Quest Softwares Benchmark Factory database, Web, mail and file server benchmarking tool has long been a favorite of mine in tests, for its polished interface, ease of use, programmability, real-time feedback, detailed performance reports and trouble-free agents.
Version 3.1 shipped last month and gains a number of enhancements, most notably support for importing a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 activity trace table into a benchmark and certification of the tool with the PeopleSoft Web client.
The tool also has a handy SQL test feature that let me see the results of SQL queries I entered directly into the tool while creating a database benchmark—this is a quick way of finding out if the SQL is syntactically correct to do.
The SQL trace table import feature is a nice way of instantly creating a benchmark completely customized to an organizations exact workload (import of these files from older versions of SQL Server and Open Database Connectivity sessions are also supported). The software can also create Web tests based on imports from Quests Funnel Web Analyzer, a Web site log analysis tool.
Benchmark Factorys pricing starts at $10,000 for file and e-mail testing and $15,000 for database and Web testing.