How to start an experiment

How to start an experiment?
To start an experiment, you can either create a new experiment, or open an existing experiment setting (suggested).

Create a new Experiment
1. Click File on the menu bar, then choose New Experiment. Or, click the icon on the tool bar.
    An Experiment Window shall be displayed:
2. Click DB Setup to bring the Database Setup panel to the front. ( see the above image )
3. Fill in your database account name and password in the fields named User Name and Password.
4. Use the drop-down list next to DB Server to select a Sybase server that you would like to connect to. The default server is sbntbench.
5. Type in or use the Browse button to locate the path to your Database Schema File if it's missing.
6. Type in or use the Browse button to locate the path to your Database Initialization File.
7. Click Experiment Setup to bring the Experiment Setup panel to the front:


8. In the field named Number of Terminal, fill in the total number of terminals that you would like to simulate for the experiment. Your input value must be greater than 0, otherwise an error message will be displayed.
9. In the field called Think Time, fill in the number of seconds that you want your experiment to be idle between any two transactions. The input value must must be in the range [0, Total execution time].
10. Fill in the total number seconds that you would like to run the experiment in the field named Execution Time. The maximum execution time allowed is 60 seconds. Your input value must be in the range of (0, 60], or else an error message will be displayed.
11. Type in or use the Browse buttons on the right side to locate the paths to your Transaction Prototypes File, Transaction Procedure Source File Directory, Terminal Script File Directory, and Transaction Argument File Directory.
( NOTE: The Transaction Prototypes File contains the signatures of all transaction procedures. Each file in the Transaction Procedure Source File Directory refers to the pre-compiled source file of one of the transactions listed in Transaction Prototypes File. )
12. Set isolation levels for transactions. (Optional) The default level for each of your transactions is 1, Read Committed.
13. Set max_rows_per_page value for your tables. (Optional) The default max_rows_per_page value is 0, which means Sybase will be responsible for managing the number of rows per page for your database tables.
14. To start running your experiment, click Run on the menu bar, then choose Start Experiment. Or simply click the icon on the tool bar. An experiment progress bar will be displayed showing the percentage of the experiment TPPT has accomplished:


15. If you want to stop the experiment during its execution, click Run then choose Stop Experiment, or click the icon. If you would like to start a new experiment, simply repeat the above steps.
16. If you want to save the current experiment setting in an .exp file, click File then choose Save Experiment Setting, or click the icon. A file chooser window will appear. Type in the file name for your experiment setting file, for example, myexperiment.exp, then click Save.

( NOTE: Only the following information will be saved: Database Account User Name, Database Schema File path, Database Initialization File path, Transaction Prototypes File path, Transaction Source Files Directory path, Terminal Script Files Directory path, and Transaction Argument Files Directory path. New in TPPTv1.4, all settings will be saved.)

16. If you would like to query the database after one successful experiment, you may click on DBCheck Setup tab to bring the frame into foreground.
now you have to enter the SQL statement you wish to run (normally, it would be some kind of aggregate function on certain tables to check the general state of database). To inform TPPT that a new query has been entered, you should click on the "Update" button. A pop-up window should appear to inform you it's done.
To save the query together with all other current experimental settings, you can click on the "Save" button and follow the instructions on the file chooser. To run your query, you may either click on the icon (which becomes activated after at least one successful experiment) or choose "check database status" from the drop-down menu under "Run".

17. If you need help, click Help on the menu bar, then choose How to use Performance Tool, or simply click the icon on the tool bar. A help menu browser window will be displayed. To find information on any topic, click on its link.


Open an Existing Experiment
1. Click File on the menu bar, then choose Open Experiment. Or, click the icon on the tool bar.
    A file chooser window shall be displayed:

2. Select the appropriate experiment file (i.e. experiment1.exp), and click Open.
    An Experiment Window shall be displayed with the experiment setting from the selected file:

New in TPPTv1.4: if you don't want to make any modifications to experiment setting, now you can start running performance tests right away by clicking on the "Run Experiment" button or select from the top menu.

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