vsbabu.org

Load testing with Grinder

Grinder rocks. Made it so easy to setup load testing framework for Web Applications. While it certainly helped that I had worked with Python before, it took hardly 2-3 days to:

• understand the framework (could’ve been faster, if I had RTFM)
• write my own scripts
• understand how the recorded scripts are structured
• extract relevant parts from recorded scripts to my test scripts
• train couple of folks on how to do this on their own
• and test our application’s UI

The Good

• Easy to get started. Just read getting started guide, make your batch/shell commands and you are all set.
• The full power of Python makes it easy to make your own logical steps. Moreover, Python is a small language that makes it easy to learn. I switched to using full distribution of Jython 2.5.1 as opposed to the Jython that comes with Grinder. Makes it easier to troubleshoot Jython issues.
• Output data is in plain CSV. Get it into Excel, OpenOffice etc to make your own graphs.
• Recorder is pretty nice. Though I don’t recommend using that to start learning Grinder.

I will see if I can post a part-2 of this where I explain how to write your own scripts and then enhance the functionality using recorder.