Setting think time behavior

Lets you increase, decrease, or randomize think time—or to play it back exactly as recorded.

Think time is a delay in the processing of an HTTP request to reproduce the time that a human would take reading or examining the data that has appeared on his browser from a previous user action. Think time is calculated from the time that a request is received (that is, the display is complete on the monitor) until the time that the user clicks a key or link to perform an action.

To set think time behavior:

  1. In the Test Navigator, expand the project until you locate the schedule.
  2. Right-click the schedule, and then click Open.
  3. In the Schedule Contents section, click the name of the schedule.
  4. In the Think Time section, set Modify the duration of think time delays to one of the following:
    Option Description
    Use the recorded think time. This has no effect on the think time. The time that it takes for a test to play back is the same as the time that it took to record it. So, for example, if you were interrupted for five minutes during recording, the same five-minute think time occurs when you run the test.
    Specify a fixed think time. Each virtual user's think time is exactly the same value—the value that you enter. Although this does not emulate users accurately, it is useful if you want to play a test back quickly.
    Increase/decrease the think time by a percentage. You enter a think time scale, and each virtual user's think time is multiplied by a percentage. A value of 100 indicates no change in think time. A value of 200 doubles the think times, so the schedule plays back half as fast as it was recorded. A value of 50 reduces the think times by half, so the schedule plays back twice as fast. A value of 0 indicates no delays at all.
    Vary the think time by a random percentage. Each virtual user's think time is randomly generated within the upper and lower bounds of the percentages that you supply. The percentage is based on the recorded think time. For example, if you select a lower limit of 10 and an upper limit of 90, the think times generated will be randomly generated on the range of 10 percent and 90 percent of the original recorded think time. The random time will be uniformly distributed within this range.

Parent topic: Representing workloads

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