Load Testing Tools¶

The Azure Local Load Testing Framework includes five standalone load testing tools. Each tool targets a specific performance domain — storage, network, database, or system stress — and can be run independently from a management workstation with no CI/CD pipeline required.

Choosing a Tool¶

flowchart TD
    A[What do you need to test?] --> B{Storage I/O}
    A --> C{Network}
    A --> D{Database}
    A --> E{CPU / Memory / Burn-in}
    B -->|Windows HCI host\nFleet-scale| F[VMFleet]
    B -->|Linux VMs\nFine-grained control| G[fio]
    C --> H[iPerf3]
    D --> I[HammerDB]
    E --> J[stress-ng]

Tool Summary¶

Tool	What It Tests	Target OS	Run From	Status
VMFleet	Storage IOPS, throughput, latency via DiskSpd VM fleet	Windows (HCI host)	PowerShell	:white_check_mark: Fully Implemented
fio	Storage I/O with fine-grained control (block size, queue depth, I/O engine)	Linux VMs	PowerShell + Ansible	:construction: Structure Ready
iPerf3	Network bandwidth, jitter, packet loss between nodes	Linux / Windows	PowerShell	:construction: Structure Ready
HammerDB	SQL Server OLTP (TPC-C) and OLAP (TPC-H) benchmarking	Windows VMs	PowerShell	:construction: Structure Ready
stress-ng	CPU, memory, cache, and I/O stress for burn-in and capacity planning	Linux VMs	PowerShell + Ansible	:construction: Structure Ready

Running a Test (Standalone)¶

Every tool follows the same three-step pattern. No pipeline or CI/CD setup is needed — just a PowerShell terminal on your management workstation.

Step 1 — Install the tool on target nodes¶

.\tools\<tool>\scripts\Install-<Tool>.ps1 `
    -ClusterName "hci01.corp.infiniteimprobability.com" `
    -Nodes @("hci01-node1", "hci01-node2")

Step 2 — Run a test with a workload profile¶

.\tools\<tool>\scripts\Start-<Tool>Test.ps1 `
    -ClusterName "hci01.corp.infiniteimprobability.com" `
    -Nodes @("hci01-node1", "hci01-node2") `
    -Profile "general"

Step 3 — Collect results¶

.\tools\<tool>\scripts\Collect-<Tool>Results.ps1 `
    -ClusterName "hci01.corp.infiniteimprobability.com" `
    -Nodes @("hci01-node1", "hci01-node2") `
    -RunId "<run-id-from-previous-step>"

Each tool page below has the exact commands with real parameters.

Common Lifecycle¶

All tools share the same eight-phase lifecycle. When running standalone, you execute each phase manually. The CI/CD pipelines automate this same sequence if you want to schedule or trigger runs automatically.

Phase	What Happens	Manual Command
Pre-Check	Validate cluster connectivity and prerequisites	`Initialize-Environment.ps1`
Install	Deploy tool binaries to target nodes	`Install-<Tool>.ps1`
Deploy	Configure test environment (VMs, volumes, etc.)	`Deploy-<Tool>.ps1` (VMFleet only)
Test	Execute workload profile	`Start-<Tool>Test.ps1`
Monitor	Collect PerfMon / Azure Monitor metrics (parallel)	`Watch-<Tool>Monitor.ps1`
Collect	Parse and aggregate raw results	`Collect-<Tool>Results.ps1`
Report	Generate PDF / DOCX / XLSX	`New-TestReport` (ReportGenerator module)
Cleanup	Remove test artefacts (optional)	`Remove-<Tool>.ps1`

Automation (Optional)¶

If you want to automate test runs on a schedule or as part of a CI/CD workflow, see CI/CD Pipelines. The pipelines call the same scripts listed above — they are not a separate system.

Diagrams¶

Architecture and workflow diagrams are maintained as draw.io files in docs/assets/diagrams/ and exported as PNG images to docs/assets/images/ for documentation use.

Diagram	Source	Description
Solution Architecture	`solution-architecture.drawio`	End-to-end framework overview
VMFleet Workflow	`vmfleet-workflow.drawio`	VMFleet pipeline phases
Config Flow	`config-flow.drawio`	YAML → JSON configuration pipeline
CI/CD Pipeline	`ci-cd-pipeline.drawio`	GitHub Actions / Azure DevOps flow
Network Topology	`network-topology.drawio`	Cluster network paths for testing

Exporting Diagrams

To export updated PNGs from draw.io source files, the MkDocs drawio plugin handles this automatically during site builds. You can also export manually from draw.io desktop or VS Code extension.