Setting up Web servers is fairly simple. In fact, it's so simple that once the server is set up, we often don't think about it anymore. It wasn't until I had a very large Web site rollout fail miserably that I started to research a method for load-testing servers before releasing a Web site to production.

There are many, many options for load-testing a Web site. Some are commercial, and some are specific to a particular type of Web server (there are a few SharePoint-specific load testers, for example), but I struggled to find a simple "simulate a bunch of traffic" method to see how a server would handle load.

As is usually the case, many months after I needed the tool, I stumbled across it. A very simple, yet powerful tool named Siege is available in most distributions. Developed by Joe Dog Software, Siege does exactly what's on the tin: it lays siege to your Web server. It has lots of options and features, but by simply specifying a Web URL, Siege will launch a ton of generated hits on your server to see how it performs. To try Siege, you can search your software repository, or head over to http://www.joedog.org/siege-home to get the program directly from the developer.

My little Raspberry Pi server didn't crash while under siege, but it certainly was taxed!