Visual Studio 2013 Performance results analysis issues

Question

I have to use VSTS 2013 ultimate as a Performance (Load) test tool for one of my project, I have my prior experience in JMeter, but client want only VSTS performance report. I have studied and used VSTS for my hands-on over this tool. As we know every tool has its on way of capturing and executing tests which differs from the other tools, so is in the case of VSTS; I am little unclear about the performance parameters which are provided by VSTS in its load test reports.

Again I tried to search for them but some how different sites are confusing me more with their answers. Here are my questions related to the same:

1. What is the difference in Avg. Page Time and Avg. Response Time in VSTS? Which should be greater ideally (I know there can be some exceptions)
2. I am always getting Transactions/Sec and Total Transactions values as 'Zero', what I need to do for getting these values? How can I create transactions?
3. What is exactly Avg. Test Time? Is this the time taken for executing the load test under consideration? If, yes then does it mean that this is the time in which one iteration of execution can get completed?
4. Values like 95%, 90% etc. which are shown in the Table view, these are the Avg. Page Time or Avg. Response Time?
5. The goal which is set in the requests is compared against the Avg. Page Time or Avg. Response Time?
6. Every time I close and start VSTS and run load tests, it shows results for that duration only e.g. if I have executed a test 5 times, it will show me 5 results in the Test Result section and I can switch to any result I want (fine); but when I restart VSTS on same or next day and execute the test it shows me results for only that day not for earlier days and no such option is shown in the execution drop down of Test Results and Test Run windows too. I know VSTS stores results in a database which exists at some location on my system but don't know how to display those older results in VSTS.

I have referred below mentioned links

1. Link 1
2. Link 2
3. Link 3
4. Link 4

Answer 1

For point 6 of the question:

Load test results are stored in a data base. They can be accessed as follows.

1. Open any ".loadtest" file.

2. From the load test editor's command icons click on Open and manage results. The command is also available in the context menu of the load test.

3. The top text field specifies the database to use. The default value should be correct.

4. The bottom text area shows the stored results for the test named in the second text field. This defaults to the current test. This field can be altered to name a different test or to show all the stored test results.

5. Select the test to show and click Open.

The data base containing the results can fill up. Some versions of SQL (eg SQL Express) have a maximum data base size. Sometimes it is useful to run a load test on one computer then copy the results to another computer for detailed analysis. The Open and manage load test results window has three more facilities for managing the results. By using the Export, Remove and Import commands, test results can be extracted from the data base and archived elsewhere.

• One or more test runs can be selected and then Exported. The output is a ".ltrar" file. These ".ltrar" files can be huge but they compress significantly into ZIP files.

• One or more test runs can be selected and then Removed from the data base, ie deleted.

• An ".ltrar" file can be Imported into the data base.

The commands that open and manage results are only available from an open load test file. The load test does not need to do anything, it just needs to exist.

Answer 2

Here are your answers

1. Difference between avg page time and avg response time

Answer https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/89b82d9c-69f7-44c8-9db1-4901020b63e0/what-is-the-difference-between-average-test-time-average-response-time-and-average-page-time?forum=vstswebtest

2. How can I create transactions Answer: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182547(v=vs.110).aspx

3. What is exactly Avg. Test Time? Answer : Average Test time: The average test time is the time it takes to execute all requests within a web test + think times. see this useful link https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140409134104-59567290-planning-and-conducting-effective-performance-and-load-testing-for-web-applications-using-visual-studio-ultimate-2012

4. Values like 95%, 90% etc. which are shown in the Table view, these are the Avg. Page Time or Avg. Response Time? Answer: if you are seeing the table of pages , it will show average page time if you are seeing the table of request, it will show average respone time. 90% means, 90% of the request takes less than this reponse time. for example 10 sec is written in 90% column, that means 90% of the requests take less than 10 seconds.

5. The goal which is set in the requests is compared against the Avg. Page Time or Avg. Response Time?

Answer : you set goal for each request, each response will be compared to your set goal. it will not be compared to avg page time or avg response time.

Question number 6 is already answered.

see this link as well https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404705.aspx#Graph

Answer 3

This MSDN page should have all the answers. If you are still confused, go higher up in the page tree to work on your foundation level knowledge. I won't copy+paste the wall of text as the MSDN has been up longer than StackOverflow.