Jmeter Sample Increment vs Throughput

Question

We're running a load test right now in JMeter viewing the Aggregate Report page. While we watch, Samples are increasing by nearly 500/second the number is going up very fast. However, throughput on the same page stays pegged at 18/second and our error rate is not increasing.

How can jmeter be sending so many samples if our server is only handling 18/second and the # of errors is not increasing (we only have 20 errors out of millions of samples).

Do requests equate to samples (they seem to)? Are we missing something?

Answer 1

If you add a "View Results Tree" Listener you can see EACH request and response - and you should check if the responses are what you actually want.

And in the "View Results in Table" Listener compare the Bytes for each response. Does it match the size in all cases?

In cases of errors or incorrect responses - these will be different.

Answer 2

Requests DO equal samples.

Throughput is the number of requests per unit of time (seconds, minutes, hours) that are sent to your server during the test. The aggregate report is number of requests that hit the server PER HOUR.

Remember that almost all errors are user defined. Using JoseK's recommendation, install the View Results Tree to see what your responses actually are. If they are green, but fail your own criteria, add assertions to turn them into errors.