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jacob900_39797's avatar
jacob900_39797
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Mar 27, 2008

PMT replacement (again)

What are you guys using for a replay tool AND stats gathering tool since PMT (Performance Measurement Tool) is no longer supported? I know that Hicks mentioned in a previous posting to use TrueSpeed but that does not have a replay feature. It only captures statistical data from the BigIP device.

 

 

A PMT-type tool is invaluable because it eliminates human error when replaying the process over and over again to "prime" the pump. It clears out your cache and then replays the user process X amount of times. It then give you the performance metrics afterwards. This invaluabe when trying to tweak a policy or decide which policy is best for your application. The best alternative I can find is to use httpwatch with javascript for the replay piece. Unfortunately, I don't know javascript to develop a template replay script but I'm willing to work with someone who does. jctx09@yahoo.com

 

 

Thanks,
application delivery
performance
wa

3 Replies

  • Dawn_Parzych_20's avatar
    Dawn_Parzych_20
    Mar 28, 2008
    TrueSpeed does in fact provide replay exactly what you are looking for. It does offer the ability to capture statistics directly from BIG-IP and real user stats but there is also a recorder and synthetic agent that can be used to play back the same set of pages within a script repeatedly. The install package for TrueSpeed includes 3 components the console, the agent and the recorder. The recorder is used to navigate through a set of steps. This then gets uploaded to the console. From the console you can configure a test to use the synthetic agent. Uncheck the options to "Insert iRule for Real User Data" and "Collect F5 Metrics" Specify how many times you want the script to run and whether you want it to run as a first time user or a repeat user. The agent must be launched for the scripts to run.

     

     

    No need to reivnent the wheel here as this should provide all the functionality you are looking for. I use it on a regular basis.

     

  • jacob900_39797's avatar
    jacob900_39797
    Icon for Nimbostratus rankNimbostratus
    Mar 28, 2008
    You are correct. There is some confusion though. TrueView Express for BigIP and TrueSpeed are two different products today. Eventually TrueView express will incorporate the TrueSpeed features.

     

     

    I still like the PMT program since it is standalone tool like the HTTPWatch tool. With TrueSpeed, it ties back to the console so it's not "portable".
  • justin_phelps_2's avatar
    justin_phelps_2
    Historic F5 Account
    Jun 13, 2008
    TrueSpeed is the best choice for performance metrics. But if for some reason you can't use it, here are a couple of options that I've personally used:

     

    HP LoadRunner (formerly Mercury). It's great tool, very expensive but you can download a eval version that will simulate 10 concurrent users and will simulate full user experiences.

     

    Curl-Loader : Free, opensource and very extensible. It can also simulate real user experience. The configuration and setup demands some unix and programming knowhow and the reporting isn't nearly as pretty or functional as TrueSpeed.

     

    Borland Silk Performer: Also very pricey. I've used this for sustained developement cycles and is probably my favorite. It's different from the others in that you place a Silk Server(s), in your data center or staging environment and control it from desktop clients. This doesn't *exactly* meet your needs though, as it is more designed for load testing web servers, applications, databases, etc, and doesn't focus as much as full user experience.

     

     

    Here's a decent list of performance testing tools, most of which I've never used:

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Load_testing_tools