Load Test Ops

Camunda Load Test Operations

For the full operational reference (architecture, scenarios, scheduling, secondary storage, Helm value typing pitfalls), see load-tests/README.md. For metrics definitions, SLO targets, and Prometheus queries, see load-tests/docs/metrics.md. For the canonical schema of every available chart value (beyond what load-tests/setup/main/values/camunda-platform-values-defaults.yaml overrides), see the upstream chart at camunda/camunda-platform-helm. For known load-test and incident tribal knowledge (recurring gotchas, prior incidents, tooling patterns), see knowledge base in camunda/team-reliability-testing — check it before an investigation, and add durable findings back to it afterward.

Prerequisites check

gh CLI must always be authenticated (gh auth status).

Note for Claude:

• Run gh and kubectl commands directly via the Bash tool. The user's gh CLI is authenticated on the host. If a command isn't pre-approved, you'll get a one-time permission prompt — accept it and proceed.
• Don't leave the user waiting. Whenever you start anything that takes time (workflow dispatch, helm install, kubectl rollout, log capture, build), follow it through to completion automatically: watch progress, pull the final output, and render it inline. Stream interim status updates so the user can interrupt if something looks wrong. Don't ask "should I wait?" or "want me to fetch the result?" — that's friction; chaining is the default.
• For GHA dispatches specifically: capture the run ID via gh run list --workflow=<file> --repo camunda/camunda --limit 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId', watch it with gh run watch <id> --repo camunda/camunda --exit-status, then pull the result with gh run view <id> --repo camunda/camunda (job summary) or gh run download <id> (artifacts).

Default path: GHA workflow

Use GHA for everything by default. It is the only path that builds a Docker image from a branch (initial test of a feature branch, or after pushing new commits) and it works for any user with gh access — no kubectl, no Helm, no Teleport login required. Prefer it unless the user explicitly wants the kubectl path or the situation below applies.

Optional: direct kubectl/Makefile

Only fall back to kubectl when all of the following are true:

1. The user has kubectl access to the benchmark cluster (Teleport login active)
2. There is already a usable Docker image — either a pre-built branch image (reuse-tag) or a released image (orchestration-tag)
3. The change is config-only (Helm values, replica counts, resource limits, starter rate) — no code changes that would require a new image build

Caveat: the kubectl path cannot build Docker images. If the image you need does not yet exist, dispatch a GHA build first, then switch to kubectl for further config iteration on the same image.

Check kubectl access before taking the direct path:

kubectl get nodes 2>/dev/null && echo "kubectl available" || echo "use GHA"

Typical workflow

Most runs follow the same arc — each step links to its own section for full options:

1. Start a load test — dispatch the GHA workflow with a branch ref. Cluster is up in ~5–10 min.
2. Check status — verify pods and starter reach steady state (~5 min warm-up).
3. Wait for the run window — 10–60 min, depending on what you're measuring. Most signals stabilise within 20 min.
4. (optional) Profile a running cluster — flamegraph capture (~5 min per pod).
5. Analyze metrics — snapshot the run window into a JSON / job-summary report.
6. Compare against a baseline — diff against daily tests or a parallel main run; absolute numbers are rarely conclusive on their own.
7. Stop / clean up — delete the namespace to free benchmark resources (also auto-cleaned at deadline-date).

For automation, the metrics workflow's results-json output can feed directly into the delete workflow.

Namespace conventions

• Format: c8-<initials>-<slug>-<YYYYMMDD> — always prefixed with c8-

• Example: c8-ck-my-feature-20260427 (ck = ChrisKujawa)

• camunda-load-test.yml input name may be passed with or without c8- (it will add the prefix if missing)

• Metrics/profile/delete workflows take the full namespace and require it to start with c8- Use a unique name for each new run. Reusing a namespace mixes the new run's metrics with the prior run's data and makes comparisons ambiguous; for intentional in-place iteration (config tweak, image bump on the same cluster), use Update / redeploy instead. The date alone is not enough — it collides within a single day or across parallel investigations from different sessions. Add a disambiguator:

• short Git SHA — ck-feature-abc1234 — best when validating a specific commit

• HHMM time — ck-feature-20260508-1430 — best for ad-hoc iteration loops

• role suffix — ck-feature-20260508-baseline / -branch — best for paired comparison runs (see Compare against a baseline)

Namespaces carry these labels (set by newLoadTest.sh):

Start a load test

Via GHA (builds image from branch)

gh workflow run camunda-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field ref=<branch> \
  --field name=ck-<slug>-<YYYYMMDD>

Most useful inputs:

The full input list lives in the inputs: block of .github/workflows/camunda-load-test.yml.

Pick the right tag input — reuse-tag and orchestration-tag hit different registries:

• reuse-tag pulls from the internal Camunda registry. Only works for tags built by a prior GHA load-test run on this repo. Passing a public tag (8.4.3, SNAPSHOT, latest) fails because the internal registry can't resolve them.
• orchestration-tag pulls from the public Docker Hub registry. Required for released versions (e.g. 8.4.3), nightly SNAPSHOT, or any tag you didn't build via GHA yourself.

