Pages/Sec in VS2013 loadtest

We’ve build a REST service with ASP.NET MVC Web API in Visual Studio 2013. With a Load test we plan to test the performance of the service when deployed to a web server with the data on a sql server. After completing a test run with over 100000 successful tests we looked at the summary report.

The pages/sec are not on par with the requests/sec, average page time and other metrics. We expected the requests/sec and the pages/sec to be the same.

loadtest_summary

Looking for answers on the internet we found that the page time is the sum of all requests to display a page. This includes css, scripts, images, … That is why some people have a high request/sec and slower page time. But we have a REST service, there are no other requests made but the main request for the resource. What is going on here?

My colleague Stefan helped me with troubleshooting. We came up the following explanation;

One of the properties of the run settings is the number of pages/urls to report, [Maximum Request URLs Reported]
This number is 1000 by default which is way less than the 100000 unique requests we do during the load test,
The 1001st and later requests are combined in a “other request urls” group and it looks like this is the group used on the summary report,
Thesis: Pages/sec is the average number of requests made to the “other request urls” during the load test

We put the thesis to the test using the formula below. Since the numbers are very high and we use averages, we can assume that slow and fast resources are of little impact on the end result.

(Total tests / Count of Other Request Urls) * Pages per sec = Requests per sec

After doing several test runs we found no results that prove the formula wrong. Just to be safe we changed the [Maximum Request URLs Reported] property to zero. This means no urls get logged and the pages/sec is also zero.

Nothing to see here, carry on!

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Azure SQL Database upgrade announced

The Azure SQL Server for centralised database was stil version 11. In an e-mail last week Microsoft notified me for the planned upgrade to version 12.

We’ll be upgrading your Azure SQL Database servers to the latest SQL Database Update (V12).

In the portal I could see that the upgrade was scheduled. The date was over a month away and would be in the middle of a sprint. Since the product owner wanted to be on the latest version the upgrade was scheduled in the current sprint.

We cancelled the scheduled upgrade by clicking the “cancel upgrade” button in the portal. Now we can request an immediate upgrade by following the process described on azure.microsoft.com. In about 10 minutes the upgrade was done (very small database)

The proof of the pudding … Our WPF application worked without any modification. Even the connection string remained unchanged. First Backlog item completed.

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Goals for 2016

Looking back at my Goals for 2015. More community, Work-live balance and running a PR. In 2015 I worked hard. I’m really happy about blogging with a steady pace. This year I want to set some goals again.

More community

KROMKRATHOG2I aimed at three posts a week with the Friday post being a roundup of internet reads. Posting my other reads on twitter. My blogging was consistent.

For 2016 I want to write larger blogposts. Think longer posts with more detail, but fewer of them.

Work-live balance

KROMKRATHOG3On my projects I promoted time boxed meetings. For better balance I blocked two evenings in my schedule. Also my phone / iPad / Laptop remains untouched until kids in bed.

In 2016 the two evenings will remain blocked and I’ll even add another one to really engage / commit to a meeting.

Set a new running PR

KROMKRATHOG1Not to brag but I ran a PR in 2015 on 5K, Half Marathon and Marathon (my first 😉 ).

This leaves the 10K for 2016? Maybe, but I’m keeping this running a PR. I’m more motivated to do the hard work when it has a purpose.

Career

ID-100189504In 2016 I want to do more talking and less coding. Talking with clients about their needs, talking with colleagues about solutions, talking with developers about code. I still want to do coding, but not as the primarily task in my work.

Images courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Week roundup

Last week recap and links:
Image courtesy of kanate / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of kanate / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What are your best reads this week? Leave them in the comments below.

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Updated to Alfred v2

logo@2xToday I updated Alfred to v2. I don’t know why I was holding off for so long. The look and feel is more consistent with El Capitan. Updating is easy: install, import settings and use.

Only problem I encountered was with the Cmd + Space shortcut, but there is a support article about that. While looking for help I also learned the “open” command in Alfred. I feel more productive already!

Should I buy the powerpack? Haven’t needed it before. What do you think?

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