Cheat Sheet (PDF)

the download check, the bin, lib and lib/ext layout, user.properties, the HEAP and GC_ALGO variables and the order in which property sources are loaded;

the element families, the execution order around a sampler, the scoping rules (timers add up, defaults merge, Header Managers merge in 5.6.3, only one Cookie or Authorization Manager is used), and reuse with Test Fragments;

properties versus variables, -J versus -G, the run properties threads, rampup, duration, host and port, and the most used functions;

every Thread Group field, the ramp-up formula, why the scheduler duration includes the ramp-up (660 s for a 10-minute hold after a 60 s ramp-up), and when setUp and tearDown Thread Groups run;

the Open Model Thread Group schedule syntax, the Constant and Precise Throughput Timers and Little’s Law with worked numbers;

the timers and their delay formulas, the logic controllers and the Transaction Controller with its timer option;

the HTTP Request skeleton with defaults and managers, REST with JSON bodies and the Content-Type rule, the GraphQL HTTP Request and SOAP over HTTP;

the HTTP(S) Test Script Recorder with its root CA certificate, and Import from cURL;

the CSV Data Set Config fields and sharing modes, the extractors with the -1 and _matchNr rule, the assertions ranked by cost and the JSR223 caching rule (no ${...} in cached Groovy scripts);

JDBC, JMS, mail, TCP and the other samplers in one line each;

the Plugins Manager in the GUI and with PluginsManagerCMD, the key plugin ids and versions, the Concurrency Thread Group, Ultimate Thread Group and Throughput Shaping Timer syntax (threads_schedule, load_profile, __tstFeedback), and the gRPC Request plugin fields and limits;

the CLI command line with -e -o, the shutdown and stop scripts, and why the exit code is 0 even when every sample fails, so that CI gates on statistics.json or the results file;

the CSV results columns with elapsed time, latency and connect time, the dashboard and APDEX properties, and the Backend Listener parameters for InfluxDB and Grafana;

an analysis checklist (percentiles, saturation point, Little’s Law check, coordinated omission, load generator health);

distributed testing with -R, -G, the RMI SSL keystore, the firewall ports and CSV files on every node;

the jmeter-maven-plugin 3.8.0 snippet with jmeterVersion pinned to 5.6.3, the lean load-generator rules, and the changes from the 2.x and 3.0 books to 5.6.3 and the planned 6.0.