Alibaba Cloud PTS Stress Testing Scenario Management

This skill enables you to create and manage stress testing scenarios using Alibaba Cloud PTS (Performance Testing Service). It supports both PTS native HTTP/HTTPS stress testing and JMeter-based stress testing.

Scenario Description

PTS (Performance Testing Service) is Alibaba Cloud's fully managed performance testing platform that helps you validate the performance, capacity, and stability of your applications. This skill covers:

1. PTS Native Stress Testing - Create HTTP/HTTPS stress testing scenarios with configurable APIs, serial links, and load models
2. JMeter Stress Testing - Upload and run JMeter scripts with distributed load generation

Architecture

User → Aliyun CLI → PTS Service → Target Application
                         ↓
                   Stress Testing Report

Pre-check

Pre-check: Aliyun CLI >= 3.3.1 required Run aliyun version to verify >= 3.3.1. If not installed or version too low, see references/cli-installation-guide.md for installation instructions. Then [MUST] run aliyun configure set --auto-plugin-install true to enable automatic plugin installation.

# Verify CLI version
aliyun version

# Enable auto plugin installation
aliyun configure set --auto-plugin-install true

Timeout Settings

All CLI commands should include timeout parameters to avoid hanging:

# Recommended timeout settings for PTS operations
--read-timeout 60 --connect-timeout 10

• read-timeout: 60 seconds (stress testing operations may take longer)
• connect-timeout: 10 seconds

Environment Variables

No additional environment variables required beyond CLI authentication.

Parameter Confirmation

IMPORTANT: Parameter Confirmation — Before executing any command or API call, ALL user-customizable parameters (e.g., RegionId, scene names, target URLs, concurrency, duration, JMX files, etc.) MUST be confirmed with the user. Do NOT assume or use default values without explicit user approval.

User-Customizable Parameters

Authentication

This skill relies on the Aliyun CLI's default credential chain. Ensure your CLI is already authenticated before use.

Verify current authentication:

aliyun configure get

If CLI is not yet configured, see references/cli-installation-guide.md for setup instructions.

RAM Policy

Users must have appropriate PTS permissions. See references/ram-policies.md for detailed policies.

Idempotency

PTS APIs do not support ClientToken-based idempotency. Scene names are not unique — multiple PTS or JMeter scenarios may share the same SceneName. Never treat “same name” as one resource; always use SceneId (returned by the API) as the stable identifier.

To prevent duplicate resources or unintended side-effects when retrying after timeouts or errors, always use the check-then-act pattern before every write operation:

Core Workflow

IMPORTANT: Parameter Confirmation — Before executing any command or API call, ALL user-customizable parameters (e.g., RegionId, scene names, target URLs, concurrency, duration, etc.) MUST be confirmed with the user. Do NOT assume or use default values without explicit user approval.

Workflow 1: Create and Run PTS Native Stress Testing

Task 1.1: Create PTS Scenario

Note: Use save-pts-scene instead of create-pts-scene. The --scene parameter accepts a JSON object directly (not wrapped in a Scene field).

Idempotency: SceneName may duplicate across scenarios. Do not skip creation or pick a scene based on name alone. After save-pts-scene succeeds, record the returned SceneId for all later steps. If the command fails or times out with unknown outcome, use list-pts-scene together with the user to identify the intended SceneId before retrying — avoid blind retries that create extra scenes.

aliyun pts save-pts-scene \
  --scene '{
    "SceneName": "\x3CSCENE_NAME>",
    "RelationList": [
      {
        "RelationName": "serial-link-1",
        "ApiList": [
          {
            "ApiName": "api-1",
            "Url": "\x3CTARGET_URL>",
            "Method": "\x3CHTTP_METHOD>",
            "TimeoutInSecond": 10,
            "RedirectCountLimit": 10,
            "HeaderList": [
              {
                "HeaderName": "User-Agent",
                "HeaderValue": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36"
              }
            ],
            "CheckPointList": [
              {
                "CheckPoint": "",
                "CheckType": "STATUS_CODE",
                "Operator": "eq",
                "ExpectValue": "200"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "LoadConfig": {
      "TestMode": "concurrency_mode",
      "MaxRunningTime": \x3CDURATION_MINUTES>,
      "AutoStep": false,
      "Configuration": {
        "AllConcurrencyBegin": \x3CCONCURRENCY>,
        "AllConcurrencyLimit": \x3CCONCURRENCY>
      }
    },
    "AdvanceSetting": {
      "LogRate": 1,
      "ConnectionTimeoutInSecond": 5
    }
  }' \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Parameter Notes:

