wcat follows redirects on port 80 even if default was set on 43xxx

Question

I'm using IIS 7 and have a website deployed on port 43xxx. I'm trying to do a load test using wcat. I'm trying to access an URL /directaccess/ which in turn will return a status code of 302, do a redirect to another URL - who will also return a 302 status code and afterwards the last URL will return a 200OK.

I've written the scenario and settings files for wcat. Specified in the default (and also tried per request) to set the port to 43xxx, but when i run wcat it returns one 302 ok and another 400 error (they are returned in equal numbers so i'm guessing that the first request is ok, and the subsequent (first redirect) is bad).

I've also looked in the HTTPErr folder to check the logs and there are a lot of 400 Errors there indicating a GET request for what should be the 2nd URL but done on port 80, not 43xxx as specified by me in the request (or default settings - which if i well understood from the docs get inherited in redirects).

I'd just like to find out if this is 'normal' behavior for wcat. Not following redirects on the same port as the initial request.

Ignore the fact that I'm testing on the local-machine. I used this only to setup the tests before moving them to another machine.

This is the scenario used.

scenario
{
warmup   = 2;
duration = 5;
cooldown = 2;

default
{
    setheader
    {
        name    = "Connection";
        value   = "keep-alive";
    }

    version     = HTTP11;
    statuscode  = 200;
    close       = ka;
    port = 43111;
    redirect = true;
}

transaction
{
    id = "root transaction";
    weight = 100;

    request
    {
        url = "/login/DirectAccess.rails?code=xxxxxxxxx";
        statuscode = 302;
        redirect = true;
        port = 43111;
    }

    sleep
    {
        delay = 1000;
    }
}
}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 20 '11 at 20:58

2

I guess it depends on what the server sends back in the Location header of the 302 redirect. If it doesn't contains a domain name (e.g. Location: /redirect/to/page) then WCAT should not change the domain or port number and continue to use the same port number. However, if the Location header contains a full domain name (e.g. Location: http://www.thissite.com/redirect/to/page) without a port number then WCAT will switch to use port 80.

answered Oct 20 '11 at 20:58

Marco Miltenburg

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Well JMeter works great in the same setup.. and follows all redirects. – ccriveteanu Oct 24 '11 at 09:08
I've done some test with WCAT 6.1 (not the latest version) and have to confirm your results. It sure does look like WCAT does not properly follow redirects and changes the port to 80. – Marco Miltenburg Oct 24 '11 at 12:06

wcat follows redirects on port 80 even if default was set on 43xxx

1 Answers1