There are lot of services available in the market which will help you to execute your tests in the cloud. One of the notable service offering is from OctoPerf. OctoPerf – Load Testing in the Cloud offers performance testing as a service particularly Jmeter as a service. What I really liked is their Angular JS user interface which expedites the process of scheduling the test execution.
Table of Contents
What is OctoPerf?
OctoPerf enables you to design, run, and analyze your load tests if you do not have enough infrastructure to execute your high volume tests. OctoPerf using Amazon Web Services for the infrastructure.
How it works?
- You need to design your tests in OctoPerf console.
- Define the number of virtual users or threads in the test
- Start your test
- Analyze the test results to identify bottlenecks using real-time performance reporting system
OctoPerf Plans and Pricing
OctoPerf offers flexible plans for monthly/quarterly/annually. It offers four different plans: Community which is free, Starter, Pro, and Enterprise. All the plans includes two hours of free training.
How to sign up for free account?
Go to https://app.octoperf.com/#/access/signup and enter your email ID and pass the reCAPTCHA. You are done. Check your email ID for the login credentials and then get started. The one thing I didn’t convince is you will get an email with your username and hard coded password which is a security violation. Instead OctoPerf can enable social login or ask the user to set the password during signup page.
How to run your first test?
Login into OctoPerf console. When you login, it will pop-up with below options where you can design and run a simple URL test with up to 50 users.
After starting your test, you will be redirected to the monitor console where you can see your test details as shown below. Console has clean UI with fluid actions. It is quick and responsive. Thanks to Angular JS framework.
To the left menu, you can view the summary items, create Line Charts, and other charts as shown below.
To the corresponding right, you can view the details. Below is the run-time snapshot of the test. If you want to stop, click on Stop button.
Each graph comes with quick tips which will help you to analyze the results.
To create line or other charts, just drag and drop from the left to the right just like you do it in LoadRunner controller. You can delete the pane anytime in the console. Once the execution is done, you can export the results. Once you click on Export, immediately report will be generated in the form of online word with the table of contents. Pretty, isn’t it?
Also OctoPerf allows you to create scenarios with multiple devices as well which is really awesome.
OctoPerf allows you to create four types of test:
- Simple test where you load your website URLs (yes you can test multiple URLs in a single test by specifying the methods. You can test REST services, APIs as well under this category)
- Import HTTP Archive Format from Chrome/Firefox
- Import Fiddler HTTP Archive Format
- Import Jmeter test plan
Below are the features which grabbed my attention. OctoPerf allows you to design your tests using Login Actions, HTTP Actions, and Post Processors. Also you can configure the servers, variables, and correlation rules. You can configure HTTP Headers, Parameterization, Correlate, customize the run-time settings and control the actions while designing. Â Below is the snapshot of the simple website URL scenario. You can design your test just like you design using Jmeter.
After you done with the design, you can validate the test by clicking on Validate button. Below is my sample test plan which I created in OctoPerf. It was a great experience designing in OctoPerf console.
Once the test plan design is completed, next step is to create scenario by clicking on Create Scenario button. You can customize the scenario by specifying the duration, region, browser, cache, and bandwidth.
You can view the licenses and other settings in your Account page where you can upgrade your subscription.
Pros:
- Quick signup and flexible pricing
- Easy to create tests and design scenarios
- Utility to create Jmeter test plans
- Clean UI
- Help button in all the pages and well written documentation
- Supports parameterization, correlation, and other customization like headers, caches, user agents, run time settings etc
Cons:
- While registering password will be sent to your email
- No option to export the results in other formats such as PDF or Excel
- Multiple scenarios not supported
- Not possible to execute other types of test
- Works only for HTTP/HTML protocol
- Free subscription supports only 20 minutes run tops.
Overall OctoPerf changes the way we are scripting and executing load tests using typical performance testing tools. It is definitely worth a try for your performance testing needs to save your budget on infrastructure.