• MaxRunningTime: Duration in minutes (not seconds), range [1-1440]
• TestMode: Use concurrency_mode for concurrent user testing or tps_mode for RPS testing
• TimeoutInSecond: Request timeout in seconds (recommended: 10)
• RedirectCountLimit: Maximum redirects allowed (use 10 for normal, 0 to disable)
• HeaderList: HTTP headers, User-Agent is recommended for better compatibility
• CheckPointList: Assertions for response validation (STATUS_CODE, BODY_JSON, etc.)
• AdvanceSetting.LogRate: Log sampling rate (1-100)
• AdvanceSetting.ConnectionTimeoutInSecond: Connection timeout (recommended: 5)

For complete JSON structure with all fields (POST requests, file parameters, global variables, etc.), see references/pts-scene-json-reference.md

Task 1.2: Start Stress Testing

[MUST] Pre-flight Safety Checks — Starting a stress test sends significant traffic to the target system. ALL of the following checks MUST pass before executing start-pts-scene:

1. Idempotency guard — Run get-pts-scene-running-status --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID>. If the status is RUNNING or SYNCING, the test is already in progress — skip the start command and proceed to monitoring. Do NOT start a duplicate test.

2. Retrieve and verify scene configuration — Run get-pts-scene --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> and confirm the response contains a valid SceneName, at least one RelationList entry with a non-empty Url, and a valid LoadConfig (non-zero MaxRunningTime and concurrency). If any field is missing or empty, abort and notify the user.

3. Display test summary and require explicit user confirmation — Present the following to the user and wait for explicit approval (e.g., "yes" / "确认"):

   • Target URL(s)
   • Concurrency level
   • Test duration
   • Test mode (concurrency / TPS)

   Do NOT proceed without the user's explicit "go-ahead" confirmation.

# Idempotency guard: Skip if test is already running
aliyun pts get-pts-scene-running-status \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills
# ↑ If status is RUNNING or SYNCING, skip start-pts-scene and go to monitoring.

# Pre-flight check: Verify scene configuration is complete
aliyun pts get-pts-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

# Start stress testing (only after all checks pass and user confirms)
aliyun pts start-pts-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 1.3: Monitor Testing Status

aliyun pts get-pts-scene-running-status \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 1.4: Get Testing Report

aliyun pts get-pts-report-details \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --plan-id \x3CPLAN_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Workflow 2: Create and Run JMeter Stress Testing

Task 2.1: Create JMeter Scenario

Idempotency: SceneName may duplicate across JMeter scenarios. Do not dedupe by name. After save-open-jmeter-scene succeeds, record the returned SceneId. On uncertain failure, use list-open-jmeter-scenes with the user to disambiguate before retrying.

aliyun pts save-open-jmeter-scene \
  --open-jmeter-scene '{
    "SceneName": "\x3CSCENE_NAME>",
    "TestFile": "\x3CJMX_FILENAME>",
    "Duration": \x3CDURATION>,
    "Concurrency": \x3CCONCURRENCY>,
    "Mode": "CONCURRENCY"
  }' \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 2.2: Start JMeter Testing

[MUST] Pre-flight Safety Checks — Starting a JMeter stress test sends significant traffic to the target system. ALL of the following checks MUST pass before executing start-testing-jmeter-scene:

1. Idempotency guard — Run get-open-jmeter-scene --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> and check the scene status. If the test is already running, skip the start command and proceed to monitoring. Do NOT start a duplicate test.

2. Verify scene configuration — From the same response, confirm it contains a valid SceneName, a non-empty TestFile, and non-zero Duration and Concurrency. If any field is missing or empty, abort and notify the user.

3. Display test summary and require explicit user confirmation — Present the following to the user and wait for explicit approval (e.g., "yes" / "确认"):

   • Scene name and JMX file
   • Concurrency level
   • Test duration

   Do NOT proceed without the user's explicit "go-ahead" confirmation.

