Load Testing Kit (SharePoint Server 2010)
Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010
This article provides a basic overview of and how-to steps for the Load Testing Kit (LTK) of the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit.
Overview
The Load Testing Kit (LTK) lets an administrator simulate a synthetic load test against a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 farm. The goal of the tool is to assist an administrator to certify that an existing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 topology running on specific hardware can sustain an upgrade to a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 farm, with the same load.
The Load Testing Kit is a command-line tool that will use information from a Office SharePoint Server 2007 production farm as a baseline. There are three steps to perform a load test:
Collect logs.
Prepare data for analysis.
Use the project file to generate a synthetic load.
To install the Load Testing Kit, you must be a local administrator on the any x64-based computer. The files for the Load Testing Kit are installed in the following folder: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft\SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit\Load Testing Kit. The Load Testing Kit includes the following files: Prerequisitecollector.exe, Prerequisitecollector.exe.config, Ltk.exe, and Microsoft.Office.Server.AdministrationToolkit.LoadTestingKitIntl.dll. These files must be copied from the installation folder to any server on the Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm.
To use the tool, you need to be a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group on both the Office SharePoint Server 2007 (original production) and SharePoint Server 2010 (upgraded) farms. Also, the LTK.exe file must be run on a computer where SharePoint 2010 Products is installed.
Collect logs
The first step is to gather all the Internet Information Services (IIS) logs on the Office SharePoint Server 2007 computer and to determine the Web application-to-ID mapping. This is performed by running the Prerequisitecollector.exe file.
The administrator needs to choose a server in the farm to act as a baseline, and then install the Prerequisitecollector.exe file onto that server.
Note
The Prerequisitecollector.exe file must be copied to the physical computer in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm; otherwise, an error message is displayed.
The Prerequisitecollector.exe file contains one parameter, TargetFolder. The TargetFolder parameter specifies the location where the IIS logs of Office SharePoint Server 2007 will be stored.
The Prerequisitecollector tool will copy all the IIS logs available in the default source locations. The size of the IIS log files can be very large, so we recommend to check for log file sizes and plan accordingly. If the sizes of the IIS logs are too large, the size can be reduced by using the LogParser.exe or any comparable tool before or after they are being copied.
Typically, the time period needed to collect a complete set of IIS logs is 24 hours.
Prepare data for analysis
Once the IIS log files are captured, use the Load Testing Kit application (Ltk.exe) to prepare the data for analysis.
Note
The Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) product and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 must be installed before the Ltk.exe is run. Also, some knowledge of how to use VSTS is required. To install the Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), see Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=101641).
To install Service Pack1, see Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=116488).
The Ltk.exe file generates a VSTS-ready project file, which includes default Web Tests (*.WebTest) and comma-separated value (*.csv) parameter files.
To analyze log files, type the following syntax:
ltk.exe –source LTKSource -output VSSolution -userlist users.csv
Ltk.exe syntax
ltk.exe -source <source directory>
** -output <output directory>**
** -userlist <userlist file>**
** [-userrolefixup]**
** [-debugmatchrules <rule1;rule2;rule3>]**
Parameters
| Parameter name | Value | Required? | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
source |
A valid directory, for example, IISLogs |
Yes |
Specifies the folder containing the IIS log files that were collected from the Office SharePoint Server 2007-based computer using the Prerequisitecollector.exe file. |
output |
A valid directory, for example, VSSolution |
Yes |
Specifies the folder for the Load Testing Kit output file, which is a project file that contains all Visual Studio files and .csv files. |
userlist |
A valid location where the .csv file is stored, for example, C:\users.csv |
Yes |
Specifies a .csv file that has at least three columns: Username, Password, and Permission. The .csv file contains all the users that you created in the test domain and the permissions that they are supposed to represent. There should be at least one user for each permission. Valid permission values are FullRead and FullControlWithoutAdmin. |
userrolefixup |
<none> |
No |
Grants permissions specified in the userlist parameter by adding the users to the target Web application's permission policy. |
debugmatchrules |
A valid rule that is used for querying log files. |
No |
Generates a verbose log that maps which IIS logs entries matched each rule. These match rules are contained in the MatchRules section of the WebTestsConfiguration.xml file located in the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft\SharePoint 2010 Administration Toolkit\Load Testing Kit directory. This parameter is only for advanced debugging purposes. |
For example, to use userlist parameter to add a user name "testacct" with the FullControlWithoutAdmin permission, use the following values:
| Username | Password | Permission |
|---|---|---|
Domain\testacct |
Password |
FullControlWithoutAdmin |
For example, to use userlist parameter to add a user name "testacct" with the FullRead permission, use the following values:
| Username | Password | Permissioin |
|---|---|---|
Domain\testacct |
Password |
FullRead |
Use the project file to generate a synthetic load
Once the project file has been generated, the final step is to use VSTS to open and use the project file. For more information about how to use a VSTS project file, see Getting Started with Load and Web Performance Test Walkthroughs (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=196791).