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• know the basics of JMeter
• have an existing test plan
• have a bit of knowledge on using variables in test plans
• have touched on remote testing (from GUI is fine)
  

Set up

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• In your existing test plan, make sure that any variations in testing make use of variables. For example, if running a HTTP sampler, use HTTP Request Defaults to specify a host as "${+P(targetHost)}". Other useful places for variables might include number of threads, ramp-up period or scheduler duration in a thread group, using a format of ${+P(threadgroup.threads,500)} (The +P function is shorthand for +parameter. See the userguide for more info on using this parameter).

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• Save your test plan and properties file to a directory.

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• Create a properties file containing all your variables. E.g. mytest.properties could contain threadgroup.threads=100, targetHost=my-target-host.com

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• The test plan does not need Listeners, as this will be configured via parameters. This will improve performance on the testing.

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• Run the test mode in stand-alone mode (i.e. no remote servers): jmeter -n -t load_test.jmx -l load_test_report.jtl -q mytest.properties -j mytest.log

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• 1 small piece of functionality missing is the ability to set global variables from a property file. the "-q" parameter defines an additional property file, which is the equivalent of setting properties for the contents of the file using the -J parameter. This parameters are not global however, as would be set by the -G parameter. the following bash script (if your using Linux) would help with converting a properties file to global properties:

for var in `grep -vE "^(#|$)" mytest.properties`; do
  GLOBAL_VARS="-G${var} ${GLOBAL_VARS}"
done

This is a relatively simple bash expansion, and will break if there are any spaces in variable names or values (e.g. test.description="My Test" - the space would break the bash for loop.)#

• On all client machines, start up JMeter server, ensuring that firewall is not blocking connections (clients must all be on the same subnet).

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• On JMeter controller (the host initializing the test), run the test with the -R parameter (can be run using -r and specfiying hosts in jmeter properties file):
  jmeter -n -t load_test.jmx -l load_test_report.jtl -q mytest.properties -j mytest.log -R remotehost1,remotehost2 ${GLOBAL_VARS}
  

Note that load injection to targets will be a increased as a ratio of number of threads per thread group multiplied by number of client machines.

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