One of the most common questions I receive is if there any tool available to generate load on SQL Server. Absolutely there is a fabulous free tool available to generate load on SQL Server on Codeplex. This tool was released in 2008 but it is still extremely relevant to generate the load on SQL Server as well works fabulously. CodePlex is a project initiated by Microsoft for hosting open source softwares.

The best part of this SQL Server Load Generator is that users can run multiple simultaneous queries again SQL Server using different login account and different application name. The interface of the tool is extremely easy to use and very intuitive as well.

One of the things which I felt needed improvement was a default configuration. As every single time when I was adding a query the default settings were showing up and I had to manually change that. However, when I went to Menu >> Tools >>Options I was really happy as it has options to change every single default which is available. Here one can give default username, password, database name as well various settings related to configuration. Additionally application logging is also possible through the options.

A couple of other important points I noticed was the button to reset counters as well status bar containing useful information of Total Threads, Completed Queries and Failed Queries. I use this frequently for my load testing. What tool do you use for SQL Server Load Generator?

Download SQL Load Generator

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)