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Load Testing Blog

  • in DevOps
  • 15 min read

Rancher 2: Getting Started

You may be in the situation like me: you have already extensively used Rancher v1.6.x but would like to migrate to Rancher v2.0.x. For those who don't know, Rancher is a Docker Orchestration tool.

While trying to setup a development machine with Rancher 2 installed, I came accross numerous different issues. I've spent hours figuring out how to fix them.

This tutorial is all about sharing the tips and tricks to avoid you waste time:

  • The requirements to run Rancher 2 (based on Kubernetes)
  • How to configure Rancher 2 to run on different ports (other than the default 80 and 443),
  • How to run Rancher 2 with an Ingress Controller on the same machine,
  • How to link your Ingress to an external service (like Jenkins),
  • Migrating existing services from Rancher v1.6.x to Rancher v2.0.x,
  • And many other tips along the way!

Let's see how to setup and run Rancher 2.

OctoPerf v9: The New Unified Docker Agent

OctoPerf Enterprise-Edition is OctoPerf fully installable on your own hardware. Up to OctoPerf v8.x.x, OctoPerf EE uses Rancher to manage load generators.

After multiple setup sessions with our customers, we came to the conclusion that we needed to improve the way load generators and monitoring agents are managed. We had to make core improvements to make OctoPerf EE much easier to install. Let's see:

  • How OctoPerf currently works and why it's not optimal,
  • And the changes we've made in the upcoming OctoPerf v9.0.0 to greatly improve the situation.

Let's go!

Historical Changes

2014-2015: Apache Mesos Agent

Singularity on Apache Mesos

Why the hell have we based OctoPerf on Rancher? That's a fair question I'm going to answer.

Initially, back in 2015, when we released OctoPerf's first version, it was based on Apache Mesos and Singularity. As explained on their website today:

  • in JMeter
  • 9 min read

5+ Ways to Debug a JMeter Script

If you ever have designed JMeter scripts, I bet you have been stuck at least one time figuring out why a Json Extractor is not working. Guess what? I've been there!

Do you know why best JMeter Performance Engineers almost always find solutions to their problems? They master JMeter Script Debugging.

That's why I have compiled the best JMeter Debug Practices into a huge single post covering:

  • How to use the Debug Sampler (and get the best out of it),
  • Leverage View Results Tree secret features: Regex Tester, Json Path Tester and Regex Tester (and never fail a variable correlation again),
  • How to use Dummy Sampler to generate fake requests to try things (without hitting a real server!),
  • And many other tips like How to view JMeter Logs.

Let's see them in greater details.

  • in JMeter
  • 10 min read

How to Record a Scenario with JMeter

So you started designing a scenario using JMeter manually. After working a while on this grueling task, you start wondering: Isn't there a way to record browser interactions with JMeter?

The short answer is yes! Jmeter's HTTP(s) Test Script Recorder is exactly designed to record test scenarios.

This tutorial teaches you:

  • What a Proxy is and how the recorder works,
  • How to intercept and record HTTP Requests automatically while using your web browser,
  • How to record SSL-secured (https requests),
  • How to configure Proxy Settings with Google Chrome and Firefox,
  • And the most important part: recording the script!

You'll see there are a few caveats but everything is well explained.

We assume you already:

I know how impatient you are, so let's start now!

  • in JMeter
  • 9 min read

JMeter Basic Authentication Explained

You're often confronted with web application which requires user to authenticate. Basic Access Authentication is one of the most simple authentication method:

  1. Client includes an HTTP Header like Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=, with Base64 encoded username and password (username:password equals dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ= in Base64) in each request,
  2. Server grants access whenever the provided username and password are correct.

This guide will teach you 3 different ways to handle basic authentication:

Let's see dive into JMeter with examples you can use yourself!