Stress test architecture

As with load testing, the architecture of a stress test involves identifying the inputs to the various interfaces of your system and sending high data rates in terms of the number of messages and message sizes. For client-server applications, that means having many mock client interfaces.

Many third-party applications can provide this functionality, such as LoadNinja and WebLOAD, or the basic commands can be written in simple scripts. However, full functionality, including control and reporting results, is a significant task, which is why third-party tools are so useful. See Chapter 12, Load Testing, for more details.