Practical Service Level Management: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services

Load Test Beds and Load Generators

As much as possible, the test bed must be a faithful copy of the operating environment. It includes servers, applications, Internet connectivity, databases, load balancers, caches, and whatever else is needed. This can be a costly undertaking; most organizations must settle for a test bed that is similar to, but not exactly the same as, the production environment reduced in scope or in scale.

Operational environments with thousands of servers are usually too expensive to replicate completely. I have worked with several large organizations that have an exact copy of their operating environment—hundreds of switches, servers, routers, and other equipment. These few companies are the exception to the rule. A smaller, ...