On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:53:49 EST, "Patrick W. Gilmore" said:
Knowing whether the systems - internal _and_ external - can handle a certain load (and figuring out why not, then fixing it) is vital to many people / companies / applications. Despite the rhetoric here, it is simply not possible to "test" that in a lab. And I guarantee if you do not test it, there _will_ be unexpected problems when Bad Stuff happens.
Amen to that, brother. Trust me, you definitely want to do your load testing at a 2AM (or other usually dead time) of your own choosing, when you have the ability to pull the switch on the test almost instantly if it gets out of hand. The *last* think you want is to get a surprise slashdotting of your web servers while the police have your entire site under lockdown. Been there, done that, it's not fun.