During a test, StresStimulus can send/receive thousands of HTTP/S requests/responses. The total size of the request/response can be significantly large. The Purge Session Content property determines what request/response data to purge from the test database logs and reduce its size. It has the following values:

  • Static Mime Types (log dynamic content):  (Default) Request and response content (headers and bodies) of images, video, and other static resources are purged. Dynamic content meaningful for performance analysis will be stored.  
  • None (no logging): No request and response content is purged; all content is stored in the database.
  • Non-Errors (log errors only): Non-Error request and response content is purged, and error content is not.
  • All (log dynamic logging): All request and response content is purged; no response bodies are stored in the database.

High data retention warning

If starting a test with a large number of VUs and the Purge Session Content property is set to Static Mime Types or None, then a warning will be displayed to notify that high data retention is possible. Click the Cancel button to cancel the test and change the Purge Session Content property or click the Run test button to ignore the warning and run the test.


Querying purged session content

When querying the session repository of a session that has been purged, you will see the following request/response info: 

SQL Server CE (deprecated)

The following section pertains to SQL Server CE only. This data storage method has a database size limit of 4GB limit and has been deprecated in favor of SQLite, which has no database size limit.


Sometimes during long tests with SQL CE based repository, you might get a notification that test data reached the maximum capacity of 4 GB allowed for SQL CE storage. After that, the test will stop, but the test results will be preserved, and a final set of reports will be generated.

In StresStimulus, you can configure how much or how little data you want to store as well as what data storage medium to use. Some configuration options provided below can help to avoid such a situation if you plan to run similar or more extensive tests.

  1. If Purge Session Content property is set to None, then change to Static Mime Types. Request and response content of images, video, and other static resources will be purged, but dynamic content meaningful for performance analysis will be stored. 
  2. Change Purge Session Content property from Static Mime Types to Non-Errors. Non-Error request/response content will be purged, but error bodies will be saved. It will allow using storage space more efficiently while keeping the diagnostic information to troubleshoot errors. This will allow you to run much bigger tests with SQL CE based repository.
  3. If your test generates a massive number of errors and you would like to run it for a long time, consider changing Purge Session Content property to None.
  4. If you can use SQL Server as a test repository, then change Data Storage from Embedded SQL Server CE to SQL Server. That will allow using a test repository of virtually unlimited size.


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