Steadybit extension-k6

A Steadybit action implementation to integrate k6 load tests into Steadybit experiments.

Learn about the capabilities of this extension in our Reliability Hub.

Included k6 Extensions

The Docker image ships a custom k6 binary built with xk6, including the following extensions.

Official Grafana Extensions

Extension	Description
xk6-dns	DNS resolution
xk6-faker	Random fake data generation
xk6-icmp	ICMP ping
xk6-mqtt	MQTT protocol
xk6-redis	Redis client
xk6-sql	SQL database access
xk6-sql-driver-mysql	MySQL driver for xk6-sql
xk6-sql-driver-postgres	PostgreSQL driver for xk6-sql
xk6-ssh	SSH commands
xk6-subcommand-explore	Explore k6 extensions for automatic resolution

Community Extensions

Extension	Description
xk6-disruptor	Fault injection for k6
xk6-kafka	Apache Kafka load testing
xk6-kubernetes	Kubernetes API interaction
xk6-loki	Loki log load testing
xk6-msgpack	MessagePack serialization
xk6-client-prometheus-remote	Prometheus remote write client
xk6-sql-driver-azuresql	Azure SQL driver for xk6-sql
xk6-sql-driver-clickhouse	ClickHouse driver for xk6-sql
xk6-sql-driver-sqlserver	SQL Server driver for xk6-sql
xk6-sse	Server-Sent Events (SSE)
xk6-tls	TLS metrics and configuration
xk6-client-tracing	Distributed tracing client
xk6-subcommand-httpbin	Built-in httpbin test server

Configuration

Environment Variable	Helm value	Meaning	Required	Default
STEADYBIT_EXTENSION_CLOUD_API_TOKEN	k6.cloudApiToken	K6 Cloud API Token. If provided, the extension will have the option to run load tests in the k6 cloud.	no
STEADYBIT_EXTENSION_ENABLE_LOCATION_SELECTION	enableLocationSelection	By default, the platform will select a random instance when executing actions from this extension. If you enable location selection, users can optionally specify the location via target selection.	no	false
HTTPS_PROXY	via extraEnv variables	Configure the proxy to be used for K6 Cloud communication.	no

The extension supports all environment variables provided by steadybit/extension-kit.

Installation

Kubernetes

Detailed information about agent and extension installation in kubernetes can also be found in our documentation.

Recommended (via agent helm chart)

All extensions provide a helm chart that is also integrated in the helm-chart of the agent.

You must provide additional values to activate this extension.

--set extension-k6.enabled=true \

If you want to use K6 Cloud you need to provide a k6 cloud api token. You can add it for example with --set extension-k6.k6.cloudApiToken="111-222-333"

Additional configuration options can be found in the helm-chart of the extension.

Alternative (via own helm chart)

If you need more control, you can install the extension via its dedicated helm-chart.

helm repo add steadybit-extension-k6 https://steadybit.github.io/extension-k6
helm repo update
helm upgrade steadybit-extension-k6 \
    --install \
    --wait \
    --timeout 5m0s \
    --create-namespace \
    --namespace steadybit-agent \
    --set k6.cloudApiToken="111-222-333" \
    steadybit-extension-k6/steadybit-extension-k6

Linux Package

Please use our agent-linux.sh script to install the extension on your Linux machine. The script will download the latest version of the extension and install it using the package manager.

After installing, configure the extension by editing /etc/steadybit/extension-k6 and then restart the service.

Extension registration

Make sure that the extension is registered with the agent. In most cases this is done automatically. Please refer to the documentation for more information about extension registration and how to verify.

Proxy

To communicate to K6 Cloud via a proxy, we need the environment variable https_proxy to be set. This can be set via helm using the extraEnv variable

--set "extraEnv[0].name=HTTPS_PROXY" \
--set "extraEnv[0].value=https:\\user:pwd@CompanyProxy.com:8888"

Location Selection

When multiple k6 extensions are deployed in different subsystems (e.g., multiple Kubernetes clusters), it can be tricky to ensure that the load test is performed from the right location when testing cluster-internal URLs or having different load testing hardware sizings. To solve this, you can activate the location selection feature. Once you do that, the k6 extension discovers itself as a k6 location. When configuring the experiment, you can optionally define which extension's deployment should execute the loadtest. Also, the execution locations are part of Steadybit's environment concept, so you can assign permissions for execution locations.

Migration Guideline

Before activating the location selection feature, be sure to follow these steps:

1. The installed agent version needs to be >= 2.0.47, and - only for on-prem customers - the platform version needs to be >=2.2.2
2. Activate the location selection via environment or helm variable when deploying the latest extension version (see configuration options.
3. Configure every environment that should be able to run k6 load tests by including the execution location in the environment configuration. One option is to add the statement or target via the query language.type="com.steadybit.extension_k6.location" to your existing query. You can also filter the available execution locations down, e.g., via the clustername by using (target.type="com.steadybit.extension_k6.location" and k8s.cluster-name="CLUSTER-NAME")

Version and Revision

The version and revision of the extension:

• are printed during the startup of the extension
• are added as a Docker label to the image
• are available via the version.txt/revision.txt files in the root of the image