Silk Performer - Application Performance Testing - Blog

Introducing Cloudburst SaaS with Silk Performer 10 (video)

Chris.Thompson — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:19:00 GMT

Silk Performer 10 introduces Cloudburst SaaS, virtual cloud-based test agents that can be distributed to different geographical regions and managed side-by-side along with intranet-based load test agents. Cloud-based agents are easy to deploy, don’t require maintenance, and can be easily scaled up based on testing needs.

The below video demonstrates how to set up a Silk Performer load testing project that takes full advantage of Cloudburst SaaS, from test setup, to agent deployment, to result analysis using regional comparison reports.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Preview: Comparing User Type specific results

Johannes Hoelzl — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:33:00 GMT

We just picked up another nice feature suggestion from the Borland User Voice. While this suggestion did not get as many votes as other suggestions, we received requests for it via support cases too. So we decided to put it on our list and give it a high priority.

A Silk Performer user created several User Types (which are combinations of scripts, user groups and profiles) and wanted to compare them:

http://borland.uservoice.com/forums/163511-silk-performer-feature-requests/suggestions/3809321-transactions-sec-per-user-type

Look how easy it is to use this cool new Silk Performer 10 feature. In just 5 steps you will be creating impressive reports:

1. Open the load test results in Silk Performance Explorer. The User Type specific results are listed in the results tree. You can explore Page and Action Timers as well as Timer and Transaction measurements for each of the User Types (A, B, C).

2. Create a new graph and add measurements to it, for example the count of the Trans. Ok(s). Drag the measurements into the graph or add them via the context menu, once for the merged results and once for each of the three User Types.

3. Give the graph a title and a description: Right-click on one of the series legends below the graph and click Properties:

4. Enter a caption and a description. It's good practice to type into the description field which graph color matches which user type, since the description will be displayed beside the graph. Click OK:

5. Click custom charts on your Overview Report and click on "here" (as shown below) to customize your chart section. Pick your custom chart. Your graph displays:

Note: All the custom chart tricks you see here already work in previous Silk Performer releases.

Bonus:

You have never used multiple User Types in Silk Performer? You did, but you found it difficult or cumbersome to do so? Here is good news for you: Defining User Types now becomes much easier. We added a dedicated Define User Types button to the workflow bar and made working with user types more comfortable.

Here is the new Define User Types dialog box. Of course, it supports all the usual functionality that makes work a lot easier, like drag and drop or multi select.

Preview: Showing Measure Bound violations in graphs and reports

Johannes Hoelzl — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:15:00 GMT

Just a little while ago, we got a fantastic feature suggestion in the Borland User Voice. A user wanted to know if we could visualize in a graph, when a test exceeded a configured maximum value. This would enable a Silk Performer user to get a fast graphical overview of the measurement results. Here is the original feature suggestion:

http://borland.uservoice.com/forums/163511-silk-performer-feature-requests/suggestions/3048488-show-violations-in-a-graph

I am happy to tell you that we are currently working on this feature and that I can show you how it might look like in the upcoming Silk Performer release.

In the current development build, I used the Set response time thresholds feature to generate the following BDL statements:

MeasureSetBound("#Overall Response Time#", MEASURE_TIMER_RESPONSETIME, 2, 0.21);
MeasureSetBound("#Overall Response Time#", MEASURE_TIMER_RESPONSETIME, 1, 0.14);

The Overview Report now shows a yellow background for response times that exceed the lower bound of 0.14 and it shows a red background for response times that exceed the upper bound of 0.21 seconds.

By default, this feature now also enhances any graphs that show a measure with bounds turned on. You can turn on and off the colored backgrounds at any time via the menu or the context menu.

This feature will also work well with the previously mentioned enhancements to Action Timers.

Executing load tests and monitoring real-time test measurments (video)

Chris.Thompson — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:37:00 GMT

This video explains how to execute tests and monitor real-time test measurements using Silk Performer.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

In load testing, multiple virtual users execute transactions against a target server to determine the impact of the load on server performance. Large load tests commonly require multiple physical machines on a LAN or WAN to host virtual users, though Silk Performer Cloudburst offers virtual cloud-based agents that eliminate the need for additional hardware resources.

