SAP CCMS Monitor
  • SAP CCMS Alerts Monitor
  • SAP Java Web Application Server Monitor
  • SAP Performance Monitor
  • SAP Work Processes Monitor
  • Siebel Application Server Monitor
  • Siebel Log File Monitor
  • Siebel Web Server Monitor
  • SunONE Web Server Monitor
  • Tuxedo Monitor
  • UDDI Monitor
  • WebLogic Application Server Monitor
  • Web Server Monitor
  • WebSphere Application Server Monitor
  • WebSphere MQ Status Monitor
  • WebSphere Performance Servlet Monitor
Custom Monitors
  • Custom Monitor
  • Custom Database Monitor
  • Custom Log File Monitor
  • Custom WMI Monitor
Database Monitors
  • Database Counter Monitor
  • Database Query Monitor
  • DB2 Monitor
  • LDAP Monitor
  • Microsoft SQL Server Monitor
  • Oracle Database Monitor
  • Sybase Monitor
  • Generic Monitors
  • Composite Monitor
  • Directory Monitor
  • File Monitor
  • Formula Composite Monitor
  • JMX Monitor
  • Log File Monitor
  • Multi Log Monitor
  • Script Monitor
  • Syslog Monitor
  • Web Service Monitor
  • XML Metrics Monitor
  • Integration Monitors
  • HPE OM Event Monitor
  • HPE Service Manager Monitor
  • NetScout Event Monitor
  • Technology Database Integration Monitor
  • Technology Log File Integration Monitor
  • Technology SNMP Trap Integration Monitor
  • Technology Web Service Integration Monitor
  • Media Monitors
  • Microsoft A/V Conferencing Server
  • Microsoft Lync Server Monitors
  • Microsoft Archiving Server
  • Microsoft Director Server
  • Microsoft Edge Server
  • Microsoft Front End Server
  • Microsoft Mediation Server
  • Microsoft Monitoring and CDR Server
  • Microsoft Registrar Server
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player Monitor
  • Real Media Player Monitor
  • Network Monitors
  • DNS Monitor
  • FTP Monitor
  • Microsoft Windows Dial-up Monitor
  • Network Bandwidth Monitor
  • Ping Monitor
  • Port Monitor
  • SNMP Monitor
  • SNMP Trap Monitor
  • SNMP by MIB Monitor
Server Monitors
  • Browsable Windows Performance Monitor
  • CPU Monitor
  • Disk Space Monitor (Deprecated)
  • DHCP Monitor
  • Dynamic Disk Space Monitor
  • HPE iLO (Integrated Lights-Out) Monitor
  • HPE NonStop Event Log Monitor
  • HPE NonStop Resources Monitor
  • IPMI Monitor
  • Memory Monitor
  • Microsoft Windows Event Log Monitor
  • Microsoft Windows Performance Counter Monitor
  • Microsoft Windows Resources Monitor
  • Microsoft Windows Services State Monitor
  • Service Monitor
  • UNIX Resources Monitor
  • Virtualization and Cloud Monitors
  • Amazon Web Services Monitor
  • Generic Hypervisor Monitor
  • KVM Monitor
  • Microsoft Hyper-V Monitor
  • Solaris Zones Monitor
  • VMware Datastore Monitor
  • VMware Host CPU
  • VMware Host Monitors
  • VMware Host Memory
  • VMware Host Network
  • VMware Host State
  • VMware Host Storage
  • VMware Performance Monitor
Web Transaction Monitors
  • e-Business Transaction Monitor
  • Link Check Monitor
  • URL Monitor
  • URL Content Monitor
  • URL List Monitor
  • URL Sequence Monitor
  • Web Script Monitor
Big Data Monitors
  • HPE Vertica
  • Hadoop
However, Micro Focus SiteScope is well suited for remote/agentless monitoring. If installing an agent is not an option, then Micro Focus SiteScope is a great tool to use. All you need is to set up a user/service account to enable monitoring and start collection metrics. That's the reason I like Micro Focus SiteScope.

You can download SiteScope’s trial version from below link:

or

https://software.microfocus.com/en-us/products/sitescope-application-monitoring/pricing

Disclaimer: Brand Name, Logo and Links are subject to change as per product and company policy. It is advisable to refer to SiteScope official site.

Saturday 3 September 2016

Do you really know all type of Performance Tests (Non-Functional Tests)?

