Ants Spike Test Always Fails

[Aviram]

Hey,

I am trying to do a spike test and it always fails for me. I try as low as a 5 user spike test. The script size does not matter (I went as low as just logging in to an e-mail account and e-mail myself a simple message).

I have tried this test from a P4 PC with 1gig ram and high speed connection, as well as trying this from a server.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

[Brian Donahue]

Hello,

Can you please let me know what the failure is? For instance, do the results show that the test failed (5% of requests fell outside of the set criteria) or does the ANTS Load program actually throw an error message?

Thanks!
_________________
Brian Donahue
Technical Support
Red Gate Software Ltd.
44 (0)870 160 0037 ext 8521
US and CAN 1-866-RED GATE ext 8521

[Aviram]

Hello Brian,

The failure is always : 5 virtual clients *FAILED*

If I use a greater point then I get that number.

I would say it is the site, but I have tested numerous sites that I know can handle way more then 5 users at a time.

[Brian Donahue]

Hello,

I suppose there are a few things you could look into to make the test results appear 'successful'. On one hand, you could up the number of seconds that are unacceptable for 5% of requests or more in the load settings. You can also 'ignore the first x seconds of the test'. Sometimes, you will get a few requests that are way, way off, and you can possibly filter these out this way.

It also depends on the test scenario -- for instance maybe your site can handle 5 users, but if the Sleep() pauses in the script are really short or nonexistent, it's not a realistic test. A real user might stop to read a page for a few minutes, for instance, so long pages should have long sleep times between them. Any recorded script be accurate already as the Sleep times are the same as the user session that had created the script. If the script was created by hand, though, there is a possibility that you're following one request right after another, which would probably be many more requests per second than 5 users would normally generate.
_________________
Brian Donahue
Technical Support
Red Gate Software Ltd.
44 (0)870 160 0037 ext 8521
US and CAN 1-866-RED GATE ext 8521