Are web automation tools right for developing custom load/stress testing tools?

Question

Tools such as WebAii can be used to visit a website, and with a simple loop, in succession.

If I code a lot of hits to a site in succession and/or with the ability for custom patterns, is this the same functionality as a load/stress testing tool?

Thanks

Answer 1

Essentially, yes. But to get a true test this would most definitely need multithreading or, preferably, be run on numerous clients against the site to reflect concurrent usage. This would make information gathering difficult (WCAT is very good for this but has a bit of steep learning curve).

I had considered writing something myself when I needed to do some stress testing as neither WCAT nor WAST really fit the bill. Had I looked into WebAii I would have considered it.

Answer 2

I wouldnt say that this is load testing unless you have a number of instances running. When load testing web applications and you are using real web browsers it is seen as a good rule of thumb to have 1 browser per CPU/core.

There are services that you can use to generate realistic load for not much money.

Answer 3

We frequently use web automation tools combined with virtual machines to load test. Each virtual machine uses web drivers following a script, and the scripts are written so that they gate and wait for eachother at certain checkpoints and make sure all machines and their browsers have caught up before continuing. That way key things (like clicking a link that kicks off intense calculation) are done simultaneously by all virtual machines.