This is my first post on LoadRunner blog. Before starting to dig into LoadRunner, we will try to get some basics of Software Performance Testing. I would like to introduce some concepts regarding performance testing and types of performance testing.
The basics introduced here are not limited to LoadRunner, these can be applied across all performance testing strategies (using any other performance testing tool).
Performance testing is the process of studying the application behavior under varying load conditions. It ensures that the application is capable of functioning satisfactorily when processing peak data and user load.
Types of Performance Testing can be:
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Load Testing
- Testing the system under varying workloads to measure the performance behavior of the application such as response time, transaction rate, system resource utilization, etc.
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Stress Testing
- To ensure that the system is stable under the peak load conditions.
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Scalability Testing
- Testing whether the system is Scalable in terms of the number of users.
- Testing whether the system is Scalable in terms of the volume of data processed.
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Reliability & High Availability Testing
- To ensure that the system is available continuously over a specified period of time without failure.
- To measure the Mean Time To Failure (MTTF).
Please refer to this entry on wiki for a more thorough read for basics on Performance Testing.
Next part we will see the process used in Software Performance Testing.
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