HTTP Bench Load Testing Examples

December 9, 2025 ยท View on GitHub

This document provides detailed usage examples for the HTTP Bench tool, covering various testing scenarios and advanced features.

Table of Contents

  1. Basic Load Testing Examples
  2. HTTP Protocol Testing
  3. WebSocket Testing
  4. Distributed Load Testing
  5. Template Functions Usage
  6. Advanced Configuration
  7. Performance Tuning
  8. Troubleshooting

Basic Load Testing Examples

1. Simple GET Requests

# Send 1000 requests with 10 concurrent connections
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 10 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

# Specify request method
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 10 -m GET "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/users"

2. Duration-based Testing

# Load test for 30 seconds
./http_bench -d 30s -c 50 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

# Load test for 5 minutes
./http_bench -d 5m -c 100 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

# Load test for 1 hour
./http_bench -d 1h -c 200 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

3. QPS Rate Limiting

# Limit to 100 requests per second
./http_bench -d 60s -c 10 -q 100 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

# Limit to 500 requests per second for 10 minutes
./http_bench -d 10m -c 50 -q 500 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

4. POST Request Examples

# Simple POST request
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/users" \
  -body '{"name":"test","email":"test@example.com"}'

# POST request with custom headers
./http_bench -n 500 -c 10 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/login" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer token123" \
  -body '{"username":"admin","password":"secret"}'

5. Testing with .http File (Multiple Requests)

Support standard .http file format (IntelliJ/VSCode REST Client compatible). You can define multiple requests separated by ###. The benchmark will run sequentially for each request defined in the file.

# Create a .http file with multiple requests
cat > requests.http << EOF
# Request 1: Get Users
GET http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/users

###

# Request 2: Create Data with JSON body
POST http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/data
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "name": "test",
    "value": 123
}
EOF

# Run benchmark using requests from file
# This will run the benchmark for the first request, then the second.
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 -file requests.http

HTTP Protocol Testing

1. HTTP/1.1 Testing (Default)

./http_bench -d 60s -c 50 -http http1 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

2. HTTP/2 Testing

# HTTP/2 GET request
./http_bench -d 30s -c 20 -http http2 "https://127.0.0.1:8443/api/test"

# HTTP/2 POST request
./http_bench -d 60s -c 30 -http http2 -m POST "https://127.0.0.1:8443/api/data" \
  -body '{"message":"HTTP/2 test"}'

3. HTTP/3 Testing

# HTTP/3 testing (requires server QUIC support)
./http_bench -d 30s -c 15 -http http3 "https://127.0.0.1:8443/api/test"

# HTTP/3 POST request
./http_bench -d 60s -c 25 -http http3 -m POST "https://127.0.0.1:8443/api/upload" \
  -body '{"file":"test.txt","size":1024}'

WebSocket Testing

1. Basic WebSocket Testing

# WebSocket connection testing
./http_bench -d 30s -c 10 -http ws "ws://127.0.0.1:8080/ws" \
  -body '{"type":"ping","data":"hello"}'

2. Secure WebSocket Testing

# WSS (WebSocket Secure) testing
./http_bench -d 60s -c 20 -http wss "wss://127.0.0.1:8443/ws" \
  -body '{"type":"message","content":"secure websocket test"}'

Distributed Load Testing

1. Starting Worker Nodes

# Start worker on machine 1
./http_bench -listen "192.168.1.10:12710" -verbose 1

# Start worker on machine 2
./http_bench -listen "192.168.1.11:12710" -verbose 1

# Start worker on machine 3
./http_bench -listen "192.168.1.12:12710" -verbose 1

2. Running Distributed Tests

# Coordinate multiple workers for load testing
./http_bench -d 300s -c 100 "http://target-server.com/api/test" \
  -W "192.168.1.10:12710" \
  -W "192.168.1.11:12710" \
  -W "192.168.1.12:12710" \
  -verbose 1

# Distributed POST testing
./http_bench -d 600s -c 200 -m POST "http://target-server.com/api/load-test" \
  -body '{"test_id":"distributed_test","timestamp":"2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"}' \
  -W "192.168.1.10:12710" \
  -W "192.168.1.11:12710" \
  -W "192.168.1.12:12710"

Template Functions Usage

1. Random Data Generation

# Random integers
./http_bench -n 100 -c 5 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test?id={{ random 1 10000 }}"

# Random strings
./http_bench -n 100 -c 5 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/users" \
  -body '{"username":"{{ randomString 8 }}","email":"{{ randomString 10 }}@test.com"}'

# Random numeric strings
./http_bench -n 100 -c 5 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/order?order_id={{ randomNum 10 }}"

2. Date and Time Functions

# Current date
./http_bench -n 50 -c 3 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/events" \
  -body '{"event_date":"{{ date \"YMD\" }}","timestamp":"{{ date \"YMDHMS\" }}"}'

# Random date
./http_bench -n 50 -c 3 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/history?date={{ randomDate \"YMD\" }}"

3. UUID and String Processing

# UUID generation
./http_bench -n 100 -c 5 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/sessions" \
  -body '{"session_id":"{{ UUID }}","user_id":{{ random 1 1000 }}}'

