In the previous post i introduced 2 solutions that will allow you to load test your website / application. The 2 applications are HP Load Runner and JMeter. You can read a quick intro about load testing, both software and my take / preferences.

As promised, I am dedicating a second post to show example of how to test your moodle install using JMeter. The example will show how to emulate the following steps :

1. user navigates to site
2. user logins + testing if login successful
3. user views some content like FLV video

There are many reason i chose moodle/Jmeter for this post :

1. I had to choose something
2. It will be less useful if i show example of load testing on proprietary website that i did – so better show example on how to test some open source package.
3. Referring to point 2 – from the open source solutions that are interesting to load test, you have wordpress/drupal/moodle. Moodle seemed to me more interesting cuz it is a content heavy system where most data resides behind a login for the students and it needs usually higher resources, so load testing moodle installs is important with all the students logging at the same time to view courses and take quizzes
4. I was doing load test for moodle install and the contributions under http://cvs.moodle.org/contrib/tools/jmeter/ has only 1 entry . It was bit tricky to find example and resources on the topic ! so i am publishing this to hopefully help the lost souls working with moodle/jmeter
5. Because I am optimizing my blog for moodle / JMeter and i am so far happy with the reach of keywords that say JMeter, moodle, load testing :). Yes, that is how i digg jobs as freelancer :)

Enough with the blabbery blabbering ,

من شي يومن تلاته كنت علقانة بعجقة سير ما بتفهم – ما هوي دائماً في عجقة سير ودائماً بتكون عجقة ما بتفهم واضرب من هيك ببطل لقاعدين بالعجقة يفهمو وبدور التزمير والمسبات

المهم مش هيدا الموضوع … الموضوع انو كنت علقانة بعجقة سير وضجرت ، يعني عنجد ضجرت وإذ بعد الكوع بشوف وحده من هول الإعلانات لبتحكي عن دعم اللغة العربي فتذكرت المبادرة يلي قامت فيها ليليان والبوطة مشان التدوين بالعربيه وتذكرت كل الجدل والنق على قصة الكتابة بالعربيه وكيف العالم دبت فيا الوطنيه بعد  عرب نت تقريباً ودار الحديث انو يا مدونين كتب بالعربيه … نشكر الله بعد ما دار التخوين والإتهام بعمالة لإسرائيل وقتل اللغة والحضارة العربيه  إذا واحد حكي كلمة إنجليزي.

فأنا وقاعده بهل عجقة عتلانه هم الحضارة والبشريه كملت قراءة الإعلانات عل طريق وبساعتها

something clicked together

ولاحظت هيدا الشي :

This is not some deep philosophical point that I am trying to make or explain – the grass is not greener on the other side – wallah ma 3am itfalsaf !

This has been something bugging and bugging me since spring time started and I have been trying not to rant about it on my blog – you know, having a rant-free blog for a change. But well, this is bugging me too much now that i have to spit it out : THE GRASS IS NOT GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE !

Ok Ok… I already said that , the thing is since we did not have a decent winter in lebanon aka no snow and heavy rains the grass did not “die” and get “born” again in spring. That means when you go around in nature now, you see lot of dead grass around or if it is not dead grass, the green looks “tired” and not as green and as fresh as recently bloomed stuff.

After you happily build your website it is important to do some load testing in order to have an accurate idea of the performance under different conditions and to have a road map for your server specs and upgrades. Also you won’t be surprised or shocked when the long-awaited-visitors arrive and you will be able to handle your website traffic .

After some googling, to do decent load testing, it turned out that i have 2 main solutions to use :

• HP Load runner
• JMeter

Here is my review and experience with both software :

After many long awaited years and after many opportunities and money wasted the lebanese are finally getting their e-transaction law. But instead of cheers and hallelujah, the online community is greeting this law with a big big gloom and anger. This law, if passed, will take us backward in time and will drive all foreign investments away ( can you think of any sane tech company willing to operate under the following conditions ? google, facebook offices in lebanon – dream on ! ). This is simply like looking up to a light at the end of a very dark long tunnel only to find out that the source of this light is a burning fire that you can’t even avoid.

We can’t simply shrug and think that we will outsmart the law even if it could be damn easy to do so, but simply we don’t have to, instead we must demand our right to have good law in the first place. Another clash between the government and tech sector is the last thing we need.

So It is not only that we have now the world shittiest internet but also we could have the crappiest law. Could it be because we have shittiest + crappiest legislators on the planet ?

Before you get bored of my nagging and ranting, I leave you with some of the most interesting articles from this hope-not-to-be law