Configuration of HTTPServiceTest

HTTP allows a browser, or another user agent, to communicate with different resources on the Internet: to do this the browser needs both the identity and the location of the resources. Information on the identity and the location of the resources is described by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). URIs enable internet protocols to unambiguously identify and locate websites or other web-connected resources. To significantly improve the performance of web sites and applications, frequently accessed URIs are cached and reused to access previously fetched resources on the server. The URI cache reduces latency and network traffic and thus lessen the time needed to display resource representations. Moreover, the URI cache makes the Web sites or other web-connected resources more responsive. Direct requests to fetch the resources on the target server are expensive operations, which may result in an increase in processing overheads and latencies, and eventually, degrade the overall performance of the server as well as the user experience with the target server. The primary focus of administrators therefore is to improve the URI cache usage, so that direct resource accesses are kept at a minimum.

By closely monitoring the requests to access the resources on the target server through HTTP and reporting the fraction of requests that have been serviced by the URI cache, this test reveals whether/not the URI cache has been effectively utilized. If the URI cache utilization is found to be low, then, it may indicate an increase in processing overhead on the target server. This way, this test proactively alerts administrators to find out the root cause for low cache utilization and initiate remedial measures to fine-tune URI cache before the processing overhead causes serious impact on use experience.

The default parameters associated with this test are:

• The TEST PERIOD list box helps the user to decide how often this test needs to be executed. By default, this is set to 5 minutes.

• Specify the host for which the test is to be configured in the HOST text box.

• Specify the port number at which the specified host listens to in the PORT text box. The default port is 80.

• If multiple components of the same component type are awaiting configuration, then an APPLY TO OTHER COMPONENTS button will appear in this page. Clicking on this button will allow you to apply the configuration to all/selected components of that type.

• Once the necessary values have been provided, clicking on the UPDATE button will register the changes made.

When changing the configuration for specific servers, a “*” beside the text box corresponding to the parameter signifies that these values have to be manually configured by the user. The parameter values that require to be configured will typically be prefixed with a “$” or contain a series of “*”. A value of “none” in the parameter value indicates that the corresponding parameter value can be changed if required.