Introduction to JMeter

Have you ever tested a web server to know how efficiently it works? How many
concurrent users can a web server handle?

Let say that one day, your boss asks you to do performance
testing of www.google.com for 100 users. What would you do?

Maybe your boss, who is a beginner, will ask you

This tutorial will help you to answer his question and complete your task.

What is JMeter ?

The Apache JMeterTM is pure Java open source software, which was first
developed by Stefano Mazzocchi of the Apache Software Foundation, designed to
load test functional behavior and measure performance. You can use JMeter to
analyze and measure the performance of web application or variety of services.
Performance Testing means testing a web application against heavy load, multiple
and concurrent user traffic. JMeter originally is used for testing Web Application or
FTP application. Nowadays, it is used for functional test, database server test etc.

Why JMeter ?
JMeter advantages are described as figure below
  Open source license: JMeter is totally free, allows developer use the source
code for the development
 Friendly GUI: JMeter is extremely easy to use and doesn't take time to get
familiar with it
 Platform independent: JMeter is 100% pure Java desktop application. So it
can run on multiple platforms
 Full multi-threading framework. JMeter allows concurrent and simultaneous
sampling of different functions by a separate thread group
 Visualize Test Result: Test result can be display in a different format such as
chart, table, tree and log file
 Easy installation: You just copy and run the *.bat file to run JMeter. No
installation needed.
 Highly Extensible: You can write your own tests. JMeter also supports
visualization plugins allow you extend your testing
 Multiple testing strategy: JMeter supports many testing strategies such
as Load Testing, Distributed Testing, and Functional Testing.
 Simulation: JMeter can simulate multiple users with concurrent threads,
create a heavy load against web application under test
 Support multi-protocol: JMeter does not only support web application
testing, but also evaluate database server performance. All basic protocols
such as HTTP, JDBC, LDAP, SOAP, JMS, and FTP are supported by JMeter
 Record & Playback - Record the user activity on the browser and simulate
them in web application using JMeter
 Script Test: Jmeter can be integrated with Bean Shell & Selenium for
automated testing.

How does JMeter work ?

Basic workflow of JMeter as shown in the figures below

JMeter simulates a group of users sending requests to a target server, and return
statistics information of target server through graphical diagrams
The completed workflow of JMeter as show in figure below
How to install Jmeter in easy steps

Operating system Support for JMeter

JMeter is a pure Java application and should run correctly on any system that has a
compatibleJava implementation.

Here is the list of operating system compatible with JMeter

Operating system Java Virtual Machine Architecture

Free BSD 9.0 Open JDK 6 amd64

Linux 2.4, 2.6, 3.1 Sun JDK 5, 6, 7 and Open JDK 6 i386, amd64

Mac OS JDK6

Window XP Sun JDK6, Sun JDK 7 32/64 bits

Window 7 Sun JDK 5, 6, 7. 32 bits

In this tutorial, we run JMeter on Window operating system

Steps to Install JMeter

Step 1) Install Java
Because JMeter is pure Java desktop application, it requires a fully compliant JVM 6
or higher. You can download and install the latest version of Java SE Development
Kit.

Java Platform (JDK)

After installation is finished, you can use the following procedure to check whether
Java JDK is installed successfully in your system

 In Window/Linux, go to Terminal
  Enter command java -version

If Java runtime environment is installed successfully, you will see the output as
figure below

If nothing displays, please re-install Java SE runtime environment

Step 2) Download Jmeter

As of this writing, the latest version of JMeter is Apache JMeter 2.9.You can
download it here

Choose the Binaries file (either zip or tgz) to download as shown in figure below

Step 3) Installation
Installation of JMeter is extremely easy and simple. You simply unzip the zip/tar file
into the directory where you want JMeter to be installed. There is no tedious
installation screen to deal with! Simple unzip and you are done!
Once the unzipping is done installation directory structure should look like as figure
below

Given below is the description of the JMeter directories and its importance JMeter
directory contains many files and directory

 /bin: Contains JMeter script file for starting JMeter

 /docs: JMeter documentation files
 /extras: ant related extra files
 /lib/: Contains the required Java library for JMeter
 /lib/ext: contains the core jar files for JMeter and the protocols
 /lib/junit: Junit library used for JMeter
 /printable_docs:

Step 4) Launch JMeter

You can start JMeter in 3 modes

 GUI Mode
 Server Mode
 Command Line Mode
Start JMeter in GUI Mode
If you are using Window, just run the file /bin/jmeter.bat to start JMeter in GUI mode
as shown below

Following figure annotates the various components in the JMeter GUI

Start JMeter in Server Mode
Server mode is used for distributed testing. This Testing works as client-
server model. In this model, JMeter runs on server computer in server mode. On
client computer, JMeter runs in GUImode.

To start the server mode, you run the bat file bin\jmeter-server.bat as below figure
Start JMeter in command line mode
JMeter in GUI mode consumes much computer memory. For saving resource, you
may choose to run JMeter without the GUI. To do so, use the following command
options

This is a command line example

$jmeter -n -t testPlan.jmx - l log.jtl -H 127.0.0.1 -P 8000

Additional Packages
Based on your requirement, you will need one or more optional packages listed
below.

 Java Compiler

Java Compiler allows developers to build JMeter source code and other
JMeter plugins

 SAX XML parser

SAX is the Simple API for XML, originally a Java-only API. You can use SAX
XML parser as an alternative to XML parser in JMeter

 Email Support

JMeter has extensive Email capabilities. It can send email based on test
results and has a POP3(S)/IMAP(S) sampler. It also has an SMTP sampler.

 JDBC driver

If you want to test database server, you have to install JDBC driver