Getting started

• 1: Deployment types
• 2: Portal Sign Up and Login
• 3: Create a simple REST GET test

1 - Deployment types

First of all you’ll have to decide which Real Load deployment type better suits your needs. These guidlines might assist you in making an informed decision.

If your intent is to first evaluate the product we strongly suggest to chose the “quick evaluation” option.

Architecture

There are two key components that make up the Real Load application:

The Portal Server

• Exposes the main GUI to end users.
• All tasks to prepare test scripts are performed from here.
• Used to trigger test executions and visualize results.

Measuring Agents

• Load test scripts are triggered from agents.
• More than one agent can be deployed.
• The agent needs to be reachable from the portal server and needs to be able to reach the servers to be load tested.

Depending on your network topology, the location of the Measuring Agent (externally exposed or not) will be the main factor dictating whether you can use our SaaS solution (cloud hosted) or you’ll have to proceed with an on-premises deployment.

The following diagram summarizes the architecture:

Quick evaluation

If you’d just like to perform an initial evaluation the Real Load product your best option would be to use our SaaS offering. Simply create yourself an account in our cloud based portal and once you’re setup you’ll be able to prepare a load testing script and perform a low-volume test against an intenet exposed server.

Requirements / Constraints

• Perform a functional evaluation without having to deploy any software on-premises.
• Do not want to incure any cloud related (AWS / Azure) costs.

Infrastructure Requirements

• The website you want to run the load test against need to be publicly reachable.

SaaS offering (all cloud based)

If all the servers you’re planning to run your load test against are cloud hosted (AWS, Azure, etc…) you might be able to use our existing AWZ or Azure agent image as load test generators, controlled by our cloud based portal.

Requirements / Constraints

• The website you want to run the load test is hosted in the cloud but doesn’t need to be publicly reachable. It needs to be reachable from a cloud deployed Real Load agent.
• You’ll have to start a Real Load agent instance (Virtual Machine) under your own cloud account.

Infrastructure Requirements

• You’ll have to run some instances of our agent AWS or Azure images under your own cloud account. A suitable AWS or Azure subscription will be required. This machine needs to be assigned a public IP address so that it is reachable from our Portal Server.

Hybrid offering (controller on-premises, agents cloud or on-premises based)

If at least some of the servers you’re planning to run your load test against are hosted within an internal network that is not externally reachable and exposing the real-load agents to the internet is not an option, you’ll have to deploy the Real Load portal on-premises, so that both internal and external (if any agent) Real Load agents are reachable.

Requirements / Constraints

• At least some of the servers you want to load test are not exposed externally.
• Exposing the Real Load agent externally is not an option.

Infrastructure Requirements

• You’ll have to deploy the Real Load portal internally on a supported operating system.
• You’ll have to deploy the Real Load agent(s) internally on a supported operating system.
• If required, you might have to run some instances of our agent AWS or Azure images under your own cloud account. A suitable AWS or Azure subscription will be required.

On-premises offering

Obviously you can run all of your Real Load infrastructure internally. The Real Load software doesn’t require any connecivity to external systeems in this deployment scneario. This scenario is very similar to the last scenario…

Requirements / Constraints

• At least some of the servers you want to load test are not exposed externally.
• Exposing the Real Loaf agent externally is not an option.

Infrastructure Requirements

• You’ll have to deploy the Real Load portal internally on a supported operating system.
• You’ll have to deploy the Real Load agent(s) internally on a supported operating system.

2 - Portal Sign Up and Login

If you already have an account, you can login at this link:

https://portal.realload.com

Signing Up

In order to login to the portal you’ll first have to setup an account. Go to the portal URL and click on the Sign Up button or go this URL: https://portal.realload.com/SignUp

You’ll need to provide:

• Email address.
• Mobile phone number.
• No credit card required, it’s completely free.

Sign Up Process

When sign up, you will get 20 free Cloud Credits, which can be used to start Measuring Agents (= load generators) directly from the portal server.

This is a brief description of the information required to sing up to the Real Load portal.

Step 1

Provide your details, including email and mobile number.

