VCR: Virtual Capture and Replay for Performance Testing

This paper proposes a novel approach to performance testing, called virtual capture and replay (VCR), that couples capture and replay techniques with the checkpointing capabilities provided by the latest virtualization technologies. VCR enables software performance testers to automatically take a snapshot of a running system when certain critical conditions are verified, and to later replay the scenario that led to those conditions. Several in-depth analyses can be separately carried out in the laboratory just by rewinding the captured scenario and replaying it using different probes and analysis tools.