Stress and Performance Test in ASP.NET Application

Question

I want to run a stress and performance test on the interface of my ASP.NET application. My goal:

• Identification of bottlenecks
• Find out the number and loading of HTTP requests
• Easily identify components that use the Expires and / or gzipped header
• Find out where to increase download parallelization.
• Find duplicate scripts and non-redirected redirects
• Identify the load that will lead to server shutdown.
• Identify key areas for server optimization

Other than YSlow and Fiddler, are there any other tools I should use to complete this test? Also, please share all the best ratings for conducting such a test with me.

Thank you for your help,
John

Answer 1

Visual Studio Test Edition (2008/10) is a great tool to work with. You create separate web tests and combine them to create a load on your web server.

• Identify bottlenecks. The tool allows you to fine-tune the perfmon statistics you want to analyze. 2010 also automates the database tracking process.

• Find out the number and loading of HTTP requests. This requires some analysis of the IIS logs. Get a copy of Logparse2.2 (a free MS tool). Upload the logs to the database and see what happens.

• Easily identify components that use the Expires and / or gzipped header. Again, IIS logs are the best place to access what is.

• Indicate where to increase download parallelization. IIS logs will tell you where your actual users click on things, but Chrome has a really good tool to examine page by page on the timing of invalid items.

• Find duplicate scripts and raw redirects. Not sure about this.

• Identify the load that will lead to server failure. Create a load test based on the "common" group of page requests from the site. Add virtual users until the site dies. Keep in mind that any half-decent web server will require quite a bit of processing to tear it down, so to get enough load you will need a license for MS download agents. Visual Studio 2010 allows you to purchase a license for multiple virtual users and distribute virtual users on multiple machines to get a good load.

• Identify key areas of server optimization. The load loading tool captures perfmon server statistics and allows you to identify bottlenecks in the server. The test also displays the response time for individual pages, which indicates particularly slow pages for improvement.

Answer 2

If you have money, Web Metrics offers an interesting offer called SiteStress ( http://www.webmetrics.com/products/site_stress.html ). I looked at them a year ago, but did not use them.