Systems and Methods for Predicting Load Test Resource Requirements

• US 20070282567A1
• Filed: 05/31/2006
• Published: 12/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Siefkes, Kent, Hamilton, Rick, Graham, Barry, Dawson, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,401 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/885 Monitoring specific for caches

Abstract

Systems, methods and media for collecting and using machine usage data and machine configuration data are disclosed. In one embodiment, a workbench computer collects historical machine usage data for at least one load test machine emulating a plurality of users to produce a database of historical machine usage data for the at least one machine.

Claims

1. A method for determining resources for a load test of one or more servers using one or more load test machines, comprising:

collecting historical machine usage data for at least one load test machine, the at least one load test machine to emulate numbers of users accessing the one or more servers, to produce a user-accessible database of historical machine usage data for the at least one machine; and

determining by a user, from the historical machine usage data in the user-accessible database, a number of users accessing the one or more servers that can be emulated by the at least one load test machine within specified process limits.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting machine configuration data to associate with the historical machine usage data of a machine to produce a user-accessible database comprising machine configuration data associated with historical machine usage data for each of one or more load test machines.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein collecting machine configuration data comprises storing the type of operating system executed by each load test machine.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein collecting machine configuration data comprises storing the type of processor within each load test machine.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a minimum number of load test machines needed to emulate a specified total number of users within specified process limits.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified process limits comprise a maximum average CPU usage.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting historical machine usage data comprises collecting average CPU usage data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting historical machine usage data comprises collecting average memory usage data.

9. A computer configurable to execute load test software for testing a server, comprising:

memory to store instructions to be executed by a processor and memory to store user-accessible load test machine usage data collected from one or more load test machines; and

a processor coupled with the memory to execute the stored instructions to enable a user to determine from the user-accessible load test machine usage data a number of users that may be emulated accessing a server by a load test machine within specified process limits for a specified load test machine configuration.

10. The computer of claim 9, further comprising a human interface to communicate to a person machine usage data collected and stored in memory and to receive test instructions from the person.

11. The computer of claim 9, wherein the memory further stores machine configuration data associated with the machine usage data, wherein the machine configuration data is also accessible by the user.

12. The computer of claim 11, wherein the stored machine configuration data includes a type of processor of a load test machine.

13. The computer of claim 9, wherein the processor further determines if a given number of users emulated by a load test machine will be within specified process limits.

14. The computer of claim 13, wherein the specified process limits comprise a maximum average CPU usage.

15. The computer of claim 9, wherein the machine usage data comprises an average CPU usage.

16. A machine-accessible medium having instructions for performing load test functions, which, when the instructions are executed by a machine, cause said machine to perform operations for testing a server, comprising:

receiving load test machine usage data from one or more load test machines;

storing into a memory user-accessible load test machine usage data and associating the load test machine usage data with load test machine configuration data stored in the memory; and

enabling a user to determine from the load test machine usage data, a number of users accessing a server that may be emulated by a load test machine within specified process limits for a specified load test machine configuration.

17. The machine accessible medium of claim 16, further comprising determining a minimum number of load test machines to emulate a total number of users within specified process limits.

18. The machine accessible medium of claim 16, further comprising providing a display of machine configuration data and machine usage data.

19. The machine accessible medium of claim 18, further comprising enabling a user to choose among a plurality of configuration options for configuring load test machines for a load test.

20. The machine accessible medium of claim 16, further comprising determining from the one or more load machines server response times.