How we did it for
 
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We installed Vividon's SDA-2000 and VSM software Release 1.0 on a Dell PowerEdge Pentium III server running Red Hat Linux 7.1 and connected both to a Gigabit Ethernet network on which a Windows 2000 Professional client (running Microsoft's Windows Media Load Simulator and Windows Media Player 7.1), and Vividon's Swamper tool were previously installed. We used the Linux machine to provide DNS services to the networked units. An Extreme Networks Summit 7i with Gigabit copper interfaces provided ample bandwidth between SDA, VSM, clients and the various load-testing tools.
Due to the extremely data-intensive nature of a performance test of this type, Vividon developed a high-throughput testing platform called Swamper (and uses its own Quality Assurance lab). Via a command-line interface, Swamper places requests for different pre-populated media and measures the response of SDA.
We also tested performance, though far from maximum throughput, using the Microsoft Windows Media Load Simulator (WMLS) that we downloaded from the Microsoft Windows Media Web site (www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 7121) SOMETHING MISSING HERE menu Select Windows Media 7 Resource Kit Beta 3 from Windows Media Tools and Services. Choose Custom Installation and download "wmrk7_net.exe").
We uploaded sample content (one 3-minute file encoded at 56K bit/sec, 100K bit/sec, and 1M bit/sec) on to SDA-2000 via VSM. We ran more than a dozen performance tests on the network by using some pre-programmed scripts in Swamper and using the WMLS interface. We varied the number of simultaneous sessions, the bandwidth of the files requested and the intervals at which the requests were made. We viewed test results and SDA reports in the VSM Web interface.
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Perey is president of Perey Research & Consulting in Placerville, Calif. She can be reached at cperey@perey.com.
Perey is also a member of the Network World Global Test Alliance, a cooperative of the premier reviewers in the network industry, each bringing to bear years of practical experience on every review. For more Test Alliance information, including what it takes to become a member, go to www.nwfusion.com/alliance.
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