Welcome to this quick JMeter tutorial for basic setup and installation. In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through the required steps to prepare it for load testing.
Mostly, we use JMeter for Performance testing. However, it can be used with Selenium for carrying out automating load testing tasks.
JMeter is a core Java application which can run on any platform that supports Java. Also, if you would ask for a load testing tool from any seasoned tester, he would recommend JMeter.
It supports a no. of operating systems where you can run JMeter to execute the load tests.
Check out the below matrix which lists down the commonly used platforms/OS where you can set up JMeter for load testing tasks.
For today’s JMeter tutorial, we’ll run JMeter setup on a Windows 7 machine.
JMeter Tutorial – Setup and Installation Guide for Load Testing.
Here are some quick links to navigate you through the JMeter tutorial.
- 1- Run Java Setup.
- 2- Download JMeter Setup.
- 3- Install JMeter Setup.
- 4- Starting JMeter for load testing.
- 5- Install JMeter on Ubuntu, Mac OS X, and CentOS.
JMeter Tutorial – Step#1 Run Java Setup.
Since JMeter is a desktop-based Java app, so it needs a compatible JVM to run. For example, we are going to install JMeter 3.0 on a Windows 7 system. So it’ll require us to download and install Java 7+. Below is the download link for Java, please install the version according to your environment.
For a note, if you are planning to build some project, then download the JDK package else only the JRE is what you need. Next, you should check the installed java version. So open the terminal and run the following command.
C:\Users\jmeter>java -version java version "1.8.0_92" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_92-b14) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.92-b14, mixed mode)
Most probably the above command would succeed, but if it fails then try re-installing Java again.
JMeter Tutorial – Step#2 Download JMeter Setup.
The most recent version till date is JMeter 3.0. So to download it, click on the below link.
JMeter Tutorial – Download JMeter Setup.
JMeter Tutorial – Step#3 Install JMeter Setup.
It’s reasonably easy to install JMeter. You just need to extract the zip file downloaded in the previous step. After unpacking the zip file, you would see a tree layout something like the one shown in below picture.
JMeter Tutorial JMeter File Structure.
Here is a brief checklist of folders that you’ll see after extracting the JMeter zip file.
| JMeter Folder | Description |
| <bin> | Holds the script file to launch JMeter. |
| <docs> | Offline reference docs. |
| <extras> | Ant script extensions. |
| <lib> | Holds helper Jar libs for JMeter. |
| <lib/ext> | Contains JMeter protocol libs. |
| <lib/junit> | JUnit lib for JMeter. |
| <printable_docs> | Contains ready to print docs. |
JMeter Tutorial – Step#4 Starting JMeter for load testing.
There are following three ways to launch JMeter.
- Run JMeter in desktop mode.
- Start JMeter in service mode.
- Launch JMeter in console mode.
Run JMeter in desktop (GUI) mode.
Go to the <bin> folder and run the <jmeter.bat> script.
JMeter Tutorial Run JMeter in GUI Mode.
Start JMeter in service mode.
For running tests on multiple nodes, you can start JMeter in service or server mode. So one machine works as the master and other nodes as the slaves. In this manner, you can generate load from multiple JMeter clients.
JMeter provides a <jmeter-server.bat> script under the <bin> folder to start the server.
JMeter Tutorial Start JMeter in Service Mode.
Launch JMeter in console mode.
When you run JMeter in desktop or UI mode, it consumes a lot of system’s memory. But there is a way to cut down the memory utilization, i.e. by running the JMeter in console mode.
The JMeter tool takes multiple arguments from the command line. Please follow the below syntax to launch JMeter from the console.
jmeter -n -t <loadTest.jmx> -l <log.jtl> -H <127.0.0.1> -P 8080
You can also run the JMeter in the same manner as we did in the above example. But make sure you have the file created from the JMeter in GUI mode.
Otherwise, the above command will return the <could not open loadTest.jmx> error.
JMeter Tutorial Launch JMeter in Console Mode.
Install JMeter on Ubuntu, Mac OS X, and CentOS.
In this part of the JMeter tutorial, we’ll give you basic commands to install JMeter on Ubuntu (e.g. 14.04/15), Mac OS X, and CentOS. But please ensure that you’ve Java installed on these systems prior installing the JMeter.
Install JMeter on Ubuntu-14.04/15.
Please note that you need to run the JMeter installation with the root user. So add <sudo> before running the <apt-get> command.
$ sudo apt-get install jmeter
Install JMeter on Mac OS X.
To install JMeter on Mac, run the below command.
brew install jmeter
And to install JMeter along with plugins, use the following command.
brew install jmeter --with-plugins
Install JMeter on CentOS.
$ sudo yum install jmeter
Final Word.
We tried our best attempt to present this JMeter tutorial in a simplified format. Hopefully, it could also be helpful for you in starting with the JMeter for load testing.
If you’ve any feedback to share with us, then please care to use the comment box just down below this post.
And keep exploring new topics to the depth.
Happy learning,
TechBeamers.
Great to hear that the tutorial was useful for you. Thanks.
Thank you this has helped me out a lot.