When you open a schedule, you can set its properties.
User Load page
Right-click in the table,
and select
Add to add a stage. To modify a
stage, select the row, and then click
Edit or
click the user icon in the first column.
- Users
- Enter the total number of users to be active in the stage (not
the number of users to add or subtract to those currently running).
- Run for specified period of time
- Enter the length of time (and the time units) for the stage to
run. When the specified number of users is achieved, the users will
run for up to this time. When the time expires, the users continue
to run if they are required for the next stage; otherwise, they are
stopped gracefully.
Click
Show Advanced to
set further options to prepare the system under test before the users
actually enter the stage:
- Change Rate
- Enter a number to set a delay between adding or removing each
user, rather than adding them or subtracting them all at once. Staggering
users avoids overloading the system, which can cause connection timeouts.
The User Load Preview shows this delay in black.
- Settle Time
- A system under test might react to a sudden change in user population.
With a defined settle time, which starts when the target number of
users is reached, the system under test can settle into a steady state
so that it can accurately reflect the user population. The User
Load Preview shows this time in black.
- Time limit for a user to respond to a stop request
- Optionally enter a value. When a virtual user is asked to stop,
it completes its current action (such as an HTTP request) and then
finishes. If a virtual user has not finished within the specified
time limit, the user is forced to finish.
- User Load Preview
- Previews the user population stages over time. The red line segments
indicate that the total number of users has been achieved for the
state.
Think Time page
- Use the recorded think time
- Select to play back a test at the same rate that it was recorded.
This option has no effect on the think time.
- Specify a fixed think time
- Each user's think time is exactly the same value: the value that
you specify. Although this does not emulate users accurately, it is
useful if you want to play a test back quickly.
- Increase/decrease the think time by a percentage
- Type a percentage in Think time scale.
Each user's think time is multiplied by that percentage. A value of
100 causes no change in think times. A value of 200 doubles the think
times, so the schedule plays back half as fast as it was recorded.
A value of 50 reduces the think times by half, so the schedule plays
back twice as fast. A value of 0 indicates no delays.
- Vary the think time by a random percentage
- Each user's think time is randomly generated within the upper
and lower bounds of the percentages that you supply. The percentage
is based on the recorded think time. For example, if you enter 10
in Lower limit and enter 90 in Upper
limit, the think times will be between 10 percent and
90 percent of the original recorded think time. The random time is
uniformly distributed within this range.
- Maximum think time
- Setting a maximum think time is useful with tests that emulate
actual think times. By setting a maximum, you do not have to search
for and edit each long think time within a test. Numerous factors
can generate long think times, for example, you might be interrupted
while recording. To restore the original think times, clear this check
box.
Resource Monitoring page
- Enable resource monitoring
- Select to activate resource monitoring. The available data sources
are captured from these sources:
- Apache HTTP Server Managed Beans
- Apache Tomcat Managed Beans
- IBM® Tivoli® monitoring agents
- IBM DB2® snapshot monitors
- The IBM WebSphere® Performance Monitoring Infrastructure
- JBoss Application Server Managed Beans
- Java™ Virtual Machine Managed
Beans
- Oracle Database
- Oracle WebLogic Server Managed Beans
- SAP NetWeaver Managed Beans
- the UNIX rstatd monitor
- Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agents
- Windows Performance Monitor
Resource monitoring data can provide a more complete view of
a system to aid in problem determination.
- Ignore invalid resources when executing the schedule
- Select this setting to suppress any error messages that invalid
resources cause, such as unreachable hosts or invalid host names.
If you select this option, you must view logs to see error messages.
Statistics page
- Statistics log level
- These options are listed in order of the increasing amount of
data that they collect for the test log.
- None
- Collects minimal statistical data. Use this option to run a schedule
quickly for testing purposes.
- Schedule Actions
- Reports the number of active and completed users in the run.
- Primary Test Actions
- For HTTP tests, this option reports page-related actions (attempts,
hits, and verification points). For SAP tests, this option reports
information on SAP screens.
- Secondary Test Actions
- For HTTP tests, this option reports information that is related
to page elements. This option does not apply to SAP tests.
