Load Testing Strimzi for Kafka on Kubernetes

This paper introduces a custom-built load testing framework tailored for Strimzi, an open-source platform that deploys Apache Kafka on Kubernetes. Unlike generic tools, our system-developed using Quarkus for backend orchestration and React for visualization-is designed specifically to assess Kafka's behavior in cloud-native, containerized environments. We identify gaps in existing solutions and present a test harness capable of generating sustained load, capturing performance metrics, and highlighting operational bottlenecks under stress. The evaluation, conducted in collaboration with Red Hat Czech s.r.o., validates Strimzi's resilience across extended workloads and proposes future improvements, including parameterized test plans and external storage integration.