Database Performance and Load Testing using JMeter (MS SQL)

Performance is important and crucial. When we talk about performance we hear about our website performance most often we try to tune our web pages, CDN and third party plugins. We forget to test our database performance. The database can perform slowly especially when it’s huge. If your website is calling stored procedures or complex queries then it might be taking a lot of time to process your data.

It’s important to know your database performance and load handling capacity. One of the open source tool is JMeter which helps you assess performance.

Please note that I am taking an example of MSSQL Server but you can test any database using JMeter.

Pre-Requisites :

1. Java 8
2. JMeter 5.0

Install Java 8 from oracle site : https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

Install JMeter from apache site. https://jmeter.apache.org/download_jmeter.cgi

Unzip .zip to Specific folder

Lets Start from basics

Step 1: Launch the JMeter

Step 2: Add The Tread Group Name it whatever you like (Ex: Database Testing)

Step 3: Add JDBC Connection Configuration to Thread Group

Right Click on The Thread Group , Config Element and Add JDBC Connection Configuration

Step 4: Configure Variable and Max No. of Connections

In the JDBC Connection Configuration, you need to specify all of your database connection configurations.

Give any Variable Name for Created pool (Example test_pool)

Variable Name for Created pool will be used in subsequent SQL query requests so it is important to provide valid name. This variable name uniquely identifies connection pools basically settings you provided in the Configurations.

Max Number of Connections : You can mention any number depending on your need. This value opens specified number of connections in the pool at one time. (Ex: 1)

Step 5: Configure Database connection (Refer above image)

Specify Database URL :

jdbc:sqlserver://<database_serverName>;DatabaseName=<name_of_database>
Example : jdbc:sqlserver://database.windows.net;DatabaseName=User

JDBC Driver Class

 com.mircrosoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver

Enter the UserName and Password.

Step 6: Add the JDBC Request

Right Click on Thread Group (Database Testing in this tutorial) > Add > Sampler > JDBC Request

Now you can choose any statement like Select, Callable etc… from the dropdown.

If you want to get the data to choose select statement or to execute stored procedure choose Callable statement

The JDBC Request looks like below

Step 7: Now Add the Listener View Result Tree

The Complete Test Plan Looks Like below

Step 8: Execute the Testplan

At this point of time it shows error saying “Cannot load JDBC driver class ‘com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver”

To fix the above Error Follow the Below steps

1. Download the Microsoft JDBC Driver 7.0 for SQL Server

2. Unzip the .exe to specific folder.

3. In the Extracted folder Navigate to \sqljdbc_7.0\enu ,ensure that .jar are available.

4. Now In your JMeter TestPlan browse and choose the .jar

Lets execute the Test plan once again

YAY! you got the result now.

If you find this article helpful please post it on LinkedIn tagging my name.

Ganesh Hegde - Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) - Euromonitor International | LinkedIn