Today, I am gonna discuss the very basic thing….Type of Performance Testing (Non-functional Testing). We know that software system or an application should be tested against the Speed, Stability and Scalability under a variety of load conditions; so that it’s true performance can be find-out before Go-Live. Non-functional testing encompasses a range of different tests which enable analysis of various aspects of the system. Non-functional testing tells about what needs to be fixed before going live (mainly the issues faced under the variety of load conditions). Many people have the different opinion on Load, Endurance, Stress and Volume Test. Some are considered them as one type of tests and some are having different views. I will explain what are the types of non-functional test and how they are different from each other:

Performance Test: Performance test is performed, to ascertain how the components of a system are performing in a particular situation. Resource usage, scalability and reliability of the product are also validated under this testing. Load SLA of performance test are either average load or expected load (not to break the system). Performance Test usually conducts in regression manner where small changes are being applied on the daily or weekly basis on the application. Generally, the time duration of the performance test is 1 hour (steady state); it may vary as per your SLA/requirement. The typical user load graph of the performance test is given below:
Performance Test Graph
Note: Performance Testing is a generic term which is used to represent Non-Functional Testing. Performance Test is one of the tests under Non-functional testing.

Load Test: Load Testing is a type of non-functional testing to check system with constantly increasing the load on the system until the time load reaches its threshold value. This type of test is conducted with an increase in load (number of concurrent users, transactions) and then checks the behaviour of an application under test. It helps to identify the maximum operating capacity of an application as well as any bottlenecks and determine which element is causing degradation. E.g. If the number of users is increased then how much CPU, the memory will be consumed, what is the network and bandwidth response time. Load testing is performed to make sure that what amount of load can be withstanding the application under test without impacting the response time. The typical user load graph of Load test is given below:

Load Test Graph

Stress Test: The main idea behind stress testing is to determine the failure of the system. Stress testing is a negative testing where we load the software with a large number of concurrent users/processes which cannot be handled by the systems hardware resources. This testing is also known as Fatigue testing. It puts greater emphasis on robustness, availability, and error handling under a heavy load, rather than on what would be considered correct behaviour under normal circumstances. The typical user load graph of the Stress test is given below:
Stress Test Graph

Spike Test: Spike testing is a subset of Stress Testing. A spike test is carried out to validate the performance characteristics when the system under test subjected to workload models and load volumes that repeatedly increase beyond anticipated production operations for short periods of time. Generally, the time duration of the spike test is 1 hour; it may vary as per your SLA/requirement
Spike Test Graph 
Volume Test: Volume test as the name suggested; refers to a test with the bulk of data to be processed to check the efficiency of the application. The main goal of this testing is to monitor the performance of an application under varying database volumes. Generally, the time duration of volume test is 1 hour or time required to process n number of records; it may vary as per your SLA/requirement. The best example of volume testing is to test a batch with millions of records.
Volume Test Graph

Endurance testing: Endurance testing involves testing a system with a significant load extended over a significant period of time, to discover how the system behaves under sustained use. That is, to ensure that the throughput and/or response times after some long period of sustained activity are as good as or better than at the beginning of the test. It is basically used to check the memory leaks. Generally, the time duration of Endurance test is 6-8 hours; it may vary as per your SLA/requirement. The typical user load graph of the Endurance test is given below:
Endurance Test Graph

Soak Test: Another name of Endurance Test. Soak Test is carried out on average load.

Scalability Test Graph
Scalability Test: Scalability Testing is conducted to determine the application’s capability to scale up in terms of user load, the number of transactions, the data volume etc. The purpose of a scalability test is different from stress or load test. Suppose; a company expects the six-fold load increase on servers within the next two months. They may need to increase the server performance and shorten the request processing time to better serve visitors. If the application is scalable then you can shorten this time by upgrading the server hardware, for example, you can increase the CPU frequency and add more RAM. Also, you can improve the request performance by changing the server software, for example, by replacing text-file data storages with SQL Server databases. To find a better solution, first, you can test hardware changes, then software changes and after that compare the results of the tests.

Recovery Testing
Recovery Test: Recovery testing is done in order to check how fast and better the application can recover after it has gone through any type of crash or hardware failure etc. Recovery testing is the forced failure of the software in a variety of ways to verify that recovery is properly performed. In recovery testing, the main focus is given on recovery time, % of the recovery, % of loss and performance of the application after full recovery.


