Load and performance testing, functional regression testing, active production monitoring – things that ain’t fun, but need to be done if you’re serious about service quality and 24×7 availability.

For internal quality assurance based on test automation, as well as for automated testing in projects delivered by our own professional services and by partners, the Voxeo VoiceObjects team has developed and has been using a great little tool for quite a while: The VoiceObjects LoadTester. Technically, it’s a set of Python scripts that allow for

• recording test scripts by making reference calls;
• playing back test scripts by few or by hundreds of virtual callers (simulation of real-world workload), stressing the VoiceObjects Server platform and all involved back-end systems, while at the same time verifying that the system still responds quickly and correctly even under peak load conditions;
• and help to analyze system performance and response times, identify system bottlenecks, and understand resource usage.

The primary use case is making sure that the sizing and configuration of the VoiceObjects platform, including the server cluster, load balancer, Infostore setup, and back-end systems are ready to meet peak load situations, and that the system survives breakdown of single components.

An additional important use case is automated functional regression testing - making sure, with every new service release, that functionality that once was tested successfully hasn’t been broken since then. Finally, the LoadTester can be used for active production monitoring: Executing a set of test scripts in regular intervals (like, every 3 minutes) against the production system, performing transactional, end-to-end testing, that feeds health information and alarms into an existing system monitoring solution.

Now, why do I write about this? Simple: You can now download and use the VoiceObjects LoadTester in your own projects, for free. It will be official part of the VoiceObjects package in the next revision of VoiceObjects 9.0. And it is available today, as a pre-release, here: LoadTester.zip (this package contains a full installation for Windows, including the Python interpreter and required libraries).

On July 29, 2009, I presented the LoadTester in one of our developer jam sessions. Be sure to download (and scan through) the slides I used in the presentation, get the LoadTester Guide, and - sit back and relax – watch a recording of the webinar.

Finally, these are some images with charts generated the VoiceObjects LoadTester. Want to know what they show? Well, check out the LoadTester Guide – it’s all explained in there.

Mini-Preview of LoadTester charts

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 4:36 pm and is filed under Best Practices, Developer Jam Sessions, Tips and tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.