Parameters
Increment strategy
Increment strategy specifies participant distribution over start interval when beginning test execution. This is useful because 10k participants joining at the same time would create a DDoS attack instead of load test and for this reason we advise to use incremental load. Linear strategies allow a better control over the order of how participants join the test and delays between the participants or participant groups joining. Random strategies help simulate real users that join randomly.
- Linear participant - all participants join the test in linear ordering creating a continuous and monotonic increment.
- Random participant - all participants join the test in random ordering, multiple participants can join at the same time.
- Linear group - all groups join the test in linear ordering, but each group's participants join at the same time creating a monotonic increment steps between groups joining.
- Random group - all groups join the test in random ordering, but each group's participants join at the same time.
Start interval
Describes the total amount of time in which all participants start their tests and access the service. The delay between participants depends on how long of a start interval has been set as well as on the increment strategy chosen.
Having a large start interval may cause some participants to finish the test before other participants have started theirs.
Participant timeout
Specifies the time limit after which the test will be terminated for a test participant, in this case the participant will be marked as timed out in the results report. This is necessary to prevent too long test execution that may happen in cases when defined commands may freeze or require longer execution times. Maximum participant timeout is 8 hours.
Participant timeout is not impacted by start interval as it is added before that, so even if your start interval is set higher than the participant timeout, this in itself will not cause participants to time out.
Keep in mind that all Nightwatch.js and TestUI commands usually take longer to execute than their predefined timeouts.