Test Site Performance

Cross-Network Testing

Performance testing from internal corporate LANs doesn't accurately test the user experience over external internet access across geographies. Network performance can vary depending on whether the eCDN content delivery network has cached contents and how close a user is to the content delivery node or edge server.

It’s important to test the global network performance of one or more storefronts using available online tools (for example, https://www.websitepulse.com/tools/website-test. or https://webpagetest.org/ ), to determine what your end users are experiencing. These online tools help to simulate performance from several geographical locations, as well as various connection speeds, device types, and screen resolutions. The global network should include the eCDN (Cloudflare) network and all other third-party CDNs stacked outside of eCDN.

Test results indicate times for DNS lookup, connect, redirect, download times (ms) of the first byte and last byte of the page response from the selected geography. If applicable, check if it's accessible from China with this tool: https://www.websitepulse.com/tools/china-firewall-test.

It may also be helpful to gather My Traceroute (MTR) data, especially when you’re observing slowness. MTR data helps determine whether there’s a network issue. It’s recommended to review the MTR output with 25–50 cycles, or at least 15–20 traceroutes (if no MTR can be done).

Cross-Machine or Browser Testing

Storefronts can be accessed through different mobile device types – phones or tablets, which come in several screen sizes and a few platforms having different browsers, operating systems and screen resolutions.

B2C Commerce supported browsers for desktop and mobile are listed Browser Support in the Infocenter. You can test performance across all supported browsers with any available online tool (for example, WebPageTest.org). Cross-Machine or Browser testing helps to discover front-end issues such as Javascript or network errors.

Server-Side Performance Testing

Use the code profiler, pipeline profiler, and the CCAC dashboard to identify performance problems.

Load Testing

Conduct load testing to determine a system’s behavior under both normal and peak conditions.

Load Test environment options include:

1. Loaner realm

   The load test is run against a realm that is rented solely for testing. This realm is sized to match the production realm. If the storefront isn’t live yet, the test realm is sized based on predicted target volume.

2. Pre-Production realm

   If the customer isn't yet live, using their production instance group (PIG) is an option that allows for load testing of all expected scenarios including order placement. Resource footprint in this type test could be limited.

Regardless of which option is selected, it's important that the test realm has the same resource footprint as production does (or will) for the storefront. The customer or load test partner is responsible to prepare the loaner realm (data, code, and configuration).

It ' required that the support team is notified of load tests by opening up a support case. The support team notifies the SFCC technical operations team so that the traffic generated by the anticipated load test isn’t misconstrued as malicious and subsequently blocked. Provide the following information in the support case (ideally a week in advance of any planned load tests):

• Who is performing the test

• When the test takes place (start date, end date)

• How much traffic is expected

  • Number of visits per hour
  • Number of orders per hour

• IP addresses of load generators or data centers.