JMeter Performance Testing – Everything you need to know
How to conduct JMeter performance testing, its benefits, and a lot more in greater detail.
JMeter
performance testing is one of the efficient testing methods for testing web
applications, servers, web services, and many other resources. This testing
helps to identify bottlenecks and supports building robust applications
ultimately. The metrics and visual reports from JMeter performance testing are
accurate and easy to understand. This blog bags the features of JMeter
performance testing, how to conduct this testing, its benefits, and a lot more
in greater detail.
Quality
Assurance is one of the crucial stages in software application development. If
you want to assess the performance of applications and other resources, you
must conduct performance testing inevitably. The metrics of the performance
testing will indicate the effectiveness of the applications. That's why
performance testing of applications and other resources is considered highly
essential to optimize the performance of resources. Usually, this testing is
performed before launching applications into production environments. This way,
JMeter is one of the powerful tools used for performance testing. With this
tool, we can perform different types of testing to measure the performance of
resources very closely. Of course! In this blog, we will tell you about JMeter
performance testing, how to conduct this testing, types of testing, its
benefits, and many more in a better way.
Performance
testing is a process by which we can test the performance of applications
against performance metrics. By performing this testing, we can identify
whether applications fail or lack in their performance. The performance testing
results indicate areas where we need to make further improvements. Also, we can
ensure that applications meet the requirements set at the beginning of the
application development. Simply put, we can identify the production readiness
of the applications with this testing. By conducting performance testing, we
can identify bottlenecks in the normal functioning of applications and rectify
them before deploying them into a production environment.
When
it comes to performance metrics, speed, stability, and scalability are some of
the vital metrics that decide the performance of applications. Data transfer
rates, throughput, network bandwidth, reliability, and workload efficiency are
some other performance metrics we can measure through performance testing.
Besides, we can conduct performance testing for multiple applications and
compare the results to identify the factors that impact the performance of
applications. As a result, we can fine-tune applications and improve their
performance.
What
is JMeter?
JMeter
is one of the popular open-source performance testing tools developed by the
Apache software foundation. It is an excellent go-to tool for testers and
developers to conduct performance testing. No wonder it is a tool that you can
easily install and scale. With JMeter, you can conduct performance testing for
various web resources. Even you can also conduct functional testing using this
tool. When it comes to load testing, JMeter helps find the resources' responses
for different loads. For example, you can test the capacity of servers and
networks for different loads, especially for heavy loads.
What
is JMeter Performance Testing?
You
can accurately measure web applications and other resources performance using
JMeter. With JMeter performance testing, you can measure the performance of
both static and dynamic resources. Here, the static resources include
JavaScript and HTML. Dynamic resources include JSP, AJAX, and Servlets. Also,
you can test web applications, shell scripts, databases, web services, and so on.
Moreover,
you can test the performance of different servers and web services. They can be
listed as follows:
·
Database
servers
·
Mail
servers such as SMTP, IMAP, and POP3
·
Web
servers such as HTTP and HTTPS
·
LDAP
servers
·
TCP
servers
·
Web
services such as SOAP and REST
Know
that JMeter Performance testing includes load testing, volume testing, stress
testing, and many more. After the testing, JMeter provides the test results
with a graphical analysis. Further, speed, stability, and scalability are the
three essential metrics measured in the JMeter performance testing of web
resources. Speed is the metric that is used to check whether a web resource is
working fast or not. Scalability is the metric that shows how many users can
use a particular resource concurrently. Stability is yet another metric used to
check the performance of resources at different loads.
Why
JMeter Performance Testing?
Wondering
why JMeter is widely used in performance testing?
Here
are the reasons:
·
It
is a portable tool that works across any platform. Simply put, it’s a
platform-independent tool.
·
It
is a highly extensible tool.
·
JMeter
comes with a multi-threading framework. Therefore, we can conduct JMeter
performance testing for many thread groups concurrently.
·
With
JMeter performance testing, we can find the maximum number of concurrent users
a web application can handle.
·
It
has an easy-to-use Graphical User Interface (GUI).
·
The
graphical analysis created by the JMeter includes graphs, tables, reports,
trees, etc. It simplifies tracking the performance of web applications.
·
We
can test the speed, response time, reliability, and resource usage of
applications through JMeter performance testing.
·
We
can find the bottlenecks that slow down the normal functioning of applications.
As a result, you can take corrective actions and boost the performance of
applications.
·
We
can view test results while running tests.
Types
of Performance Testing
There
are many types of performance testing with which you can measure the
performance of resources. Let’s discuss a few performance testing types one by
one below.
Load
Testing: With load testing, you can measure the capacity of web applications
when multiple users use the applications at a time. By performing load testing,
you can track the behavior of applications and identify bottlenecks in the
normal functioning of applications. Also, you can test the performance of
applications at normal workload as well as peak usage. Thus, you can measure
the response time and consistency of the applications accurately.
Stress
Testing: Know that every web server has a maximum load capacity. Stress testing
allows for finding the maximum load capacity that web servers can handle. If a
web server is receiving a load beyond its maximum capacity, it will start
functioning slowly and create errors without a doubt. Not only servers you can
perform stress testing to measure the performance of other resources such as
CPUs, hard disks, solid-state drives, memory, and so on. Stress testing is
essential simply because an overload in applications may happen unexpectedly in
a production environment. So, it is essential to find the potential breaking
point of applications based on resource usage.
