Monitoring SAP in LoadRunner

In LoadRunner SAP monitor, it requires the SAP CCMS (Computer Center Management System) for monitoring to be effective.  This is unlike the typical monitoring mechanism that is used for Windows or Oracle (refer to “How does the monitoring work in LoadRunner?”), which is directly querying the monitor data from Windows Perfmon or Oracle V$ dynamic views.  LoadRunner SAP monitor requires an additional component, SiteScope (refer to “What’s SiteScope”) to act as an intermediary between SAP CCMS and LoadRunner. Read the rest of this entry »

Introducing SAPGUI protocol in LoadRunner

Performance testing recording and execution for SAPGUI relies on the SAP Scripting API and ActiveX the SAP R/3 application server and on all SAP GUI clients that are participating in the load test. As of date of this article, LoadRunner documentation does not have updated details on configuring SAPGUI for scripting such as supported versions.  However, the configurations are somewhat similar to other performance testing product which in this article, we refered to IBM instead.

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Understanding Oracle’s underlying architecture

Before we are able to analyze and determine tuning areas, we need to understand Oracle Server Architecture and it’s underlying mechanism. Oracle Server Architecture consist of two main categories: logical (memory) structures and physical (or file) structures. The Oracle memory structure is collectively known as Oracle Instance. While the physical file structures are collectively known as Oracle database. Together, they are call an Oracle Server. Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding Network – How Traceroute works?

The program was written by Van Jacobson and others. It is based on a clever use of the Time-To-Live (TTL) field in the IP packet’s header. The TTL field is used to limit the life of a packet. When a router fails or is mis-configured, a routing loop or circular path may result. The TTL field prevents packets from remaining on a network indefinitely should such a routing loop occurs. A packet’s TTL field is decremented each time the packet crosses a router on its way through a network. When its value reaches 0, the packet is discarded rather forwarded. When discarded, the ICMP TIME_EXCEEDED message is sent back to the packet’s source to inform the source that the packet was discarded. By manipulating the TTL field original packet, the program traceroute uses information from these ICMP messages to discover paths through a network. Read the rest of this entry »

Case study made simple – Load testing ESRI ArcGIS applications

In the previous article, “How-to record and replay ESRI ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap)?” we proposed four techniques to record and replay ESRI ArcGIS Desktop, and how each techniques work generally with the application.  In this article, we will discuss particular business activities that will be recorded and what are the areas of concerns that will be affected during a load test.  We will be using Web (HTTP/HTML) protocol of LoadRunner for this discussion.

Typically, a user will launch ArcGIS Desktop, open a layer and perform zooming and panning activity throughout the usage of the application which is listed below:

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