Methods for Open Source Load Testing Applications
In general, load testing is used to test how an application will be used by mimicking the actions of numerous users using the programme simultaneously. This is something that most commonly occurs in online applications. Therefore, load testing is most applicable to multi-user systems that are organized in a client-server fashion.
However, load testing can also be performed on a variety of other software platforms. For instance, a word processor or graphics editor can be made to read an exceptionally huge document, or a text editor can be used to load a document that is either very large or contains a high number of lines.
Traditional Methods for Load Testing
The performance of your website's quality of service (QOS) can be evaluated based on the real actions of customers when you carry out load testing. The traditional load testing paradigm is adhered to by almost all load testing tools and frameworks.
This paradigm states that when users visit your website, a script recorder first captures the communication and then develops relevant interaction scripts. A load generator attempts to replay the recorded scripts, which, prior to the replaying process, may or may not have been altered to include different test settings.
The conductor monitors and gathers both the hardware and software statistics during the replay procedure. These statistics include the CPU, RAM, and disc IO of the physical servers as well as the reaction time and the throughput of the system under test (SUT), etc. And last but not least, all of these statistics will be examined, and a report on the load testing will be produced.
This is just one of the methods that is used for testing. There are other methods and each of them requires a lot of effort, from writing tests to recording extensive details so it can be automated. If there are any bottlenecks that are found during this testing phase, they can be fixed. There are a lot of organizations that automate testing using tools. Such tools basically follow an automated approach. You need to just fire them up and wait.
Open Source Load Testing Tools
When we talk about the approaches or methods that an organization uses to perform load testing, many of them usually use the manual approach. As defined above, these manual approaches involve simply recording and replaying the macros, i.e., pre-defined actions. But these actions will not be as thorough as proper load testing. Hence, organizations deploy a lot of different tools to perform the load testing as they are automated and produce a proper report. Let’s discuss two of the more popular tools that can be used to perform load testing.
JMeter
Jmeter is an open source software application that was developed by Apache. The most well-known software of its kind, it was developed specifically for carrying loads and measuring performance. It is a desktop application with an easy-to-use graphical user interface, which makes the process of test writing and debugging much simpler.
JMeter is built with a modular framework where the core may be extended via plug-ins. It is scalable, and it is capable of operating on multiple platforms simultaneously. Finally, it can also handle multiple protocols.
The Grinder
The Grinder is a free load-testing framework that is written in Java and is accessible under an open source licence that is similar to BSD. It has become significantly more developed over the past few years, and a great many new features have been introduced to it.
It supports TCP proxy, which allows it to record network activity into the Grinder test script. This is just one of the many functions that it possesses. In practice, it facilitates distributed testing that can adapt to accommodate a growing number of agent instances. It allows for flexible parameterization, which includes the ability to generate test data on the fly and make use of other data sources like files and databases. Additionally, it facilitates the use of flexible parameterization. Lastly, it is effective in post-processing and assertion, and provides complete access to test findings for the purposes of correlation and content verification.
Conclusion
When we talk about load testing, we are referring to a very crucial component of testing softwares and applications before releasing them into production. Load testing ensures that the application is able to handle the load of concurrent users in an appropriate manner and highlights any bottlenecks that exist.
Firms make a lot of effort to employ the manual method, but increasingly, more and more companies are turning to open source software to perform load testing because it is simpler to use than proprietary software and requires very little human intervention. Thus, these procedures and resources are recommended for each and every organization.