Performance Testing Techniques and Tips.

Difference Between WinInet Level Replay and Socket Level Replay in Loadrunner

Here are the differences between WinInet Level Replay and Socket Level Replay.

WinInet Level Replay

1. The requests are executed over wininet.dll API used by certain applications. Port mapping is irrelevant here
2. Port mapping is used in only recording and it is irrelevant for the replay
3. Recommended for web applications which uses SSO/Certificates as a workaround
4. Exhibits additional overhead in memory consumption while running as Virtual Users in a scenario
5. Step download timeout doesn’t work. Hence web_set_max_retries() has to be used instead
6. LR analysis doesn’t show Web page diagnostics when the scripts are replayed using Wininet mode replay + enable Kerberos/Integrated NTLM authentication in run time settings

Socket Level Replay

1. Recommended for all web applications
2. Normal memory consumption per virtual user in a scenario
3. Step download time out works as expected
4. Web page diagnostics are displayed for the scripts run in socket mode