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Load test HTTP endpoint

Run your first Iter8 experiment by load testing a Kubernetes HTTP service and visualizing the performance metrics with an Iter8 Grafana dashboard.

Load test HTTP

Before you begin
  1. Ensure that you have a Kubernetes cluster and the kubectl CLI. You can create a local Kubernetes cluster using tools like Kind or Minikube.
  2. Deploy the sample HTTP service in the Kubernetes cluster. 
    kubectl create deploy httpbin --image=kennethreitz/httpbin --port=80
kubectl expose deploy httpbin --port=80
  3. Have Grafana available. For example, Grafana can be installed on your cluster as follows: 
    kubectl create deploy grafana --image=grafana/grafana
kubectl expose deploy grafana --port=3000

Install Iter8 CLI

Install the latest stable release of the Iter8 CLI as follows.

go install github.com/iter8-tools/iter8@v0.16

Install Iter8 controller

helm install --repo https://iter8-tools.github.io/iter8 --version 0.1.11 iter8 controller

helm install --repo https://iter8-tools.github.io/iter8 --version 0.1.11 iter8 controller \
--set clusterScoped=true

kubectl apply -k 'https://github.com/iter8-tools/iter8.git/kustomize/controller/namespaceScoped?ref=v0.16.6'

kubectl apply -k 'https://github.com/iter8-tools/iter8.git/kustomize/controller/clusterScoped?ref=v0.16.6'

Launch experiment

Launch the Iter8 experiment inside the Kubernetes cluster.

iter8 k launch \
--set "tasks={ready,http}" \
--set ready.deploy=httpbin \
--set ready.service=httpbin \
--set ready.timeout=60s \
--set http.url=http://httpbin.default/get

iter8 k launch \
--set "tasks={ready,http}" \
--set ready.deploy=httpbin \
--set ready.service=httpbin \
--set ready.timeout=60s \
--set http.url=http://httpbin.default/post \
--set http.payloadStr=hello
About this experiment

This experiment consists of two tasks, namely, ready and http.

The ready task checks if the httpbin deployment exists and is available, and the httpbin service exists.

The http task sends requests to the cluster-local HTTP service using the specified url, and collects Iter8's built-in HTTP load test metrics. This tasks supports both GET and POST requests, and for POST requests, a payload can be provided by using either payloadStr or payloadURL.

View results using Grafana

Inspect the metrics using Grafana. If Grafana is deployed to your cluster, port-forward requests as follows:

kubectl port-forward service/grafana 3000:3000

Open Grafana by going to http://localhost:3000.

Add a JSON API data source Iter8 with the following parameters:

  • URL: http://iter8.default:8080/httpDashboard
  • Query string: namespace=default&experiment=default

Create a new dashboard by import. Paste the contents of the http Grafana dashboard into the text box and load it. Associate it with the JSON API data source defined above.

The Iter8 dashboard will look like the following:

http Iter8 dashboard

View experiment logs

Logs are useful when debugging an experiment.

iter8 k log
Sample experiment logs 
INFO[2022-06-27 11:50:39] inited Helm config                           
INFO[2022-06-27 11:50:39] experiment logs from Kubernetes cluster       indented-trace=below ... 
  time=2022-06-27 15:48:59 level=info msg=task 1: ready: started
  time=2022-06-27 15:48:59 level=info msg=task 1: ready: completed
  time=2022-06-27 15:48:59 level=info msg=task 2: ready: started
  time=2022-06-27 15:48:59 level=info msg=task 2: ready: completed
  time=2022-06-27 15:48:59 level=info msg=task 3: http: started
  time=2022-06-27 15:49:11 level=info msg=task 3: http: completed

Cleanup

Remove the Iter8 experiment and the sample app from the Kubernetes cluster. 

iter8 k delete
kubectl delete svc/httpbin
kubectl delete deploy/httpbin

Uninstall the Iter8 controller

helm delete iter8

kubectl delete -k 'https://github.com/iter8-tools/iter8.git/kustomize/controller/namespaceScoped?ref=v0.16.6'

kubectl delete -k 'https://github.com/iter8-tools/iter8.git/kustomize/controller/clusterScoped?ref=v0.16.6'

Congratulations! 🎉 You completed your first Iter8 experiment.

Some variations and extensions of this experiment
  1. The http task can be configured with load related parameters such as the number of requests, queries per second, or number of parallel connections.
  2. The http task can be configured to send various types of content as payload.