Load Testing Services by Means of Apache Bench

Apache Bench – is a simple tool for load testing service. This utility is included in the standard Apache Assembly and even have almost all ready assemblies such as Denwer, WAMP, XAMPP. Very easy to use and highly configurable.

If you are the beginner in load testing, ab (Apache Bench) – just what you need. 

Main advantages that ab is easy and convenient for learning/using, while its the biggest drawback is low functionality. 

So, what Apache Bench can?

All request are executed through Http protocol. Https is ,unfortunately, not supported. This is another minus :( 

In ab, you can set the total number of requests executed in parallel and time limits for all requests. Apache Bench offers the possibility to use post and head requests. 

You can also add content-type headers and parameters from the cookies, send requests to apache bench, use the proxy server. 

You can work with basic Http authentication and basic proxy authentication. It also supports Http keep-alive-the ability to send requests within one Http session. 

By default, apache bench this feature is turned off.

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The Browse of Three Load Testing Service Tools

Load testing services aim to define and gather the systems' time response & its performance indicators in order to cover the requirements imposed on the system. 

Nearly every load testing company resorts to various load testing tools. They can be and open source, and commercial.

TestMatick test engineers browsed three handy tools for load testing service. 

#1. Joe Dog Siege 

Advantages:

- Free tool for use.

- Multithreaded.

- One can specify the number of requests and duration (time of testing). It means that it’s possible to emulate the user load.

- This tool supports the simplest scenarios.

Drawbacks: 

- Resource-intensive.

- There is a little amount of static data. Also, Joe Dog Siege doesn’t emulate very good such user scenarios as the speed limit of user requests. 

- Not suitable for serious and large-scale testing in hundreds and thousands of threads, because it is resource-intensive, and on a large number of requests and threads loads the system greatly.

#2. Tsung 

Core Capabilities:

- Written on Erlang.

- HTTP, WebDAV, SOAP, PostgreSQL, MySQL, LDAP, Jabber/XMPP.

- Console (GUI through a third-party plugin).

- Distributed testing (millions of users).

- Possesses the testing stages.

- Test plan – XML-file.

- Plan recording by means of Tsung recorder’a.

- Monitoring of test servers (Erlang, Munin, SNMP).

- Tools for generating statistics and graphs from logs work.

Advantages:

- Free tool.

- As it’s written in Erlang, this tool scales well but depends on the allocated resources.

- Can perform the role of a distributed system on a big number of machines.

- A great number of tested systems-not just Web servers and databases, but also, for example, XMPP-server: can send messages, tests with the authorization.

- The control via console, but, thanks to the support of plugins - can be managed by using a third-party plugin with GUI.

- The existence of Tsung Recorder tool -sort of a proxy server through which you can walk over the tested website and record as soon as the load profile.

- Generation of different testing schedules by using scripts.

Drawbacks: 

- The absence of GUI-interface.

- There is only *nix-system.

#3. WAPT

Core Capabilities: 

- Windows.

- Fee-paying (there is a trial period 30 days/ 20 virtual users).

- Record of the test plan through desktop & mobile browsers.

- Dependence on test plans (subsequent URL depending on the response from the server).

- Imitation of real users (a delay between connections, speed limit connections).

Advantages:

- Very flexible and has various configurations and tests.

- Emulation of slow user connections channels.

- The connection of modules.

- The record of test scripts straight from the browser (desktop & mobile).

- Generation of various testing schedules by using scripts.

Drawbacks: 

- Available only for Windows.

- You should pay fee to use this tool.