Testing and Measuring Web Application Performance with Keynote’s KITE

Keynote Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: KEYN) is one of the leading providers in global Web site performance monitoring. The Keynote service was once reserved for large businesses that require 24/7 monitoring and detailed performance measurements from various geographic locations around the world, but now those same features that were reserved for the large enterprise are now available to the end user or Web developer. Keynote also offers a free utility that allows for creating and automating test cases which also includes free access to their monitoring network for testing web application performance test scripts.

Most Web developers, designers and system administrators need information about how their site performs. Page load times directly correspond to revenue and number of page views. When a site is in development or testing phases before it is released, it often times is expensive or difficult to get detailed performance statistics about the applications powering the site before they are launched. The Keynote Internet Testing Environment provides this capability.

What is Keynote KITE?

KITE is the Keynote Internet Testing Environment, which is an application that makes it very simple to create scripts that benchmark websites and web application performance. The application can be run on any Windows based computer, and scripts can be saved and later loaded into the Keynote Global Monitoring network.

Downloading and Installing Kite

KITE requires Windows XP or Vista and a recommended 512MB minimum of memory. The download is free and is bundled in an MSI package. Download KITE from http://kite.keynote.com/download-center.php and run the installation package.

Perform a typical installation and the KITE installer will display a message once the installation is complete. Once the installation is finished you can check the box that says “Launch KITE when finished” to load KITE.

KITE Usage Quick Start Guide

Once KITE is loaded a login window will display asking for a username and password. If one has not already been created, click “Sign up Now” to get a new password for accessing the Keynote network.

Once logged in to the KITE console, the main dashboard will appear and now you can begin testing Web sites, or recording scripts to run on the Keynote Global Monitoring Network. There are even video tutorials and training on Web performance from the Keynote experts to help get started with KITE and Web site and Web application performance and availability monitoring.

To begin using KITE, click on the green “Push to Start” button. This will open a new browser window with the Keynote global network console. This is ideal for testing a single page, but if you want to perform advanced functions such as logging into a site, or making a purchase, recording a KITE script is the way to go.

To really begin to utilize the full value of KITE’s feature set, a script should be recorded to capture and record actual transactions that a typical user would perform on the site to reflect realistic performance measurements. It can be as detailed as logging in or registering as a new user, or as simple as the load time on a single URL. With KITE you can create and run scripts from 5 global locations for FREE. You can also save the scripts for uploading later to Keynote’s global monitoring network for 24/7 Web site monitoring for free on an ad-hoc basis, or using one or both of Keynote’s flagship Web monitoring services: Keynote Transaction Perspective or Keynote Application Perspective.

Record a KITE Script

Start KITE and click the red “Record” button.

A window will pop up for the user to input an URL to be browsed through. This is typically used for a sequence of commands, such as browsing through a common path that users take, such as adding an item to a cart and purchasing, or logging into the site.

Check the box that says “Record as new visitor” to prevent pages from being cached by the browser and affecting performance response times. To simulate a returning visitor, make sure the browser cache has not been cleared and leave this box unchecked.

Now a KITE browser window will appear and start recording the pages and actions performed on the site while the window is active. Once the interaction with the Web site is complete, press the close button on the browser window, and a transaction performance summary will appear providing statistics of the script execution. Close this window and click the “Save” button to save the script to the script repository.

To view a demo on how to record a script in KITE see below:

During script recording, all of the actions in the KITE browser are saved to the script. The script can later be modified to include other actions such as timers, custom HTTP headers, and other script parameters. To view a demo of a KITE script being modified see below:

See the following video for a demonstration of viewing performance statistics of the script run history below:

See the following demo of uploading a KITE script to the Keynote Global Monitoring Network to be executed from up to 5 different geographic locations:

Now the script can be re-run by pressing the “Play” button in the KITE menu bar. Performance metrics and statistics will be recorded in the local KITE repository each time the script is run.

The Internet is a complex entity. With many different service providers with different response times on their networks and the speed limitations of electricity traveling across a wire and being interpreted by thousands of various devices along the way, network and Web site performance can vary greatly between each geographic location. Testing performance from a single geographic location, or point-of-presence can severely skew the reality of Web site performance. Keynote’s core competency is providing detailed performance metrics from multiple geographic locations worldwide, and surprisingly they have integrated and provided access to geographic locations around the world — San Francisco, New York, London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong. A user can upload their KITE script to the Keynote network and see how it performs in different areas of the world.

Trending Data Over Time

The KITE utility is used to benchmark performance data using Keynote’s Global Monitoring service on an ad-hoc basis. Automating the usage of this application would be subverting their service, and Keynote offers MyKeynote accounts which can provide 24/7 application and website performance monitoring starting at $70 per month with the Application Perspective service.

For developers launching an application, the KITE utility can be used to test initial page performance load times, or testing performance after making modifications. I would suggest running the KITE utility a few times a day and collecting the metrics, but don’t abuse the service.

Debugging Web Applications with KITE

When rapidly designing new web applications or adding features to a Web site, it is important to test the impact of those changes on performance and delivery times to the end user. The slower a website is, the less people will visit it, regardless of how well designed the content or features are. To perform good troubleshooting and performance monitoring, good tools are necessary. There are many open source utilities out there for performing and debugging web applications, and half the battle is about the method and process in which one utilizes such utilities. For those looking for a quickly implemented, robust Web application testing utility, KITE meets the needs of individual developers who may just want to play around and test performance, or take it to the next level and subscribe to Keynote Transaction Perspective or Keynote Application Perspective.

Taking it to the next level
Keynote offers multiple services for 24×7 monitoring. There is a tab in the KITE application that will get a user started on Keynote’s paid 24×7 monitoring platform where you can upload your scripts to be monitored 24×7 from multiple global locations once the Web site or web application has gone from the testing phase to launch. The good news is the tool used to create those scripts during the testing phase does not have to be converted; they can simply be uploaded straight into a professional Keynote account.

There are two different services available for 24×7 monitoring in the Keynote Global Network: Transaction Perspective and Application Perspective.
Transaction Perspective uses a real browser for performing all tests to give the most accurate idea of how a Web site or web application is performing for the end user in multiple geographic locations from multiple ISP’s. A more cost effective solution is the Application Perspective, which offers the same quality of monitoring, except it uses a simulated, proprietary browser. The KITE application uses your choice of Keynote’s paid Transaction Perspective or Application Perspective services to perform its tests: When you are using KITE, you are directly accessing these normally paid services on an on-demand basis.

Conclusions
I wish there was a client for Mac and Linux, but currently KITE is a Windows-only application. For pure Linux or UNIX users, I would recommend getting a Xen VM image up and running to use the KITE application. By using Web application testing that gives a real view of true application performance on the public Internet from various geographic locations, a developer or startup company can get an idea of how their application truly performs from the end user perspective.

KITE is not an open source application, but it is free, and the benefits of using the Keynote network give this utility a formidable advantage over open source utilities such as Jmeter, BadBoy, and Apache-Bench. I would recommend using all of these utilities, as they are all well designed and useful, but for real-time, real-world Web site metrics, Keynote KITE is the way to go.

For more information about Keynote Systems and KITE. Please visit the Keynote Web Site www.keynote.com.

For more information about KITE, and to download KITE for free, visit http://kite.keynote.com