Performance Testing Behind Firewalls: On-Premise Load Testing

Performance Testing Behind Firewalls: On-Premise Load Testing

Load testing and performance testing are important for discovering bottlenecks in your system and determining the load capacity it can handle. Most of the time, it is necessary to carry out these tests behind the firewall of companies for data privacy and security.

Loadium provides an On-Premise Load Generator solution to run performance tests behind the firewall.

What is an On-Premise Load Generator?

Our service that creates the load on the servers in your tests with Loadium is called the load generator. In standard tests, the load generator is located on Loadium servers. It runs the tests in its environment and creates loads by sending requests to the servers of the companies.

Some companies operate behind firewalls to protect their servers from DDOS and similar attacks. In this case, the load generated by the load generator is usually blocked by the firewall.

Services that you can use to bypass the firewall such as “On-Premise Load Generator” and “Dedicated IP” are provided on Loadium.

Unlike standard tests in the use of an on-premise load generator, the Load Generator service runs on the company’s server that runs the test. This way, it can safely perform load tests behind the firewall.

How Does The On-Premise Load Generator Work?

The On-Premise Load Generator is run with Docker Container launched inside the company’s servers. On-Premise Load Generator sends periodic requests to the Loadium server, receives the test information to be run, and runs the tests in the company server. During the test, the load test is performed without any data leaving the server. While the test is running, the load generator provides the report by uploading the statistical metric data it collects to Loadium servers.

When the load generator completes a test, it continues to request Loadium servers for a new test. Loadium server does not attempt to access the Load Generator service from the outside. As soon as the On-Premise Load Generator is turned off, all communication is completely cut off.

Using the Load Generator in the Loadium Interface

Its installation is done in the fastest and easiest way in the industry. It is sufficient to install Docker in the working environment for the setup. You can complete the installation in one step with the Docker command generated in the Loadium interface.

First, we create a private location to group your On-Premise Load Generators from the Loadium interface. Then copy the generated docker command by adding load generators into the private location and run the command in an environment with Docker installed. This way, the Load Generator will be operational within 1 minute (depending on internet speed).

You can get information about the current status of On-Premise Load Generators registered in Private Locations from the Loadium interface.

It is necessary to group the On-Premise Load Generators with different parameters such as the source they use, access authorizations, and the test types they are allocated (eg: “Dev agents”, “Prod agents”) in this way, a Private Location is created and added to Load Generators to group agents with similar characteristics. Then, Private Locations created as the location where the test will run should be selected on the test creation and update screens.

You can review this Wiki page for detailed installation steps: https://wiki.loadium.com/getting-started/on-premise

Running Performance Tests Behind a Firewall

Due to the increasing number of cyberattacks, companies take many security measures to keep their software and data safe. Different measures should be taken for each step in the software life cycle. There is an On-Premise Load Generator solution provided by Loadium for the precautions you can take in the test step.

Data with high-security risks are generally stored on companies’ servers or in cloud environments that are not accessible from the outside. In such cases, companies should choose methods that can work behind the firewall to test performance.

You can meet your security needs with 2 easy methods in Loadium product to run load tests on servers behind the firewall.

1. Using On-Premise Load Generator

On-Premise Load Generator is used as the most reliable method in environments with critical data. On-Premise Load Generators are services that create requests during testing and send them to company servers and also can be called ‘Agents. Depending on the size of the test, the number of Agents needed is installed on their servers by the companies. The agent runs the tests inside the server and in no way does the data sent and received during the test go out of the server. Tests are carried out without any external access to the company server. Agents can securely upload the statistical metric data they collect during the test to Loadium servers with HTTPS protocol and generate reports.

Agents are run as Docker Container on the company server, cloud platform, or personal computer and remain completely under customer supervision. For security purposes, you can restrict the environments that Agents can access from the machine where they are installed, monitor all traffic, and ensure that the data generated during the test is securely stored.

2. Using Dedicated IPs

On some platforms, they are asked to make load tests by making IPs selected from the specific IP pool accessible. Of course, this method causes many security vulnerabilities. A more reliable method is to use a dedicated IP. You can use it in tests by purchasing dedicated IPs that other customers cannot use and cannot learn.

All traffic generated during the test will be generated over the IPs you purchased. Your company’s servers must allow traffic from these IP addresses. To start using, it will be sufficient to define Dedicated IPs to Whitelist in your company’s Firewall. Then, you can perform your tests with the ‘Use Dedicated IP’ option in the tests you want.

Enjoy Load Testing!