Java Power Tools

Chapter 16. Load and Performance Testing with JMeter

Introduction

JMeter is a powerful Java open source load and performance testing tool. With it, you can carry out performance tests on web application, databases, web services, and more.

Load testing (also known as stress testing) involves putting your application under continued stress over a long period of time, generally by simulating many concurrent users. This is a good way of ferreting out memory leaks or performance bottlenecks that otherwise would not appear until once the application is in production. Load testing can also be used to push an application to its limits, simulating expected peak loads, in order to study how it stands up under increasing pressure and to identify weak points in the application architecture.

Performance Testing is a little different. Performance testing involves making sure that your application performs as specified in the system requirements. For example, the requirements may include performance criteria such as the following: with 100 concurrent users, the home page must be displayed in fewer than 2 seconds on a broadband connection.

JMeter can be used very effectively to do both load and performance testing.

Before we start, a word on load testing: as with any other sort of performance testing and optimization, to load test your application well, you really need a plan. How many users is your application supposed to support? Are you writing a company application for limited internal use, or are ...