Tsung for RADIUS/EAP

Tsung is a multi-protocol distributed load testing tool.

The SigScale plug-ins included here add support for the RADIUS and EAP protocols.

RADIUS

The RADIUS protocol stack provided in SigScale's radierl project is used by the RADIUS plug-ins included here.

Scenario Configuration

An XML format configuration file defines the behaviour of a scenario Tsung will run when it is started. With the inclusion of the RADIUS plug-ins a scenario configuration file may include a <radius>...</radius> stanza as in the examples below.

Servers

The system under test (SUT) is defined in the <servers> stanza with each host port defined in a <server> element. A RADIUS example follows:

<servers>
    <server host="ocs" port="1812" type="udp" />
    <server host="ocs" port="1813" type="udp" />
</servers>

Clients

Tsung may be run distributed on a cluster of hosts. Each host is described in the <clients> stanza of the scenario configuration file. The Tsung controller node is the one Tsung was started on. Other nodes are started automatically using rsh:

<clients>
    <client host="tsung-slave-1" />
    <client host="tsung-slave-2" />
    <client host="tsung-slave-3" />
</clients>

Users

In Tsung a "user" is an open socket on a client running a protocol. Users are defined by a <users> element within an <arrivalphase> which specifies how many users are started and how quickly. It is found in the <load> stanza which defines the "load progression":

<load>
    <arrivalphase phase="1" duration="10" unit="minute">
        <users maxnumber="100" arrivalrate="5" unit="second" />
    </arrivalphase>
    <arrivalphase phase="2" duration="1440" unit="minute">
        <users maxnumber="150" arrivalrate="1" unit="second" />
    </arrivalphase>
</load>

Sessions

In Tsung "sessions" describe the requests to execute on a user socket. Sessions are defined in the <sessions> stanza with named session types defined in <session> elements. The protocol used is defined within <request> elements which may optionally be enclosed within a <transaction> element (used for grouping in reports):

<sessions>
    <session name="auth-pwd" type="ts_radius">
        <transaction name="eap-pwd">
            <request> ... </request>
            <request> ... </request>
            <request> ... </request>
        </transaction>
    </session>
</sessions>

RADIUS

In the above example a session was defined to use the RADIUS plug-in with an attribute of type="ts_radius". This allows the use of a <radius> element within a <request>.

RADIUS Authentication

RADIUS Access-Request transactions are configured with a <radius> element having a type=auth attribute. The value of the secret attribute defines the secret shared with the NAS. Simple authentication is configured with a <pap> element:

<transaction name="auth-simple">
    <request>
        <radius type="auth" secret="helga1989" username="john">
            <pap cb_mod="ts_auth_pap" password="12345" />
        </radius>
    </request>
</transaction>

RADIUS Accounting

RADIUS Accounting-Request transactions are configured with a <radius> element having a type=acc attribute. An <accounting> element may include an interim attribute specifying how many interim updates to send between start and stop requests.

<transaction name="accounting">
    <request>
        <radius type="acc" secret="helga1989" username="john">
             <accounting cb_mod="ts_accounting" interim="5" />
        </radius>
    </request>
</transaction>

Usernames/Passwords

The above examples use static usernames and passwords however they may also be provided through dynamic substitution as shown in the example below where a credentials.csv file is consulted and a random row is selected:

<setdynvars sourcetype="file" fileid="credentials" delimiter="," order="random">
    <var name="username" />
    <var name="password" />
</setdynvars>
<transaction name="auth-simple">
    <request subst="true">
        <radius type="auth" secret="helga1989" username="%%_username%%">
            <pap cb_mod="ts_auth_pap" password="%%_password%%" />
        </radius>
    </request>
</transaction>

Maximum Registrations

The example below demonstrates using the `max_reg' attribute to end a user session (default=1000):

<transaction name="auth-simple">
    <request subst="true">
        <radius type="auth" max_reg="10000" secret="helga1989" username="%%_username%%">
            <pap cb_mod="ts_auth_pap" password="%%_password%%" />
        </radius>
    </request>
</transaction>

Timing

The <thinktime> element is normally used in Tsung to pace client sessions however since with RADIUS sessions are long lived the <radius> element supports attributes to control inter-request timing. In the example below a random 50-200ms delay between requests will be used:

<radius type="auth" secret="helga1989" username="john" delay="random" min="50" max="200">

Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)

Support for EAP protocol within RADIUS transactions is provided through SigScale's OCS project. Currently only the PWD method is supported however TTLS is available in the OCS and another plug-in is planned.

The example below shows how to configure an EAP-PWD transaction by repeating RADIUS access requests while the AAA server replies with challenge responses, ending when EAP indicates the final response:

<transaction name="eap-pwd">
    <repeat name="pwd_repeat" max_repeat="4000">
        <request>
            <radius type="auth" shared_secret="helga1989" username="john" result_var="result">
                <eap_pwd cb_mod="ts_auth_pwd" password="12345" />
            </radius>
        </request>
        <while var="result" eq="challenge" />
    </repeat>
</transaction>

Build & Install

The below step-by-step instructions should work on Ubuntu 16.04/16.10.

Install required packages

sudo apt install git autoconf libtool make libssl-dev erlang erlang-mochiweb nodejs-legacy npm python-matplotlib gnuplot libtemplate-perl
sudo npm install bower -g

Checkout radierl application from repository

git clone https://github.com/sigscale/radierl.git
cd radierl

Build radierl application

aclocal; autoheader; autoconf; libtoolize --automake; automake --add-missing
mkdir ../radierl.build
cd ../radierl.build
../radierl/configure
make

Install radierl application

sudo make install
cd

Checkout ocs application from repository

git clone https://github.com/sigscale/ocs.git
cd ocs

Build ocs application

aclocal; autoheader; autoconf; libtoolize --automake; automake --add-missing
mkdir ../ocs.build
cd ../ocs.build
# correct mochiweb version
MochiVsn=`sed -nr 's/^[ \t]*\{vsn, *"([0-9.]+)"}, */\1/p' /usr/lib/erlang/lib/mochiweb/ebin/mochiweb.app`
sudo mv /usr/lib/erlang/lib/mochiweb /usr/lib/erlang/lib/mochiweb-${MochiVsn}
../ocs/configure
make

Install ocs application

sudo make install
cd

Checkout tsung application from repository

git clone https://github.com/sigscale/tsung.git
cd tsung

Build tsung application

./configure
make

Install tsung application

sudo make install