Webserver Stress Tool, developed by Paessler network monitoring, is an affordable solution for comprehensive HTTP/HTTPS based load testing. Although not as full featured as some other testing solutions, such as the Borland SilkPerformer, Paessler offers an alternative that is both affordable and flexible. With modern Web 2.0 software development, it has become impossible to adequately test performance in a manual fashion. Web services today must withstand thousands of simultaneous connections, under load circumstances that may vary widely from moment to moment.

The Paessler Webserver Stress Tool allows developers to deploy up to 10,000 concurrent virtual users. Engineers can assign basic scripts to virtual users, giving them a list of URLs to access. Virtual users may also perform POST and GET requests, in addition to HTTP authentication.
Individual users are represented on distinct threads, allowing the virtual users to access the site concurrently. This multithreading approach allows Webserver Stress Tool to simulate a wide range of scenarios, such as a sudden spike in traffic, or a prolonged period of high access.

Webserver Stress Tool 7 supports a long list of stress testing statistics. To produce a realistic picture of server response, the software reports everything from time to connect, time to first byte received, and time to complete page download. The software also tracks errors, such as failed HTTP requests, both by user and by individual URLs.

At the end of a test run, Webserver Stress Tool produces a set of easy to read graphs that reflect server performance. The results are also available in machine readable CSV, giving the developer further flexibility. For added convenience, reports can be automatically generated both as HTML files and MS Word documents. With both graphing and text logs supported, Webserver Stress Tool allows the engineer to view performance at a glance, and in higher detail.

Paessler offers the Webserver Stress Tool at an affordable price of US $249.95. This makes the Webserver Stress Tool one of the most affordable testing solutions on the market. The software runs solely as a client application, precluding the need for any complicated server setup. This combination of affordability and flexibility makes Webserver Stress Tool an ideal choice for software engineers that are on more of a budget, or simply have more basic needs.

Although Webserver Stress Tool can generate up to 10,000 concurrent virtual users, this requires the dedication of serious hardware resources. Each virtual user is represented as a separate thread, making the software resource intensive. Unlike more expensive load testing software, Webserver Stress Tool is unable to run concurrently from multiple hosts. This limitation may be a serious drawback when testing large enterprise solutions. For all but the largest of production environments, however, this should not be too much of a concern.

Attachment	Size
paessler-webstress.pdf	2 MB