How well a Web site performs while receiving heavy user traffic is an essential factor in an organization's overall success. How can you be sure your site will hold up under pressure?

Performance Analysis for Java(TM) Web Sites is an information-packed guide to maximizing the performance of Java-based Web sites. It approaches these sites as systems, and considers how the various components involved, such as networks, Java(TM) Virtual Machines, and backend systems, potentially impact overall performance. This book provides detailed best practices for designing and developing high-performance Java Web applications, and instructions for building and executing relevant performance tests to gauge your site's ability to handle customer traffic. Also included is information on how to use the results of performance testing to generate accurate capacity plans.

Readers will find easy-to-understand explanations of fundamental performance principles and terminology. The book runs through performance profiles for common types of Web sites, including e-commerce, B2B, financial, and information exchange. Numerous case studies illustrate important ideas and techniques. Practical throughout, the book also offers a discussion on selecting the right test tools and troubleshooting common bottlenecks frequently revealed by testing.

Other specific topics include:

• Performance best practices for servlets, JavaServer Pages(TM), and Enterprise JavaBeans(TM)

• The impact of servlets, threads, and queuing on performance

• The frozen Web site danger

• Java(TM) Virtual Machine garbage collection and multithreading issues

• The performance impact of routers, firewalls, proxy servers, and NICs

• Test scenario and script building

• Test execution and monitoring, including potential pitfalls

• Tuning the Web site environment

• Component monitoring (servers, Java(TM) Virtual Machines, and networks)

• Symptoms and solutions of common bottleneck issues

• Analysis and review of performance test results

Performance Analysis for Java(TM) Web Sites not only provides clear explanations and expert practical guidance, it also serves as a reference, with extensive appendixes that include worksheets for capacity planning, checklists to help you prepare for different stages of performance testing, and a list of performance-test tool vendors.