Chat with a tester on load testing basics

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me: 

hi utester
how are you?
Are you online?

utester:

Hi Alex,
I'm well. And you?

me:
i am ok
do you have time for a chat?

utester:

Yes

me:

ok
so what exactly are you interested in?
i need to say from the beginning that i did not participate in load testing projects at uTest
but in my mind, they are not exactly load testing
load testing involves using a tool like Load Runner

unless i am mistaken, load testing for uTest means that lots of users use the app in the same time
outside of utest, load testing means something else

utester:

What expected in load testing?

me: 

in general, lets say that load testing is needed for a site

there are different types of tests that can be done
1. a test that shows you how many concurrent users that site can have before it goes down
2. a test that shows you when the site performance degrades, meaning what is the number of users when the performance of the site goes above 5 seconds, lets say

a load test has multiple components:
- the first one is to know what you want to do
- do you want to simulate users with multiple browsers or not?
- do you want to simulate different internet connection bandwidths?
- how should the users be loaded? should you start with 50 concurrent users from the beginning or start with 5 and add 5 more every few minutes?
- what are the most common scenarios that your users are using on the site?

are you following so far?

utester:

Yes. I see
We don't need report any bugs to customer in load testing, right?

me:

there are no bugs.
there are problems instead like for example:
- when you have 50 users, the time for opening a page is 20 seconds

or 

-when you have 75 concurrent users, the server reboots

load testing is a multi-discipline activity as you have to do multiple things as follows:

- record scripts that will simulate the most important user scenarios for the site; this involves some coding

- prepare data for the scripts parameters

- monitor servers performance counters

- finish your functional testing before the load test as the site must be stable

- run the load test and gather data from the server monitoring

- analyze the load test results and make improvements either on the server side, application side or scripts

- repeat everything from beginning

utester:

can we do all above tasks when using Load Runner tools?

me:

yes

load runner is the tool.

but the server monitoring is done on the server level.

unfortunately, load runner is extremely expensive so only big companies can afford it.

a free tool for load testing web site is http://jmeter.apache.org/.

but it is probably rather limited.

it could be a starting point though.

utester:

Thanks. Is this support web test only?

me: 

yes, i think so

utester: 

I checked the battery of some android devices in last month. I run more applications in background, and wait until battery is zero.

Is it also load test?

me: 

no

a load test assumes that you have multiple concurrent users on the app

that is a battery test 

utester: 

Yes. I see. thanks for clarifying.

me: 

you are welcome

a load test for mobile apps is quite difficult

and it could only test the backend of the app

since everybody is using the mobile app on his own device

if the mobile app is connected to a backend system, having 100 users using the mobile app in the same time might put some load on the backend system

utester: 

Sure. I also tested using Android Simulators (from SDK). But have not tried connected with 100 users

me: 

because it is not possible, each user uses 1 device.

was this chat useful for you?

utester: 

Yes. This is very helpful.

I think I need to practise with JMeter first.

I don't know which site I should try to practice?

me: 

try http://demo.testfire.net/default.aspx or create a test blog site and practice your load tests on it with a low number of users.

use a low number of users, 2 or 3

2 or 3 users should not be a big deal for a sample load test

utester: 

ok. thank you so much

me: 

utester, are you ok with me sharing this chat with the uTest forum after removing your name from it?

there may be other testers with similar questions

utester: 

OK. No problem

me: 

great

utester: 

I'm very happy when sharing with other testers 

me: 

if you want to discuss about other topics in the future, let me know 

utester: 

Yes Many thank you

me: 

you are welcome

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