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Chapter 8. Measuring e-business transaction response times 241

8.4 STI recording and playback

STI measures how users might experience a Web site in the course of

performing a specific transaction, such as searching for information, enrolling in a

class, or viewing an account. To record a transaction, you use STI Recorder,

which records the sequence of steps you take to accomplish the task. For

example, viewing account information might involve logging on, viewing the main

menu, viewing an account summary, and logging off. When a recorded

transaction accesses one or more password-protected Web pages, you create a

specification for the realm to which the pages belong. After you record a

transaction, you can create an STI playback policy, which instructs the STI

component to play back the recorded transaction and collect a range of

performance metrics.

To set up, configure, deploy, and prepare for playing back the first STI recording,

the following steps have to be completed:

1. STI component deployment

2. STI Recorder installation

3. Transaction recording and registration

4. Playback schedule definition

5. Playback policy creation

Please note that the first two steps only have to be executed once for every

system that will be used to record synthetic transactions. However, steps 3

through 5 has to be repeated for every new recording.

8.4.1 STI component deployment

To deploy the STI component to an existing Management Agent, log in to the

TMTP console and select System Administration

→ Work with Agents →

Deploy Synthetic Transaction Investigator Components

→ Go, as shown in

Figure 8-3 on page 242.

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Figure 8-3 Deployment of STI components

After couple of minutes, the Management Agent will be rebooted and the

Management Agent will show that STI is installed.

8.4.2 STI Recorder installation

Follow the procedure below the install the STI Recorder on a Windows based

system:

1. Log in to a TMTP Version 5.2 UI console through your browser by specifying

the following URL:

http://hostname:9082/tmtpUI/

2. Select Downloads → Download STI Recorder.

3. Click on the setup_sti_recorder.exe download link.

4. From the file download dialog, select Save, and specify a location on your

hard drive in which to store the file named setup_sti_recorder.exe.

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5. When the download is complete, locate the setup_sti_recorder.exe file on

your hard drive and double-click on the file to begin installation. The welcome

dialog shown in Figure 8-4 will appear.

Figure 8-4 STI Recorder setup welcome dialog

6. Click Next to start the installation. This will make the Software License

Agreement dialog, shown in Figure 8-5, appear.

Figure 8-5 STI Software License Agreement dialog

7. Select the “I accept...” radio button, and click Next. Then, the installer

depicted in Figure 8-6 on page 244 will be displayed.

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Figure 8-6 Installation of STI Recorder with SSL disable

8. Either select to enable or disable the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

communication. Figure 8-6 shows a configuration with SSL disabled, and

Figure 8-7 shows the selection to enable SSL.

Figure 8-7 installation of STI Recorder with SSL enabled

9. Whether or not SSL has been enabled, select the port to be used to

communicate with the Management Server. If in doubt, contact your local

TMTP system administrator. Click Next and Next, and then Finish to

complete the installation of the STI Recorder.

10.Once installed, the STI Recorder can be started from the Start Menu: Start

→ Programs → Tivoli → Synthetic Transaction Investigator Recorder,