Abstract: For large online software systems, it is often necessary to conduct effective large-scale load testing to ensure the reliability of their services. However, the existing research mainly focuses on the server-side performance, client-side load generation models and client-side resource allocation, little work concerns on the client-side load generation ability. There lack detailed analysis and studies on the factors that may affect client-side load generation to guide large-scale load generation. To this end, this paper experimentally studies the factors affecting client-side load generation from two perspective: load generation mechanism and test cluster construction, comes to a set of data conclusions for large-scale load generation based on capability indicators. This paper provides data reference for testers to generate large-scale load on the client, which may help reduce the cost of large-scale load testing.

Key words: load testing, client load generation capability, load generation mechanism, test cluster, capability indicator