Stress tools to test your Web server (231282)

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. IIS 6.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx

SUMMARY

This article provides a list of tools you can use to simulate load for your Web applications. By simulating load for your application, you can test concurrency issues as well as better understand how your application behaves under stress. Testing load and concurrency by refreshing a browser is not considered a valid test.

MORE INFORMATION

The following Web stress tools are available from Microsoft:

Web Capacity Analysis Tool

The IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools include WCAT 5.2. To download the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit Tools, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56fc92ee-a71a-4c73-b628-ade629c89499&DisplayLang=en
Web Application Stress Tool

To download the Web Application Stress Tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e2c0585a-062a-439e-a67d-75a89aa36495&DisplayLang=en

With these tools you can stress test your Web server to see how it reacts when several hundred users access your application at peak times. These tools can also be used to test the server-side components for performance, locks, and other scalability issues. A Web application that relies on databases can also be tested on parameters such as concurrency, transactions, number of users, locks, pooling, and so forth.