Kubernetes Load Test Tutorial Playbook

Load testing is presented as an important but often overlooked practice for Kubernetes applications, helping teams assess performance, service stability, inter-service communication, resource bottlenecks, latency, and scaling behavior under realistic traffic. The tutorial uses podtato-head, a CNCF example microservices application, deployed locally through Minikube, to demonstrate Kubernetes load testing on macOS with kubectl and a configured networking environment. It then describes installing and using Speedscale to instrument the application’s deployments, observe traffic among its microservices through service maps and API-level details, and capture that traffic as a reusable snapshot. Captured requests can be replayed at increased load through a Kubernetes deployment patch and configurable test profiles, enabling teams to evaluate throughput, latency, endpoint behavior, and, where metrics are available, CPU and memory consumption. The approach is intended to reveal hidden service dependencies, diagnose API or infrastructure issues, and support capacity planning, performance optimization, and testing in development or staging environments.

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