Load test?

[finiq]

Hi! All,

Good Day. FYI, I am a new user of Ranorex (Full version). Originally, the plan is to use Ranorex to proceed the Regression Test for our company software application but then due to my boss "new requirements" after I purchased then I would like to know Ranorex is it possible to automate on the Load Test?

If Yes, may I request you to share some very simple project to me (maybe lets imaging Calculator as the software application in my company)?

Please let me know if you need to have any additional information, thanks & very appreciate with your strong support.

Regards,
Nicholas

[Ciege]

The term load test is very broad and can range in definition from company to company.
So to better answer your question you need to provide more information.
1) What do you define a load test as?
2) What type of AUT is it?
3) What would be a successful load test in your AUT?
4) What measurements do you want to capture?
5) What is your experience with load testing?

These and many more questions need to be answered before determining if Ranorex can work for you. Ranorex is initially a function test tool and not designed as a load testing tool. That being said you can use a functional test tool to do some aspects of load testing depending on what it is you really want to do...

[finiq]

Dear Ciege,

Good Morning. Appreciate with your guidance and please refer to the following items for your further advice:

1. For example, our product is Air Ticket Booking System. I will setup an environment with 50 users to keep continuing to reserve air ticket through online. From here, the main testing target will be the booking function.
2. From the above testing environment, we will focus on whether our system able to support such usage (including the DB) or not...
3. Also, above environment will apply in the VMWare Infrastructure... is it possible to run 50 execution (with different type of input data) in 1 PC Client?
4. I only have the experience on sanity & regression test...
5. also, may I know what is AUT?

Please let me know if you need more information and further clarification...

Thanks.

Regards,
Nicholas

[Ciege]

Hi Nicholas,

First off, AUT stands for Application Under Test in other words what application you are testing...

OK, to cut to the chase you mentioned testing for performance using VMWare. You can NOT test performance using a virtual system. There are too many variables and your data will tell you nothing about the performance capabilities of your AUT. If you are going to test performance you MUST use either the base minimum requirements of your AUT or a standard benchmark system that you will configure and use for all performance tests.

Now, for doing the multi user testing. If you are planning on testing the resiliency and performance of your DB back end, Ranorex will not be your tool of choice (not saying that Ranorex cannot communicate with a DB, it can, just not the way you need). You will need to find a tool that will allow you to simulate (as you requested) 50 users and inject your db (SQL/Oracle/DB2?) statements directly to the DB circumventing your AUT. You will need a tool that can start slow, ramp up over time, hold peak usage and ramp down automatically. This is not what an automated functional test tool does.

So to answer your question specifically, Ranorex will not be able to do what you want due to the inherent design of an automated functional test tool. You will need to do some more research about what exactly it means to do performance testing as it is a whole other beast than functional testing. I would strongly suggest bringing in an experienced contractor or consultant to help design this for you since you say you have never done it before. It's not easy to do it right and takes a lot of planning before you can even begin.

Good luck!