Session timeout and page response time

Question

I am downloading an asp.net application. The load test simulates 500 users who search the site and view the results. I observe that the more I reduce the session timeout limit (in web.config), the better the page response time. For example, with a timeout of 10 minutes, I got an average response time of 8.35 seconds. With a timeout of 3 minutes, the average response time for the same page is 3.98 seconds. Session in saved "InProc". I figured that the memory used by the "not more used but still active" sessions might be the reason. But, even if there is more memory when the timeout is 10, a lot of available memory is still available (about 2.7 GB). Any ideas?

Answer 1

In my case, saving session state outside the process (StateServer) significantly improved performance, even if the state server is on the same physical computer as the web server.

Answer 2

It looks like you are not using the session as he intended. You were counting, but not using session variables, maybe you should use one of the available caching mechanisms, whether using downstream or in-process caching? Here is the best place to start:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xsbfdd8c%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

In addition, it is highly recommended that you disable the viewstate on the page or control level, wherever it is needed. If you use a view state decoder, for example:

http://ashishware.com/ViewStatePeeker.shtml

.. you will be horrified by the amount of useless trash that he stores!

Answer 3

How long have the same VU been tested? If they do not take as much time as they shorten the session timeout (<3 min.), Or they take longer than both of them (> 10 min.), Then it seems that changing this timeout should have no effect.

Does the test file have a logout? Or do VUs just refuse the session (close the browser, etc.)?