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🚀 Load Testing

Pocket Network's comprehensive load testing suite for evaluating network performance and reliability under various stress conditions.

Overview​

The load-testing suite uses Gherkin for creating human-readable test scenarios that validate network behavior under load. Tests are located in the load-testing/ directory and use YAML manifests to define network configurations.

⚡ Quick Start​

Get Started in 2 Steps

The simplest way to run load tests is with the default LocalNet single supplier configuration:

  1. Ensure LocalNet is running
  2. Run the default load test: 
    make test_load_relays_stress_localnet_single_supplier

🧪 Test Types​

🎯 Default Load Test (Single Supplier)​

Recommended Starting Point

The default test gradually increases the number of applications while maintaining a single supplier and gateway. This tests the supplier's ability to handle increasing load.

Configuration:

  • Initial: 4 applications, 1 gateway, 1 supplier
  • Scaling: Adds 4 applications every 10 blocks up to 12 total
  • Rate: 1 relay request per second per application

Command:

make test_load_relays_stress_localnet_single_supplier

🌐 Multi-Supplier Load Test​

Tests the network with multiple suppliers and gateways scaling together.

Configuration:

  • Initial: 4 applications, 1 gateway, 1 supplier
  • Scaling: All actors scale together up to 3 suppliers and 3 gateways
  • Rate: 1 relay request per second per application

Command:

make test_load_relays_stress_localnet

🔄 Claim Settlement Stability Test​

This test maintains high constant load to validate that the network remains stable during claim settlement periods.

What This Test Validates

This test checks the session lifetime caching optimization, which prevents Relay serving freezes by:

  • Smart Cache Timing: Instead of clearing cache every block, the system now clears cache only at the end of each session
  • Reduced Node Pressure: This prevents unnecessary requests to full nodes during busy claim settlement blocks

The goal is to ensure this caching improvement prevents relay failures or timeouts during critical claim settlement periods.

Configuration:

  • Constant load: 50 applications, 50 gateways, 50 suppliers (no scaling)
  • Rate: 2 relay requests per second per application
  • Focus: Validate that no timeouts occur and relay success rates remain stable during claim settlement

Key Validation Points:

  • No timeout spikes during claim settlement blocks
  • Consistent relay success rates despite of full node unresponsiveness
High Resource Usage

This test uses significantly more resources than other tests due to the high number of concurrent actors and relay rate.

📋 Test Manifests​

Load test manifests are YAML files that define network configurations for different testing scenarios.

Configuration Files

Available manifest files:

  • loadtest_manifest_localnet_single_supplier.yaml - Default single supplier configuration
  • loadtest_manifest_localnet.yaml - Multi-supplier configuration
  • loadtest_manifest_example.yaml - Template for custom networks

🏃 Running Tests​

⚠️ Prerequisites​

Before running load tests, ensure your environment is properly configured:

Important Setup Steps
  • LocalNet must be running
  • Run make acc_initialize_pubkeys to initialize blockchain public keys

🔧 LocalNet Setup​

Proper LocalNet configuration is essential for successful load testing.

Configuration Required

  1. Configure localnet_config.yaml:

    • Set gateways.count and relayminers.count to match your test requirements
    • For single supplier tests: relayminers.count = 1
    • For multi-supplier tests: relayminers.count = 3

  2. Start LocalNet and run tests using the commands above

🌍 Custom Network Testing​

You can run load tests against external networks like testnets or custom deployments by modifying the test manifest.

Advanced Usage

For testing against testnets or custom deployments:

  1. Copy loadtest_manifest_example.yaml and modify it for your network
  2. Update account addresses, RPC endpoints, and actor configurations
  3. Run with custom manifest: 
    LOAD_TEST_CUSTOM_MANIFEST=your_manifest.yaml make test_load_relays_stress_custom

📊 Monitoring Results​

🖥️ Test Output​

Load tests provide detailed output about test execution and results.

Result Interpretation
  • PASS indicates successful test completion
  • FAIL shows failures with error details
  • Monitor relay success/failure rates in the output

📈 Grafana Dashboards (LocalNet)​

LocalNet provides comprehensive observability through Grafana dashboards for real-time monitoring during load tests.

Real-time Monitoring

When running on LocalNet, access observability at http://localhost:3003:

📝 Test Features Example​

Load tests are written using Gherkin syntax, making them human-readable and easy to understand.

Feature: Loading gateway server with relays

  Scenario: Incrementing the number of relays and actors
    Given localnet is running
    And a rate of "1" relay requests per second is sent per application
    And the following initial actors are staked:
      | actor       | count |
      | application | 4     |
      | gateway     | 1     |
      | supplier    | 1     |
    And more actors are staked as follows:
      | actor       | actor inc amount | blocks per inc | max actors |
      | application | 4                | 10             | 12         |
      | gateway     | 1                | 10             | 1          |
      | supplier    | 1                | 10             | 1          |
    When a load of concurrent relay requests are sent from the applications
    Then the number of failed relay requests is "0"

🎯 Available Commands​

Here are all the available make commands for running different types of load tests.

CommandPurpose
make test_load_relays_stress_localnet_single_supplierDefault single supplier load test
make test_load_relays_stress_localnetMulti-supplier load test
make test_load_relays_stress_customCustom manifest load test