Rails load testing with httperf

Question

I'm trying to load test my Rails (3.2.13) application with httperf. It worked very well for the pages which don't require cookies. But, I couldn't make it working for the pages which require cookies. I'm using Gregg Pollack's httperf (https://github.com/Gregg/httperf_big_cookies) because the official version does not support big cookies.

Here is the command I used:

httperf --session-cookie --wsesslog=1,5,path.txt --rate=1 --timeout=15 --server=localhost --port=3000

And, this is the path.txt file:

    /log_in
    /sessions method=POST contents='utf8=✓&remember_me=1&commit=Login&email=john@widgetsco.com&password=password'

The cookies method always returns nil inside controllers.

So, please suggest me how can I overcome the problem or a better tool (console based) for testing load of rails applications.

Answer 1

You are probably having troubles with the CSRF verification that comes with rails. Check your logs and if you see the following line, then that's the reason:

WARNING: Can't verify CSRF token authenticity

A workaround can be to create a "secret/master" token to use for your tests to by pass the CSRF verification, then tell your application to accept it as a valid, for example, add the following line in your ApplicationController right after the "protect_from_forgery" line:

skip_before_filter :verify_authenticity_token, :if =>lambda{ params[:authenticity_token].present? && params[:authenticity_token] == 'YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN' }

then on the httperf tests, you should send the your master token with the params: &authenticity_token=YOUR_SECRET_TOKEN