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Troubleshooting the Web Application Stress Tool

The following list comprises the issues that most frequently arise for the Web Application Stress Tool. For specific questions and feedback, send mail to webtool@microsoft.com.

Unable to start the Web application stress tool

If you have problems starting the Web Application Stress Tool, confirm that the Web Application Stress Tool service is running. From Control Panel, double-click Services, locate the Web Application Stress Tool service and click Start Service.

Unable to add or connect to client computers

If you have problems adding client computers verify that:

• The client computer is running the correct version of the Web Application Stress Tool. The Web Application Stress Tool will not connect to a computer that is running a different version of the Windows NT Service component.
• The client computer is running Windows 2000 or Windows NT Server or Workstation. The Web Application Stress Tool will not run on Windows 95/98.
• Each client computer has the Web Application Stress Tool installed and the service is running.
  Each client computer needs the Web Application Stress Tool service installed and running.
• You can ping the other computer by using the TCP/IP Ping utility. All of the client computers in a Web Application Stress Tool test must be able to make socket connections to each other. Check the Overview section in the Web Application Stress Tool report window to confirm that there are no socket errors.
• You are using enough threads to take advantage of each client. The Web Application Stress Tool distributes the threads among the client computers. If you are only using two threads, but have three client computers, one client will not be used.
• You are an administrator on each client computer. Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) will not connect to a remote computer if the privileges are not sufficient.

Not all users are assigned a cookie

During a stress run, the Web Application Stress Tool saves cookies with each user in sequential order. If you have several hundred users, but only run the test for a few minutes, this might not be enough time to assign a cookie to each user. To resolve this issue, run the test for a longer period of time.

All of the page data in the report displays zeros

If a stress report shows all zeros for the Time To First and Last Bytes, check the Result Codes section of the Web Application Stress Tool report. It is possible that the Web Application Stress Tool was unable to hit the page for the reason shown in the Result Codes section.

Authentication is not working

The Web Application Stress Tool requires that you add a working user and password for the authenticated site you are testing. You can add several users, but they all must be valid user accounts for the authentication type.

Whenever I select random in the query string editor, the name-value pair disappears

When the Random check box is selected in the query string editor, the Web Application Stress Tool removes the name-value pair from the query string in the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) box. This is by design; however, these name-value pairs are still passed with every request and are selected randomly from your list of values.

Unsure how to make the Web Application Stress Tool work with a proxy server

To enable the Web Application Stress Tool over a proxy, add the account privileges to the Web Application Stress Tool service. From Control Panel, open the Services utility, and double-click the Web Application Stress Tool service. In the Log On As section, add your network user account and password. Then stop and restart the Web Application Stress Tool service. This needs to be done on every client you intend to use over the proxy.