what does it mean by total throughput in Jmeter aggregated graph

Question

When i carryout load testing in jmeter i have list of samples. Each sample returns its own throughput. However in the aggregated graph or summary result it has a total row at the bottom and adds all the throughput. What does this signify?

Can i just use the total throughput as the total throughput of the entire test run. Why does summary report adds up all the sample throughput rather than showing the average throughput?

In the following picture i ran load test with 2 user and 2 ramp up time.

As shown above the total actually sums up the throughput rather than aggregating it.

However, when i carry out test with 1 user and 1 ramp up time then it aggregates the throughput and displays the average throughput of the samplers.

In the below figure i carried out test with 1 thread and 1 ramp up time.

IS this a bug?

Answer 1

No, It's not a bug!!!

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

The Throughput is the real load processed by your server (Application under test) during a run but it does not tell you anything about the performance of your server during this same run.

As per JMeter Glossary:

Throughput is calculated as requests/unit of time. The time is calculated from the start of the first sample to the end of the last sample. This includes any intervals between samples, as it is supposed to represent the load on the server. The formula is: Throughput = (number of requests) / (total time).

So, In your case For 2 User : The application handled 10.7 requests/second.

And For the Single user : The Application handled 22.9 requests/second.

Answer 2

Its not sums up here, If you see in your screenshot the sum is coming around 14.4/sec, Sot its not sum of all throughput. Its calculated value based on the load you had given and your application would support mentioned throughput.

In your case if a user accesses the application it supports 22.9 requests per sec. But when two users access the application then it supports 10.7 requests per sec.

Please look at here for more info about Jmeter throughput

Jmeter aggregate report total throughput - how is calculated

Answer 3

In case of performance testing, average is something we all avoid. Going back to actual question. Consider you have 5 requests in one workflow. You are running this test for 50 iterations. So making 250 requests during the load test.

Now you want to analyze individual request performance as well as overall system performance. In this case, when you want to drill down and look at individual request in order to find bottlenecks, you look at the throughput and response time of request.

If you want to find the overall load your system can handle, look at the total throughput.