Step 2

Validate your email address.

Step 3

Validate your mobile number

Step 4

Configure your nickname and password

Step 5

Once you signed up, you will be automatically loggedIn, and you can take a tour on our user guide. Two shared Measuring Agents are now assigned to your user account. Also for customers (user accounts) who do not operate their own HTTP/S Remote Proxy Recorder, a temporary HTTP/S Remote Proxy Recorder from a pool is now assigned each time they sign-in.

Step 6

Once you had quick tour on our user guide, you can set up your test scripts here, either by recording the browser or mobile traffic by the HTTP/S Remote Proxy Recorder or set up API test scripts directly from the HTTP Test Wizard.

Setting Up Measuring Agents

In order to debug and execute a load test, you’ll need at least a Measuring Agent (= load generator).

There are 3 ways to set up Measuring Agents:

1. If you have Cloud Credits (20 free CC already credited at sign up), you can easily launch cloud-based Measuring Agents directly from the portal server. Additional Cloud Credits can be purchased at the Real Load Store.
2. You can launch cloud-based Measuring Agents with the Desktop Companion (locally installable Windows program) under your own AWS account, whereby you can use pre-built AWS EC2 AMIs.
3. You can also download the Measuring Agent software and install it on your own servers. After that you can register your Measuring Agent(s) at the portal server.

Option 2 and 3 do not require any Cloud Credits.

Video: Define and run a simple test with a Measurement Agent instance launched by Cloud Credits.

3 - Create a simple REST GET test

Pre-requisites

To configure and execute this simple test you’ll need:

• Access to the Real Load portal. If you haven’t signed up, do so first: Sign Up)
• A REST API URL you can test with a GET request. You can otherwise use the REST API mentioned in the description
• Approx. 20 minutes of your time
• A cup of tea or coffee

Prepare the project

• Create a new project called “Simple REST test” (… or something that makes sense to you)
• Click on the create project icon (pointed at by the green arrow) and then enter a suitable name for the project.

Then define a new resource set in the freshly created project. I’ll call this “GET tests”, but again feel free to chose any name that makes sense to you.

Create the test script using the HTTP test wizard

Now we’ll create the test script with the help of the HTTP test wizard.

Enter a name for the test script and click on OK.

Then click on “Add” and select “URL” from the menu. This is to add a new URL request to the test script.

Enter the URL of the REST API endpoint, for example https://www.realload.com/RealLoadListImagesWS/rest/AWSImages

• In the “Verify HTTP Response” section add some validation assertions. In this case I configure response code HTTP 200 and in the response body the string “ap-southeast-2” should appear.
• Then click on “Add URL”.

Debug your test

You can now test with the debugger that your test does what it is supposed to do.

Click on “Debug Session”:

Then click on Next Step to execute the REST request. Note the update in the area highlighted in red.

You can inspect the response header and body by clicking on the icons pointed at by the arrows:

The response content (body) will appear in the debugger. If all looks good, close the window.

Save and compile the test

The last step is to save the test and the execute it. First exit from the debugger window:

.. then save the session using a suitable name. Also select the resource group the test should be saved to.

Now generate the Java code that will contain your test logic which will be executed on the Measuring Agent. Click on “Generate Code”:

Then click on “Generate Source Code” and “Compile & Generate Jar”.

Now that the test code is compiled, you can define a new test that by clicking on “Define New Test”.

You’ll have to give a name to this test job, enter something meaningful to you:

Execute the test job

You’re now ready to execute the test. Click on the test you’ve just defined to create a new test job:

… select “continue”…

… select the agent to run the test job from.

You’re now ready to start the test. Click on “Test jobs” then click on “Start Test Job”:

.. select the number of Virtual Users to simulate, duration of the test and think time between test loops:

Monitor the test job

Once the test job is running click on the “Monitor Jobs” menu item:

… and you’ll be able to see measurement related to your test job:

Done, congrats, you’ve run your first load test with Real Load.

To learn more we suggest heading to the User Guide section where you’ll find detailed documentation in relation to the steps outlined in this document.