How to stress test NodeJS API behind NGINX?

Question

I have an API on a remote server that I need to stress test. It is sitting behind a NGINX reverse proxy that does 301 to the API app running behind it.

Normal requests / Postman all work fine and I get 200s back. As soon as I use something like AutoCannon I get 3xx instead of 200s and the requests never hit the actual nodejs app.

Is there some special configuration I need to do on NGINX to allow stress tests to occur?

Answer 1

Given you're sending the same request you should get the same response so double check the URL, request body, request headers and so on. Compare the requests originating from Postman and AutoCannon using an external sniffer tool like Fiddler or Wireshark , identify the differences and amend AutoCannon configuration so it would send exactly the same request like Postman does.

You might want to switch to other load testing tool like Apache JMeter which comes with HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder so you will be able to record the request from your browser (or other application like Postman) so you won't have to guess what's wrong with your AutoCannor setup. There is also JMeter Chrome Extension so if you can access your API via browser you will be able to record JMeter script without having to worry about proxies and certificates.