Helm value typing — common gotchas:

• Use --set-string for chart fields whose schema declares them as strings (e.g. orchestration.cpuThreadCount, orchestration.ioThreadCount). Plain --set will pass an integer and the chart's JSON-schema validation will reject the install.
• Quote boolean-looking string env values: --set-string 'orchestration.env[0].value=false', not --set 'orchestration.env[0].value=false'.
• Quote any value that contains , [ ] = so Helm doesn't parse it as a list/key syntax.

Full guidance with copy-paste examples in the Trigger Camunda Load Test GitHub Workflow section of load-tests/README.md.

Via manual setup (kubectl, existing image only)

Only when GHA is not viable for this iteration and you have kubectl access. The kubectl path does not build images — provide an already-built tag (reuse-tag from a previous GHA run, or a released orchestration-tag):

The following will create a new folder under load-tests/setup/<namespace> with copying the Helm values for the platform and load test charts.

cd load-tests/setup
./newLoadTest.sh <namespace> [secondaryStorage] [ttl_days] [enable_optimize]

Configuration is driven by the values files at the setup folder which is created by the newLoadTest.sh script which are copied from the defaults.

For example:

• load-tests/setup/main/values/camunda-platform-values-defaults.yaml — platform chart overrides (image tag, resources, exporters, secondary storage)
• load-tests/setup/main/values/camunda-platform-values-${storage}.yaml — platform chart overrides for secondary storage-specific configuration (e.g. Elasticsearch JVM settings, OpenSearch auth)
• load-tests/setup/main/values/load-test-values.yaml — load tester chart overrides (rate, scenario, worker)

Override individual keys by passing extra --set flags to the make calls (see Update / redeploy below). Full reference in load-tests/setup/README.md.

Depending on the use case (clarify with the user) different scenarios can be started, e.g realistic, max.

make realistic # Installs the camunda platform and load tester with the realistic scenario configuration, which is defined in the values file.

After running the script, check the deployment via kubectl (this path doesn't dispatch a GHA workflow, so gh run view won't show anything). Use the kubectl commands in the Check status section below.

Check status

Via GHA (always works):

gh run view <run-id> --repo camunda/camunda

Via kubectl (if available — more accurate):

kubectl get pods -n <namespace>
kubectl get events -n <namespace> --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20

List all your running load tests:

# Via GHA (default — works without kubectl)
gh run list --workflow=camunda-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --user $(gh api /user --jq .login) --limit 20

# Via kubectl labels (if you have cluster access)
kubectl get namespaces -l camunda.io/purpose=load-test,camunda.io/created-by=$(gh api /user --jq .login)

Inspect configuration

# Read default Helm values (know what keys to override)
cat load-tests/setup/main/values/camunda-platform-values-defaults.yaml
cat load-tests/setup/main/values/load-test-values.yaml

# What inputs were dispatched into a GHA run? The build/install jobs print
# the resolved values and parameters into the GitHub Actions step summary.
gh run view <run-id> --repo camunda/camunda -w

# Read what's actually deployed (requires kubectl and Helm)
helm get values <namespace> -n <namespace>
helm get values <namespace>-test -n <namespace>

Update / redeploy

Default to GHA. Use kubectl only for config-only iteration on an existing image (see Prerequisites).

Via GHA (default — handles builds and config changes)

gh workflow run camunda-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field ref=<branch> \
  --field name=ck-<slug>-<YYYYMMDD>

Reuse an existing image to skip the Docker build:

# Read the previous run's image tag from its GHA step summary
gh run view <run-id> --repo camunda/camunda

gh workflow run camunda-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field ref=<branch> \
  --field name=<name-without-c8-prefix> \
  --field reuse-tag=<image-tag> \
  --field platform-helm-values="--set orchestration.resources.limits.memory=4Gi"

Via kubectl (config-only iteration on an existing image)

Faster than GHA for tweaking Helm values against an already-running deployments. See load-tests/setup/README.md for full manual setup documentation.

Always pin the image — load-tests/setup/main/values/camunda-platform-values-defaults.yaml defaults to tag: SNAPSHOT, which floats. For an iterative loop you usually want a specific tag (the one from the previous GHA build, or a released orchestration-tag):

cd load-tests/setup

# Create namespace if it doesn't exist yet
./newLoadTest.sh <namespace> <secondary-storage> <ttl-days> <enable-optimize>

# Upgrade platform Helm chart — pin the image tag explicitly
cd <namespace>
make max additional_platform_configuration="\
  --set-string orchestration.image.tag=<image-tag> \
  --set orchestration.resources.limits.memory=4Gi" \
  additional_load_test_configuration="--set starter.rate=200"

Profile a running cluster

Profiles all 3 broker pods in parallel (cpu / wall / alloc):

gh workflow run profile-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field name=<full-namespace-with-c8-prefix>

Profile a single pod (cpu only):

gh workflow run profile-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field name=<full-namespace-with-c8-prefix> \
  --field pod=camunda-1

After ~5 min, download flamegraph artifacts:

gh run download <run-id> --repo camunda/camunda

Artifact names: one per pod (each contains the cpu/wall/alloc reports for that pod), e.g. flamegraph-<name>-<date>-camunda-0, flamegraph-<name>-<date>-camunda-1, flamegraph-<name>-<date>-camunda-2

Analyze metrics

Snapshot run metrics into a JSON / job-summary report — useful for post-run analysis before tear-down, so you can capture results and then delete the namespace to free resources.

