EDIT

There is already a test suite http://int.e-taxonomy.eu/jenkins/job/utis-jmeter-tests/ which could be repaired.

Otherwise we may want to use another test tool like Gatling, ...
This descission may also depend on the kinds of tests that are to be applied:
Which tests to we need to implement?

• API Functional Tests (Tools: Gatling, REST Assured + Hamcrest to do assertions, jMeter?, ....)
• Load tests (Tools: Gatling, jMeter?, ...)
• Soak Tests
• Peak Tests

For a brief introduction into the different test types and on a quite subjective and selective overview on existing tools, see for example: https://dzone.com/articles/5-types-of-tests-to-perform-on-your-apis

Comparison of gatling, jmeter and grinder

On how to run Gatling load tests from distributed client machines to crate a heavy load on a server or cluster of servers: https://dzone.com/articles/running-gatling-with-distributed-environment

Maybe include into Cucumber (https://cucumber.io/docs/guides/api-automation/?lang=java)

Some links for REST assured: https://rest-assured.io/, https://github.com/rest-assured/rest-assured/wiki/Usage