Mohammad Waseem

Posted on Feb 4

Scaling Massive Load Testing with TypeScript on a Zero Budget

#typescript #loadtesting #scaling

Introduction

Handling large-scale load testing is an essential challenge for modern web architectures, especially when resource constraints limit options. As a senior architect working with a limited or zero budget, leveraging open-source tools and effective design patterns becomes crucial. This post explores how to design a robust, scalable load testing solution using TypeScript, emphasizing minimal cost while maintaining high performance.

Rethinking Load Testing Approach

Instead of relying on proprietary tools or paid cloud services, we can use open-source HTTP traffic generators combined with custom scripting. TypeScript offers type safety, modern JavaScript features, and excellent community support, making it an ideal choice for orchestrating load tests.

Building a Cost-Effective Loader in TypeScript

One of the simplest yet effective strategies is to build a distributed load generator using lightweight Node.js scripts written in TypeScript. The key is to ensure the scripts are capable of generating high concurrency traffic with minimal resource overhead.

Step 1: Setting Up the Environment

Configure a minimal environment with Node.js and install necessary packages:

npm init -y
npm install axios typescript ts-node --save-dev

Creating a tsconfig.json for TypeScript configuration:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "ES2020",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "strict": true,
    "esModuleInterop": true
  }
}

Step 2: Creating a Load Generator Script

Develop a script to dispatch HTTP requests concurrently, utilizing async/await and promises for high throughput.

import axios from 'axios';

const targetUrl = 'https://your-api-endpoint.com';
const concurrentRequests = 1000; // Adjust for your load

async function performRequest() {
  try {
    const response = await axios.get(targetUrl);
    console.log(`Status: ${response.status}`);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`Error: ${error.message}`);
  }
}

async function generateLoad() {
  const requests = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < concurrentRequests; i++) {
    requests.push(performRequest());
  }
  await Promise.all(requests);
}

generateLoad().then(() => console.log('Load test completed'));

This script efficiently initiates multiple requests concurrently, saturating the target endpoint without external dependencies.

Step 3: Distributing Load

To handle massive loads, run multiple instances of this script across available machines or cloud VMs. Use simple orchestration via SSH or scripting to start multiple processes simultaneously. The limits then shift from single-machine capacity to network and CPU distribution.

Leveraging Free Infrastructure

For resource scalability without costs:

Use free cloud instances (e.g., AWS Free Tier, GCP Free Credits).
Implement a simple load distribution system where each node runs the load generator script.
Collect results collectively by sending logs to a central server or database.

Step 4: Monitoring and Analyzing Results

Since tools like Grafana or commercial APMs are costly, aggregate logs locally and visualize with open-source tools like Graphs or even plain CSV files for performance metrics analytics.

Conclusion

By designing lightweight, distributed load testing infrastructure with TypeScript, you can effectively stress test applications at massive scales without incurring costs. The key is orchestrating numerous high-concurrency scripts, distributing load across free cloud providers, and analyzing performance data locally. This approach emphasizes efficiency, simplicity, and resourcefulness—crucial attributes for any senior architect operating under budget constraints.

Final Tips

Optimize your request dispatching for maximum throughput.
Balance load across multiple instances to prevent bottlenecks.
Continuously monitor performance to avoid unintended disruptions.

This methodology demonstrates that with strategic planning and open-source tools, handling large-scale load testing is achievable without financial investment, just engineering ingenuity.

🛠️ QA Tip

I rely on TempoMail USA to keep my test environments clean.

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