# String escaping
./http_bench -n 50 -c 3 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/search?q={{ randomString 10 | escape }}"

4. Hexadecimal Conversion

# String to hexadecimal
./http_bench -n 50 -c 3 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/encode" \
  -body '{"data":"{{ stringToHex \"hello world\" }}"}'

# Hexadecimal to string
./http_bench -n 50 -c 3 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/decode" \
  -body '{"hex_data":"{{ hexToString \"48656c6c6f20576f726c64\" }}"}'

5. Mathematical Functions

# Integer sum
./http_bench -n 50 -c 3 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/calc?result={{ intSum 10 20 30 40 }}"

# Combined use of multiple functions
./http_bench -n 100 -c 5 -m POST "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/complex" \
  -body '{"id":"{{ UUID }}","value":{{ random 1 1000 }},"name":"{{ randomString 8 }}","date":"{{ date \"YMD\" }}"}'

Advanced Configuration

1. Authentication and Proxy

# Basic authentication
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/secure" \
  -a "username:password"

# Using HTTP proxy
./http_bench -n 500 -c 10 "http://target-server.com/api/test" \
  -x "proxy-server.com:8080"

# Combined authentication and proxy
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 15 "http://target-server.com/api/secure" \
  -a "admin:secret123" \
  -x "proxy-server.com:8080"

2. Connection Control

# Disable compression
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" \
  --disable-compression

# Disable Keep-Alive
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" \
  --disable-keepalive

# Set timeout (milliseconds)
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 -t 5000 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/slow"

3. Output Formats

# CSV format output
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 -o csv "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" > results.csv

# Verbose logging output
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" -verbose 0  # TRACE
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" -verbose 1  # DEBUG
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" -verbose 2  # INFO

4. Web Dashboard

# Start Web dashboard
./http_bench -listen "127.0.0.1:12345" -verbose 1

# Then access in browser: http://127.0.0.1:12345

Performance Tuning

1. CPU Core Configuration

# Use all CPU cores
./http_bench -n 10000 -c 100 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" --cpus 8

# Limit to 4 CPU cores
./http_bench -n 10000 -c 100 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" --cpus 4

2. Environment Variable Optimization

# Set GC percentage to reduce garbage collection frequency
export HTTPBENCH_GOGC=200
./http_bench -n 50000 -c 500 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

# Set Worker API endpoint
export HTTPBENCH_WORKERAPI="/v2/worker"
./http_bench -listen "127.0.0.1:12345"

3. Large-scale Load Testing Examples

# High concurrency short-term testing
./http_bench -d 60s -c 1000 -q 5000 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" --cpus 16

# Long-term stability testing
./http_bench -d 24h -c 200 -q 1000 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" --cpus 8

# Extreme load testing
./http_bench -d 300s -c 2000 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" \
  --disable-keepalive \
  --cpus 32 \
  -verbose 1

Troubleshooting

1. Common Error Handling

# Connection timeout issues - increase timeout
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 -t 10000 "http://slow-server.com/api/test"

# Certificate issues - use HTTP instead of HTTPS for testing
./http_bench -n 1000 -c 20 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

# Memory shortage - reduce concurrency
./http_bench -n 10000 -c 50 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test"

2. macOS Compilation Issues

# If encountering compilation issues on macOS Catalina
export CGO_CPPFLAGS="-Wno-error -Wno-nullability-completeness -Wno-expansion-to-defined"
go build .

3. Debugging Tips

# Enable verbose logging for debugging
./http_bench -n 10 -c 2 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" -verbose 0

# Test single request
./http_bench -n 1 -c 1 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" -verbose 0

# Check connection issues
./http_bench -n 5 -c 1 -t 30000 "http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/test" -verbose 1

Real-world Scenario Examples

1. API Performance Benchmarking

# User login API testing
./http_bench -d 300s -c 50 -m POST "http://api.example.com/auth/login" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -body '{"username":"{{ randomString 8 }}","password":"test123"}' \
  -verbose 2

# Data query API testing
./http_bench -d 600s -c 100 -q 200 "http://api.example.com/users/{{ random 1 10000 }}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer token123" \
  -verbose 2

2. E-commerce Website Load Testing

# Product listing page
./http_bench -d 1800s -c 200 "http://shop.example.com/products?page={{ random 1 100 }}" \
  -verbose 2

# Shopping cart operations
./http_bench -d 900s -c 80 -m POST "http://shop.example.com/cart/add" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -body '{"product_id":{{ random 1 1000 }},"quantity":{{ random 1 5 }},"user_id":"{{ UUID }}"}' \
  -verbose 2

3. Microservices Architecture Testing

# Inter-service communication testing
./http_bench -d 600s -c 150 -m POST "http://service-a.internal:8080/api/process" \
  -H "X-Request-ID: {{ UUID }}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -body '{"data":"{{ randomString 50 }}","timestamp":"{{ date \"YMDHMS\" }}"}' \
  -verbose 1

4. Load Balancer Testing

# Test load balancer distribution
./http_bench -d 1200s -c 300 "http://lb.example.com/health" \
  -H "X-Client-ID: {{ randomString 16 }}" \
  -verbose 2