Searching for prototype inspirations to simulate Windows Azure scaling features

I want to write an application in ASP.NET running in Windows Azure. I would then simulate a thousand users at the same time to show the behaviour of the application and the scaling features of Windows Azure. Would be great if this application would cause high cpu usage too.

Therefore I could use some good ideas which type of开发者_JAVA技巧 application would fit these requirements.

Thx to all for helping me out.

EDIT: Thanks for your answers. The simulation tools are quite useful. But that is not my main problem to find an apropriate testing tool. I want write an asp.net application and need some ideas for this particularly application. For example a file conversion application was one idea of mine, because it needs a lot cpu and I could measure what goes on in the cloud. What I wanna know are some more ideas for a cool application prototype.

Thx again guys.

There are a number of tools and services that will allow you to simulate load on servers. You don't need anything to be Azure specific:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/532236/are-there-any-free-tools-to-help-me-simulate-load-on-a-server

What sort of scaling features of Azure are you looking to test? Or do you just want to see how many users an Azure server can handle? Azure does not automatically scale with demand, you'll want to use an autoscaling service like AzureWatch to help you scale with demand

HTH

As Igor said, AzureWatch is a great 3rd-party scaling and monitoring service.

Also, check out the new Cloud Ninja project on codeplex, developed by a few of my teammates. It demonstrates multi-tenancy, metering, and scaling concepts.

If you're looking for a very easy way to generate massive load, for scale testing, check out Loadstorm, a cloud-based load generation service. While not as sophisticated as, say, Microsoft's Visual Studio Test system or some of the enterprise tools like Loadrunner, it's very easy to use and easily handles most common load-testing scenarios. I've used Loadstorm for several load-testing engagements.