Easy A/B Testing with AAM

When I was a Solution Architect conducting proof of concepts and troubleshooting could be challenging.  I frequently need to compare how a site performed with and without acceleration and there was no easy way to do this.  The process would require logging into BIG-IP and disabling acceleration, clearing the browser cache, running some tests in the browser and then repeating the process.   Now if you’re like me you generally miss a step in this, I can’t tell you the number of times I forgot to clear the browser cache or clear fast cache on BIG-IP which meant starting all over again.   The other down side of this process is that this disabled acceleration for everybody accessing the application, in many instances that wasn’t needed.  I just needed the features disabled for troubleshooting or tuning purposes. 

Life would have been much easier had there been a way for me to quickly enable and disable acceleration just for me.  It gives me great pleasure to introduce an iApp that does just this so you don’t have to experience the pain that I did.   The enable or disable acceleration iApp provides a quick and easy way of toggling acceleration on a per user session basis making troubleshooting and benchmarking performance much easier. 

The template creates a second virtual server using the same IP address as the existing one but on a different service port.  This new server will set or delete a cookie, as defined by the iApp, which will control whether a user receives an accelerated or un-accelerated instance of a page.  No more disabling acceleration for all users with opportunities for user error.

Happy testing!