This is a very common question. In fact, a good example is the email this week from a new user stating, “Just tried to test your service and it came back with these comments:
I am not sure what to do now…Why do I have to verify these servers?”
Are You Load Testing Facebook?
However, the error messages above indicate that his test plan will be hitting servers that aren’t verified (authorized for testing). Put another way, his scenarios contain requests that go to servers that aren’t his, and LoadStorm gets in trouble when our customers load test other people’s servers without their permission.
Does he really want to hit Twitter and Facebook for his load test? If so, is he testing their ability to handle his load? If so, does he have their permission to hammer on their servers? Probably not. They tend to get upset when someone utilizes a cloud load testing tool to simulate thousands of VUsers against their social media platform. Please read the terms and conditions of use for those services.
And where do those VUsers originate? LoadStorm. So who gets the phone call from their lawyers? We do.
Prevent Denial of Service Attacks
Our verification process is designed to prevent LoadStorm from being used as a Denial of Service (DOS) weapon. By placing a code on your home page that LoadStorm can request and confirm, our system confirms that you have the control over that server; thus, it is safe for our tool to hammer it with VUsers.
Recommendation
To verify a server follow the instructions in our learning centers for LITE or for PRO.
Ignore all third-party servers that are not crucial to your web application. LoadStorm will not make any requests to ignored servers. Remember the goal is to test the scalability of your web servers, and not those of third-parties. If you feel there is a third-party server that is crucial to your testing needs please email them and copy [email protected] requesting permission from their company to let you use our software to load test their web servers and yours as part of your testing needs.