1. MEMORANDUM
TO: Corporation Technology Coordinators
Nonpublic/Charter School Technology Coordinators
SUBJECT: ISTEP+ Online Spring 2011 – Interpreting Load Test Results
Load Test Participants:
Thank you for installing the ISTEP+ Online software and participating in the scheduled Day Load Test.
Results from each day’s load test will be posted to your site’s secure location on the CTB ISTEP+ portal
site by 9 am EST the day after the Load Test.
You may notice that the results files from the last 2 days have been reposted to the portal. We found
that some sites used an install technique that caused the machine ID from the original machine to be
copied to all of the other machines. The load test results only displayed data for one instance of a
machine ID in case there were duplicates. The load test results files will now display all instances of
duplicated IDs.
Interpreting your Load Test Results
There are two results documents for your site, a summary report and a details report. It is important to
note that the load test results are only one part of the overall score for a site. These results will be
combined with other data to determine the final score card result.
First, please review the summary report. If the results in the summary report indicate success, then you
do not need to review the detailed results. If the summary report indicates anything other than success,
please review the details report. Listed below are the fields contained in each report, along with a brief
description of each field.
What if I do not have Load Test Results?
If your site participated in the load test but no results were posted on the secure portal, please contact
the CTB/Indiana Help Desk by calling 800-282-1132 option 2 or by email at
CTBTechnicalSupport@CTB.com.
Interpreting the Load Test Summary Report
The Summary Report is a summary of the workstations and load test results for your site.
• Columns A and B – School ID and Corp ID contain the respective School and Corp ID of the
site that participated.
• Column C – Number of Workstations lists the total number of workstations that participated
in the load test from your site.
• Column D – Number of Workstations Passed lists the total number of workstations that
passed the load test.
• Column E – Number of Workstations Failed lists the total number of workstations that failed
the load test.
• Column F – Average Response Time Result will contain one of two messages,
o “Good” indicates that the Average Response Time is within the parameters necessary to
provide students with a positive testing experience.
o “Possible Download Bandwidth or Latency Problem” indicates that problems exists and to
further review the detailed results.

2. • Column G – Simulation Completed Result will contain one of four messages,
o “Good” indicates that the load test completed.
o “Content Not Pre-Positioned” indicates that none of the machines in the load test had
content pre-positioned and were excluded from the load test.
o “Mixed Results, See Detailed Report” indicates that there were multiple results for the
machines that participated in the test. Sites with this result should review the details
report.
o “Possible Upload Bandwidth Problem, or Simulation was Interrupted” indicates that the
load test failed at a point where an audit file was being uploaded to the CTB servers or
that the machine was turned off during the load test.
Interpreting the Load Test Details Report
The Details Report is a list of the results for each machine that participated in the load test at a site.
• Columns A and B – School ID and Corp ID contain the respective School and Corp ID of the
site that participated.
• Columns C through J – contain hardware details for each machine that participated in the load
test. This data pinpoints which machines were included during the load test. Duplicate machine
IDs indicates that multiple machines contain the same information in the systemid file. If you see
duplicated machines in the load test results, finding and troubleshooting a specific machine will
be more difficult.
• Column K – Max Response Time lists, in milliseconds, the longest observed latency for any
interaction with the server. A high max response time does not necessarily indicate failure. The
expected result is <10,000 milliseconds. Values greater than 10,000 may indicate low bandwidth,
flaky network, or too many PCs in a node. The result in column M is more indicative of success
or problems in response time.
• Column L – Min Response Time lists, in milliseconds, the shortest observed latency for any
interaction with the server.
• Column M – Avg Response Time is the most important Response Time result between the
three; Max, Min and Avg. The Avg Response Time lists, in milliseconds, the average of their
latency across all interactions with the server. A successful Avg Response time is <1000
milliseconds. An Avg Response time between 1000-2000 may indicate that local configuration
improvements should be investigated. An Avg Response time greater than 2000 milliseconds may
indicate low bandwidth, flaky network or too many PCs on a device.
• Column N – Successful Messages lists the number of successfully completed messages
(between 0 and 775) during the load test script. Each of the 775 tasks, if successfully completed,
equals 1 success message. A score of 775 is perfect. Scores of less than 775 should prompt
review of the remaining report data for a machine. If the field is empty, please review the result
listed in column R.
• Column O – Failed Messages lists the number of failed scripts during the load test. Each
script will be attempted and can fail up to 3 times. It is possible to have a perfect score of 775
successful messages and also receive failed messages. In this case, the script failed on the first
or second attempt but was then successful. If the field is empty, please review Column R.
• Column P – Start Time lists the time that the machine checked in for the load test but not the
start time of the load test. Note - this time may be earlier than the scheduled load test time. This
does not mean that load test ran on this machine sooner than the scheduled 9am load test.
• Column Q – End Time lists the time that the machine completed the load test. If the field is
empty, please review Column R.
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3. • Column R – Result will contain one of five messages,
o “Success” indicates that the machine completed the load test.
o “Simulation Interrupted” indicates that the machine began the load test but was then
turned off or removed from the network.
o “Content not Pre-positioned” indicates that content was not pre-positioned as required
and machine was not included in the load test. Content needs to be pre-positioned to
allow the machine to participate in another load test.
o “Failed/Not Started” indicates that the machine may have started the load test but was
stopped for an unknown reason.
o “Incomplete” indicates that the machine did not complete the load test. Further review of
this particular machine is required to determine the problem.
In addition to the above, please access the Load Test Validation Checklist FAQ located in the Load
Testing section on ctb.com for more information.
Additional load tests will be conducted each day this week (Dec 6 – 10, 2010) from 9 AM until 12 PM
EST. You are welcome to participate in any/all days of load testing.
If content was not pre-positioned and caused a load test failure, please pre-position the test content and
leave your workstations on/connected to the network so that another load test can be run to generate a
complete report.
Test content is available on the ctb.com/istep portal:
http://learnoas.ctb.com/load%20test%20content.zip
Note: the files must be extracted and placed in the objectbank folder of each workstation at: C:Program
FilesCTBOnline Assessmentdataobjectbank.
Thank you again for your participation. If you have further questions, please contact the CTB/Indiana
Help Desk by calling 800-282-1132 option 2, or by email at CTBTechnicalSupport@CTB.com.
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