Windows Media Load Simulator 9 Series

Windows Media Load Simulator 9 Series was developed to be a small tool that simulates a real-world load on a server. The load-test results on the server can be viewed in a log. Windows Media Load Simulator is designed to run on one or more client computers to simulate a large number of client requests.

Organizations are configuring high-capacity servers and server clusters to serve the increasing demand for streaming media content. During planning and development of a streaming media network using Microsoft Windows Media Services 9 Series, Microsoft Windows Media Load Simulator is a useful tool for determining server capacity, availability, and performance.

Windows Media Load Simulator creates a real-world load on a server by simulating requests from many instances of Microsoft Windows Media Player for unicast streams from a Windows Media server running Windows Media Services 9 Series.

(Windows Media Load Simulator only initiates unicast connections to the server. Multicast connections are not tested because a client does not connect directly to the server to receive a multicast stream.) User names and passwords can be assigned to the simulated clients to test authentication, consuming even more server resources.

Windows Media Load Simulator can also be used to monitor an active Windows Media server. It can be configured to alert an administrator automatically when server performance begins to degrade or if the server stops responding.