Load testing strategies for network server applications

I am building a Windows service that listens for connections over TCP and, once a connection is established, sends a steady stream of data. It is very simple... 开发者_如何学Conce the initial request is made, the communication is one-way (on the application layer, of course).

What is a good way to test this with significant load, say up to 3,000 simultaneous connections? Are there standard tools for this kind of thing, or should I just write my own?

I have the feeling you have written your own protocol, so I think you're like stuck to implementing your own load testing client.

Writing a load testing client for something like this isn't hard. The only thing I would advise though is to really think about whether you're going to test on a connection from one physical machine or multiple. I'm not saying you should test from 3,000 physical machines, but something like 10 or 20 machines would be a good idea. Otherwise you have a good chance the client machine being the bottleneck.

Also, to really test the server, you have to have a good load test implementation. If you see the processor usage of your load tester staying at 100%, you're not testing the server; you're testing the client.