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You must load test your system to have any confidence whatsoever that your plans meet realitythat the capacity plan has been satisfied. We provide offer some guiding principles below to that provide a context for the tools and techniques used for load testing.
Know what you're
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measuring.
In order to know what you're testingmeasuring, you must first determine what you want to testmeasure. While most test efforts naturally begin with the goal in mind, the challenge is to devise develop a test plan and a testing environment that actually accomplishes the goal. Most of the effort of testing should go into this step; after all, the data is only as good as the test. An example may help illustrate the point. It makes little sense for a system load test to be conducted by clients over the public Internet (or even a large institutional network) unless the effect of network latency is intended to be included in the scope of the test. In most cases deployers simply want to know the theoretical maximum throughput of a system; varying a bottleneck created by network latency in Internet-connected nodes will almost certainly complicate measurement and analysis toward that goalcould result in reduced system throughput. In that case the test has measured network throughput instead of the intended system throughput.
Keep it simple.
Create the simplest test plan and testing environment that is capable of measuring the desired aspects of a system. Simplicity favors measurement and data analysis and is arguably a goal in itself.
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Apache JMeter is a free and capable testing tool that can be used to load test the IdP. A simple parameterized test plan, shibboleth-unsolicited-sso-test.jmx, is attached to this page. The test flexes the authentication and SAML messaging subsystems to get a reasonable sense of measure system throughput under common load patterns.
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