Stress test private 3rd party xml

Question

I would like to find a Linux based tool that allows me to test a private 3rd party http based application. That is use a GET or a POST request and check how long it takes to get a response. I could also increase the txn per second and see the outcomes of failures and whether processing time on their end increase. I could write code to do this but I'm pretty sure there is a tool to do this already I just can't find it.

JMeter seems overly complicated for the simple task I'm trying to achieve. Selenium seems more for testing web borwser based applications.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

JMeter is perfect for this and is simpler than it seems at first.
Here are some great getting started video tutorials
http://blazemeter.com/blog/jmeter-tutorial-video-series

Selenium won't give you the reports you need for actual response time under load.

Regarding your comments on how to graph different results (success vs errors and TPS):
Personally I only use the graphing capabilities that BlazeMeter.com provides (I work for them) which includes the ability to graph different HTTP result codes side by side or even JMeter assertions.

I think you can get what you want using this third party plugin:
http://jmeter-plugins.org/wiki/TransactionsPerSecond/