Hardware capabilities for a Test with Jmeter

Question

I'm preparing a load test on Web Service SOAP. I'm following the best practices of documentation:

For testing how JMeter performs on a given platform, the JavaTest sampler can be used. It does not require any network access so can give some idea as to the maximum throughput achievable.

For that I have created a Test Plan with an element Java Request Defaults which use the class JavaTest, and set the default configuration:

Name:          Value
Sleep_Time     100
Sleep_Mask     0xFF
Label          ThreadNum=${_threadNum}
ResponseCode   200
ResonseMessage OK
Status         OK
SamplerData    ${QUERY}
ResultData     The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

Execute on non-GUI mode:

jmeter -n -t E:\jmeter\4.0\Java_Request_Defaults.jmx -l E:\jmeter\4.0\Java_Request_Defaults.jtl -e -o E:\jmeter\4.0\Java_Request_Defaults

Result:

Creating summariser <summary>
Created the tree successfully using E:\jmeter\4.0\Java_Request_Defaults.jmx
Starting the test @ Wed Feb 28 11:19:51 COT 2018 (1519834791517)
Waiting for possible Shutdown/StopTestNow/Heapdump message on port 4445
summary =      0 in 00:00:00 = ******/s Avg:     0 Min: 9223372036854775807 Max: -9223372036854775808 Err:     0 (0.00%)
Tidying up ...    @ Wed Feb 28 11:19:52 COT 2018 (1519834792322)
... end of run

¿How to use JavaTest Class for test hardware capabilities on server jmeter?

Answer 1

The Java Request sampler is not something you should use to calculate the maximum number of threads you will be able to produce on a given machine as it depends on many factors like:

• Number of virtual users (threads) in Thread Group
• Number of HTTP Request samplers (you will need these to test your SOAP webservice)
• Request and response size

• Number of "extra" test elements like:

  • PreProcessors
  • PostProcesssors
  • Assertions

So I would recommend proceeding as follows:

1. First of all make sure you're following JMeter Best Practices
2. Make sure you have monitoring of the baseline OS health metrics on the machine where JMeter is running (CPU, RAM, Network, Disk, etc.). You can use JMeter PerfMon plugin for this.
3. Implement your web service test plan using HTTP Request samplers
4. Start test using 1 virtual user and gradually increase the load at the same time observing CPU, RAM, Disk and Network usage. Once it reaches say 90% of maximum available capacity - stop your test and see how many users where active at this moment - this will be the maximum you can mimic for particular this test from particular this machine. If it's enough - good for you, if not - you will have to consider Distributed Testing.

More information: What’s the Max Number of Users You Can Test on JMeter?