Running Apache JMeter

Apache JMeter comes with startup scripts to help you run the application. They are located in the directory /bin and are called jmeter for UNIX systems and jmeter.bat for Windows systems. Make sure the file ApacheJMeter.jar and jmeter.properties is located in the same directory and type jmeter to start.

These scripts assume you already have a JRE installed, and that the command "java" is in your path.

In addition to the standard Java libraries that come with the JRE, you may need to download two other API's:

Mail: Java Mail^tm API as well as the javax.activation API from Sun.
To enable the MailVisualizer, add mail.jar and activation.jar from Sun's JavaMail download to your classpath or $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext directory, or you can drop the jar files into the /lib directory where JMeter is installed.
JSSE: JSSE is available from sun.
JSSE is an SSL encryption provider that is used to enable JMeter to test websites using the https protocol.

To turn SSL support on, make sure all the jars that come with JSSE are in your classpath (jsse.jar, jnet.jar, jcert.jar), and modify jmeter.properties to instruct JMeter which SSL Provider you are using. For JSSE, set the line as follows:

ssl.provider=com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Provider

If you wish to modify the properties with which JMeter runs you need to either modify the jmeter.properties inside of the /bin directory or create your own copy of the jmeter.properties and specify it in the command line (jmeter [properties file]).

Properties to modify

search_paths: If you have developed new extensions to JMeter, you can tell JMeter where to find your classes by adding the name of the jar, or the directory where your classes live.
user.dir: The directory JMeter will first go to for saving and loading test scripts.
remote_hosts: Comma-delimited list of remote JMeter hosts. If you are running JMeter in a distributed environment, list the machines where you have JMeter remote servers running. This will allow you to control those servers from this machine's GUI
not_in_menu: A list of components you do not want to see in JMeter's menus. As JMeter has more and more components added, you may wish to customize your JMeter to show only those components you are interested in. You may list their classname or their class label (the string that appears in JMeter's UI) here, and they will no longer appear in the menu's.