What do I need to know to do load testing in addition to knowing how to use

the LoadRunner tool?

Unlike functional testing you need to know more than just how the
application under test functions. You need to know how the components
behind the client work and what the performance issues for the components
are.

Specifically, you need to know the following knowledge and skills:

Components such as web servers, application servers, database servers,

operating systems, networks and network elements such as load balancers.
You need not have "guru" level knowledge of each of the components but
should have operational knowledge and an understanding of the performance
issues associated with the components. For example, a load tester should
know what multi-way joins, indexes and spin counts are and what affect they
have on a database server.

Protocol(s) used between the client and server such as HTTP/HTML, ODBC,
SQL*NET, and DCOM.

C. The LoadRunner script language is ANSI C. It helps to know the C

language, but the scripts are generated and manipulated by LoadRunner, so
there is usually not need to directly edit the code. There is also a icon script
view which completely hides the C code.

Communication. Load testing is not a heads down coding exercise. You will
work with many parts of an organization to coordinate activities, schedules
and resources. Daily interaction with a variety of people requires good oral
and written communication skills as well as good people skills. If you prefer
to sit in a cube by yourself, you should stay in functional testing or
development.

What protocols does LoadRunner support?

LoadRunner ships with support for the following protocols. Other protocols
are available but are not necessarily full supported.

E-Business

FTP

LDAP

Web/Winsocket Dual Protocol

Palm

SOAP

Web (HTTP/HTML)

Wireless

i-mode

VoiceXML

WAP

Streaming

Media Player (MMS)

Real

Mailing Services

Internet Messaging (IMAP)

MS Exchange (MAPI)

POP3

SMTP

Enterprise Java Beans

Enterprise Java Beans (EJB)

Rmi-Java
Distributed Components

COM/DCOM

Corba-Java

Rmi-Java

Middleware

Jacada

Tuxedo 6

Tuxedo 7

ERP

Baan

Oracle NCA

PeopleSoft - Tuxedo

Siebel - DB2 CLI

Siebel - Oracle

Siebel - MSSQL

SAP

Client/Server

DB2 CLI

Domain Name Resolution (DNS)

Informix

MS SQL Server

ODBC

Oracle (2-Tier)

Sybase CtLib

Sybase Dblib

Windows Sockets
Legacy

Terminal Emulation (RTE)

Custom

C Vuser

Javascript Vuser

Java Vuser

VB Script Vuser

VB Vuser

What can I monitor with LoadRunner?

LoadRunner ships with support for the following components. Other monitors
are available but are not necessarily full supported.

Client-side Monitors

End-to-end transaction monitors - Provide end-user response times, hits per

second, transactions per second.

§ Hits per Second

§ HTTP Responses per Second

§ Pages Downloaded per Second

§ Throughput

§ Transaction Response Time

§ Transaction per Second (Passed)

§ Transaction per Second (Failed)

§ User-defined Data Point

§ Virtual User Status

§ Web Transaction breakdown Graphs

Server Monitors

NT/UNIX/Linux monitors - Provide hardware, network and operating system

performance metrics, such as CPU, memory and network throughput.

§ NT server resources

§ UNIX / Linux server monitor

Load Appliances Performance Monitors

§ Antara.net

Application Deployment Solutions

§ Citrix MetaFrame (available only for LoadRunner)

Network Monitors

§ Network delay monitor - Provides a breakdown of the network

segments between client and server, as well as network delays.

§ SNMP monitor - Provides performance data for network devices such

as bridges and routers.

Web Server Performance Monitors

Web server monitors - Provide performance data inside the Web servers,
such as active connections, hits per second, etc.
§ Apache

§ Microsoft IIS

§ iPlanet (NES)

Web Application Server Performance Monitors

Web application server monitor - Provides performance data inside the Web
application server, such as connections per second, active database
connections, etc.

§ Allaire ColdFusion

§ ATG Dynamo

§ BEA WebLogic (via JMX)

§ BEA WebLogic (via SNMP)

§ BroadVision

§ IBM WebSphere

§ iPlanet Application Server

§ Microsoft COM+ Monitor

§ Microsoft Active Server Pages

§ Oracle 9iAS HTTP Server

§ SilverStream

Streaming Media Performance Monitors (available only for LoadRunner)

Streaming specific monitors for measuring the end user quality on the client
side, and isolate performance bottlenecks on the server-side.

§ Microsoft Windows Media Server

§ Real Networks RealServer

Firewall Server Resource Monitors

§ CheckPoint FireWall-1

Database Server Resource Monitors

Database monitor - Provides performance data inside the database, such as

active database connections, etc.

§ SQL Server

§ Oracle

§ DB2

§ Sybase (available only for LoadRunner)

ERP Performance Monitors (available only for LoadRunner)

§ SAP R/3 Monitor

Middleware Performance Monitors

§ Tuxedo - Provides performance data inside a BEA Tuxedo application

server, such as current requests in queue.

§ IBM WebSphere MQ (MQSeries) (available only for LoadRunner)

In addition to these monitors, LoadRunner also supports user defined

monitors which allows you to easily integrate the results from other
measurement tools with LoadRunner data collection.
How many users can I emulate with LoadRunner on a PC?

This greatly depends on the configuration of the PC (number of CPUs, CPU

speed, memory and operating system), the protocol(s) used, the size and
complexity of the script(s), the frequency of execution (iteration pacing and
think times) and the amount of logging.