Stress Testing

Need of Stress Testing

• It is used to determine the breaking point for an application.
• It is used to confirm that intended specifications are met.
• It is used to detect the failure points in an application and allow developers to make necessary changes.
• It is used to confirm that system does not crash due to insufficient memory, CPU, or any other computational entity.
• It helps identify the security weaknesses that might allow attackers to sneak in.
• It helps in ensuring stability under a typical computational environment.
• It provides that system prints proper error messages while crashing and any random exception.

Stress Testing proves very useful while dealing with real-life situations. Let’s have a look at some of the examples:

• When releasing a new product online, the gaming company may face a large traffic load, leading to the complete shutdown of the system.
• Due to festive seasons, online websites (Amazon, Flipkart) face immense traffic upliftment.
• A high spike in traffic might lead to the crashing of the entire application when results for particular exams are announced.

Types of Stress Testing

Distributed Stress Testing

In distributed systems, testing is carried out across all clients from the server. It distributes the stress set to all clients and then records the responses received. Meanwhile, the client sends the signal to the connected server. If a server doesn't receive the signal from the client, it needs to be tested by debugging.

Source: Link

In the given diagram, the server can communicate with server 1 and server 2 and not with server 3 and server 4 while it’s under stress.

Application Stress Testing

This testing is concerned with finding defects related to network blocking, locking, performance congestion, etc., in the web application. 

Transactional Stress Testing

It is used for fine optimization of the application and also helps in enhancing the system’s performance. This testing keeps an eye on transactions between one or more applications.

Systematic Stress Testing

Systematic stress testing can be done across multiple systems connected through the same server. It is used to find defects where one application data blocks another application.

Exploratory Stress Testing 

Exploratory Stress testing is concerned with testing the systems against unusual parameters that are unlikely to occur in real-life scenarios. E.g., offline database, multiple users accessing the application simultaneously, application facing storage issues, etc.

Tools for Stress Testing

• Jmeter: It is a pure java, open-source application that can test performance on both static and dynamic sources. This is one of the widely used tools for stress testing.

• Load Runner: It provides a complete end-to-end system performance report and helps identify and resolve issues before the application is released. It supports a wide range of applications.

• Neo Load: It is an automated performance testing platform used by organizations to test applications and APIs continuously. This platform provides developers with automatic test design and maintenance, built-in integrations, fast root cause analysis, and realistic simulation of user behavior.

• Grinder: It is an open-source stress testing tool that must run locally in the user’s development environment. It is highly modular with several plugins. But, unless you are a developer, this tool might be a bit of a handful for one to use.

Steps to perform Stress Testing

Detecting the testing environment: In this step, we need to identify software, hardware, networks, and tools for their application from the multiple options available.

Performance acceptance criteria: This step will find the requirements that help us categorize the metrics used to test the application under stress. Also, it helps in identifying the success criteria for a given test. I.e., the maximum load that can be applied to an application to stop working.

Plan and design stress test: We will design tests and identify test scenarios for the application in this step. We can use different computer systems with different memory, processors, browsers for web applications.

Configure the test environment: In this step, we will create a testing environment, tools, and resources required to perform each approach. We will try to find the value with a slow network and the values below the breaking point, at the breaking point, and after the breaking point to create test cases and data around these observed values. 

Implement test design: After configuring the testing environment, we will develop the test cases on which the test design gives the best results. Ideally, it is best to execute the same test cases for five or more rounds and conclude your results.

Execute tests: In this step, we will execute the test cases, observe the outcomes, and make assumptions based on those outcomes.

Analyze the results: In this step, we will analyze the outcomes, combine and share the results among other teammates. A stress test for a given scenario is accepted to be complete when no thresholds have been violated, all the metrics are within acceptable limits, and all the data has been collected.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Stress Testing

Advantages of Stress Testing

1. It determines the scalability and enhances the system's performance.
2. Stress testing ensures that the application will work in favorable and unfavorable conditions.
3. It determines the system's behavior and helps protect against any possible crashes.

Disadvantages of Stress Testing

1. The setup chosen must be as close as possible to the production environment during the testing environment.
2. Developers need to have proper scripting language knowledge.
3. Stress testing also requires additional resources, which add to the cost of production.
4. Stress testing, if done manually, can become very tedious and might not produce expected outcomes.

Difference between Stress Testing and Load Testing

FAQs

1 Why do we need to perform Stress Testing?

Ans: Stress testing ensures that an application doesn't crash when encountered with unfavorable conditions. Stress Testing needs to be performed in the following scenarios:

• To check that system works appropriately under stressful conditions.
• If the system fails in a risky situation, it can result in a massive loss for an organization.
• By implementing this, an organization prepares its application for extreme conditions.

2 What is Gorilla testing?

Ans: Gorilla testing is performed on a module repeatedly based on some random inputs, and it helps in checking the functionality and bugs in that module. It is manual testing that is performed repeatedly.

3 What is the best stress test for CPU?

Ans: The Overclock checking tool (OCCT) is one of CPUs' best stress checking tools. It is an all-in-one tool that includes four tests: 2 for CPU, GPU, and power supply. It also consists of a temperature fail-safe which stops immediately once a temperature reaches an unsafe state. 

Key Takeaways

Stress Testing is used to prepare a system to function correctly even under tough conditions and allows the developer is taking all the protective measures. It's a type of non-functional testing executed right after functional testing.

This blog discussed stress testing, its types, and its importance to develop a well-functioned application.

If you are a beginner and interested in exploring other fields related to the web, you can follow our guided path to understand the core subjects of computers and get a good grip on DSA concepts.