# A gem for web services load testing?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-gem-for-web-services-load-testing/194610>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 8, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-gem-for-web-services-load-testing/194610 "2010-09-08T00:27:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/asoto)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-gem-for-web-services-load-testing/194610/1 "2010-09-08T00:27:21Z")

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Hi Folks - I’ve been developing automated functional tests in ruby for  
our website for the last few months, and now need to expand my scope.

Before I hit google, can anyone recommend a gem which can perform load  
testing on a REST API? I realize I could probably build my own w/  
mechanize + threading of some kind, but that seems like it’d be a lot of  
work, and I don’t want to solve a problem that’s already been solved.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,  
Alex

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**Author:** ![asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/asoto)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-gem-for-web-services-load-testing/194610/2 "2010-09-08T05:51:40Z")

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> Before I hit google, can anyone recommend a gem which can perform load  
> testing on a REST API? I realize I could probably build my own w/  
> mechanize + threading of some kind, but that seems like it’d be a lot of  
> work, and I don’t want to solve a problem that’s already been solved.
> 
> Any suggestions are appreciated.

> **[Category: Browser testing - The Ruby Toolbox](https://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/browser_testing.html)**
>
> Explore and compare open source Ruby libraries

> **[GitHub - dbrady/tourbus: Website load testing tool in Ruby, with the ability...](https://github.com/dbrady/tourbus)**
>
> Website load testing tool in Ruby, with the ability to "unload a busload of tourists" on a website, each with the ability to trace through complex application paths. - GitHub - dbrady/tou...

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**Author:** ![asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/asoto)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-gem-for-web-services-load-testing/194610/3 "2010-09-09T05:49:29Z")

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On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Alex S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Thanks,  
> Alex

In this video ([Expressive Languages for the JVM - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlsD2FiBIbg)), starting at  
24:40, Charles Oliver N. shows an example of how he uses JRuby to  
scale  
Rails. He does his load tests with a program called ab. Which, when I  
request manpages for it, it says it’s the “Apache HTTP server  
benchmarking  
tool”. That sounds pretty promising, maybe look into it.

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**Author:** ![asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/58956e/32.png) [@asoto](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/asoto)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/a-gem-for-web-services-load-testing/194610/4 "2010-09-08T20:36:53Z")

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Thanks for the pointer, Roger.

Also found this standalone script, which works as a quick & dirty way to  
get up and running:

[http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/Re-Usable+Load+Testing+Example](http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/Re-Usable+Load+Testing+Example)