Stress Test a Webserver

JonB · 5 Sep 2007 at 11:58

Hi There,

Just wondering if anyone knows a way or of a program that will stress test a web server? Sadly its not Apache, but IIS.

Many thanks.

JonB · 6 Sep 2007 at 09:42

No-one?

growse · 6 Sep 2007 at 09:49

I use JBench, which is made by apache. Quite powerful, but can be quite complex so there's a few guides floating around.

lloydsj · 6 Sep 2007 at 09:51

Mercury loadrunner is the software used by BIG corporates to stress-test (amongst many other things). Obviously this therefore means it costs lots too. I also think this will be too complex for what you want.

What i'd do is google for things like 'free loadrunner', 'loadrunner alternative' etc and see what comes up thats free/more suited to you.

HTH

riddlermarc · 6 Sep 2007 at 10:21

Jmeter here, although I'm not a fan of it but it does the job in hand

JonB · 6 Sep 2007 at 11:26

Ok, thanks for your suggestions. One question though. These all seem to put load on the cpu rather than make loads of requests to the web service, to see if it crashes or not?

I was kinda after the latter, but i'll give what you've given me a go, as well.

Thanks

matja · 6 Sep 2007 at 13:35

'ab' - comes with Apache

JonB · 6 Sep 2007 at 13:41

Unfortunately this was suggested to me by a colleague but this particular server is an IIS based webserver. Thanks anyway!

riddlermarc · 6 Sep 2007 at 13:46

JonB said:
Ok, thanks for your suggestions. One question though. These all seem to put load on the cpu rather than make loads of requests to the web service, to see if it crashes or not?

I was kinda after the latter, but i'll give what you've given me a go, as well.

Thanks

Run Jmeter from a remote machine (ie not the web server itself) and you can configure how many requests, simultaneous or otherwise, you want to send. It can loop indefinitely and even catch queryystring values to pass to the next pahse of testing etc..

growse · 6 Sep 2007 at 14:46

When I said JBench, I of course meant Jmeter

JonB · 6 Sep 2007 at 15:11

Oh brilliant, thanks!

GarethDW · 7 Sep 2007 at 00:40

JonB said:
Ok, thanks for your suggestions. One question though. These all seem to put load on the cpu rather than make loads of requests to the web service, to see if it crashes or not?

I was kinda after the latter, but i'll give what you've given me a go, as well.

Thanks

Loadrunner would do this - but as already said, it's an enterprise tool (at enterprise prices) rather than something an individual would purchase. I'm sure there's an equivalent over at Freshmeat, though.

JonB · 7 Sep 2007 at 10:02

Ah brilliant, Jmeter seems to be doing the trick, thanks!

matja · 7 Sep 2007 at 10:08

JonB said:
Unfortunately this was suggested to me by a colleague but this particular server is an IIS based webserver. Thanks anyway!

why does that matter? HTTP is HTTP

JonB · 7 Sep 2007 at 10:20

... because I don't have an Apache server to use!

matja · 8 Sep 2007 at 00:22

you dont need one

ab is merely shipped with apache, it completely standalone in operation.