How to Conduct Performance Tests and Share Results

Prerequisites

1.  Download and install jmeter: http://jmeter.apache.org

   1. #!/bin/bash
      
      
      # get source from an apache mirror
      wget http://supergsego.com/apache//jmeter/binaries/apache-jmeter-3.1.tgz
      # verify the md5
      
      
      local_md5=`md5 -q apache-jmeter-3.1.tgz`
      remote_md5=`curl https://www.apache.org/dist/jmeter/binaries/apache-jmeter-3.1.tgz.md5 | cut -f 1 -d ' '`
      cat apache-jmeter-3.1.tgz.md5
      
      
      if [ "$local_md5" != "$remote_md5" ]
      then
        echo "md5's do not match"
        exit
      else
        echo "congratulations md5s match" 
      fi
      
      
      # untar it.
      tar xvfz apache-jmeter-3.1.tgz
      # move it 
      sudo mv apache-jmeter-3.1 /usr/local/apache-jmeter-3.1
      # link it
      sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-jmeter-3.1/bin/jmeter /usr/bin/jmeter

   2. For linux: 
      1. unzip/untar the jmeter binary package.
      2. move the unzipped directory to /usr/local/
      • link it to your path if it is not already in there
        • sudo ln -s /usr/local/apache-jmeter-3.1/bin/jmeter /usr/bin/jmeter;

Setup Your Instance

1.  Set up database if you plan to use one.

It is important that you capture the following information related to your setup: 

(Perhaps we might want to think about a yaml config file in case we want to build some tooling)

1. Instance Specs
   1. OS (type and version)
   2. Processor Speed
   3. Number of Cores
   4. Disk Type (SSD or Hard Disk)
   5. RAM
   6. IOPS (if applicable)
   7. any java configuration options (e.g. -Xmx 2G)
   8. binary configuration:  local,  network,  S3
   9. is virtual?
   10. is test runner on the same machine? 
2. Database Specs
   
   1. type (mysql, postgresql, aurora, etc)
   2. deployment: local or remote
   3. if remote
      1. processor speed
      2. processor count
      3. RAM
      4. if RDS,  RDS type (e.g. db1.small)

Generate Test Data 

Generate Graphs Based  on Your Test Data

Share Your Results with the Community