What is JMeter?
Apache JMeter is pure open source Java application designed to load test functional behaviours of a system and measure its performance.
You can use JMeter to measure the performance of a web application or other web services against heavy load, with multiple and concurrent user traffic.
As a pure Java application JMeter should run correctly on any system that has a compatible Java implementation.
JMeter is compatible with the following Operating Systems:
- Linux
- Windows
- Mac OS
- Ubuntu
Check out the JMeter Release Notes to determine the latest stable version of JMeter that should be used.
What can JMeter test?
JMeter can test the performance of both static and dynamic web services and can be used to simulate a heavy load on a server, group of servers, network or object.
It can also be used to evaluate and analyze overall system performance under different load types.
Load testing of many different applications, server and protocol types is supported, such as:
- Web – HTTP, HTTPS (Java, NodeJS, PHP, ASP.NET, …)
- SOAP / REST
- FTP
- Database via JDBC
- LDAP
- Message-oriented middleware (MOM) via JMS
- Mail Services (SMTP, POP3 and IMAP)
- Native commands or shell scripts
- TCP
- Java Objects
Overview of Steps to Install JMeter
Here are the basic steps required to install JMeter:
- Install the latest 64-bit JRE or JDK (since JMeter is a pure Java application this is an important and necessary pre-requisite).
- Download the latest version of Apache JMeter from the Apache JMeter download page.
- Once downloaded, simply extract the file into the directory where you want JMeter to be installed.
- Run JMeter. Move to the bin directory and run JMeter.
Detailed Steps to Install JMeter on Linux Server
Step 1. Install Java
To install JMeter on A Linux Server you must first install Java.
You must be root, so
sudo bash or sudo su –
List all available packages in the yum repository
yum list
To list specific packages
yum list | grep java
Install Java package
yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-src.x86_64
or for headless Java (for use in non-GUI environment)
yum install java-1.8.0-openjdk-headless.x86_64
Step 2. Install JMeter
Download the latest version of JMeter from the Apache JMeter Download Page.
Find the section entitled “Apache JMeter x.x (Requires Java 8+)” (where x.x will indicate the latest version number for JMeter)
Download the file named “apache-jmeter-x.x.tgz” under the list of Binaries (where x.x will indicate the latest version number for JMeter)
Note: At the time of writing, the latest version of JMeter is 5.4.1 so I will use this version number for the following example, but substitute whatever the latest version number is for your installation.
Go to the directory where apache-jmeter-5.4.1.tgz has been downloaded and extract the file contents:
tar -xf apache-jmeter-5.4.1.tgz
Step 3. Run JMeter
Go to the JMeter bin directory, for example:
cd /apache-jmeter-5.4.1/bin
Then run the following command
./jmeter.sh
Don’t see the JMeter GUI?
Check that:
- The JAVA_HOME environment points to the JRE or JDK installation folder
- The JAVA_HOME/bin folder has been added to the PATH environment variable
- The output of JMeter startup script execution in the command-line interpreter window jmeter.log file (located in JMeter’s “bin” folder when you start JMeter)
