SOASTA CloudTest Architecture

SOASTA CloudTest^® is a dynamic Web application that combines an innovative Ajax-based user interface and distributed Web services to support test creation, test execution, and test result analytics.

Distributed Web Services Architecture

All of the components of the SOASTA CloudTest architecture are services-based and can be installed on a single server or different physical or cloud servers to maximize scale and performance. This architectural flexibility allows the SOASTA CloudTest application to be run in many hardware configurations from a single all-in-one optimized hardware appliance to a very complex large cross-cloud global test network capable of running a test simultaneously from many server nodes distributed around the world.

Single Code Line Across all Editions

Every edition of CloudTest gives its users the ability to build, execute and analyze both performance and functional tests and then share them with other CloudTest users. For example, Developers, QA professionals and Performance Engineers can use CloudTest Lite to build tests, which can then be executed in CloudTest Pro to test at full web scale.

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Elasticity – Built for the Cloud

Cloud resources only take minutes to provision and deploy. The scalability of the cloud allows test designers and architects to think about load testing without hardware resource constraints. They can now afford web scale testing that targets the real expected user volume of the application.

CloudTest Technology Components:

1. Ajax-based User Interface

   SOASTA CloudTest has an Ajax UI accessible from all major Web browsers. Internet Explorer 7.0, Firefox 2.0 and Safari 3.0 are all certified to run the SOASTA CloudTest Web UI. Cross browser support enables testing teams to create, run, and analyze test results from anywhere in the world at anytime. 

2. Conductor is a multi-function low-overhead agent used to record http(s) message traffic for test creation. Conductor can also be used to monitor system resources during test runs and play UI/Ajax/Flex tests on client machines as required.
3. Maestro is CloudTest’s highly scalable load server implemented as a massively multi-threaded service, which executes all or parts of a complex test composition. A single Maestro node is capable of sending and validating responses to thousands of http messages per second. Multiple Maestros can be combined to each execute parts of a large load test that can scale out to millions of virtual users. Maestros can be geographically distributed and single test compositions can run geographically distributed while still producing a single integrated set of test results and analytics.
4. The Repository is the underlying database layer that retrieves and stores SOASTA CloudTest objects such as user scenario recordings, test clips, test compositions, playlists, users, targets, and test results.
5. Grid Manager is the CloudTest UI for automated Maestro provisioning that integrates with the API’s of the major cloud vendors (Amazon, Microsoft Azure, IBM Smart Cloud, GoGrid, RackSpace, etc.) to manage single-cloud or cross-cloud computing resources. The Grid Manager is used to launch and tear down Maestro Load Server and Results Server instances that are used to generate and analyze load tests.
6. CloudTest Analytics is the distributed memory-based CloudTest analytic service (with persistence to disk) purpose-built to handle very large result sets and analytics from the most complex load tests with great performance. The engine automatically correlates many data streams from a distributed load test into a single test result on a synchronized time-line. CloudTest Analytics provides comprehensive, actionable Performance Intelligence.

    

   • Real-Time Analytics Dashboard: Results are the purpose of testing and the core value of CloudTest. CloudTest delivers results via patent-pending innovative, gesture-based dashboards and widgets, which visualize the test and performance metrics in various charts, lists and crosstabs. Real time, up-to-the-second, test results are streamed into the various dashboards’ widgets, users never have to refresh or reload them.
   • Results Service generate all of the analytic data presented via the Analytic Dashboard widgets and are designed to be distributed for optimal performance, bandwidth optimization and massive data handling for live, real-time analysis. The Results Service’s distributed, multi-level aggregation and correlation of real time data is at the core of CloudTest’s ability o generate real time streaming results no matter how large the test is. This technology is also patent-pending.
   • External Data Objects A powerful aspect of CloudTest Analytics is the External Data Objects extraction layer, which captures key performance metrics from a wide variety of existing production monitoring systems, as well as SOASTA’s own test monitors.  Performance Engineers have a compelling, consolidated, end-to-end view of all aspects of web performance including application and database servers, load balancers, instrumented code and bandwidth, all the way to actual end user experience. This end-to-end view is presented in the same dashboard, and even in the same widget if required, and CloudTest delivers real time streaming results no matter what the data source is.