Shift Left with Reliability Testing: A Hands-on Introduction to k6

Shift Left with Reliability Testing: A Hands-on Introduction to k6 delivered at Cloud Native Days Norway 2026

Transcript

1. Shift left with Reliability Testing A hands-on introduction to k6 Imma Valls Developer Advocate, Grafana Labs Tom Donohue Field Engineer, Grafana Labs
2. github.com/immavalls/ cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop
3. Today's agenda Introduction Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD Lab 1 - Setup Lab 5 - Infrastructure load test Lab 2 - Basic load test Lab 6 - Scale with the k6 Operator Lab 3 - Workload in rps k6 AI and wrap-up Introduction to reliability testing and k6 Setup your environment for the labs Run a simple k6 test Choosing the right model for your test Choosing the right model for your test Load test a DB and correlate your infrastructure tests Move to a distributed test on Kubernetes Demo, take-home exercises and Q&A
6. Reliability in the Developer Workflow The lifecycle of Reliable Software Detect Observe Respond and fix
7. Introduction to k6 The lifecycle of Reliable Software Detect Observe Respond and fix
8. Introduction to k6 What is k6? • • Cross-platform binary (runs on your machine and in CI import http from 'k6/http' Command-Line interface CLI export default function () { script.js http.get('https: • You write tests in JavaScript } • Supports modern protocols HTTP, WebSocket, gRPC $ k6 run script.js • Extensible using plugins (xk6) quickpizza.grafana.com')
9. k6 Testing Capabilities Types of performance tests Smoke Load Stress Spike Does it work at minimal load? Holding at expected traffic level Where does it break? Does it survive a surge? Verifies system functionality under tiny traffic before running heavier tests. Assesses performance under normal and peak concurrent user activity. Pushes beyond normal limits to find breaking points and maximum capacity. Tests response and recovery during sudden, extreme traffic bursts. Minimal load Expected traffic Maximum capacity https://grafana.com/load-testing/types-of-load-testing Sudden surge
10. Lab 1 - Setup Today’s lab architecture OBSERVABILITY Prometheus HTTP QuickPizza :3333 OTLP Loki Alloy Tempo Pyroscope SQL Postgres :5432 Grafana
11. Lab 1 cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop / 1.lab-setup
12. Lab 1 - Setup Setup checklist Docker and Docker compose are running Stuck? Let us know! (optional) k6 installed (k6 version) Cloned the workshop repo (github.com/immavalls/cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop) Compose stack is up k3d or kind and kubectl installed (for later labs)
13. Lab 2 - Basic load test How k6 defines a test Virtual Users (VUs) Iteration Duration How many users are simulated One single run of the main function How long the test runs VU1 -> login -> request func() { Run test for 1 minute VU2 -> login -> request doSomething() VU3 -> login -> request doSomethingElse() ... doAFinalThing() }
14. Lab 2 - Basic load test Anatomy of a k6 test script Modules Test options Main function
15. Lab 2 - Basic load test Running your first test Execution mode Live progress Scenarios
16. Lab 2 - Basic load test Understanding the test output HTTP metrics Execution metrics Network metrics
17. Lab 2 cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop / 2.basic-load-test
18. Lab 3 - Workload in rps Choosing the right model Steady stream "Open model" 100 rps 70 rps Response time Iteration arrival rate Iteration arrival rate Fixed virtual users "Closed model" 100 rps Response time
19. Lab 3 cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop / 3.workload-in-rps
20. Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD Defining pass/fail criteria Thresholds A rule that's evaluated against the whole run export let options = { thresholds: { http_req_duration: ["p(95) Performs an assertion on each response Doesn't stop the test fails the test run }}; export default function () { const res = http.get("https: Checks 200"], quickpizza.com"); check(res, { 'status is 200': (r) } r.status 200 });
21. Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD Failing a build if a test fails on: pull_request jobs: load-tests: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v4 - run: docker compose up -d /-wait - uses: grafana/setup-k6-action@v1 # exits non-zero if a threshold fails - run: k6 run loadtest.js
22. Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD Failing a build if a test fails - GitLab edition performance-test: image: name: grafana/k6:latest entrypoint: [''] stage: test script: - k6 run -e BASE_URL=https://staging.example.com tests/performance/test.js
23. Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD Metrics let us see the exact breaking point
24. Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD Healthy performance looks flat
25. Lab 4 - Assertions and CI/CD 📚 /docs/k6/latest/extensions/explore/ k6 is extensible Protocols Outputs Use cases • •HTTP • •Browser testing • •InfluxDB • •Websocket • •Infrastructure testing • •Prometheus • •SQL / NoSQL • •Chaos testing • •TimescaleDB • •AMQP / Kafka • …. • •Grafana Cloud • •Crypto • •NewRelic • •Redis • •Dynatrace • …. • …. JAVASCRIPT RUNTIME xk6 EXTENSIONS GOLANG
26. Lab 4 cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop / 4.assertions
27. Lab 5 - Infrastructure testing Load testing the database with k6/x/sql TODO: SAY SOMETHING ABOUT CORRELATING REMOTE WRITE INFRA METRICS Prometheus TCP Postgres :5432 Alloy Grafana
28. Lab 5 cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop / 5.infrastructure-testing
29. Lab 6 - Scale with the k6 Operator Scaling testing beyond your laptop YOUR LAPTOP K6 OPERATOR CLUSTER App App SAME SCRIPT, LOAD SHARED ACROSS JOBS
30. Lab 6 - Scale with the k6 Operator Defining a TestRun with the k6 Operator apiVersion: k6.io/v1alpha1 kind: TestRun metadata: name: pizza-please spec: parallelism: 4 script: configMap: name: my-test script: test.js kubectl create configmap \ my-test \ --from-file /path/to/test.js
31. Lab 6 cnd-norway-2026-k6-workshop / 6.operator
32. Lab 6 - Scale with the k6 Operator Run a distributed test Create or access a k8s cluster Install the k6 Operator Apply the TestRun Watch the runner pods See the results in Grafana
33. k6 AI and wrap-up AI as a first-class feature Ships agent integration, skills, and configuration for your AI workflow of choice k6 x agent k6 x mcp k6 x docs Brings MCP server to k6, agents can run k6 and interpret results natively. Programmatic access to k6 documentation via CLI.
34. k6 AI and wrap-up SLIDE ABOUT K6 AI GOES HERE TODO
35. k6 AI and wrap-up A roadmap to shift-left testing with k6 Test one thing Run it on every change Observe and scale it
36. Workshop wrap-up Thank you for attending! Have more questions? Join us at community.grafana.com or Grafana public slack grafana.slack.com #grafana /grafana community.grafana.com