Deep load testing

[Chockolate]

Hi all, I'm looking for a suitable load testing tool for a web app.

I need to hit the site first with a login (username, password, then submit the form), then adjust a few select list boxes, insert some dates into some text boxes, and then see how long it takes to get data back and displayed on the screen (via Ajax/JQuery I think). I'd like to test this for up to 500 concurrent users if feasible.

I already have a WATIN web crawler app I wrote which would be ideal, but it requires an instance of IE to be open for each thread, so that's not suitable as performance on the 'runner' machine becomes a problem.

So far I've tried:
-loadimpact.com, good but some bug stops the tests from running, I reported it.
-loadstorm.com, apparently not able to replicate form stuff.
-Apache JMeter, apparently not able to replicate form stuff too.
-FWPTT, simple enough, but crashes.

Can anyone suggest a tool, or a usage of the aformentioned ones to achieve this? TIA.

[olivier-hanoun]

Hi Chockolate. Nice selection of tools! Have you heard about NeoLoad?
This piece of software is made for what you describe. Executing simultaneously hundreds of users submitting credentials and doing choices on a web app.
All web technologies included Ajax are handled: http://www.neotys.com/product/technologies-ajax-stress-test.html. The learning curve is also quite short, everything being based on a powerful graphical interface.
A trial version is available on the Neotys website: http://www.neotys.com/product/download-neoload.html. Try it out and let us know your inputs!
Olivier Hanoun, Neotys Performance Engineer