Kong Load Test

Load refers to the amount of computational work the gateway is handling at any given time. This includes processing incoming API requests, executing plugins, managing routing logic, handling authentication, logging, and rate limiting. Load is typically measured through system metrics like CPU usage, memory consumption, and request rate per second. High load can indicate increased traffic or inefficient configurations, potentially leading to latency, timeouts, or service disruption. Monitoring load helps administrators ensure the gateway scales effectively, maintains performance, and avoids resource exhaustion. Balancing load across multiple nodes also supports high availability and system reliability in production environments.

Monitoring Kong API Load provides insights into system performance and traffic patterns. It helps identify spikes, bottlenecks, or inefficient plugin behavior that could degrade API responsiveness. By tracking load, admins can proactively scale infrastructure, optimize configurations, and maintain high availability. It also aids in capacity planning and troubleshooting, ensuring the gateway handles requests efficiently without overloading resources, ultimately supporting a stable and reliable API delivery environment.

This test reports key metrics related to API load which are instrumental in identifying the issues and help admins plan and handle the load.

Target of the test : A Kong API Gateway

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the target Kong API Server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.
Port	Specify the port at which the specified Host listens. By default, this is 8001.
SSL Enabled	If the Kong API Gateway uses the HTTPS protocol, set the SSL ENABLED test parameter to Yes. By default, this parameter is set to No.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Kong request rate	Indicates the number of requests received by this Kong API Gateway per minute.	Requests/min	Number of requests received by Kong Gateway per minute for a specific service and route during the last measurement period.
Processing time	Indicates the average processing time taken by this Kong API Gateway for each request.	Milliseconds/request	Measures the time Kong takes to process each request internally, excluding backend and network latency.
Upstream request rate	Indicates the number of requests forwarded to the upstream by this Kong API Gateway per minute	Requests/min	Number of backend (upstream) requests made per minute by Kong for a specific service and route during the last measurement period.
Upstream response time	Indicates the average response time from the upstream service for each request passing through this Kong API Gateway.	Milliseconds/request	Measures the time taken by the backend service (upstream) to respond to a request forwarded by Kong.
Total response time	Indicates the average response time for each request passing through this Kong API Gateway.	Milliseconds/request	Represents the average total time taken to serve each request. This includes Kong’s processing time, upstream (backend) response time, and network delay.
Network delay	Indicates the average network delay per request, for each request passing through this Kong API Gateway.	Milliseconds/request	Measures the average time lost due to network latency when communicating between Kong and the client or upstream.