Vineet Kumar

Overview

Design the framework for maintainability and CI: separate simulations, use feeders for variable data, assert SLAs (p95/p99, error rates) and store artifacts for comparison.

• Capabilities: CSV feeders, realistic pause/ramp profiles, checks & thresholds, HTML reports
• Artifacts: HTML reports under `target/gatling/`, raw metrics CSV/JSON for long-term storage
• Environments: Run locally for validation, in CI for regression checks, and in container clusters for scale

Quick start

1. Install JDK 11+ and Maven (or Gradle).
2. Create the project layout and add the Gatling plugin to `pom.xml` (example below).
3. Add simulations under `src/gatling/scala/simulations` and resources under `src/gatling/resources`.
4. Run `mvn gatling:test` and review `target/gatling/` report.

Recommended project layout

/project-root
├─ pom.xml
├─ src
│  ├─ gatling
│  │  ├─ scala
│  │  │  └─ simulations
│  │  │     └─ BasicSimulation.scala
│  │  └─ resources
│  │     └─ feeders
│  │        └─ users.csv
│  └─ main
│     └─ resources
└─ reports
      

Maven plugin snippet

Add to the `build/plugins` section of `pom.xml`:

<plugin>
  <groupId>io.gatling</groupId>
  <artifactId>gatling-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>3.10.0</version>
</plugin>

Sample simulation

Example placed at `src/gatling/scala/simulations/BasicSimulation.scala` — uses CSV feeder and assertions.

package simulations

import io.gatling.core.Predef._
import io.gatling.http.Predef._
import scala.concurrent.duration._

class BasicSimulation extends Simulation {
  val httpProtocol = http.baseUrl("https://api.example.com").acceptHeader("application/json")

  val feeder = csv("feeders/users.csv").circular

  val scn = scenario("API Load Scenario")
    .feed(feeder)
    .exec(http("Get user").get("/users/${userId}").check(status.is(200)))
    .pause(1.second, 4.seconds)

  setUp(
    scn.inject(atOnceUsers(5), rampUsers(50) during (30.seconds))
  ).protocols(httpProtocol)
   .assertions(global.successfulRequests.percent.gte(95), global.responseTime.percentile4.lte(2000))
}

Update `baseUrl` and endpoints to match your environment. Use feeders to avoid cache artifacts and to vary request parameters.

Run locally & reports

Run locally:

mvn gatling:test

Open target/gatling/<simulation-name>-<timestamp>/index.html for the HTML report. Upload sample reports to reports/ and link them from this page for easy sharing.

View sample reports

CI integration (GitHub Actions)

name: perf-test

on: [push]

jobs:
  gatling:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Set up JDK
        uses: actions/setup-java@v4
        with:
          distribution: temurin
          java-version: 17
      - name: Run Gatling tests
        run: mvn -B -q gatling:test
      - name: Upload Gatling report
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: gatling-report
          path: target/gatling

Consider running lightweight smoke tests on each PR and heavier load runs on schedules or dedicated runners.

Tips & best practices

• Use realistic user journeys and think in business transactions (e.g., checkout flow).
• Prefer programmatic feeders for complex synthetic data or use CSV for simple cases.
• Assert SLOs (p95, error rate) and fail CI when thresholds are breached.
• Store raw metrics to enable trend comparisons over time.
• Run large scale tests from container clusters or distributed runners; use Docker images for reproducible environments.

Resources & examples

• Gatling official docs
• Repository — perfTest (examples)
• Sample HTML reports (uploaded)