Performance Testing tools

It is  a type of non-functional testing. Performance testing is testing that is performed, to determine how fast some aspect of a system performs under a particular workload. It can serve different purposes like it can demonstrate that the system meets performance criteria. It helps us to compare two systems to find which one performs better. Or it can measure what part of the system or workload causes the system to perform badly and slows down the system. This process can involve quantitative tests done in a lab, such as measuring the response time or the number of MIPS (millions of instructions per second) at which a system functions, render response time

The Performance testing tools are categorized into three types

• Dynamic analysis tools
• Performance Testing Tools
• Monitoring tools

Dynamic Testing tools: These tools find the defects which are evident only when software is executing such as time dependency or memory leaks etc., They are typically used un component based and Integration based testing activities. Some of the examples for these Dynamic analysis tools are J-Unit, Apache J-Meter etc.,

Apache J-Meter: It is an open source load testing tool: It is a Java platform application. It is mainly considered as a performance testing tool and it can also be integrated with the test plan. In addition to the load test plan, you can also create a functional test plan.  This tool has the capacity to be loaded into a server or network so as to check on its performance and analyze its working under different conditions. Initially, it was introduced for testing the web applications, but later its scope had widened.   It is of great use in testing the functional performance of the resources such as Servlets, Perl Scripts and JAVA objects.  Need JVM 1.4 or higher to run.

Performance TestIng Tools: It is used to monitor and report on how a system behaves under a variety of simulated usage , conditions in terms of number of concurrent users . Some of the examples of these Performance testing tools are Load runner, Silk performer, Neoland , Rational Pro Test etc.

Load Runner: This is a HP product which can be used as a performance testing tool.  This can be bought as a HP product from its HP software division.  Also, it is very much useful in understanding and determining the performance and outcome of the system when there is actual load. One of the key attractive features of this testing tool is that, it can create and handle thousands of users at the same time. This tool enables you to gather all the required information with respect to the performance and also based on the infrastructure.  The Load Runner comprises of different tools; namely, Virtual User Generator, Controller, Load Generator and Analysis.

Neo Load: It is a Load and performance testing software. This is a tool used for measuring and analyzing the performance of the website. The performance and the end result can be evaluated by using this tool and any further steps can be taken. This helps you in improving and optimizing the performance of your web application. This tool analysis the performance of the web application by increasing the traffic to the website and the performance under heavy load can be determined. You can get to know the capacity of the application and the amount of users it can handle at the same time. This tool was developed by a French company named as Netosys and it was written in JAVA.  It is available in two different languages; English and French.

Rational Performance Testing: The Rational performance tester is an automated performance testing tool which can be used for a web application or a server based application where there is a process of input and output is involved. This tool creates a demo of the original transaction process between the user and the web service. By the end of it all the statistical information are gathered and they are analyzed to increase the efficiency. Any leakage in the website or the server can be identified and rectified immediately with the help of this tool. This tool can be the best option in building a effective and error free cloud computing service. This Rational Performance tester was developed by IBM (Rational software division). They have come up with many versions of this automated testing tool.

Monitoring Tools: These tools are used to monitor , analyze , verify and report on usage of specific system resources and give warning of possible service problems. Example for this type of testing tool is Load Runner.