Stress Performance testing on a simple java application

Question

I have a simple java application that runs on my computer. It's not connected to the internet, but it is connected to a MySQL database on my localhost.

All it does is read and write to and from my database. It generates a few random numbers, takes information from one class and passes it over to the other class and such. It's very simple.

My question is, how do I perform Performance testing on it? There are some tools available but I haven't found one suitable for my application.

I'm not even sure I can perform this kind of testing on it ...

Is it possible to do such testing on such a simple java application? If yes, which tool should I use (if any?)?

Answer 1

I believe you should split your testing into 2 phases

1. Application profiling using profiling tools, either open source or paid like YourKit or JProfiler
2. Standalone database load testing. You can use any load testing tool which supports JDBC protocol, i.e. Apache JMeter. See The Real Secret to Building a Database Test Plan With JMeter article for details.

Answer 2

For applications similar to this in the past what I would do is custom build a framework that executes the code in rapid succession. This can be done by using your current integration tests (if any) and setting them up to execute repeatedly over x amount of hours or x times.

I always built out custom frameworks, multi-threaded, wrapped in a monitor and then allowed the execution to run. I also built out a basic Swing based UI which allowed me to adjust the settings (IE threads, execution time) and monitor the results.

You will also want to create a wrapper which stores data like the amount of consecutive threads, the average response time, the high-low response times and the total amount of requests sent and have it displayed and/or logged.