Webserver Stress Tool can be used for various tests

·      Performance Tests are used to test each part of the webserver or the web application to discover what parts, if any, are slow and how you can make them faster. Most often this is done by testing various implementations of single web pages/scripts to determine a configuration of code that is the fastest.

·      Load Tests are performed by testing the website using the best estimate of the traffic your website must support. Consider this like a “real world” test of the website.

·      Stress Tests are simulated “brute force” attacks that apply excessive load on your webserver. Real world situations like this can be created by a massive spike in users caused, innocently enough, by a new advertising campaign.

·      Ramp Tests are used to determine the maximum threshold of users that can be served before error messages are produced.

·      Other custom tests are also possible, e.g. tests to make sure that web pages can be requested simultaneously without problems,  database deadlocks, semaphores etc.