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Performance Testing of a bidding application by Testvox for Weblanza

Performance Testing of a bidding application by Testvox for Weblanza

14 August 2022 20 MIN READ BY Rajesh K

Project Particulars

  • A bidding application software developed by “Weblanza” for Qatar government authority.
  • Facilitates bidding by the public through the web during auction of vehicles seized by Qatar police.

About the client Weblanza is an IT firm specialized primarily in Web and Mobile Apps Development. They does software development for companies located mainly in the Middle East.

 

Challenges faced by Weblanza

  • The auction of each type of vehicle on respective days through the web often experienced a high surge of traffic from bidders. This unmanageable traffic reduced the operating speed of the application software and the users were unable to bid in the auction.
  • “The application failed functioning after 5 to 10 minutes of duration when the number of real time users went beyond 500”
  • The server dedicated for this application software, based on cloud technology, was levied higher rates due to lack of its optimization.
  • The stability of the server was compromised due to the increase in web traffic from bidders.

Performance testing was the solution identified to deal with these issues.

“These challenges persuaded Weblanza to identify a company with a strong potential to execute performance testing to get rid of these difficulties. Testvox was reached out for aid by them after a thorough search and filter process.”

Weblanza was to manage 5000 bidders using this application software simultaneously without any concerns. Another requirement was to facilitate the achievement of 9500 transactions per hour successfully.

 

Our Solutions

We tested initially for 500 users simultaneously and then proceeded testing with 1000 to 2000 users when the initial evaluation was found to be impeccable. The application started displaying errors 30 minutes after the ramped up strength of 2000 users started using it. The reasons for the aforementioned challenges were identified using specific methods.

  • The server statistics were monitored by Testvox and the issues revealed were notified.
  • After the software developers from Weblanza rectified the issues, the product was re-examined.

We then increased the number of users up to 5000 and informed Weblanza regarding further issues identified on analysing the server statistics. After the final rectification, the application was found to be working fine with good server stability for 5000 users.

Our workload modelling and scripting was planned to make possible
i. 9500 transactions per hour, and
ii. To manage 5000 simultaneous users smoothly.

  • The response time for each user was also found to be acceptable for a maximum load of 5000 users.

“A recommendation to monitor the server carefully when the number of users increased beyond 2000 was conveyed even though the response time for each user was fine. “

We also monitored the CPU utilization, Network and memory usage whenever the performance testing was conducted.

The CPU utilization was found to be below 20-25% throughout the test and the memory and network related parameters were within acceptable limits.

“No abnormalities or failures or unexpected issues were observed during the test.”

An Unexpected Challenge

“The entire performance testing was to be done in the production environment, which was a challenge for us, as the large number of transactions to be done during the performance testing process should not damage the production setup.”

  • Since the performance testing was to be carried out without interrupting the production users, it was to be conducted during non-working hours when no real time user was engaged with the production server.
  • We used agile testing methodology. The different types of tests executed were load tests, stress tests and endurance tests.

Technology Stack

Tools Used Purpose
Jmeter Performance testing
Jira Issue tracking

The Results

The software application from Weblanza for bidding through the web is live now and working fine. The client “Qatar government authority” for which this application software was developed is successfully using it to facilitate online bidding.

“The application is currently able to handle a load of 9500 TPH and 5000 real time users with an acceptable response time for each user.”

Even though it was a tight schedule for us to work with this project as we were given only 2 weeks of time to complete both scripting and testing, we were able to deliver it within the stipulated time frame. We completed the entire test scripting/ code designing, execution, analysis and getting the issues fixed within 2 weeks of time.

Recommended

  • We recommended further rounds of performance testing on the application in the future when any new feature has been incorporated into the application, or if the number of users and the number of transactions per hour has increased beyond the upper threshold.
  • We also pointed out the need to set up a testing environment for future testing purposes.

Graphs

CPU utilization graph and network graph as present in the generated report are shown below.

1. This load test was executed against 2000 V Users and 1 hour 30 Minutes duration. Please see test results below.

Server Statistics

CPU Utilization Graph-
Network Graph-

 

 

2. This load test was executed against 5000 V Users and 2 hours 30 Minutes duration. Please see test results below.

Server Statistics
CPU Utilization Graph-

 

Network Graph-

The below image signifies the token of appreciation received by Testvox from Weblanza.