Can Your Website Handle Sudden Increase in Traffic ?

Probably you can add this Amit “Don’t forget to remove adsense or other CPM ads before going for such load testing.”

Since load testing will amount to direct violation of adsense TOS. (generating false impressions)

That’s interesting, thanks. I could have done with that a few months ago when my old host was giving me some problems. I’ve now gone down the dedicated server route and things are much better.

Will the test actually _execute_ JavaScript (needed to download the ads)? I don’t think so…it probably is just downloading the files.

Tayyyyynically this service can cause some *real* trouble on unsuspecting sites. Running the complete free test caused data transfer of 125 MB. So…someone with a paid account can have a jolly good time hitting website after website. Or…they could hit labnol.org and rack up your Amazon S3 bills. (Muhahahahaha?) There should be _some_ kind of authentication as to whether you actually own the site. Like…uploading a small txt file in the root of the domain to be tested which will be generated randomly by the Load Impact service. Only if this file is found should they proceed with the test.

One of my post was once hit by StumbleUpon Traffic (it was around 7000-8000 in a day just from it alone)

Server went down, got an email from my web host, etc etc lol

Installed WP-SuperCache and all those problems never happen again

This is a great service. Most of the time bloggers do not worry about what is now known as Digg Effect which can be a major let down when you have thousands of visitors to your site.

are the simulated users coming from the same IP? that could violate adsense TOS…

Hi all, and thanks for the positive comments about our service!

As for the security, most people who hear about it have the same first reaction: a free DOS-attack service? What on earth were they thinking when they created *that*? :-)

We have actually put a lot of effort into security, and while nothing is ever 100% I think we have managed to make the service unattractive to people who might want to DOS someone. However, we have not been very good at publicizing our security features – Something which will be amended in the near future.

We do have the requirement that users place a special file on their webservers if they want to run a test with large load levels. We also have a feature that remembers every byte the system has downloaded from any single IP, and which denies new tests involving a particular IP if we have transferred too many bytes to/from that address the last 24 hours or the last month. On top of this we have features that prevent people from running too many tests, perform too many transactions, etc. The free tests have an automatic cut-off feature that aborts them if the target system starts responding too slowly. I have probably forgotten to mention one or two features now. The main point is that we have taken security seriously, and while it is likely possible to temporarily slow down a really small website out there, an attacker cannot only do it infrequently, and for a short period of time, and they will not be able to generate more load than they would be able to using a standard home PC and a DSL connection. We think that anyone who actually wants to perform a DOS attack have more to gain from using a bot network, or maybe even a single bot computer, than our service.

Regards,

/Ragnar

I forgot to say that premium (paying) users can generate more load, but they too have limitations. Their limitations are just set higher than they are for anonymous/free users.

To generate a large simulated load everyone have to have the special file in the root of their servers, or the test will not start.

Regards,

/Ragnar

Thanks @Ragnar. You answered a lot of queries people had about the service. :)

Mike CJ,
You are right that most load testing tools do not actually execute the JavaScript. And if anyone has done load testing on more modern webapps, they know that as more logic moves to the browser it becomes much more difficult to load test. And if there’s a Flash movie, it gets even more difficult.

That’s why I started BrowserMob. You can sign up for a free trial at browsermob.com and run a load test in which real web browsers (powered by Selenium) participate in a load test. JavaScript, Flash, etc is all executed just like a real browser. And, as a bonus, we take a screenshot of what happened when an error or timeout occurs, just as a real user would experience the site.

For more info on the Ajax/load testing problem, check out this recent article on Ajaxian.com – link

This is an important resource that should be read by anyone who has a website. Most publishers will end their work with increasing site traffic, but there are other important considerations aside from this.