WebSphere Application Server V7.0: Concepts ... - IBM Redbooks

In contrast to the concurrent users there are:
► Active users
Active users expresses all users currently using resources (for example, in the
form of session data) in your environment. It also includes the users who are
reading the response, entering data, and so on.
► Named users
Named users are users that are defined in the overall environment. This is
usually a large number compared to the number of concurrent users.
Usage patterns
At this point in the project, it is important that you consider how your users will
use the site. You might want to use the use cases that your developers defined
for their application design as an input to build your usage patterns. This makes it
easier to build the scenarios later that the load test will use.
Usage patterns consist of the following factors:
► Use cases modeled as click streams through your pages
► Weights applied to your use cases
Combining weights with click streams is important because it shows you how
many users you expect in which of your application components, and where they
generate load. After all, it is a different kind of load if you expect 70% of your
users to search your site instead of browsing through the catalog than vice versa.
These assumptions also have an impact on your caching strategy.
Notify your developers of your findings so that they can apply them to their
development effort. Make sure that the most common use cases are the ones
where most of the performance optimization work is performed.
To use this information later when recording your load test scenarios, we suggest
that you write a report with screen captures or URL paths for the click streams
(user behavior). Include the weights for your use cases to show the reviewers
how the load was distributed.
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