Understanding the Significance of Start Time in Load Testing
Start time for a load test
The start time is when the load generators began sending load. You find it on the Overview tab of a load test result, in the Start row above the End row.
It is not the moment you pressed run
Time spent provisioning the load generators and waiting in the queue is not counted. The start time is therefore later than the moment you started the test. Use it, not your own clock, when you line the run up with other data.
What to use it for
- Matching other data. Compare the start time with deployments, maintenance windows, logs and monitoring from your own systems, to see what else changed around the run.
- Reading the charts. Every chart in the results is plotted from this moment, so a point on a chart is a time since the start.
- Duration. With the end time, the start time gives the real length of the run. The ramp-up at the beginning is part of it: see ramp-up time.
- Scheduled and CI runs. For runs started by a schedule or a pipeline, the start time shows when the load actually began, which can be a little after the trigger.