1) On the Workflow - Workload Configuration dialog box, select the Truelog On Error option box to enable full error drill-down with screen captures if errors should occur during your test.
Click Run to start the test.

2) Click OK on the New Results Files Subdirectory dialog box to generate a new directory for this test’s results. The test begins and Performance Explorer starts.

3) Monitor test progress and server activity in Silk Performer and Performance Explorer.

Comprehensive overview information regarding agent computers, usergroups, and virtual users in your test is visible in the upper portion of Silk Performer Monitor view.

You can control the level of detail of the displayed information in Monitor view, from a global view of the progress of all agent computers in your test down to exhaustive detail of the individual transactions conducted by each virtual user. Color-coded run-time details for each user include the number of executed transactions, timers, and errors as they occur.

Monitoring a Specific Agent During Testing

Select a specific agent or usertype in the upper portion of Monitor view to view details of that agent or usertype in the lower portion of Monitor view. Available information includes status, name of the current transaction, percentage of work completed, and number of executed transactions.

Monitoring a Specific Virtual User During Testing

In the Virtual User Output window, Silk Performer displays detailed run-time information about the selected virtual user, such as the transactions and functions that the user executes and the data that the user sends to and receives from the server.

To view virtual user output, in the bottom part of Monitor view, right-click a virtual user and choose Show Output of VUser.

Article: Dialog Command Storage Demystified

Udo Kernecker — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:58:00 GMT

When doing web browser-driven load-testing (BDLT) the article Dialog Command Storage Demystified might be useful to understand the API for dialog box handling.

Preview: Enhanced Reporting With Action Timers

Johannes Hoelzl — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 01:31:00 GMT

For the next release, we are working on several improvements to the Action Time measurement for Web browser-driven projects (BDLT).

Here a quick glance at how these enhancements look in the current stage of development...

...(read more)

S-FTP Load Testing with Silk Performer

stefanr — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:10:00 GMT

There is no built-in support for S-FTP (ftp via ssh tunnel), however a viable workaround is to put a BDL wrapper around a free S-FTP client, such as PuTTY's PSFTP. Check out the attached sample.

Article: Performance Testing Primer

stefanr — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:12:00 GMT

The Performance Testing Primer talks about basic concepts, tips and tricks about performance testing.

Interesting read: Time to rethink the back end for mobile

Johannes Hoelzl — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:12:00 GMT

Interesting article by David Rubinstein on SDTimes about the impact of mobile devices on back-end software, infrastructure and load testing:

Industry Watch: Time to rethink the back end for mobile

Enjoy reading!

Getting Started with Silk Performer - New videos available!

Udo Kernecker — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:18:00 GMT

An article providing videos dealing with the Silk Performer Workflow was published. Check it out!

Silk Performer Integration with AppDynamics

kue — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 07:25:00 GMT

With version 9.5 Silk Performer introduces diagnostics integration with AppDynamics.

Read this article on how to set it up.

Announcing Silk Performer 9.5

Lisa Johnston — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:50:00 GMT

Micro Focus is pleased to announce the general availability of Silk Performer 9.5 our award winning, enterprise-class performance testing solution.

The new release of Silk Performer 9.5 extends our market leading position in Web 2.0 testing with the next-generation of Browser-Driven Web Load Testing, assisted Mobile secure testing, support for Flex applications based on Granite DS, and IPv6 support. SP 9.5 brings important currency updates like Windows 8, IE 10, Visual Studio 2012, Citrix and many usability enhancements as well as diagnostics integration with AppDynamics.

Highlights of the Silk Performer 9.5 release include:

New Start Page

The start page helps new users getting started quickly and enhances collaboration by integrating the Borland community. Features include:
• Links to getting started videos
• Access to built-in RSS feeds for community activity and blog posts
• Ability to Suggest a Feature and vote on previously suggested features

Next-Generation Browser-Driven Web Load Testing

Reliable Script Replay

Silk Performer ensures reliable out-of-the-box sript replay for browser-driven testing projects by automatically choosing the best method (native or JavaScript events).

