What is HailStorm?
HailStorm is an open-source distributed load testing tool used to test the performance and reliability of web applications and services under heavy load. It allows engineers to generate high volumes of simulated traffic from globally distributed servers to identify system bottlenecks, performance issues, and capacity limitations.
Some key features of HailStorm include:
- Ability to simulate thousands or millions of concurrent users from servers around the world
- Support for a variety of protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, SOAP, etc.
- Scripting using JMX or Java for advanced custom scenarios
- Real-time monitoring of critical application metrics during tests
- Integration with popular CI/CD platforms for automated testing
- Customizable reporting to analyze test results
HailStorm is useful for engineering teams who need to test their web apps at scale prior to launch or to identify and troubleshoot performance issues in production. It can help ensure systems are reliable and responsive even during traffic spikes. Being open source, it is free to use and customize as needed.
Apache JMeter, locust, soapUI, Apache Benchmark, wrk, k6, Loader.io, OctoPerf, Katalon Studio, Tsung, YandexTank, Loadster are some alternatives to HailStorm.