# Idempotency guard + pre-flight check: Verify scene config and check if already running
aliyun pts get-open-jmeter-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills
# ↑ If already running, skip start command. If config is incomplete, abort.

# Start JMeter testing (only after all checks pass and user confirms)
aliyun pts start-testing-jmeter-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 2.3: Get JMeter Report

aliyun pts get-jmeter-report-details \
  --report-id \x3CREPORT_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Workflow 3: Manage Scenarios

Task 3.1: List All PTS Scenarios

aliyun pts list-pts-scene \
  --page-number 1 \
  --page-size 10 \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 3.2: List All JMeter Scenarios

aliyun pts list-open-jmeter-scenes \
  --page-number 1 \
  --page-size 10 \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 3.3: Get Scenario Details

# PTS scenario
aliyun pts get-pts-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

# JMeter scenario
aliyun pts get-open-jmeter-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 3.4: Debug Scenario (PTS only)

aliyun pts start-debug-pts-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Task 3.5: Stop Running Test

# Stop PTS test
aliyun pts stop-pts-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

# Stop JMeter test
aliyun pts stop-testing-jmeter-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Success Verification Method

IMPORTANT: start-pts-scene may return Success: true even when the stress test fails to actually launch (e.g., due to target site protection or missing configuration). Always verify actual execution status.

After each operation, verify success using the verification commands in references/verification-method.md.

Verify scenario creation:

# Use list-pts-scene instead of get-pts-scene (more reliable)
aliyun pts list-pts-scene \
  --page-number 1 \
  --page-size 10 \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Verify stress test is actually running:

# Check running status first
aliyun pts get-pts-scene-running-status \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

# Then verify with running data (requires plan-id from start-pts-scene)
aliyun pts get-pts-scene-running-data \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --plan-id \x3CPLAN_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

Key indicators of successful execution:

• Status: Should be "RUNNING" or "SYNCING" (not "STOPPED" immediately)
• AliveAgents: Should be > 0
• Concurrency: Should match configured value
• TotalRequestCount: Should be increasing

Cleanup

Delete scenarios when no longer needed.

[MUST] Pre-delete Safety Checks — Before deleting any scenario, ALL of the following checks MUST pass:

1. Idempotency guard — Using the target SceneId (not name), verify it still exists (e.g. list-pts-scene / list-open-jmeter-scenes or get-*). If that SceneId is absent, treat deletion as already done and skip the delete command.
2. Check if the scenario is currently running — Run get-pts-scene-running-status --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> (PTS) or check JMeter scene status. If the scenario status is RUNNING or SYNCING, you MUST stop it first using stop-pts-scene / stop-testing-jmeter-scene and wait for it to fully stop before deleting. Do NOT delete a running scenario.
3. Require explicit user confirmation — Display the scene name and ID to the user and ask for explicit deletion confirmation (e.g., "yes" / "确认删除"). Do NOT proceed without the user's explicit approval.

# Pre-delete check: Verify scenario is not running
aliyun pts get-pts-scene-running-status \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

# Delete PTS scenario (only after confirming it is not running and user approves)
aliyun pts delete-pts-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

# Delete JMeter scenario (only after confirming it is not running and user approves)
aliyun pts remove-open-jmeter-scene \
  --scene-id \x3CSCENE_ID> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills

API and Command Tables

See references/related-apis.md for complete API and CLI command reference.

Best Practices

1. Use complete scene configuration - Always include TimeoutInSecond, HeaderList (with User-Agent), CheckPointList, and AdvanceSetting for reliable test execution
2. Always confirm parameters - Verify target URLs, concurrency settings, and duration with the user before execution
3. Start with low concurrency - Begin with low concurrency and gradually increase to identify performance thresholds
4. Verify actual execution - Don't trust Success: true from start-pts-scene; always check get-pts-scene-running-data with --plan-id
5. Use debug mode first - For PTS scenarios, use start-debug-pts-scene to validate configuration before full tests
6. Monitor during tests - Regularly check running status during stress tests
7. Review reports thoroughly - Analyze response times, error rates, and throughput in reports
8. Clean up after testing - Delete test scenarios to avoid unnecessary costs
9. Use appropriate test duration - Longer tests provide more accurate results but consume more resources
10. Include warmup period - Allow time for systems to warm up before measuring peak performance

Reference Links