Distributed load testing using kubernetes and locust

The repository contains everything needed to run a distributed load testing environment in kubernetes using a locust master and locust slaves.

Table of contents

1. Project structure
2. Prerequisites
3. Running
   1. tl;dr
   2. Detailed installation
      1. Preparing the local kubernetes cluster
      2. Building the docker image
      3. Installing the helm charts
      4. Confirm the installation and access locust dashboard
4. Architecture

Project structure

.
├── .vscode                                 # launch.json and tasks.json needed to debug the tasks.py in vsc
├── docker-image                            # The shared docker image for locust masters and slaves
│   ├── locust-tasks                        # Python source code
|   |   ├── requirements.txt                # Python dependencies for tasks.py
|   |   ├── tasks.py                        # Locust tasks
|   ├── run.sh                              # Shell script to determine if the docker containers should be master or slave
│   ├── Dockerfile                          # Dockerfile
├── loadtest-chart                          # Helm chart
|   ├── templates                           # Helm templates
|   |   ├── _helpers.tpl                    # Helm helpers
|   |   ├── locust-master-deployment.yaml   # Kubernetes deployment configuration for locust master
|   |   ├── locust-master-service.yaml      # Kubernetes service configuration for locust master
|   |   ├── locust-slave-deployment.yaml    # Kubernetes deployment configuration for locust slaves
|   ├── Chart.yaml                          # Chart definition
|   ├── values.yaml                         # Chart definition
└── ...

---

Prerequisites

Product	Version	Link
Python	2.7.15	Windows, MacOS
Docker	18.03.0-ce (23751)	Windows, MacOS
kubectl	2.0.0	Windows, MacOS
Minikube	0.27.0	Windows, MacOS
helm	2.9.1	Windows MacOS

Running

tl;dr

Start minikube

minikube start

Set docker environment to minikube

eval $(minikube docker-env)

Build docker image

docker build docker-image -t locust-tasks:latest

Install helm charts onto kubernetes cluster

helm install loadtest-chart --name locust

List services to find locust URL

minikube service list

---

Detailed installation

Preparing the local kubernetes cluster

Start a local kubernetes cluster with minikube by running the following command minikube start

Confirm that everything is OK by running minikube status it should return something like:

minikube: Running
cluster: Running
kubectl: Correctly Configured: pointing to minikube-vm at 192.168.99.100

Now that we have minikube running we are going to want to point our docker environment to the one running on the cluster. Do this with the command eval $(minikube docker-env). You can unset the environment at any time by running eval $(docker-machine env --unset).

Confirm that the docker environment is correct by running docker images. You should see a list of related kubernetes images like k8s.gcr.io.

Building the docker image

In the root of the repo, run docker build docker-image -t locust-tasks:latest

Installing the helm charts

Now that we have the docker image built and registered in the minikube docker registry. We can get our deployments and services for locust into our kubernetes cluster. Simply run helm install loadtest-chart --name locust.

Confirm the installation and access locust dashboard

To confirm that locust is running in our cluster. Run minikube service list. You should find locust-loadtest-chart-master with 3 URL's. Go to the first one and you should now see the locust load testing frontpage.

Architecture