Goals types for goal-oriented scenarios

In a goal-oriented scenario, you define the goals you want your test to achieve and LoadRunner Professional automatically builds a scenario for you based on these goals.

This section discusses the types of goals for a goal-oriented scenario.

In this topic:

Virtual users

This goal tests if your application can run a specified number of Vusers simultaneously. Running this type of goal-oriented scenario is similar to running a manual scenario.

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Pages per minute/Hits per second/Transactions per second

These goals test the strength of your server. For each of these goal types, you specify a minimum-maximum range of Vusers for the scenario to run, and in the case of the Transactions per Second goal type, you also specify a transaction name.

When you define one of these goal type, Controller divides the target defined by the minimum number of Vusers specified, and determines the target number of hits/transactions per second or pages per minute that each Vuser should reach.

Controller then begins loading the Vusers according to the load behavior settings you defined, as follows:

• If you selected to run the Vusers automatically, LoadRunner Professional loads 50 Vusers in the first batch. If the maximum number of Vusers defined is less than 50, all of the Vusers are loaded simultaneously.

• If you chose to reach your target after a certain period of the scenario elapses, LoadRunner Professional attempts to reach the defined target within this period of time. It determines the size of the first batch of Vusers based on the time limit you defined and the calculated target number of hits, transactions, or pages per Vuser.

• If you chose to reach your target by gradation (x number of pages/hits every x amount of time), LoadRunner Professional calculates the target number of hits or pages per Vuser and determines the size of the first batch of Vusers accordingly. (Not relevant for the Transactions per Second goal type).

After running each batch of Vusers, LoadRunner Professional evaluates whether the target for the batch was achieved. If the batch target was not reached, LoadRunner Professional recalculates the target number of hits, transactions, or pages per Vuser, and readjusts the number of Vusers for the next batch to be able to achieve the defined goal. By default, a new batch of Vusers is released every two minutes.

If the goal has not been reached after Controller has launched the maximum number of Vusers, LoadRunner Professional attempts to reach the defined target once more by recalculating the target number of hits, transactions, or pages per Vuser, and running the maximum number of Vusers simultaneously.

A Pages per Minute or Hits/Transactions per Second goal-oriented scenario is assigned a Failed status if:

• Controller has twice attempted to reach the goal using the maximum number of Vusers specified, and the goal could not be reached.

• No pages per minute or hits/transactions per second were registered after the first batch of Vusers was run.

• The number of pages per minute or hits/transactions per second did not increase after Controller ran a certain number of Vuser batches.

• All the Vusers that ran failed.

• There were no available load generators for the type of Vusers you attempted to run.

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Transaction response time

This goal tests how many Vusers can be run simultaneously without exceeding a desired transaction response time. You specify the name of the transaction in your script that you want to test, and a minimum-maximum range of Vusers for LoadRunner Professional to run. The transaction response time you specify should be a predefined threshold value.

For example, if you do not want a customer to wait more than five seconds to log in to your e-commerce site, specify a maximum acceptable transaction response time of five seconds. Set the minimum and maximum number of Vusers to the minimum-maximum range of customers you want to be able to serve simultaneously.

If the scenario does not reach the maximum transaction response time that you defined, your server is capable of responding within a reasonable period of time to the number of customers you want to be able to serve simultaneously. If the defined response time is reached after only a portion of the Vusers has been executed, or if you receive a message that the defined response time will be exceeded if Controller uses the maximum number of Vusers defined, you should consider revamping your application and/or upgrading your server software and hardware.

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