Troubleshoot load issues

This topic describes how to troubleshoot TruClient load issues.

In this topic:

TruClient load overview

TruClient technology provides you with the ability to quickly and easily record complex business processes. However, because TruClient records at the user level and requires a browser for replay, the more complex an application's client logic is, the more CPU and memory is required to run a Vuser.

As a result, the TruClient footprint can be significantly larger than the footprints of other Vuser protocols used to run a similar business process.

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Calculate the number of load generators

Use the following method to determine the required number of load generators:

1. Record a TruClient script.  

2. Replay a single Vuser in Controller and check the average CPU and the peak memory consumption of the mdrv.exe process and all its descendant processes by adding a counter for % Processor Time and Private Bytes.

3. Based on your load generator hardware and the CPU and memory consumption of a single Vuser, calculate the number of Vusers per machine.

   Example: Let us assume that each of our load generators has 8 core processors and 8GB of memory.

   Let us also assume that a single Vuser consumes 80MB of peak memory and 10% CPU on average for the specific business process.

   From a CPU perspective, if we limit the CPU consumption up to 70% utilization, we can have 7 Vusers per core processor (70% /10%). If our load generator has a total of 8 cores processors, 8 * 7 Vusers per processor equals 56 Vusers per load generator.

   From a memory perspective, the load generator machine has 8GB memory of which 7GB is available for the Vusers so approximately 87 Vusers per load generator machine (7GB / 80MB).

   Therefore, to meet both the CPU and memory capacity limits, we use the lower number of Vusers and we calculate that for this business process, we can run approximately 56 Vusers per load generator.

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Configure Runtime Settings to improve load

To improve the ability to run more Vusers, in VuGen select Runtime Settings > General > Replay, and check the Replay using recorded duration for steps option.

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Measure the load generator performance

Use the following monitors to ensure that the load generator is not being over utilized.

Monitor	Threshold
Processor\% Processor Time	80%
Memory\Available Mbytes	Less than 10 percent of the total physical RAM
System\Context Switches/sec	Less than 8K context switches/sec per core

If you do not see standard performance issues, GDI resource consumption may limit the number of Vusers you can run. As the number of Vusers increases, the GDI resources needed to display the application in a browser can reach the limit supported by the Windows Operating system per session.

You can better utilize the load generator hardware resources by connecting to the same load generator using different windows sessions. For more details, see Terminal Services Overview in VuGen in the LoadRunner Professional Help.

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Manage TruClient scalability

Use the following tips to manage TruClient scalability:

• To support a larger number of Vusers, use high performance hardware and use more load generators.

• Increase the ramp up time between vusers.

  For example, minimally set the ramp up to 2 vusers every 30 seconds.

• Configure Controller to not initialize vusers before they run. This will reduce the demand on the CPU and I/O during ramp up.

• If CPU is a bottleneck, consider doing one of the following:

  • Add a longer pacing time between iterations.
  • Add wait steps of a second or two.

• If memory is a bottleneck, run fewer Vusers.

• If the bottleneck is not CPU or memory, it is most likely the GDI resources. Consider using LoadRunner Professional/LoadRunner Enterprise integration with Terminal Services and split Vusers among different terminal sessions.

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