Have you ever wondered how to get started with performance testing? Or do you know the basics of performance testing but need to know what tools to use? If you answered yes, then this workshop is for you. This workshop will be broken down into two main areas. Theory and hands-on. During the theory part, you will learn the importance of performance testing, the difference between frontend and backend performance, load tests and performance tests in general, and an overview of the load testing process. During the hands-on part, you will learn about k6, a tool that provides the best developer experience in performance testing. Since this is a hands-on workshop, it’s recommended to have k6 installed on your machines. For Mac users, it is recommended to get the latest version of Homebrew. 

1. Introduction to
Performance & Load
With k6
Leandro Melendez
Performance Advocate, k6

2. Who am I?
❑Leandro AKA Señor Performo
❑DevRel Perf @k6_io
❑Blog (www.srperf.com)
❑Host of PerfBytes
❑Youtube
❑Book Author

3. Performance
and load
testing?

4. “Performance testing:
validate and verify
how fast and efficient
is the SW under
different scenarios”

6. Performance
Testing
Load testing Synthetics
RUM SRE
Single thread Much more…

7. “Load testing is the
process of putting
demand on a system
and measuring its
response”

8. Answers from performance testing
Load Reliability Observability
In which
conditions my
system reaches its
limits and breaks?
How does my
system’s
performance
evolve over the
time?
Can my system
handle the
target load?
Performance
How fast and
efficient
is my
system?

9. Modern teams shifting performance testing left & right
Testing frequency
Release frequency
What to test
How is performance testing
initiated
When to test
Who is responsible for
performance testing
OLD WAY
Quarterly or biannually
QA
Load tests through user stories
Manually
Before releases
After all Dev and QA, right before release
NEW WAY
Weekly
Developers, QA/SDET, SRE
Continuously: at code check-in,
nightly/weekly, when infra changes, before
releases
Multiple scenarios through user stories,
services, infrastructure
Automatically and continuously as part of
CI/CD
Continuously through the SDLC and in prod
What are the incentives Misaligned between functions Aligned incentives of SLOs & Error budgets

10. k6.io
What is k6?
1
2
3
4
An Open Source load testing tool
Programmable
Simple, yet powerful
Extensible and easy to use
“Although it's easy to get started with k6 all on its
own, it really shines with its ease of integration
into a developer ecosystem.” Thoughtworks

11. Extensible? Wha dat?
Output Testing Misc
ChaiJS
xk6-mock
xk6-cache
xk6-cognito
etc
xk6-disruptor
xk6-crypto
xk6-docker
xk6-ethereum
etc
xk6-prometheus
xk6-datadog
xk6-es
xk6-file
etc
Protocols
xk6-Browser
xk6-sql
xk6-tcp
xk6-smtp
etc

12. Perf
concepts

13. Automated Measure
Manual
Ways to perf test

14. Many Several
1 user
What to perf test

15. Protocol Back End
Front End
Automation types

16. Protocol Back End
Front End
Automation types

17. VU Iterations Metrics
Options
More concepts

18. Simulating user
flows and workload
modeling, adding
think time
Setting SLOs for the
system under load
Using dynamically
generated or
random values
Scenarios Thresholds Test data
More concepts

19. Intermission
Let’s get
k6!

20. brew install k6
winget install k6

21. Scripting

22. A simple script

24. A more
realistic
example

25. Hands
on!

26. $ k6 run [script.js]
Run k6

27. But wait, there’s more! Options
k6 run --[Option] [optionValue] [script.js]
k6 run --[Option1] [optionValue] [script.js]
$ k6 run [script.js]
Test, VUs, scenarios, instances, etc
Run k6

28. But wait, there’s more! Options
k6 run --[Option] [optionValue] [script.js]
k6 run --[Option1] [optionValue] [script.js]
$ k6 run [script.js]
Test, VUs, scenarios, instances, etc
$ k6 run --vus 10 --duration 30s script.js
Run k6

29. Counters - sum values
Gauges - track the smallest, largest, and latest values
Rates - track how frequently a non-zero value occurs
Trends - calculate statistics for multiple values
Metrics
Output

30. k6.io/docs/using-k6/metrics/

31. Trend
k6.io/docs/using-k6/metrics/

32. Trend
Rate
k6.io/docs/using-k6/metrics/

33. Counter
Trend
Rate
k6.io/docs/using-k6/metrics/

34. Counter
Trend
Rate
Gauges
k6.io/docs/using-k6/metrics/

35. import http from 'k6/http';
import { Trend } from 'k6/metrics';
const myTrend = new Trend('waiting_time');
export default function () {
const r = http.get('https://httpbin.test.k6.io');
myTrend.add(r.timings.waiting);
console.log(myTrend.name); // waiting_time
}
Custom Metrics!
Output

36. Metrics and results output
Local LG
CSV & JSON
External
services
Prometheus
Grafana Cloud
k6 Cloud
Amzn CW
InfluxDb
DataDog
New Relic
etc
Visualizations
Team

37. $ k6 run
--out json=test.json
--out influxdb=http://localhost:8086/k6
$ k6 run --out json=test_results.gz script.js
Send results elsewhere
Output

38. Checks - validate boolean conditions in
your test.
Checks & Thresholds
Thresholds - pass/fail criteria that you
define for your test metrics

39. import { check } from 'k6';
import http from 'k6/http';
export default function () {
const res = http.get('http://test.k6.io/');
check(res, {
'is status 200': (r) => r.status === 200,
});
}
Check HTTP response
Check

40. import { check } from 'k6';
import http from 'k6/http';
export default function () {
const res = http.get('http://test.k6.io/');
check(res, {
'verify homepage text': (r) =>
r.body.includes('Collection of simple'),
});
}
Check for text in response body
Check

41. export const options = {
thresholds: {
metric_name1: ['threshold_expression', `...`], // short format
metric_name2: [
{
threshold: 'threshold_expression',
abortOnFail: true, // boolean
delayAbortEval: '10s', // string
},
], // full format
},
};
Syntax
Threshold

42. import http from 'k6/http';
export const options = {
thresholds: {
http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'], // http errors should be less than 1%
},
};
export default function () {
http.get('https://test-api.k6.io/public/crocodiles/1/');
}
HTTP errors
Threshold

43. import http from 'k6/http';
export const options = {
thresholds: {
http_req_failed: ['rate<0.01'], // http errors should be less than 1%
http_req_duration: ['p(95)<200'], // 95% of requests should be below 200ms
},
};
export default function () {
http.get('https://test-api.k6.io/public/crocodiles/1/');
}
HTTP errors and response duration
Threshold

44. Much more!

46. ● k6:
k6.io / github.com/grafana/k6
● Documentation k6:
k6.io/docs
● k6-Learn initiative:
github/grafana/k6-learn
● k6 in youtube:
youtube.com/@k6io
● k6 awesome & examples:
github/grafana/k6-learn
github/grafana/k6/samples k6.io/slack grafana/k6 community.k6.io
k6 Resources