Load Generators

Load generators are used to simulate actual users while running the load tests. Load controller contact the load generators and sends the scripts on the load generators to simulate the vusers.

It is very important to have a few load generators to support the load. It is equally important to monitor the load generators during the performance test as it is important to monitor the IT architecture that is being load tested.

In our scenario, the load generators were running out of the Physical memory and hence, the response time was getting impacted. You can configure site scope to monitor all the load generators in load controller itself.

Watch for memory consumption on the load generators to make sure there is enough memory available for the vusers. CPU should not be a concern on these generators since there is no CPU intensive processing on these machines.

Specific question, concern or comment? Please leave a note and I would be glad to respond.

PeopleSoft: Students Transcript Report

In Campus Solutions module from PeopleSoft applications, students as well as Advisors can run the Transcript report. In our instance, the final step, 'View Report', that triggers the XML publisher was taking close to 30 seconds.

The App server log shows that 20 seconds or more out of total 30 seconds were being spent in converting the RTF template to XSL template. We removed this step by using the XSL template directly.

Results were phenomenal. Our transcript report is now completing in 10 seconds.

Specific questions/comments/concerns? Please leave a comment and I would gladly answer.

PeopleSoft Tuxedo Trace

Ever wondered how much time each service takes within the Application Server?

Well, there is a way to get that information. Just enable the TUXEDO Service Trace for the duration of the load. Once the trace is turned off, you can use txrpt utility to get the output in a nice format summarized on an hourly basis.

I ran a load test for about 3 hours under Tuxedo Service Trace and here is what I got from txrpt.


     SERVICE SUMMARY REPORT


SVCNAME         17p-18p     18p-19p     19p-20p     20p-21p             TOTALS
                Num/Avg     Num/Avg     Num/Avg     Num/Avg             Num/Avg
--------------- --------    --------    --------    --------            -------
ICScript        2803/0.13   13708/0.14  12907/0.14  4202/0.14           33620/0.14
ICPanel         1856/2.14   12973/1.83  12511/1.76  3942/1.80           31282/1.82
HomepageT       306/0.06    1183/0.05   1082/0.05   361/0.05            2932/0.05
FileAttach      59/0.02     510/0.02    526/0.02    171/0.02            1266/0.02
PortalRegistry  636/0.03    254/0.03    8/0.02      1/0.02              899/0.03
GetCertificate  206/0.09    105/0.09    6/0.10      214/0.02            531/0.06
KeyStore        4/0.05      0/0.00      0/0.00      0/0.00              4/0.05
PpmMonSvc       4/0.14      0/0.00      0/0.00      0/0.00              4/0.14
GetWebProfile   2/0.41      0/0.00      0/0.00      0/0.00              2/0.41
--------------- -------     -------     -------     -------             -------
TOTALS          5876/0.75   28733/0.90  27040/0.88  8891/0.87           70540/0.88

As you can see clearly, ICPanel is the one taking the most time. This information can be used to assign LOAD factor to the above listed services and hence, it helps in LOAD BALANCING the queues to the application server process.

Here is how we enable the tuxedo service trace.

Default Entry in PSAPPSRV.UBX file

#
# PeopleSoft Application Server
#
PSAPPSRV        SRVGRP=APPSRV
                SRVID=1
                MIN={$PSAPPSRV\Min Instances}
                MAX={$PSAPPSRV\Max Instances}
                RQADDR="APPQ"
                REPLYQ=Y

                CLOPT="-o \"{REL_LOG}{FS}stdout\" -e \"{REL_LOG}{FS}stderr\" {$PSAPPSRV\Spawn Server} -s@psappsrv.lst -- -D {$Domain Settings\Domain ID} -S PS
APPSRV"

Modified Entry in PSAPPSRV.UBX file

#
# PeopleSoft Application Server
#
PSAPPSRV        SRVGRP=APPSRV
                SRVID=1
                MIN={$PSAPPSRV\Min Instances}
                MAX={$PSAPPSRV\Max Instances}
                RQADDR="APPQ"
                REPLYQ=Y

                CLOPT="-r -o \"{REL_LOG}{FS}stdout\" -e \"{REL_LOG}{FS}stderr\" {$PSAPPSRV\Spawn Server} -s@psappsrv.lst -- -D {$Domain Settings\Domain ID} -S PS
APPSRV"

The only addition is "-r" . This flag will turn on the tuxedo service trace and can provide a great deal of information.

Have any specific questions? Please leave a comment and I would be glad to answer that.