It is used to capture and generate HTTP tests. The capture process is very easy. After this, we edited the captured transactions to organize them into the sections or transactions we require performance metrics for (i.e. splash page, user authentication, main pageload, logout, etc.). This editing process is easy to perform with the interface provided in Rational Performance Tester Finally, Rational Performance Tester has an import/export feature that has been extremely useful. We have used it to export our complete test library and import it into another Rational Performance Tester server with no loss or issues. This allows for platform test migrations and backup.

• Easy to create scripts if you are not a programmer
• Nice GUI feel
• Easy to maintain servers

• The graphical Test Results and executive reports
• The improved Load Generation Agent
• The ability to couple test results with resource monitoring results across all application tiers
• The ability to add custom code where needed (for enhanced data correlation for example)
• The ever improving auto-data correlation

The most valuable aspects of the solution are the multiple technologic supports and the multiple integrations with other IBM tools from the same ecosystem. 

Code extending capabilities are the most valuable features, however it requires Java coding skills, and is not for those who aren't coders or for those with basic knowledge.

• Automatic correlation and saving manual correlations and parameterization in a rule, so that it can be used for re-recording or subsequent flows. These features are big time saver.
• Easy to include Java classes and write code to manipulate or provide data getting generated at run time.
• It offers a good variety of reports to identify the presence and cause of performance bottlenecks. The reports provide the response time breakdown at the method level, which can be used to identify the cause of the bottleneck, by identifying slow performance classes, methods and individual lines of application source code

Virtual Users

Customization and extensions made in Java is valuable because this can help you set elements to improve your results. 

Additionally, it gives you the ability to have an editor where you can see requests and responses, and the way to correlate it. 

Lastly, the possibility to cross data with your servers measure points such as CPU percentage, disk I/O, paging, etc.

Real time view and its inbuilt root cause analysis tools is something which I like the most. This feature is something unique to RPT when compared to other market leading tools like load runner.

• Less coding needed
• Easy to understand
• Easy integrating it with existing systems
• I can test more than one performance test type (load testing, stress testing, scalability testing, etc)

• Test Creation
• Execution

It can support both web applications and mobile applications, and in certain cases, it can also support testing of desktop applications or software-based applications. You can write web applications, mobile applications, and software-based applications.

The way how tests are presented in the tool, and the possibilities to edit tests and follow depending data using Data Correlation feature.

The Load Schedule has very nice preview, and the new Load Generator as the agent makes planing of testing environment capacity much simpler.

With each new version, the tool gets better and better features.

The Resource Monitoring feature has more flexible options for different OS's such as Windows, Unix and Linux.

• Root cause analysis 
• Provides the response time breakdown at the method level
• Real time monitoring of CPU
• Memory
• Disk utilization

The tool supports multiple protocols, such as HTTP, Citrix, and SAP. It enables me, as a consultant, to run performance tests against the most common application environments.

I can manage the complete performance test process from a single interface, which saves me from installing additional software and swapping between applications.

Provides very good user workload modelling functionality, which is important for me to accurately represent real business scenarios when designing my tests.

Very easy to customize and edit tests once recorded with lots of features for renaming, merging, splitting pages, and data driving tests.

Load generation is supported from the cloud via a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, which removes the need for us to provide additional hardware resources and network bandwidth for large tests.

Resource monitoring of the system under test infrastructure is also supported. This enables me to correlate performance statistics with resource utilization figures during analysis.

We mainly used it for load and stress tests for our application.

The valuable features are--

• test cases
• data pools, and
• logging features to see what went wrong during load run.