Server Monitoring Introduction

Monitoring the server is a critical part of load testing. The Load TesterTM software automatically measures the change in user experience in response to load. However, additional information about the activity on the server is crucial to any diagnosis or tuning of the performance.

 

The software provides several different options for monitoring the server during a load test. Those methods fall into two categories:

 

Basic Server Monitoring

Basic monitoring provides information about the CPU and memory utilization of the server during the test. This can be accomplished in four ways:

 

  1. Web Performance Server Monitor Agent - this can be invoked in basic mode, even if you don't have a license to use the Advanced Server Monitor Agent.
  2. Direct windows monitoring - using the built-in performance measurement APIs, this method can be used to monitor a Windows server as long as the controller (the main GUI of the Load TesterTM software) is also running on Windows and has the necessary authentication credentials.
  3. Unix/Java monitoring - on any Java-based application server, our WAR file can be deployed to provide the monitoring function.
  4. HTTP and custom script - using a simple format, any script can return the CPU and memory measurements in a plain text that is understood by the Load TesterTM software.

 

This monitoring option is included with all Load TesterTM licenses.

 

More information is available on the Basic Server Monitoring page.

Advanced Server Analysis

This module, purchased separately, allows Load TesterTM to take more detailed measurements of the server performance. These metrics are listed in the Server Metrics section.

 

This feature requires installation of a Server Monitoring Agent on each server. Like our remote load engines, this also features auto-detection on the local network, which eliminates the configuration steps required for basic monitoring.

 

More information is available on the Advanced Server Monitoring page.