k6 Load Testing

Key Features

• JavaScript ES6 test scripts with full module support and modern syntax
• Real-time metrics streaming to InfluxDB with automatic time-series indexing
• Grafana dashboards showing live performance data during test execution
• Built-in HTTP, WebSocket, and gRPC protocol support for modern applications
• Scenario-based testing with ramp-up, constant load, and spike patterns
• Threshold definitions for automatic pass/fail criteria in CI/CD pipelines
• InfluxDB data retention policies for managing long-term performance history
• Grafana alerting on performance degradation with Slack, email, and webhook notifications

Common Use Cases

• 1API performance regression testing in CI/CD pipelines before production deployment
• 2Microservices capacity planning to determine optimal instance counts and resource allocation
• 3E-commerce platform load testing during peak shopping seasons and flash sales
• 4SaaS application performance monitoring across different subscription tiers and usage patterns
• 5Game server stress testing to validate concurrent player capacity and matchmaking performance
• 6Financial trading system latency testing to ensure sub-millisecond response requirements
• 7IoT backend testing to simulate thousands of concurrent device connections and data streams

Prerequisites

• Minimum 1GB RAM available for InfluxDB time-series data processing and storage
• Port 3000 available for Grafana dashboard access and 8086 for InfluxDB API
• Basic JavaScript knowledge for writing and modifying k6 test scripts
• Understanding of HTTP protocols, status codes, and API testing concepts
• Target application or service URLs accessible from the Docker host network
• Familiarity with performance testing metrics like RPS, response time percentiles, and error rates

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  k6: 
3    image: grafana/k6:latest
4    container_name: k6
5    volumes: 
6      - ./scripts:/scripts
7    environment: 
8      K6_OUT: influxdb=http://influxdb:8086/k6
9
10  influxdb: 
11    image: influxdb:1.8
12    container_name: k6-influxdb
13    restart: unless-stopped
14    environment: 
15      INFLUXDB_DB: k6
16    volumes: 
17      - k6_influxdb:/var/lib/influxdb
18    ports: 
19      - "8086:8086"
20
21  grafana: 
22    image: grafana/grafana:latest
23    container_name: k6-grafana
24    restart: unless-stopped
25    environment: 
26      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED: "true"
27      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE: Admin
28    volumes: 
29      - k6_grafana:/var/lib/grafana
30    ports: 
31      - "3000:3000"
32    depends_on: 
33      - influxdb
34
35volumes: 
36  k6_influxdb: 
37  k6_grafana: 

.env Template

1# Create test scripts in ./scripts

Usage Notes

Individual Services(3 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

k6:
  image: grafana/k6:latest
  container_name: k6
  volumes:
    - ./scripts:/scripts
  environment:
    K6_OUT: influxdb=http://influxdb:8086/k6

influxdb:
  image: influxdb:1.8
  container_name: k6-influxdb
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    INFLUXDB_DB: k6
  volumes:
    - k6_influxdb:/var/lib/influxdb
  ports:
    - "8086:8086"

grafana:
  image: grafana/grafana:latest
  container_name: k6-grafana
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED: "true"
    GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE: Admin
  volumes:
    - k6_grafana:/var/lib/grafana
  ports:
    - "3000:3000"
  depends_on:
    - influxdb

Quick Start

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  k6:
5    image: grafana/k6:latest
6    container_name: k6
7    volumes:
8      - ./scripts:/scripts
9    environment:
10      K6_OUT: influxdb=http://influxdb:8086/k6
11
12  influxdb:
13    image: influxdb:1.8
14    container_name: k6-influxdb
15    restart: unless-stopped
16    environment:
17      INFLUXDB_DB: k6
18    volumes:
19      - k6_influxdb:/var/lib/influxdb
20    ports:
21      - "8086:8086"
22
23  grafana:
24    image: grafana/grafana:latest
25    container_name: k6-grafana
26    restart: unless-stopped
27    environment:
28      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ENABLED: "true"
29      GF_AUTH_ANONYMOUS_ORG_ROLE: Admin
30    volumes:
31      - k6_grafana:/var/lib/grafana
32    ports:
33      - "3000:3000"
34    depends_on:
35      - influxdb
36
37volumes:
38  k6_influxdb:
39  k6_grafana:
40EOF
41
42# 2. Create the .env file
43cat > .env << 'EOF'
44# Create test scripts in ./scripts
45EOF
46
47# 3. Start the services
48docker compose up -d
49
50# 4. View logs
51docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/k6/run | bash

Troubleshooting