Visual Debugging

A Visual Debugging Assistant supports the user to quickly find and repair BDLT script issues. Visible mouse clicks in TrueLog Explorer screenshots help to detect problems in the replay of business transaction.

Proxy Management

New functions have been added for managing proxy configuration in browser-driven load tests. You can now check for active proxies, bypass lists, and PAC (Proxy Auto-Configuration) files.

Find Utility in Browser Application Locator Spy

Searching for a specific text string within an inspected DOM object is now possible using the Browser Application Locator Spy.

Suppression of Web Page Content

If you don’t want to include 3rd party content like popup ads or calls to social networking sites in your load-test runs, you can now suppress some content of a Web page which is hosted on another domain.

Mobile Web & Native App Testing

New workflows have been added to assist users with recording mobile emulators and secure traffic of mobile web & native apps. Silk Performer now displays a QR code that you can scan with your mobile device to set it up for secure recording.

IPv6 Support

Silk Performer 9.5 ensures that your applications and network infrastructure are IPv6 ready, so that the future expansion of your business is not compromised by IPv4 address exhaustion.

GraniteDS Support

Silk Performer now supports testing of Flex applications and the AMF3 protocol based on the GraniteDS implementation.

Usability Enhancements

Product Update Notification

Silk Performer now automatically informs you on the Start Page whenever a new product update is available for download. Simply click the provided link to access and install the latest product update. You can also check manually for updates through the Help menu.

Workflow Improvements

• A new Monitoring workflow helps users to configure Performance Explorer to monitor local and remote servers. Server monitoring reveals, locates, and assists in resolving server bottlenecks, allowing you to examine the performance of operating systems and application servers.
• The new Prepare Cloud Agents dialog box offers intuitive controls for defining how many virtual users should be run on each cloud agent and simplifies their global distribution.
• Recording Over Secure Connections is now an easy and intuitive task. A new workflow assists in configuring the required certificates on desktops and mobile devices.

Desktop Size Configuration for GUI-Level Tests

In addition to the option for specifying the color depth setting of remote sessions for GUI-level tests, you can now specify the remote session’s desktop width and height in pixels.

Help at Your Fingertips

Many of the Silk Performer dialog boxes have been polished and enhanced and now provide help at your fingertips, making it even easier to get started. Help links on the dialogs allow you to access the Help, providing exactly the information that is required.

Technology Updates

SilkPerformer 9.5 supports the testing of the following latest technologies and applications:

Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10 Support

Silk Performer supports record and replay (protocol-level) of Web applications on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, using Internet Explorer 10.

Support for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

Silk Performer Visual Studio .NET Add-On now supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2012, in addition to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Together with this update, Silk Performer and Silk Performer .NET Explorer now support Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.

Support for OpenSSL 1.0.1c

Silk Performer supports the latest version of OpenSSL, the open-source toolkit that implements the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols as well as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library.

Support for Citrix Receiver 3.x

Silk Performer now supports Citrix Receiver 3.x.

JBoss 6 and 7 Support

Performance Explorer now offers monitoring support for JBoss 6 and 7 via JMX.

Remedy 7.6.04 SP 3

Silk Performer now supports Remedy 7.6.04 SP 3.

PeopleSoft 9.x

Silk Performer now supports PeopleSoft 9.x

For a complete list of new features please refer to the Release Notes.

Download the Silk Performer Product Trial.

Announcing SilkPerformer 9.0 (2012)

Gregor.Rechberger — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:26:00 GMT

Micro Focus is pleased to announce the general availability of SilkPerformer 9.0 (2012) our award winning, enterprise-class performance testing solution.

The new release of SilkPerformer 9.0 extends our leading Web 2.0, Mobile testing and CloudBurst capabilities. New polished and streamlined designs and several usability enhancements across the product further increase productivity. SilkPerformer 9.0 is now fully compliant with Microsoft User Account Control (UAC) and can be used in highly regulated, corporate environments without admin privileges.

