| Repeatability
Repeatability is an aspect of testing
that is crucial. FlameThrower provides a test platform
that repeats test iterations with ultimate precision so
you can be assured that any changes or optimization you
make to the network or devices being tested are reflected
accurately. Using multiple PC or test devices not designed
with this in mind will give you erratic results. Also,
with our exclusive sequencer function you can point and
click your way to advanced testing without the need for
extensive scripting input.
Upon test Execution FlameThrower allows you to easily
interpret results. From real-time micro statistics to
rolled-up automatically generated reports you have the
choice to see test metrics the way you want to.
Server Validation
Servers come in all shapes, sizes and capacities. The
newer blade server solutions provide levels of consolidation
and scalability that is difficult to achieve with the
conventional rack mounted variety. In any case deploying
and optimizing the correct servers for your network applications
is imperative for success. Understanding how servers perform
from a general perspective will allow you to deploy the
right amount of equipment for the application at hand.
FlameThrower has the ability to create 2,000,000 emulated
users connecting and running tens of thousands of multi-protocol
activities per second against a server. This type of testing
will show you specifically the top end of server capacity
and at what point(s) specific failures occur.
Security
Attacks on the vulnerabilities of network infrastructures
are on the rise. Not only are hackers trying to block
access to sites via denial of service attacks; they are
also aggressively taking advantage of known vulnerabilities
to break into sensitive business infrastructures. The
advent of intrusion detection and protection solutions
is an attempt to plug the holes. Tools that help test
IDS are available to showcase how they see specific known
attacks. Unfortunately these tests are typically done
under no load conditions, thus the IDS can easily see
any attack being delivered. When under real world load
many IDS solutions cannot keep up with inspecting the
good traffic from the bad, thus attacks get through or
many false alarms are indicated, causing damage and undo
efforts to analyze actual attacks from ordinary traffic.
With FlameThrower, IDS solutions can be put to the real
test by creating typical and non-typical user load scenarios
along side attack signature generators. FlameThrower can
also mix in actual denial of service attack load that
will show case the ability of IDS and Firewall solutions
to filter such attacks. This will give you the information
needed for optimized deployment and configuration of increasingly
complex intrusion protection and other advanced security
solutions.
The Application
An application is no good to users and businesses if the
infrastructure it is placed on cannot meet the needs of
information access and assurance. Many application processes
that used to reside as server or OS functions are now
being relegated to more intelligent devices in the network
plumbing. SSL acceleration, network caching, content switching,
stateful packet inspection and other technologies are
being deployed for better performance and deployment of
more traffic intensive applications.
By creating emulated users that look to the network as
real users connecting, accessing and retrieving information
and recreating other real-world transactions. FlameThrower
can baseline content delivery networks before any application
is even deployed. FlameThrower is the only solution to
emulate both the clients and servers from a single appliance.
This Consolidation of functionality makes it extremely
easy to bring up end-to-end stress tests, or tests that
isolate parts of the infrastructure to determine thresholds
and potential failure points.
As an integrated function in Mercury Interactive's®
LoadRunner® Application testing software the two solutions
work hand in hand determining performance and capacity
profiles of the network and the back-end applications.
No other solutions available provide this range of test
and measurement coverage!
Protocol Coverage
Web based traffic accounts for the majority of an infrastructure's
external or public presence and is an ever increasing
aspect of internal network applications traffic flows.
HTTP, secure transactions via SSL, FTP, streaming media,
email and others take on the role of the majority of content
delivery. How does your infrastructure handle thousands
or tens of thousands of users connecting, disconnecting,
retrieving content, and other activities? This constant
ebbing and flowing of user transactions needs to be understood
not only in production environments but also during pre-deployment
or device validation. Web sites rely heavily on new network
devices to ease traffic congestion and improve security.
FlameThrower provides the ability to create users coming
into you site from over 2,000,000 host IP addresses emanating
from many network subnets. Adding complete HTTP header
control, user think times, cookies and other support allows
FlameThrower to create the most realistic portrayal of
actual user activity and behavior. Now you can ensure
timely and accurate delivery of information.
