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Rational® Performance Test Server
Tester Guide
This guide describes the tasks that you can perform for testing various domains, technologies, and applications. To enable testing, you must configure and enable the environment for testing.
Technical Tester Guide
Typically, a user with the Integration Tester role is also responsible for performance testing. This guide lists all such topics.
Creating and running performance tests
This topic describes how to create, configure, and run performance tests.
Creating performance tests
A performance test is created within a Rational® Integration Tester project.
Adding distributed tests
You can add distributed tests to a performance test.
Timed sections
When tests are run within a distributed test in IBM® Rational® Performance Test Server, the overall execution times (that is, start to finish) are recorded.

Rational® Performance Test Server
- Release Notes
  This document contains information about What's new, installation, known issues, and contact information of IBM Support.
- System Requirements
  This document includes information about hardware and software requirements for IBM® Rational® Test Virtualization Server.
- Getting Started
  This guide provides an overview and describes the tasks to get you started with IBM® Rational® Performance Test Server.
- Administrator Guide
  Typically, a user with the administrator role is responsible for certain tasks including installation, configuration, and integration of the product. This guide lists all such topics.
- Tester Guide
  This guide describes the tasks that you can perform for testing various domains, technologies, and applications. To enable testing, you must configure and enable the environment for testing.
  - Technical Tester Guide
    Typically, a user with the Integration Tester role is also responsible for performance testing. This guide lists all such topics.
    - Creating and running performance tests
      This topic describes how to create, configure, and run performance tests.
      - Before creating performance tests
        Agents (Rational® Integration Tester Agent) are required on the computers that will run IBM® Rational Integration Tester tests and the probes that monitor the systems.
      - Creating performance tests
        A performance test is created within a Rational® Integration Tester project.
        Execution
        Select the root of the performance test in the configuration tree to display its configuration details, as shown below.
        Configuring references
        You can configure a performance test to run scenarios, which are collections of stubs, that are available on the IBM® Rational® Test Control Panel domain associated with your Rational Integration Tester project.
        Configuring probes
        The Probes tab (on the Config tab) is used to configure which probes to run during the test, and where to run them.
        Adding distributed tests
        You can add distributed tests to a performance test.
        Configuring execution options
        On the Execution tab, you can modify the name of the selected test as well as the Rational® Integration Tester test that it should run.
        Load-generating tests
        If the load profile for the selected test is Constant Growth, the execution parameters will be defined in this topic and the number of test phases and their duration are fixed.
        Background tests
        A background test simply runs the selected test repeatedly while the performance test is active.
        Test engines
        Test engines are instances of Rational® Integration Tester that execute performance tests.
        Configuring input mappings
        On the Input Mappings tab, you can map values from a selected test data set to the tags in your test.
        Descriptions/notes
        On the Documentation tab, you can enter a description or notes about the selected test, and specify the test’s owner.
        Timed sections
        When tests are run within a distributed test in IBM® Rational® Performance Test Server, the overall execution times (that is, start to finish) are recorded.
        Test action support for timed sections
        The following table lists the various test steps and the support offered when using timed sections around them.
        Configuring begin timed section actions
        The Begin Timed Section action marks the start of an individually timed section within the test.
        End timed section actions
        The End Timed Section action marks the end of an individually timed section within the test.
        Log Measurement action (optional)
        With the Log Measurement action, you can periodically record custom data, that is, data that is not provided by test engines and probes, as a performance test runs. The recorded data is stored in a database and is used to generate performance charts. Each item of data that is recorded is called a counter. Attributes are used to identify the counters. A UTC time stamp is stored with each set of counters.
      - Performance tests
        Performance tests are executed in Rational® Integration Tester in the same way and from the same perspectives as any other test resource.
      - Troubleshooting: Running a performance test with a MySQL database
        You can troubleshoot an issue that you encounter while you run a performance test with a MySQL database.
    - View test results
      This topic describes how to work with IBM® Rational® Performance Test Server charts in the Results Gallery perspective.
    - Deploying probes
      A Rational® Integration Tester probe measures variables from a particular component in the system and reports back its findings for processing and storage.
  - Integration Tester Guide
    This guide describes the tasks that you can perform for testing various domains, technologies, and applications. To enable testing, you must configure and enable the environment for testing. This guide is intended for Integration testers.
- Security Considerations
  You can take certain actions to ensure that your installation is secure, customize your security settings, and set up user access controls.
- Notices
  This document provides information about copyright, trademarks, terms and conditions for product documentation.

Timed sections

When tests are run within a distributed test in IBM® Rational® Performance Test Server, the overall execution times (that is, start to finish) are recorded.

About this task

In addition to this overall time, it is possible to measure individual sections within the steps of the Rational® Integration Tester test. This can be done by adding markers (that is, the begin time section and end time section actions) to the test steps to create a timed section.

Configure timed section

You can add multiple timed sections to a test, the sections can overlap, and the sections can be nested.

Notes:

Timing markers are only allowed within the Test Steps section of the test, and more than one timed section is allowed within a single test.
Timed sections are ignored in background tests.
Timed sections have no effect when the test is executed outside of the performance test.

The following topics describe which test actions support timed sections and how to configure Begin Timed Section and End Timed Section actions.