Apache Bench - Load test a protected page

ab.sh

#!/bin/bash

COOKIE_JAR="ab-cookie-jar"
COOKIE_NAME="_myapp_session"
USERNAME="foo@bar.com"
PASSWORD="password"
LOGIN_PAGE_URI="http://localhost:3000/users/sign_in"
TEST_PAGE_URI="http://localhost:3000/dashboard"

echo "Logging in and storing session id."
curl -i -c $COOKIE_JAR -X POST -d "user[email]=$USERNAME" -d "user[password]=$PASSWORD" $LOGIN_PAGE_URI
SESSION_ID=$(cat $COOKIE_JAR | grep $COOKIE_NAME | cut -f 7)

echo "Performing load test."
ab -n 1 -c 1 -v4 -C "$COOKIE_NAME=$SESSION_ID" $TEST_PAGE_URI