SSL
The browser lock is on more and more often. When applications
rely on SSL to perform sensitive business transactions
or even VPN like connectivity server and network capacity
and performance can degrade substantially. The shear computing
power needed to setup and maintain encrypted communications
is staggering. Next generation SSL acceleration technologies
have become available to off load the initial handshake
between clients and severs as well as the bulk encryption
of data flows. Understanding the true benefit of these
complex solutions can be difficult. Manufactures specifications
on SSL accelerators continue to increase but the reality
is these numbers are usually based on unrealistic tests
or pure extrapolation.
FlameThrower is the fastest SSL testing solution available
today. With the ability to create over 4000 non-resumptive
SSL connections per/second per chassis and achieve high
bulk encryption throughput, you can quickly discern which
SSL acceleration technology will meet your demanding application
needs.
Virtualization Testing
Many new devices being deployed in data centers are taking
advantage of increased CPU power and ASIC technologies
to deploy more functionality into IP services. In a single
modular chassis we are beginning to see virtualized network
components such as Firewalls, Routers, VPN gateways, Server
Load Balancers and other functions that can be created
via the click of a mouse from the device's management
console. Typically the way these devices send traffic
to specific virtualized devices is via VLAN tagging on
incoming packets. In essence specific virtualized devices
will handle all traffic and users on a specific VLAN.
This type of deployment is particularly useful in larger
data centers and IP provisioning environments negating
the need for mass amounts of discrete networking devices.
With the ability to uniquely set the VLAN for specific
segments of emulated user traffic, FlameThrower can effectively
create intense load on virtualized network infrastructures.
A simple configuration option within a test allows FlameThrower
to immediately target virtualized environments with realistic
user traffic in the same way it would test and stress
a traditional network environment. No other test appliance
offers this level of flexibility.
IPv6
The world of TCP/IP is running out of numbers. With IP
based devices being deployed as handheld and even consumer
appliances the scheme of 32-bit addressing is being pushed
beyond it intended design. NAT and other proxy implantations
to get around the lack of address space are only short-term
bandages. IPv6 provides 128-bit addressing which allows
over a trillion IP addresses for global use. The transition
from IPv4 TO IPv6 will not be an overnight occurrence;
there will be an extended migration from current IPv4
technologies that must coexist with newer IPv6 deployments.
IPv6 also brings many new capabilities, as well as problems,
that network operations managers need to become accustomed
too.
As an initial entrée into the world of IPv6, FlameThrower
provides the means of emulating clients and servers doing
mass loads of IPv6 HTTP transactions. The unique ability
of FlameThrower to offer each test port as an independent
test agent allows the mixture of IPv6 and traditional
IPv4 traffic to hit the same network. As you look to the
next generation of IP, FlameThrower is there to help you
understand the net affect of what will be an industry
wide transition.
Content Delivery Devices
FlameThrower is such a powerful stressing solution that
even the most advanced content delivery gear can be put
to the ultimate test. Although the intent is not to break
every thing FlameThrower tests but to understand how and
where devices fail. This is extremely important for both
the validation and configuration of content aware networking
devices.
When deploying Server Load Balancing solutions it is imperative
to know how load is being distributed and is it meeting
the needs of your bandwidth requirements. FlameThrower
is able to "see" through virtual IP addresses
of Server Load Balancers showing you both in real server
and emulated server environments how your load distribution
polices are working, or not is many cases.
Caching and other intermediary content delivery solutions
can be tested for their ability to handle surges of TCP
connectivity without impacting the back-end servers or
applications, while still keeping up with content requests.
Traffic Shaping devices rely on polices and thresholds
to make changes to traffic flows. FlameThrower showcases
these policies and functions within content aware devices
by allowing users to test from the user connectivity level
to the application level.
In more complex environments fault tolerant data paths
are established to ensure 100% uptime in case of failure.
In these environments how do you know that the relay will
switch in case of massive failure? FlameThrower can quickly
create the scenario to cause fault or engage the fault
tolerant policies, thus allowing you to see the effectiveness
of the failsafe infrastructure.
The above are just a few of the many applications and
benefits that FlameThrower provides. As a growing solution
ever more capability, capacity and protocol support is
being added to ensure that FlameThrower will meet your
current and long term needs for ongoing network infrastructure
assurance.
Pricing and Availability
For more detailed information, product configurations
and pricing please contact Gillaspy Associates at 805-987-1959
or click here
to register for more information.
Since 1997, Gillaspy Associates
has built a solid reputation for developing strong relationships
with our customers by providing them with quality solutions
and ongoing support.
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FlameThrower/III Datasheet