What is Jmeter?

The Apache JMeter desktop application is open source software, a 100% pure Java application.

It may be used to test performance both on static and dynamic resources such as static files, Java Servlet, CGI scripts, Java objects, databases, FTP servers, and more.

JMeter can be used to simulate a heavy load on a server, network or object to test its strength or to analyze overall performance under different load types.
But please note that JMeter is not a browser.

What Can you test in Jmeter

JMeter tests all kind of application (not only Java)


  • Web Application
  • SOAP Web Services, REST, XML-RPC
  • JAR files
  • LDAP
  • Databases (via JDBC)
  • JMS
  • SMTP
  • FTP

Installing Jmeter

The easiest way to begin using JMeter is to first download the latest production release from (http://jmeter.apache.org/download_jmeter.cgi) and install it.
To install a release build, simply unzip the zip/tar file into the directory where you want JMeter to be installed.
The installation directory structure should look something like this (for version 2.7):
apache-jmeter-2.7
apache-jmeter-2.7/bin
apache-jmeter-2.7/docs
apache-jmeter-2.7/extras
apache-jmeter-2.7/lib/
apache-jmeter-2.7/lib/ext
apache-jmeter-2.7/lib/junit
apache-jmeter-2.7/printable_docs

You can rename the parent directory (i.e. apache-jmeter-2.7) if you want, but do not change any of the sub-directory names.

Setting up Environment

Jmeter Environment Setup

Running Jmeter

To run JMeter, run the jmeter.bat (for Windows) or jmeter (for Unix) file. These files are found in the bin directory. After a short pause, the JMeter GUI should appear.

There are some additional scripts in the bin directory that you may find useful.


  • jmeter.bat - run JMeter (in GUI mode by default)
  • jmeter-n.cmd - drop a JMX file on this to run a non-GUI test
  • jmeter-n-r.cmd - drop a JMX file on this to run a non-GUI test remotely
  • jmeter-t.cmd - drop a JMX file on this to load it in GUI mode
  • jmeter-server.bat - start JMeter in server mode
  • mirror-server.cmd - runs the JMeter Mirror Server in non-GUI mode
  • shutdown.cmd - Run the Shutdown client to stop a non-GUI instance gracefully
  • stoptest.cmd - Run the Shutdown client to stop a non-GUI instance abruptly


The JVM_ARGS environment variable can be used to override or set additional JVM options.
HEAP settings:
JVM_ARGS="-Xms1024m -Xmx1024m" jmeter -t test.jmx [etc.]