- All
- Provides statistics for all actions.
- Statistics sample interval
- Sets the sampling interval for reports. When you run a schedule,
the reports show such information as response time during a specific
interval, the frequency of requests being transferred during an interval,
and the average response trend during an interval. You set this sampling
interval here.
- Only store All Hosts statistics
- Select this option unless you are running a performance test over
different WANs, and you are interested in seeing the data from each
remote computer.
Variable Initialization
Use this page to
initialize variables at the schedule level. When you initialize variables
at the schedule level, all the user groups in the schedule use the
variable initial values, except those for which a specific value is
defined.
- Add
- Add a variable and initialize a value. The Used by column
displays the test name that uses the corresponding variable. A warning
icon is displayed for a variable that overrides the value specified
at the schedule level or user group level and uses the value defined
at the test level with the visibility set to This test
only. Hover the cursor over the warning icon to view the
tests that override the variable initial values.
- Export
- Export the variables defined at the schedule level to a file.
- Use variable initial values file
- Select this check box to use the variable values from a file.
Click Browse to select an existing file or
click New to create a file.
Performance Requirements page
- Enable Performance Requirements
- Select to enable the use of performance requirements for this
schedule.
- Name
- Specifies the name of this set of performance requirements. This
name is used in the Performance Requirements report. By default, the
name is Performance Schedule -schedule_name.
- Use Defaults
- Click to reset Name to the default value.
- Performance Requirement
- All performance requirements are displayed in the table. Shaded
requirements are not defined for this schedule. To define a requirement,
set an Operator and Value.
- Operator
- Click this field to display a list of mathematical operators.
Select an operator for this performance requirement.
- Value
- Click this field to set a value for the requirement.
- Standard
- Select to mark the requirement as standard. If a standard requirement
is not met, the schedule run will have a verdict of fail, and this
verdict will roll up to the entire run, like a verification point
failure. Clear to make the requirement supplemental.
In general, supplemental requirements are those that are tracked internally.
A supplemental requirement cannot cause a run to fail, and its results
are restricted to one page of the Performance Requirements report.
- Hide Undefined Requirements
- Select to see only the requirements that you have defined. This
hides the shaded rows.
- Clear
- Select one or more requirements and click to remove the definition.
The requirement is still available and can be redefined.
Test Log page
The default setting, to log
all errors and warnings and primary test actions, fits most purposes.
However, you can log any type of information, from no information
to all information from all users, although neither is typical.
If you are debugging a test, you might set all three
What
to Log fields to
All or
Action
Details. These settings produce large test logs, especially
if your tests are long or you are running a large number of users.
Large test logs, in turn, increase the test log transfer time, and
might even cause your computer to run out of disk space.
To
reduce transfer times and the likelihood of running out of disk space,
sample information from a very small subset of users; smaller even
than the default of 5 users per user group. A fixed sampling rate
samples the same number of virtual users from each group. A percentage
sampling rate samples a percentage of virtual users from each group,
but guarantees that at least one user is sampled from a group.
Response Time Breakdown page
- Enable collection of response time data
- Select to activate response time breakdown collection. This data
shows you the response time breakdown for each page element.
- Detail level
- Select Low or Medium to
limit the amount of collected data.
- Only sample information from a subset of users
- If you set the detail level to High or Medium,
set a sampling rate to prevent the log from getting too large.
- Fixed number of users
- The number that you select is sampled from each user group. Unless
you have specific reasons to collect data from multiple users, select Fixed
number of users, and specify one user per user group.
- Percentage of users
- The percentage that you select is sampled from each user group,
but at least one user is sampled from each user group.
Problem Determination page
- Problem determination log level
- In general, change the problem determination level only when asked
to by IBM Software Support.
However, under certain conditions, you might want to change the problem
determination level. For example, if problems occur when a run reaches
a certain number of users, you might increase the level to Config,
which is the most detailed level to use without consulting IBM Software Support.
- Only sample information from a subset of users
- Select this option to set a sampling rate.
- Fixed number of users
- Specify the number of users to sample from each user group.
- Percentage of users
- The percentage that you select is sampled from each user group,
but at least one user is sampled from each group.