Get Started with Load Testing

Learn how to create and run your first load test in Harness Resilience Testing

Load Testing simulates user traffic to validate your system's performance under expected and peak load conditions. Identify bottlenecks, validate scalability, and ensure your applications can handle production workloads before they face real users.

Feature flag

Load Testing requires the CHAOS_LOAD_TESTING_ENABLED feature flag. Contact your Harness sales representative to enable it for your account.

Before you begin

• Module access: Access to the Harness Resilience Testing module.

• Infrastructure: A Linux VM or Kubernetes chaos infrastructure. Go to Infrastructure to configure it.

• Environment: An environment in your project for the infrastructure.

• Service: At least one onboarded service on that infrastructure.

• Target access: Application endpoints that the test infrastructure can reach.

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Create your first load test

1. Navigate to Resilience Testing > Load Testing.

2. Click + New Load Test, then complete the guided flow.

Start from a sample test

Click the arrow beside + New Load Test and select Try Locust Sample Test or Try K6 Sample Test to explore the feature with a pre-configured test, including sample endpoints and realistic load settings. There is no Java sample, so build a Java test from your own plan.

Use the guide for your load test engine:

• Go to Python to run Locust on a Linux VM or Kubernetes.

• Go to JavaScript to run k6 with script-defined thresholds on Kubernetes.

• Go to Java to run existing JMeter .jmx plans on Kubernetes.

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Next steps

Continue with these topics:

• Go to Load testing key concepts to understand virtual users, load profiles, engines, thresholds, and infrastructure.

• Go to Analyze results to interpret load test execution results.

• Go to Chaos Testing to combine load tests with chaos experiments.