The open-source version of Gatling alone offers developers an extraordinary amount of power, capacity and flexibility when it comes to load testing. When you are ready to take everything Gatling has to offer to the next level, Gatling Enterprise is ready to provide that natural progression.
In this article, we will explore some of the key enhancements that are available when utilising Gatling Enterprise as compared to the open-source version of the tool. You can also find that analysis in video.
Open source version Enterprise version
Scripting
Both the open-source and Enterprise versions of Gatling are identical when it comes to scripting of user journeys through the system to be load tested. Multi-protocol support is offered including through HTTP, WebSockets, Server-sent events and JMS.
Gatling features a concise DSL, enabling the creation of scripts through code even without extensive programming experience. Additionally, the Gatling recorder can be used to create a script from tracking the manual execution of a user journey through the system. A Gatling script can also be generated from a pre-recorded HAR file import.
Execution
Gatling is famous for its capability to generate huge amounts of concurrency and throughput against a target application from a single load injector instance. Both the open-source and Enterprise versions of Gatling offer unlimited test executions with unlimited throughout (in terms of both virtual users and requests per second).
Gatling Enterprise additionally offers users the ability to generate load from multiple different geographic locations with cloud-based injectors. When testing a website or web application that is available publically (or from multiple locations), having this capability is essential when executing accurate and realistic load test scenarios.
By taking advantage of Akka Sharding, Gatling Enterprise has the ability to distribute data over a cluster and run a load test in distributed mode. This enables the burden of execution from a load test to be shared amongst multiple load injectors, allowing for the creation of enormous volumes of traffic. This capability is not built into the open-source version of Gatling.
Reporting
Regardless of the version you are using, whenever a Gatling test finishes execution a beautiful graphical report is automatically generated. This report contains a wealth of information relating to the load test that was just executed, with a detailed breakdown of response times, requests/responses per second and any errors encountered.
Gatling Enterprise takes this reporting to the next level. As well as everything from the regular report, data is shown for TCP connections and DNS resolutions. In addition to this, load injectors are monitored as part of Gatling Enterprise and that monitoring data is also reported upon.
Instead of having to wait until the end of your load test execution to view reporting data, Gatling Enterprise also gives users the ability to view reporting statistics and metrics in real-time. The history of load test executions and results is stored in the cloud, enabling users to identify trends and fluctuations in application performance over a longer period of time.
Integrations
When it comes to build tools, both versions of Gatling are ready to integrate with Maven, Gradle and SBT. For continuous integration, both Gatling open-source and Enterprise can easily integrate with Jenkins through a specially developed plugin.
Gatling Enterprise goes much further with additional offerings for more continuous integration solutions. Easy to use plugins are readily available for both Bamboo and TeamCity. For flexibility with reporting, Gatling Enterprise also integrates with Grafana data source.
In addition to this, Gatling Enterprise offers users the ability to leverage public APIs. These APIs can be utilised by other developers and engineers to access the huge wealth of data produced from Gatling test executions and facilitates the creation of custom load testing dashboards.
Enterprise-Grade Features
The features highlighted below are what stands Gatling Enterprise apart from its open-source counterpart. Enterprise provides a management interface, allowing a wide range of team members and colleagues across the business access to control, view and execute Gatling load tests.
Test reports can be heavily customised with Gatling Enterprise. Users can add markers to reports, give them a title and even add comments. Additionally, these reports can be shared with management and other stakeholders via public links.
Another feature of Enterprise is the ability to define an organisation hierarchy with the creation of users, roles and teams. From a single instance, it is then possible to manage these teams across your different applications, giving complete control of your load testing landscape.
Support for MQTT, a lightweight messaging protocol for small sensors and mobile devices, is available in Gatling Enterprise. Both versions 3.1 and 3.1.1 of MQTT are supported.
Gatling Enterprise offers LDAP/S authentication capabilities for load testing. This feature handles much of the complexity and setup required for encrypted communication in your load tests and facilitates the creation of more realistic load test scenarios where this security is included as part of testing. Now available in a Cloud version or in Self Hosted, there are multiple solutions to cover your needs.
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