Building MAXIM: A Distributed Full-Link Load Testing Engine Based on Gatling

This article introduces MAXIM, a distributed full-link load testing engine developed by Youzan based on Gatling. The engine was created to address the need for comprehensive performance testing before major events like Double Eleven, aiming to identify and resolve potential system performance issues in advance.

The article begins by discussing the core considerations for technology selection, including scenario orchestration, traffic control, pressure control, data-parameter binding, distributed testing support, test reporting, and development costs. After evaluating four mainstream open-source performance testing frameworks (ApacheBench, JMeter, nGrinder, and Gatling), the team chose Gatling as the foundation for their custom solution.

MAXIM adds several new features to Gatling, including distributed support with a control center and multiple load injectors, a GUI for test management, resource management for scripts and datasets, parameterized test scripts, real-time monitoring of load injector status, and automatic test report generation with historical data retention.

The technical architecture section details MAXIM's components: Maxim Console (bridging GUI and Control Center), Maxim Control Center (scheduling and report generation), Load Injector Cluster (Agent and Gatling components), Data Factory (data processing), Cloud Storage (script and data storage), and InfluxDB (log aggregation).

The article also covers MAXIM's domain abstractions (TestJob, TestScript, DataSet, LoadProfile, ExecPlan, ExecutionStatus), state machine design for distributed coordination, and the hexagonal architecture of the Control Center using SPI technology for loose coupling.

Additional sections discuss modifications to Gatling for centralized log storage in InfluxDB and extensions to support Dubbo testing through the gatling-dubbo plugin. The article concludes with future plans for integration with other platforms and new features like real-time monitoring and reporting.