Today I am starting a new blog series, on sizing and load testing in a SAP Netweaver environment.
In this blog, I describe the reasons for the new series of posts, the landscape I will use as a scenario and the tools I will use.
Reasons
Since 2007, I work supporting ITS (Internet Transaction Server). I also worked with WDA (Web Dynpro ABAP) and, most recently, I started supporting SAP Screen Personas.
I had some opportunities to visit SAP customers that use ITS, WDA and Personas. In such visits, there was a concern about the correct sizing of the system, to cope the expected demand.
For ITS, I use the following SAP notes:
742048 - Integrated ITS, memory requirement in application server
1888428 - Sizing for SAP GUI for HTML
2233645 - ITS Memory Trace tool
I also use SAP note 1343331 (Integrated ITS: Scaling, optimization and load test).
For Web Dynpro ABAP, the following SAP notes are valid:
1612245 - Frontend Hardware Requirements for Browser-Based SAP UI
1933805 - Stable ID for automated test
For SAP Screen Personas, this Wiki page can be used.
Therefore, for sizing, the ground is pretty well covered. Put things in practice require several coffee cups.
However, what about load tests?
For ITS, I found one note: 651581 (Load testing ITS servers), which gives some tips if you face issues while doing the load testing. Nothing on how to test itself and the same applies to Web Dynpro ABAP and to Personas.
Thus, I decided to write about load testing, starting with ITS scenarios, moving to Personas and include some WDA applications at the end (counting on the help of a few WDA co-workers).
Landscape
I will start with a simple scenario: a supported web browser reaching a SAP system:
I will gather basic information about what to test (transaction, steps involved, elapsed time, etc.). Then I will add more complexity, bit by bit: first adding another application server, load balancing using the message server; then adding a SAP Web Dispatcher (WDP) to do the load balancing; and finally adding a Portal in front of the WDP.
Tools
It seems that load testing appeared a few times in our neighborhood. I found this blog interesting. For a more hands-on approach, this blog is perfect - it shows the load testing with Web Dynpro ABAP applications.
I decided to go with the same flow and use Apache JMeter as the tool to perform my load tests.
I will use other tools to analyze the information from the tests.
More Information
Even though you can find plenty on Apache JMeter, I think a good book is also a good companion. To cover the basics, you might want to have Apache JMeter, from Emily H. Halili.
Stay tuned for my next blog on sizing & load tests.
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