Flexible compute power
Loadero allows defining exactly how much computing power you would like to provide to the test participants. Some tests require more computing power to run smoothly (e.g., complex graphics, including video), whereas others need less (simple applications with little to no Javascript). Deciding on a compute unit value is critical for 3 purposes:
- Ensuring that the participant can run the app smoothly - depending on how demanding the application you are testing is, participants with a low compute unit value may run the application very poorly and provide misleading results. You may mistake a participant taking tens of seconds to complete a transaction to be terrible system performance, when it was actually just that the participant's CPU was throttling and thus it took a very long time to accomplish nearly anything.
- Finding out exactly how demanding your application is - it may be in your interests to research what the lower end is where your application still functions well on the user's end.
- Test cost optimization - the less compute units you consume in a test, the less expensive the test will be to run.
Each full compute unit corresponds to 0.5 CPU core and 1 GB of system memory. In total Loadero currently offers 7 compute unit settings.
When using Loadero's API, you can
reference the compute units by the values provided in the API identifier
column.
| Compute unit | CPU cores | Memory | API identifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| G0.5 | 0.25 | 0.5 GB | g0.5 |
| G1 | 0.5 | 1 GB | g1 |
| G2 | 1 | 2 GB | g2 |
| G4 | 2 | 4 GB | g4 |
| G6 | 3 | 6 GB | g6 |
| G8 | 4 | 8 GB | g8 |
| G12 | 6 | 12 GB | g12 |
Selecting a compute unit value
If you are using Loadero to test an application where video/audio feed provision is necessary, we suggest allocating G2 compute units to participants as a minimum, ensuring that the participants have 1 CPU core and 2 GB of system memory at their disposal. For scenarios that are even more resource-demanding, such as group calls or peer-to-peer calls most of the time G4 or an even higher compute unit value is necessary, in order to ensure more reliable results.
The default compute unit value for any participant is G1 (0.5 CPU core and 1 GB system memory), though this can easily be modified by the user at will by:
- Explicitly setting a compute unit value at the time of creating a participant. You can visit our quickstart guide to get a quick grasp on where to find this setting.
- Editing an existing participant and setting their compute unit to a different value.
Remember that group count and participant count will multiply used compute units. For example, when creating a participant with G2 compute unit and participant count is set to 10, it will result in total 20 (2 * 10) compute units used.
If you are unsure of how much compute power to dedicate to your participants while also ensuring you don't overpay, a good practice is to start somewhere in the G2/G4 range, launch the test in performance test mode and then investigate the machine statistics charts in the result report. If the report shows that CPU utilization is constantly at its peak, then you should upgrade the participant to the next compute unit value and run the test again. Rinse and repeat until you have identified the lowest compute unit value where your application runs smoothly.
Subscription limits
Each project subscription plan has some sort of limitation on:
- what compute unit values are available for participants;
- how many compute units can be used in a single test;
- how many compute units may be consumed within the billing period.
All paid subscriptions (except Enterprise) can run max 200 000 compute units in a month. In case a higher compute unit limit is needed, contact support to apply for an Enterprise subscription.
| Subscription plan | Max compute units in a test | Base included compute units (per month) | Highest allowed compute unit size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trial | 10 | 100 | G2 |
| Pay as you go: Essential | 20 000 | - | G2 |
| Pay as you go: Ultimate | 50 000 | - | G12 |
| Monthly | 10 000 | 10 000 | G6 |
| Yearly | 10 000 | 10 000 | G6 |
G0.5 compute unit is not available in the free trial.
While the monthly and yearly plans list only 10 000 base included compute units, it is possible to consume more than this number within these plans, but at an overuse fee.
Check out our pricing page for more detailed subscription plan comparison.
Calculating compute unit consumption
Payment plans are structured in a way that users pay for compute units, not for the amount of participants. For example, let us look at these three tests:
- A test that consists of 100 participants, each set up with G2 compute units.
- A test that consists of 50 participants, each set up with G4 compute units.
- A test that consists of 50 G2 participants and 25 G4 participants.
Each of these tests consists of 200 compute units in total, and each of them will cost the exact same price to run. Compute units will be consumed each time you run the test.
A test run's duration is also not a factor in deciding the price of the test run. The amount of consumed compute units is the only factor.
The Monthly and Yearly plans include 10 000 compute units per month, as well as a maximum of 10 000 compute units per test run. As a result, one test run can simulate a maximum of:
- 10 000 G1 participants or
- 5 000 G2 participants or
- 1 666 G6 participants (leaving you with an extra 4 compute units) or
- 833 G12 participants (leaving you with an extra 4 compute units) or
- a mix-and-match of multiple compute unit values, for example, 2 000 G1 participants, 2 000 G2 participants, 500 G4 participants, 300 G6 participants, 8 G8 participants, and 10 G12 participants all add up to a total of 10 000 compute units.
Even though Monthly and Yearly plans have a base limit of 10 000 compute units per month, this refers to the amount included in the subscription price itself. It is possible to consume more than 10 000 in one month, but this additional usage will generate an additional invoice.