Performance goals for data archive systems need to be established early in the design process to ensure stability and
acceptable response throughput. Load testing is one technique used to measure the progress towards these performance
goals. Providing resources for load-test planning is critical, and this planning must include feasibility studies, tool
analyses, and generation of an overall load-test strategy. This strategy is much different for science data archives than
other systems, including commercial websites and high-volume data centers. This paper will provide an overview of the
load testing performed on the Spitzer Space Telescope's science archive, which is part of Science Operations System at
the Spitzer Science Center (SSC). Methods used for planning and conducting SSC load tests will be presented, and
advanced load-testing techniques will be provided to address runtime issues and enhance verification results. This work
was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
The Spitzer Science Center (SSC) Software Science Operations System (SOS) is a large, complex software system.
Over 1.2 million lines of code had been written for the SOS by time of launch (August 2003). The SSC uses a defect
tracking tool called GNATS to enter defect reports and change requests. GNATS has been useful beyond just tracking
defects to closure. Prior to launch a number of charts and graphs were generated using metrics collected from GNATS.
These reports demonstrated trends and snapshots of the state of the SOS and enabled the SSC to better identify risks to
the SOS and focus testing efforts. This paper will focus primarily on the time period of Spitzer's launch and In Orbit
Checkout. It will discuss the metrics collected, the analyses done, the format the analyses was presented in, and lessons
learned. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.
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