Highlights of the SilkPerformer 9.0 release include:

Mobile Web and Native App (HTTP/HTML) Testing

SilkPerformer now fully supports performance testing of mobile Web applications and native apps that are communicating with servers over HTTP.
With a complete set of profiles for all popular devices and application types, SilkPerformer enables you to record test scripts from a PC, an emulator or a mobile device.

Java Over HTTP Support

SilkPerformer now supports the testing of applications that make use of Java Object Serialization to transfer objects between client and server over the HTTP protocol.

Browser-Driven Load Testing Enhancements

Click DOM element with specified position and mouse button

Three new functions BrowserNativeClick, BrowserNativeDoubleClick, BrowserNativeMouseMove have been added to provide the ability to click a DOM element with a specified position and mouse button in case the default functions BrowserClick, BrowserDoubleClick, or BrowserMouseMove do not work as expected.

Find all DOM elements for a given locator

The new browser-driven Web load testing function BrowserFindAll has been added to provide the ability to find all DOM elements for a given locator. You can even search the complete DOM hierarchy.

Enhanced file download functionality

Simulating file downloads can be problematic due to different behavior, depending on the tested Web site, Windows Internet Explorer version, operating system, and more. The new BrowserDlgDownload function now supports all different scenarios.

SilkPerformer CloudBurst

SilkPerformer has increased its breadth and depth of web technology for the cloud with support for Java, Java over HTTP, Silverlight and Flex/AMF3.
SilkPerformer 9.0 now supports three new cloud regions:

US-West-2, located in Oregon, USA
AP-Northeast, located in Tokyo, Japan
SA-East, located in Sao Paulo, Brazil

These new regions are now available, additionally to the four regions that were already available for SilkPerformer 2011:

US-East, located in Virginia, USA
US-West-1, located in California, USA
EU-West, located in Ireland, European Union
AP-Southeast, located in Singapore

Full User Account Control (UAC) Compliancy

SilkPerformer is fully compliant with Microsoft User Account Control (UAC) guidelines. It has been designed such that it does not require administrative privileges at any point in its workflow, beginning with project definition and continuing through to test analysis. Even activities such as recording and the launching of remote agent processes can be done with standard user privileges.

Technology Updates

SilkPerformer 9.0 supports the testing of the following latest technologies and applications:

FIPS Compliant Password Encryption: The Encrypt3DES and Decrypt3DES functions have been added to support Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) compliancy and the use of a higher security algorithm.
dynaTrace 4.0: SilkPerformer now supports dynaTrace 4.0.
Remedy: SilkPerformer now supports Remedy 7.6.04, 7.6.04 SP1 and 7.7

Usability Enhancements

Usability enhancements have been implemented throughout SilkPerformer:

Improved Workflow and Getting Started Guidance

All of the Workflows have been modernized and streamlined. The easiest tool for performance testing makes testing even easier!

Hiding Passwords in Log Files

A new security feature has been added in SilkPerformer that allows you to hide password characters in log files.

Virtual User per Process Setting Change

The Virtual users per process option was changed from a system to a project setting.

Test Results Summary Information

Hovering your mouse over a test in the Results menu tree displays a summary of the test run, including date and time, the selected workload model, agent, VUser and error information.

For a complete list of new features please refer to the Release Notes.

Download the SilkPerformer Product Trial.

SilkPerformer 2011 Hotfix 14

Gregor.Rechberger — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:38:00 GMT

An update to SilkPerformer 2011 is now available for download from SupportLine.

This hotfix includes a number of fixes for issues reported by our users and enhancements to Browser-driven Load Testing. Further details about these fixes as well as installation instructions are available here.

SilkPerformer 2011 Hotfix 7

Gregor.Rechberger — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:44:00 GMT

An update to SilkPerformer 2011 is now available for download from SupportLine.

This hotfix includes a number of fixes for issues reported by our users and an enhancement to the Remote Agent Setup. Further details about these fixes as well as installation instructions are available here.