How to: View web page response time in a load test using the Load Test Analyzer

  • Article

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

The time it takes for each web page to load is known as response time. When you create a web performance test, you can set a response time goal for each web page request in your web performance test.

Note

Web performance and load test functionality is deprecated. Visual Studio 2019 is the last version where web performance and load testing will be fully available. For more information, see the Cloud-based load testing service end of life blog post. To reduce the impact on users some minimum support is still available in Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3 or later. Users should also note web performance and load test functionality only supports Internet Explorer which is not available on Windows 11 and some versions of Windows 10. Read more on Internet Explorer Lifecycle policy.

If you run your web performance test under stress in a load test, you will be able to analyze the following information for each page:

  • The average response time for the page.

  • The percent of test iterations that meet the response time goal for the page.

  • You can analyze web page response times by using the Tables view or the Graphs view in the Load Test Analyzer:

  • Analyzing web page response times in the tables view

  • Analyzing web page response times in the graphs view

View response time data in a table

  1. In the Load Test Analyzer, choose Tables on the toolbar to make sure that the table grid is displayed.

  2. In the Table drop-down list box, select Pages.

  3. The data for each page is displayed in the grid. The following columns are ordinarily displayed.

    Column Heading Description
    Page The name of the web page.
    Scenario The name of the scenario. Important if you have more than one scenario in your web performance test.
    Test The name of the web performance test. Important if you have more than one web performance test in your load test.
    Network The network type.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    Total The total number of requests that were made for the web page. This is the total for all iterations in the load test.
    Ave Average page response time.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    Min The minimum page response time.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    Median The median page response time.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    90% The 90th percentile for the response time. This indicates that 90% of the pages responded faster than this number, and 10% of the pages responded more slowly.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    95% The 95th percentile for the response time. This indicates that 95% of the pages responded faster than this number, and 5% of the pages responded more slowly.
    99% The 99th percentile for the response time. This indicates that 99% of the pages responded faster than this number, and 1% of the pages responded more slowly.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    Max The maximum page response time.

    By default, this data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    Std Dev By default, the standard deviation data is not collected. To collect this data, in the Load Test Editor, under the Run Settings node, select the run setting node to change. In the Properties window, for the Timing Details Storage property, select AllIndividualDetails.
    Page Time The average response time for all requests that were made for the web page.
    Goal The page time goal. This is a constant value for the page. Note: Page Time Goal is displayed only when the goal has been defined for the request in the web performance test.
    % Meeting Goal The percent of the requests that were made for the web page that met the response time goal.

    For more information, see Analyze load test results and errors in the Tables view.

View response time data in a graph

You can also view response time data in a graph to see how it changes over time during your load test. This is especially useful if your load pattern increases as the test runs (for example, if you use the step load pattern). For more information, see Edit load patterns to model virtual user activities.

To view response time data in a graph:

  1. In the Load Test Analyzer, choose Graphs on the toolbar to make sure that the graph is displayed.

  2. In the Counters window, expand the node of the scenario in which you are interested (for example, Scenario1).

  3. Expand the node of the web performance test in which you are interested.

  4. Expand the node Pages.

  5. Expand the node of the page in which you are interested.

  6. Right-click % Pages Meeting Goal and then choose Show Counter on Graph.

    The data is added to the graph.

  7. (Optional) Repeat the previous step for Avg. Page Time, Page Response Time Goal, and Total Pages.

    Note

    Page Response Time Goal is constant.

    For more information, see Analyze load test results in the Graphs view.

See also