Stress Testing of a server

[beltmanjr]

Hi all,
I need to come up with a great stress testing tool for a server we got.

It is windows 2003 and runs cognos.
We wish to monitor how well the server will perform with quite some users trying to wreck it

What are the best stress testing tools with good reporting options that also understand cognos or simply database testing?

Any advice on how to proceed?

Cheers
JR

 

[itsp1965]

This all depends on how users are accessing the server. Is Cognos running under Terminal services? Is the database you're querying stored locally on the server? Can you provide more information regarding your environment

 

[beltmanjr]

We got 4 load balanced windows 2003 servers with cognos on them. People access the cognos frontend tools using webservices (IIS).

The 4 servers get their information from a datawarehouse server.

We expect about 80 concurrent users

 

[itsp1965]

Don't know how it works using the Web interface but we found that Cognos was a pig on Terminal services environments had few users as possible testing it. Your best bet would be to check the Cognos' site for any technotes on sizing/testing their environment.
In the meantime though you could apply standard monitoring of CPU/disk/network/IIS through the performance monitor in order to get an idea of how the server is handling the loads.