... web and app server components. But I get the feeling you are asking the wrong questions. You aren't really asking about LR itself in this question. You are asking about your Application Under Test (AUT). This could be a simple two-tier web app, J2EE, .NET, SAP, a telnet session to a terminal, etc... So: that said, the answer to your question is vast. No simple post here can answer that question in any form like training and experience from a seasoned pro. This is just my experience: I worked in SW dev for a little under 10 years before I even heard of LR. Then I switched to performance testing and used it all the time. But the fundamentals that I learned in development built my infrastructure -- pardon the pun -- that made me a (slightly) capable performance tester. I learned about application design, network communication, database structure, hardware and software I/O, etc... So what I'm saying is if you don't understand why a web server throws a 503 error (somewhere my friend Scott Moore is gleefully cackling) or why a database has a race condition or deadlocks, then you will never understand what LR does to cause these. You have a long road ahead of you, sir. The only way you can get there is to start walking. I say you should bring a guide.
