Providing a seamless student registration experience is a top priority for countless universities. This allows them to make a positive impression on existing and potential students, allowing them to improve engagement and student satisfaction. And with the help of digital tools like Ellucian Banner and WebLOAD, higher education institutions can ensure that they can provide the best registration experience to their students.
Ellucian Banner is a popular ERP platform many institutions use to handle student registration. And with students registering simultaneously, schools must ensure that their Banner environment functions at peak performance. Enter WebLOAD, an advanced load-testing solution that offers a variety of features for optimizing Ellucian Banner’s performance during the registration process.
Using WebLOAD and Ellucian Banner can be a game changer, allowing universities and colleges to thoroughly prepare for peak traffic.
Why WebLOAD?
WebLOAD offers versatility, scalability, and power, making it an ideal load-testing tool for applications like Ellucian Banner. Some of its unique advantages include:
- Scalability: WebLOAD can simulate thousands of students interacting with your application, allowing you to test your system under realistic, high-stress conditions.
- Support for Complex Applications: WebLOAD supports various applications and technologies. Whether you’re working with HTTP/HTTPS, WebSocket, SOAP, or more, WebLOAD covers you.
- Proven Experience with Higher Education Customers: WebLOAD has been trusted by leading higher education institutions worldwide for their load testing needs, making it a tested and trusted solution.
- Outstanding Support: WebLOAD offers comprehensive support to help you navigate any issues or roadblocks that might occur during your load testing process.
- Advanced Analytics: Get detailed analytics and reports to understand system behavior and identify bottlenecks.
Optimizing Ellucian Banner Performance with WebLOAD
Configuring and utilizing WebLOAD for optimizing Ellucian Banner involves a series of steps, including:
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Load Test Planning
It’s vital to Identify the critical use cases in the registration process that require testing. These include student login, course search and selection, and registration submission.
This is crucial as many schools have no idea about their “plans” to “direct CRN entry” ratio, leading to them guessing the expected load during enrollment. With proper load test planning, the registrar can choose to run tests for each choice. This can help them understand whether to just constantly test the option that places the highest burden on the system or make a more balanced approach to optimize the load needed for each option.
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Data Preparation
To achieve accurate load testing, higher education institutions must ensure that test data resembles student data as closely as possible. This may include login credentials, term information, and course registration numbers. Making these data mirror actual student information as much as possible is necessary for the successful execution of scripts.
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Parameter Preparation
WebLOAD allows you to parameterize your scripts, essential for creating a realistic testing environment. For instance, instead of having every virtual user attempt to register for the same course, you can parameterize the course selection so that different users register for various classes.
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Runtime Scheduling
Establish how long to allow students to log in, when to release all students for concurrent registration, and how long it should take for everyone to register. Planning and scheduling the runtime will help you define the test and ensure a realistic simulation of the registration period.
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Error Handling
Data from previous registration can give the registrar information on students’ problems during registration. This can help them make the test environment identical to when students actually register on the website. However, any new or changes in courses, schedules, prerequisites, and student data might trigger unexpected errors that are hard to detect.
Having a thorough testing through WebLOAD allows the registrar to validate that the errors seen during testing are correct and not unexpected. This can justify that the registrar used the correct construction technique, enabling them to ensure that the environment is ready before the students see it.
What Transactions and Metrics to Monitor
Monitoring key transactions, such as login and direct course entry, is critical for understanding the performance of your system under a heavy load. It also helps to monitor specific metrics to understand the system’s performance. These include response times, throughput, error rates, server resource utilization, and database performance metrics. With WebLOAD, you can easily keep track of these things in real time and use its advanced analytics for deeper insights.
Conducting the Load Test
You can start with a baseline test, helping you understand how your system performs under nominal load and giving you a reference point for your subsequent tests. You can gradually increase the load in the following tests, starting from a fraction of your target load and moving up to the full target load. This process will help you understand how your system scales and behaves under increasing load.
You can start small by simulating one to three users registering simultaneously. Doing so will allow you to get a baseline and look for possible errors. You can then retest and see if you made the right fix before increasing the number of simulated users again. This approach will allow you to build your skills in learning how and where to look for errors and how to fix them, which can be crucial in during full-scale testing.
Then, analyze the results using WebLOAD’s advanced analytics capabilities. Look at your key transactions’ performance and watch for any unexpected behavior or performance issue. Also, monitor the error rates – a high error rate indicates a serious problem that needs to be addressed.
The test results can help you identify bottlenecks in your system, allowing you to fix them promptly. This might involve tweaking your configuration, optimizing your code, or scaling up your infrastructure. Once the changes are made, rerun the load tests to verify that the performance has improved. You can also consider integrating load testing into your continuous integration pipeline. This will allow you to catch any performance issues early in the development cycle, making them easier and cheaper to fix.
Conclusion
WebLOAD offers a comprehensive and effective solution for load testing Ellucian Banner or any of your other applications. By helping you prepare, conduct, and analyze your load tests, WebLOAD allows you to confidently optimize your student registration process and provide a smooth, seamless experience for your students. You can ensure that your registration process can handle peak loads effectively and that your students don’t face hiccups during this crucial period.
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