There are some more types of Non-functional test which are considered as NPNFT (Non-Performance Non-Functional Test)

Compatibility Testing
Compatibility Test: Compatibility testing is performed to ensure compatibility of the system/application/website built with various other objects such as other web browsers, hardware platforms, users (in case if it’s very specific type of requirement, such as a user who speaks and can read only a particular language), operating systems etc. This type of testing helps to find out how well a system performs in a particular environment that includes hardware, network, operating system and other software etc.

Security Testing
Security Test: Security testing is used to check whether the application or the product is secured or not. It checks to see if anyone hacks the system or log in to the application without any authorization then the application should not be vulnerable to attacks. The security testing is performed to check whether there is any information leakage in the sense by encrypting the application or using a wide range of software and hardware and firewall etc. The six basic security concepts that need to be covered by security testing are confidentiality, integrity, authentication, availability, authorization and non-repudiation.

Usability Testing
Usability Test: In usability testing basically the testers tests the ease with which the user interfaces can be used. It tests that whether the application or the product built is user-friendly or not. Usability testing also reveals whether users feel comfortable with your application or Web site according to different parameters – the flow, navigation and layout, speed and content – especially in comparison to prior or similar applications. Usability Testing tests the following features of the software.
  • How easy it is to use the software?
  • How easy it is to learn the software?
  • How convenient is the software to end user?


Accessibility Test:  This is a subset of usability testing, and it is performed to ensure that the application being tested is usable by people with disabilities like hearing, colour blindness, old age and other disadvantaged groups.
Accessibility Testing


Localization Test:  Localization Testing is a software testing technique, where the product is checked to assure that it behaves according to the local culture or settings. In other words, it is a process of customizing software application as per the targeted language and country.
The major area affected by localization testing includes content and UI.
It is a process of testing a globalized application whose UI, default language, currency, date, time format and documentation are designed as per the targeted country or region. It ensures that the application is capable enough for using in that particular country


Internationalization Test: Internationalization is a process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without any changes.

Thursday 1 September 2016

Performance Testing Basic

To understand the basic concept of performance testing in a simple way, let's consider an example. I bought a goods carrier truck. On the very first day, when I drove it from the showroom to my garage, it was empty and running very smooth. Also, it gave a good mileage. The next day I got one order to ship 10k pounds material. I shipped it, but I found that this time my truck consumed more diesel means truck mileage was reduced. Next day, I shipped 30k pounds load from a city to a village which had a dirt road. This time truck ran very slow, mileage decreased drastically. All these three scenarios simulate a Performance Testing. 

When an application is new with no or very few users' load then it works smoothly. Day-by-day when user load increases then the performance of the application decreases. Now, you may ask in what term we can say the performance of an application is decreased? So, I will explain you in a sad path. 

An application's performance could be poor when
1. It is slow to respond.
2. It is stuck while browsing.
3. Suddenly, a 500 internal server error occurred.
4. If it shows due to high user load, server is down.
5. Request Timeout and many more in the list.
Above issues are good enough to understand in a laymen term. If you are a performance tester then these terms will become more technical and in performance testing language we can say, an application's performance could be poor when
1. The actual response time is more than the expected response time
2. The application is able to handle the load up to only X users beyond that server is crashed
3. The network latency is high which causes a delay in response
4. A particular page is failing when X number of users hit the page simultaneously.
5. Throughput is inconsistent on same user load.
To measure the above-mentioned metrics, mercury launched a tool in 1993. That tool supports Windows platform and able to generate (virtual) user load on the server. Later on, this tool was called "LoadRunner". Year-by-year, new features and technology supports (protocol) were added in LoadRunner which become the first choice of Performance Tester. 

The basic concept of Performance Testing Tool: A performance testing tool simulates a real user behaviour like browsing the web-page, login, submit an order etc. and then generate a desired user load on the server. The tool sends a request in the same manner as a real-world user sends and then receives a response from the server. The tool calculates the time to get a response from the server. 
Now-a-day, there is an ample number of performance testing tools which solve various purpose in performance testing. Some of them are open source (free) whereas some of them are licensed. If you want to know more about the existing performance testing tool then refer the link given in the related topic section. 

This is the basic concept of performance testing and performance testing tool.  

Related Topics:


What is Performance Testing and why it is needed?

The content has been moved to PerfMatrix Site.

Link: https://www.perfmatrix.com/what-is-performance-testing/