Performance Testing:Stress testing the WebSocket protocol

This section shows how to add and configure samplers for a test scenario. The following steps provide a simple example that you can adapt to your needs.

1. Right-click Test Plan and navigate to Add > Thread (Users) > Thread Group to add a thread group to the Test Plan.

2. In the thread group, add and configure the following samplers in order.

   Sampler name	Description
   WebSocket Open Connection	Establishes a WebSocket connection.
   WebSocket Ping/Pong	Sends a Ping control frame and expects a Pong response.
   WebSocket request-response Sampler	Sends and receives text or binary WebSocket frames.
   WebSocket Single Write Sampler	Sends text or binary WebSocket frames.
   WebSocket Single Read Sampler	Receives text or binary WebSocket frames.
   WebSocket Close	Closes the WebSocket connection.

   1. Right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Sampler > WebSocket Open Connection.

      On the WebSocket Open Connection configuration panel, under Server URL, set the protocol to ws, Server name or IP to echo.example.com, and Port to 8080. Set Connection timeout (ms) to 20000 and Read timeout (ms) to 6000.

      Note

      Replace the Server URL with your service's details. This example uses a simple Python-based Echo service for demonstration, which echoes all received messages back to the client.

      server.py sample code

      import asyncio
      import websockets
      async def echo(websocket, path):
          async for message in websocket:
              message = "Your message: {}".format(message)
              await websocket.send(message)
      asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(websockets.serve(echo, '0.0.0.0', 8080))
      asyncio.get_event_loop().run_forever()

   2. Right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Sampler > WebSocket Ping/Pong.

      In the Behaviour section, select the ping/pong (send ping, expect pong) mode.

      Note

      Pong(read)timeout(ms): 6000

      If JMeter does not receive a Pong message within the 6,000 ms timeout, the sampler fails. This sampler reuses the existing connection.

   3. Right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Sampler > WebSocket request-response Sampler.

      The configuration panel includes sections such as Connection and Data (request data type and content). The following table describes the key parameters.

      Parameter	Value	Description
      Connection	use existing connection	Specifies whether to create a new connection or reuse an existing one.
      Data type	Text	Specifies the data type, request data, and response timeout.
      Request data	PTS	The request data. This example uses text.
      Response (read) timeout (ms)	6000	The response timeout.

   4. Right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Sampler > WebSocket Single Write Sampler. This non-blocking sampler sends data to the server without waiting for a response.

      Parameter	Value	Description
      Connection	use existing connection	Specifies whether to create a new connection or reuse an existing one.
      Data type	Text	Specifies the data type.
      Request data	PTS bang bang bang	The request data. This example uses text.

   5. Right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Sampler > WebSocket Single Read Sampler. This sampler receives message responses from the server.

      Parameter	Value	Description
      Connection	use existing connection	Specifies whether to create a new connection or reuse an existing one.
      Data type	Text	Specifies the data type.
      Response (read) timeout (ms)	6000	The response timeout.

   6. Right-click Thread Group and select Add > Sampler > WebSocket Close. This sampler closes the existing WebSocket connection. Because this is a negotiated close, the response message is: 1000: sampler requested close.

      Parameter	Value	Description
      Close status	1000	The status code defined when closing the connection. It consists of the first two bytes of the data frame.
      Response (read) timeout (ms)	6000	The response timeout.

3. (Optional) To add headers, such as a token, right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Config Element > HttpHeaderManager. This adds a Config Element where you can configure the required headers. For more details, see the official JMeter documentation.

4. Right-click thread group and navigate to Add > Listener > View Results Tree to add a View Results Tree listener to the thread group.

After you finish editing the script, click the start button at the top of the page to run it.

Use the View Results Tree listener to check if the script runs correctly. In this listener, a green check mark next to a sampler indicates that it ran successfully. If a sampler fails, debug it by referring to 2. Create a script.

The following are some example results:

1. WebSocket request-response Sampler

   Based on the script configuration, the Request information is as follows:

   Connect URL:
   ws://echo.example.com:8080/
   (using existing connection)
   Request data:
   PTS

   In the View Results Tree listener, check the WebSocket request-response Sampler. The Response Body on the Response data tab should show Your message: PTS. This confirms a successful request-response exchange.

2. WebSocket Single Read Sampler

   In View Results Tree, select the WebSocket Single Read Sampler. On the Response data tab, the response body should be Your message: PTS bang bang bang. This confirms that the WebSocket message was sent and received correctly.

After you successfully debug the local script, select File - Save Test Plan as from the top menu bar to save the script file to your local machine as wsTest.jmx.

1. Log on to the PTS console, choose Performance Test > Create Scenario, and then click JMeter.

2. Configure the scenario.

   1. Enter the scene name, and upload the exported wsTest.jmx file.

   2. After the script is successfully uploaded, PTS automatically installs the required plugins. If the installation fails, you can click Upload File to add the downloaded JAR package for JMeter WebSocket Samplers, such as JMeterWebSocketSamplers-1.2.10.jar, and other data files, such as CSV parameter files.

3. Configure stress settings.

   Set the maximum number of virtual users to 10 and the stress test duration to 2 minutes. You can keep the default values for the other settings. Initiating a stress test incurs charges, so we recommend that you select an appropriate stress level. For more information, see Billing overview and Stress modes and level configuration. In the stress configuration section, set Stress Source to Public Network, Stress Mode to Virtual User Mode, and Traffic Model to Manual Speed Control. Set Maximum Virtual Users to 10, Starting Percentage to 100%, and Stress Test Duration to 2 minutes. For Specify Number of Loops, select No. Keep Number of Specified IPs set to 1, and ensure that Customize Traffic Region and IPv6 Traffic are disabled.

4. Debug and start the test.

   1. We recommend debugging the scenario first to verify your configuration and prevent test failures.

   2. Click Save and Start. In the Note dialog box that appears, select Execute Now, check the The test is permitted and complies with the applicable laws and regulations. box, and then click Start Stress Testing.