What would be a good Linode candidate to run a K6 load testing setup from?
We are looking to run a load test of around 5000 to 10000 virtual users using K6. The target server is also a Linode deployment.
The bottle-neck when we tried local testing was the network, our network can't handle that many virtual users.
We're looking for the most affordable but capable Linode to deploy for at least a month for testing.
2 Replies
bd5k
Linode Staff
✓ Best Answer
Hi there,
While I'm not an expert in the intricacies of K6, I did some digging to see if I could provide some suggestions here. From reviewing the K6.io documentation it is clear that the K6 tests are CPU intensive so you'll likely want to deploy a Dedicated CPU Linode plan.
While researching this, I came across a guide on the K6 website that you may want to review for more information:
This resource mentions that memory consumption will vary based on your test scenarios. For an estimation of the memory required, you can run the test on your development machine with 100VUs and then multiply the consumed memory by the target number of virtual users (VU).
The article also suggests that simple tests will use ~1-5MB per VU. (1000VUs = 1-5GB). More complex tests can consume tens of megabytes per VU. If you were to follow this logic, a simple test for 5-10,000 virtual users could require 5GB-50GB of memory. Depending on where on this range that your test requirement falls you could consider one of the following Dedicated CPU plans:
| RAM | CPUs | SSD Storage | Transfer | Monthly | Hourly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 GB | 4 | 160 GB | 5 TB | $60 | $0.09 |
| 16 GB | 8 | 320 GB | 6 TB | $120 | $0.18 |
| 32 GB | 16 | 640 GB | 7 TB | $240 | $0.36 |
| 64 GB | 32 | 1280 GB | 8 TB | $480 | $0.72 |
It's worth noting that you can resize your Linode upward or down should you determine that the plan you've selected is not ideal for the test or your budget.
Hope this helps,
- BD.
