Follow these performance
testing guidelines to ensure that you record a reliable HTTP test.
Remove temporary files
To ensure that your
recording accurately captures HTTP traffic, remove temporary files
from the web browser's cache before you record a test.
To remove
temporary files from the Microsoft Internet Explorer cache:
- Open Internet Explorer, and click .
- On the General tab, click Delete.
- In the Delete Browsing History window, click Delete,
and then click OK.
To remove temporary files from the Mozilla FireFox cache:
- Open Mozilla Firefox and click .
- Click the Advanced tab and then the Network tab.
- Click Clear Now.
- Click OK.
Allow recorded pages to load completely
When
recording, wait for each page to load completely. This wait does not
affect performance results, because you can remove extra think time
when you play back the test.
Recording with IP addresses
When recording,
you can enter the IP address of the website to connect to instead
of entering the host name. When you play back the test, however, make
sure that the IP address can resolve to a host name. Typically, this
resolution occurs via a reverse DNS lookup.
Note: While recording a
test in Internet Explorer, if you use localhost in
the URL, Internet Explorer does not route the traffic through Rational® Performance Tester Agent.
The test will not contain any recorded data. You must use a host name
or IP address to record the traffic.
To
resolve the IP address, map each IP address to a host name in the /etc/hosts file.
On a Windows system, the file is typically stored in C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.
If
an address cannot be resolved, your test shows a slower connection
time. This time might be delayed by as much as 8 seconds, depending
on the network configuration of the computer.