Soak
Testing: It is also known as endurance testing. Soak testing is a subtype of
stress testing. In this testing, the number of users is increased step-by-step
to test the performance of applications, mainly to test consistency and
sustainability.
Spike
Testing: It is yet another subtype of stress testing. Here, a sudden spike in
the number of users is applied to applications, and the response is measured.
With spike testing, you can check the performance of applications when there is
an abrupt change in workload in a short while.
Reliability
Testing: Reliability testing measures how soon applications return to their
normal state from an abnormal.
Scalability
Testing: It is the testing performed to check whether an application could
scale up when there is a need for expansion.
Volume
Testing: With this testing, you can measure the behavior of applications when
there is a massive amount of data to handle.
How
to conduct Performance Testing using JMeter?
There
is a step-by-step procedure to conduct performance testing using JMeter. Let’s
look at the steps right away as follows.
Identifying
Test Environment: It is the first step in which you must identify the proper
hardware, configuration, software, and functionalities completely. This step
will help to prepare an effective test plan at later stages. The system under
the test environment should have basic requirements to run JMeter. It means you
must have installed the correct version of Java to run JMeter. You can download
the latest version of JMeter in two ways – using binary files or source codes.
If it is a binary file, you can run test scripts quickly. With source codes,
you can have more control over the test scripts. Once the files are downloaded,
extract them and install JMeter. No matter what operating system you use to run
JMeter, the functionality would be the same.
Identifying
test goals: In this step, you need to set performance goals or acceptance
criteria. For example, you must set the expected response time, resource
utilisation, throughput, etc.
Preparing
Test Environment: In this step, you must choose the proper hardware and
software and define configuration details accurately. Building an effective
test environment will result in generating the best test results.
Thread
Groups: Creating thread groups is one of the essential elements in building a
test environment. Essentially, a thread represents a virtual user. The Thread
group is a set of virtual users chosen for the performance test. The number of
threads refers to the number of virtual users selected for the test. In addition,
you need to set up the thread properties such as the number of threads, loop
count, delays, ramp-up period, test start and stop times, etc.
Test
Plan and Script Development: In this stage, you must prepare a robust test
plan. Before that, you must ensure the suitable use cases and perform the
script development in line with that. You can use the templates provided with
JMeter to prepare a test plan. SOAP web service test plan, FTP test plan, basic
and advanced web test plan, and functional testing plan are a few test plan
templates offered by JMeter. It is essential to note that you need to run
JMeter in GUI mode while creating a test plan. Generally, a test plan has
thread groups, sample-generating controllers, logic controllers, listeners, assertions,
timers, and configuration elements. For script development, first, you can
record testing using a test script recorder. After that, you can remove the
randomly generated values and hard-coded values. Moreover, you must add an
appropriate listener to check the results.
Executing
the Test: You must perform testing incrementally in JMeter. Because of this
requirement, you must gradually increase the number of users. Note that you
need to use CLI to run tests in JMeter.
Test
Results Analysis and Reporting: With the test results, you can analyse the
performance metrics closely. You can check whether the application is working
as per your expectations. The main thing is that you must perform testing
repeatedly to ensure consistency across the results.
Metrics
of JMeter Performance Testing
Metrics
help to identify the performance of applications in numeric form. Let’s see
some of the metrics of JMeter performance testing.
Throughput:
It is the ability of a web server to handle loads. Also, it is the number
of requests a web server can handle per second. Note that the throughput value
goes up when the performance of the web server is doing well.
Thread
Counts: It is the number of active threads that an application can handle.
Speed
of Processor: It is the time taken by a processor to execute threads.
Disk
time: It is the time taken by a disk to read and write a request.
Bandwidth:
It is the volume of data transfer that can be taken place between systems.
Response
Time: It is the time gap between a user’s request and an application’s first
response.
Disk
Queue Length: It represents the average number of read-and-write requests
waiting for a sample interview.
CPU
Interrupts per Second : It refers to the number of interrupts received by
a processor per second.
Benefits
of JMeter performance Testing
There
are a lot of benefits that we can gain by performing performance testing using
JMeter. Let’s move on to the benefits.
Plugins:
As JMeter is a platform-independent tool, we can integrate many plugins with
JMeter. As a result, we can accelerate script creation and testing. The user
community of JMeter is so large. So, it’s not a surprise development, and
release of new plugins are frequent. Even you can develop your plugin and
publish it.
Server
Compatibility: Whether a web server, database server, or any other, JMeter is
compatible with all types of servers. So, we can test any server with JMeter.
Record
and Playback: This feature allows testers to record their performance tests and
view them offline. It allows testers to create test scripts and run the tests
more effectively.
Customization:
As JMeter is an open-source tool, we can easily access the source code and make
customization as per the application requirements.
Distributed
Load Testing: JMeter supports the master-slave method. So, we can distribute
workloads across many systems and perform testing across many systems
simultaneously.
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