The workflow and loadTestMetrics.sh script both run the headline queries only — the fixed set defined in load-tests/docs/scripts/queries.yaml: throughput (PI/s), completion ratio, backpressure, data-availability p99, and request-response latency p99. This is enough to answer "did the run meet its SLO?".

For deeper investigation (FNI/s, processing/exporting latency, CPU throttling, JVM heap trend, processing and exporting backlogs, write IOPS, disk usage, …), the full metric catalogue with PromQL queries is in load-tests/docs/metrics.md. The Prometheus instance at monitor.benchmark.camunda.cloud (Okta login) and the dashboards in Metrics & dashboards below expose all of them — start there when the headline numbers don't explain what you're seeing.

Via GHA (default — no kubectl needed)

gh workflow run camunda-load-test-metrics.yaml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field namespace=<full-namespace-with-c8-prefix> \
  --field duration-seconds=1200

# Chain dispatch → watch → render: capture the run, wait for it,
# and pull the rendered job summary inline (no "should I wait?" prompt).
sleep 3   # let GitHub register the dispatched run
RUN_ID=$(gh run list --workflow=camunda-load-test-metrics.yaml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --limit 1 --json databaseId --jq '.[0].databaseId')
gh run watch "$RUN_ID" --repo camunda/camunda --exit-status
gh run view "$RUN_ID" --repo camunda/camunda

duration-seconds is the PromQL range each query covers (default 600 = 10 min). Pass 1200 for a ~20-min window. Results render in the job summary; the workflow is also reusable via workflow_call and exposes results-json for downstream jobs (e.g. analyze → delete).

Other ways to get metrics

When you have kubectl/Grafana access, or need more than the headline set, see references/analyze-metrics.md for:

• Grafana MCP (in Claude Code sessions — no port-forward needed)
• Local script + port-forward against Prometheus
• Ad-hoc PromQL queries for the full metric catalogue

Compare against a baseline

Absolute numbers depend on cluster state, neighbour noise, and time of day — a single feature-branch run is rarely conclusive on its own. Always compare against a reference under matching conditions:

• Continuous reference runs — release, weekly, and daily load tests already cover main and stable branches with a standard scenario set. See load-tests/README.md → When Load Tests Run for what each variant covers (workload, secondary storage, naming pattern, validation dashboard); pick the closest match to your branch's scenario / secondary-storage / rate.
• Custom baseline run — if your branch diverges from any continuous reference (different scenario, exporter, replica count), dispatch a parallel run on main (or the merge-base) with identical inputs and the same duration-seconds.

Capture both via Analyze metrics over the same window, then diff the JSON outputs. The metrics workflow's results-json makes this scriptable.

Stop / clean up

Via GHA (default — no kubectl needed)

gh workflow run camunda-delete-load-test.yml --repo camunda/camunda \
  --field namespace=<full-namespace-with-c8-prefix>

The workflow validates the c8- prefix and camunda.io/purpose=load-test label before deleting, and is idempotent if the namespace is already gone.

Logs

Default: Stackdriver (works without kubectl)

Stackdriver has the full structured logs from every pod in the namespace. Open the GCP Logs Explorer, pre-scoped to the load test namespace:

Replace <namespace> with the full namespace name (e.g. c8-ck-my-feature-20260427).

https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/query;query=resource.labels.namespace_name%3D%22<namespace>%22?project=camunda-benchmark

For a GHA-dispatched run, the workflow run logs themselves are also available via:

gh run view <run-id> --repo camunda/camunda --log

Optional: kubectl (when you have cluster access and want a live tail)

# Broker logs (follow)
kubectl logs -n <namespace> camunda-0 -f

# All brokers — last 50 lines each
for pod in camunda-0 camunda-1 camunda-2; do
  echo "=== $pod ===" && kubectl logs -n <namespace> $pod --tail=50
done

# Load tester logs
kubectl logs -n <namespace> -l app=starter --tail=100

# Describe a pod (scheduling / resource issues)
kubectl describe pod -n <namespace> camunda-0

Metrics & dashboards

Replace <namespace> with the full namespace name (e.g. c8-ck-my-feature-20260427).

Performance dashboard — high-level overview: throughput, latency, and all key metrics (start here):

https://dashboard.benchmark.camunda.cloud/d/camunda-performance/camunda-performance?orgId=1&from=now-24h&to=now&timezone=browser&var-DS_PROMETHEUS=prometheus&var-namespace=<namespace>&var-pod=$__all&var-partition=$__all

Zeebe dashboard — deep dive into Zeebe internals (backpressure, partitions, exporters):

https://dashboard.benchmark.camunda.cloud/d/zeebe-dashboard/zeebe?var-namespace=<namespace>

Metrics reference — Prometheus queries, SLO targets per variant, and threshold definitions: load-tests/docs/metrics.md.