In order to run a load test you need at least two machines, one for running your Web server, and another for running Web Performance Load Tester. The operating system requirements listed below are for the machines running Web Performance Load Tester only, which is independent of the web server and the operating system of the machine upon which the web server is running.
Web Performance Load Tester consists of two parts, a controller and a load generating engine, which by default are run together. In order to run the controller you need to have a graphical user interface installed, which means the Solaris and Linux computers must have X installed. The load generating engine can be broken out and run on a separate machine, which doesn't require a user interface, and thus can be run on headless servers. For more information please see the documentation for remote playback engines.
| Operating System | Version |
| Windows XP | - |
| Windows NT | 4.0 (SP6) |
| Windows 2000 | SP2 or higher |
| Windows 2003 | Supported by WPTrainer 2.6 or later |
| Linux | Tested on all RedHat and Mandrake releases since 2001. |
| Solaris |
2.7, 2.8 et 2.9. Several patches and font packages are required, although a fresh 2.8 install should include everything automatically. |
Why no support for Windows 95/98/ME?
Generating traffic on a Web server takes an operating system that is designed to run multiple simultaneous threads of execution. Desktop versions of Windows are designed for single user use, and don't give reliable performance or results in a demanding stress test.
Hardware Requirements
Simulating multiple virtual users/browsers hitting a Web site is a CPU and memory intensive operation. The most common question is "What type of hardware do I need to test my website?" The answer depends on the type of tests you will run, but the minimum requirements for a realistic non-SSL simulation using Intel-based chips are:
| Virtual Users | CPU MHz | Memory MB |
| 100 | 400 | 256 |
| 200 | 600 | 384 |
| 500 | 800 | 512 |
| 750 | 1,000 | 750 |
| 1,000 | 2,000 | 1,000 |
The number of virtual users a single computer can generate is currently limited to 1,000 virtual users. This was done to insure the accuracy of both the simulated users and the statistics. The actual upper limit on the number of users your hardware can simulate with your test case depends on too many factors to predict. Web Performance Load Tester is the only testing tool on the market that actually load balances the test generating computers as the test runs, making sure each individual computer does not exceed its capacity. When running with multiple load generating computers, the performance of each individual test computer will be monitored, and the task of generating users will be distributed according to the capacity of each test computer.
Memory Requirements
By default Web Performance Load Tester uses 64MB of memory, so your computer should have at least this much available. Because statistics are gathered on a per-URL basis, playing back tests with larger numbers of URLs requires larger amounts of memory.
Web Performance Load Tester is a registered trademark of Web Performance, Inc. All the other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Last update: 05/09/2006 - www.kapitec.com