In JMeter, what are some good methods to handle external dependencies?

Question

As the title says, what are some ideas for dealing with non-API request related dependencies in a JMeter test?

I have a series of tests that work with zipped-up data. The first step in the test is to unzip that data. Clearly, this takes time - including it in the JMeter test captures the results of the call to unzip alongside everything else so skews the results. Similarly, I may need to do things with data after a series of tests that don't involve API calls.

In terms of a "script", they're definitely part of the overall test - I just think they should be in the JMeter test. I could write a powershell script (or something similar) to handle those elements, which I think would work fine for running in a CI/CD pipeline but be less usable when running locally (e.g. debugging or adding new steps/tests).

Any good mechanisms which'll work nicely in both scenarios?

Answer 1

If you need to unzip some files and don't want JMeter to measure this time there are multiple workarounds for this:

1. Use setUp Thread Group to prepare test data
2. Use i.e. PreProcessors to prepare test data, JMeter doesn't include the time taken by Pre/Post Processors, Timers and Assertions into the sample result unless you have Transaction Controller configured to do so
3. If above points are not applicable for any reason you can use Filter Results tool to remove the "unwanted" sample results which are not related to API calls