LoadStorm is in essence an intentional owner-generated denial-of-service. Clearly, this tool could be abused if every user was allowed to create storms on any domain they chose. However, a user may like to try the services offered by LoadStorm before purchasing an extensive use package. There are two profiles a user can be granted access under.

First, the test/trial user will have limited access to the full scalability of LoadStorm, but have full access to features and functionality offered by LoadStorm. This test/trial profile allows users to become familiar with the features and function of LoadStorm. Furthermore, users will be able to generate functional tests on target servers without proof of root access. This is beneficial to both the customer and content provider. The customer can try without buy. The content provider can field its product to potential customers in order to create dialogue.

Second, the full/licensed user will have complete access to scalability of LoadStorm as well as all features of the trial user. A licensed user will have largely unlimited scalability of test/load size. LoadStorm is capable of automatically bringing additional LoadGenerator servers online to support ramping of load capacity. In order to prevent misuse of the capabilities of LoadStorm, there is a root access restriction. The licensed user must place a specific encryption key in their domain's root. In this manner, only a user with full root access to a target server is allowed to ramp up LoadStorm load tests upon it. This process is similar to safeguards used by Google and Yahoo in adding site services to a server.

Typical information desired by licensed users:

* Maximum capacity of users before any single user response is greater than 10 seconds
* Average number of users before the average response by all users exceeds 5 seconds
* Isolation of test conditions to specific users performing specific actions in sequence
* Service reliability during peak usage
* Use and availability of administrative functions during peak usage
* Minimum response time during peak usage
* Maximum response time during peak usage
* Network bandwidth during peak usage
* Network bandwidth during off hours
* Determination of scalability index

It is a violation of LoadStorm's user license agreement to create a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack on a target web service not owned/operated by the user. Also, a circumvention of the encryption key safeguard in order to use LoadStorm illicitly is strictly prohibited.