Notes from Build 2013 Cloud based performance testing

I have just come back from Build 2013 where I covered a lot of subjects. Over the next few weeks I am going to revisit my notes so that I can retain more of what I learned at this conferance. So here are my first set of notes from a session 2-346 Cloud powered Load testing with Team Foundation Service. To watch the session follow this url http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/2-346
Ankit Saraf @vauntgarde
Some terms:

• Performance: How is my application's behavior
• Load: How will my application behave in Production
• Stress: Can my application handle a lot of users
• Scale/Capacity: How many servers do I need

In VS2013 there is a new project template called "Web Performance and Load Test Project". This project has a "Web test recorder" that records the interactions that a user makes while stripping out extra tags / cookies in the urls etc. These form tests that can be replayed. The tests can be parameterized using Context Parameters eg:

WebServer1=http://demomusicstore.cloudapp.net

{{WebServer1}}/

The recorded sessions can also be used to Generate code.

There is a New Load Test Wizard that has a number of steps to specify a load test. These include

Constant Load specifying the number of users

Step load specifying:

• Start user count
• Step duration
• Step user count
• Maximum user count

How should the test mix be modeled:

• Based on the total number of tests
• Based on the number of virtual users
• Based on user pace
• Based on sequential test order

The relative proportions of individual tests in a given load test can be specified.

A warm-up duration and run duration can be specified or Tests iterations

The Load test scenarios are presented in a tree view and the results in an html format