In this example, you will learn how to run a test on Safire to measure the performance of your firewall.

When opening a test case, Safire will first verify that the test ports are connected by checking whether the ports are able to detect sync signals. If the ports are not connected to the firewall or themselves (back-to-back connection), Safire will ask you to connect the ports and wait to proceed until it can detect the port sync signal. If the ports are already connected, Safire will directly enter the page below.

Select Traffic Profile

Choose a traffic profile from the drop-down list. You can read more information about the traffic profile by hovering your mouse over the question mark icon.

Download SSL Certificates and Keys

Some applications are TLS-encrypted by SSL certificates and keys. To test firewall’s SSL inbound decryption feature, you need to import applications’ SSL certificates and keys to the firewall. Click DOWNLOAD SSL CERTIFICATES to download the certificates and keys of the applications in the traffic profile.

Build Test Iterations

By default, Safire uses 10 iterations to gradually increase the traffic load in terms of number of client IPs, number of sessions, and allocated bandwidth by 10% from one iteration to another.

To build your own test iterations, click ITERATIONS. Click button “add multiple” , and enter the start percentage, step percentage, and the number of steps, and then click GENERATE.

Configure Test Iteration Duration

Each test iteration consists of a ramp-up phase, a sustain phase, and a ramp-down phase. You can click TEST DURATION to customize the sustain phase duration of test iterations. The ramp-up and ramp-down duration are automatically adjusted based on the number of sessions of the test iteration.

The default and the minimum allowed sustain phase duration is 30 seconds. Use the three sliders to modify the sustain phase duration.

The estimated overall test duration is updated as soon as the test iteration duration is changed.

Change Waiting Time Between Iterations

If the firewall under test’s access method is set to OFF in section Select Firewall Access Method, Safire will wait the configured time before continuing to the next test iteration.

The default waiting time is 15 seconds. Change the waiting time using the increase/decrease button.

The estimated overall test duration is updated as soon as the waiting time is changed.

Connectivity Test

Safire runs a simple connectivity test prior to the performance test to validate the test case configuration by checking if a TCP connection can be established between the two test ports. Once the connectivity test is successful, the Run Test button will turn green, and Safire will continue to run the performance test. The green Run Test button indicates that the connectivity is already validated and if you run the test again, Safire will skip the connectivity test. But if you disconnect the ports or exit the test case, the Run Test button will resume back to original state.

Performance Test

By default, Safire runs ten performance test iterations. It starts with 10% of the total users defined by the selected traffic profile, and increases this by 10% for each the following iterations.

Alternatively, you can configure the test to run a different number of iterations from one upwards. This will affect the duration of the test, plus the more times you run the test, the more detailed the results.