Frequently Asked Questions

What is PolyBox?
What is a drone?
What kind of products can I test?
What kind of tests can I run?
How can I get a PolyBox?
What makes PolyBox special compared to other tools?
What kind of support do you provide?
How does PolyBox interact with the device under test?
What can I control in a workload?
What can be a drone?
Can I use my own drones?
Do I need to know Web Polygraph to use PolyBox?
Can I use Web Polygraph without PolyBox?
Should I use PolyBox if I already have a custom Polygraph management environment?
Can I use PolyBox or drones for non-intended purposes?
Are PolyBox or drones rack-mountable?
Do you accept orders from outside of the United States of America?

PolyBox is an appliance that manages HTTP performance tests. Its functions include such common tasks as building a test workload, starting a test, stoping a test, generating a performance report, restarting an old test with new parameters, as well as run-time monitoring and archiving.

You can manage tests from your favorite Web browser, and the comfort of your own workstation. Alternatively, you can use the browser already installed on PolyBox.

PolyBox uses other PCs to generate traffic. We call those PCs "drones."

PolyBox uses other PCs to generate traffic. We call those PCs "drones" because they have little autonomy and are guided by PolyBox.

Any PC that meets certain hardware requirements can be used as a drone. PolyBox takes care of configuring the drones, including the operating system and Web Polygraph installation. The Measurement Factory provides drones that are guaranteed to work with PolyBox, and that have enough power for most common test environments.

Typically, half of the drones are used to generate client-side traffic (HTTP requests) and the other half generate server-side traffic (HTTP responses), with the device under test in the middle.

You should be able to test any HTTP intermediary. That is, any device that accepts HTTP requests from a client, forwards them to a server, and then forwards server's response back to the client.

We use PolyBox to test intermediaries such as caching proxies, filtering proxies, content-modifying proxies, L4/7 switches and load balancers, XSLT processors, etc.

You can run a wide variety of performance tests against HTTP intermediaries. PolyBox uses the Web Polygraph software to generate HTTP traffic. Here are some common tests that you may like to run:

• Testing a forward caching proxy using a realistic workload that simulates a typical ISP or corporate environment
• Investigating the load balancing abilities of a L7 switch using URLs grouped by content type or extension
• Estimating performance overheads of a content-modifying proxy or an XSLT processor with custom markup content
• Studying effects of DoS and DDoS attacks on an intermediary by bombarding it with stupid, "unrealistic" traffic

PolyBox users can configure any standard (PolyMix, WebAxe) or custom Web Polygraph workload.

Please see our ordering page for basic ordering details.

Below are the reasons that we think you will like PolyBox. These comparisions are based on an abstract "average tool out there"; your mileage will vary in any particular case, of course.

• Ease of use combined with high-performance
• Availability of standard workloads verified in numerous high-profile public tests such as cache-offs
• Reasonable cost
• Ability to manage tests remotely via a Web browser interface
• Unparallelled flexibility of Web Polygraph
• Freedom to make custom modifications that meet the demands of your particular testing environment
• Open approach to the architecture and implementation of the appliance
• Support team that treats customers as humans rather than revenue-generation sources

The best kind we all can afford: We hold your hands (virtually) until you are able to run basic tests. We also provide unlimited software upgrades and e-mail support for six months. We are usually able to respond to all queries the same business day.

After the first six months, we provide best-effort support for PolyBoxes running reasonably current code.

Extended and telephone support contracts are also available.

You tell PolyBox what test workload to use. PolyBox configures drones to generate the traffic based on your workload specification. The client-simulating drones (clients) send HTTP requests to the device under test (an HTTP intermediary). The device under test handles the requests on its own or forwards the requests to server-simulating drones (servers). The server drones reply with appropriate HTTP responses. The intermediary forwards the responses back to the clients. Detailed performance logs are collected run-time and then rendered into human-friendly reports.

Most aspects of this interaction are configurable. For example, it is possible to test HTTP proxies working in an interception mode.

Standard workloads supported directly by PolyBox have a minimum number of knobs to avoid user mistakes in customizing a workload. Only key parameters such as peak request rate are usually specified by the user.

The "Custom workload" mode opens access to all Web Polygraph knobs. The user can specify the exact workload to be executed, including details like offered hit ratio, artificial response time delays, object size distributions, content types, etc. This mode usually requires understanding of the Polygraph configuration language (PGL).

A PC with a network card and BIOS that support PXE (an Intel boot-on-network protocol) can probably be a drone. Recommended hardware configuration is:

• at least 256MB of RAM
• at least 450 MHz CPU
• Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B (82557, 82558 chip set) NIC

Other configurations, in particular other network cards, may work. If you need to deviate from the above, you may want to contact us to double check your configuration. Note, however, that we can offer virtually no free support for PolyBoxes that use drones we do not provide, regardless of alleged drone configuration.

Drones do not use hard drives, video/sound cards, or serial/parallel ports, though the presence of those should not cause problems other than excessive heat and power consumption.

You can try. Please note that we can offer virtually no free support for PolyBoxes that use drones we do not provide.

We are being quite rigid in this particular context because it often takes a lot of our resources to debug problems that end up being specific to your custom hardware. We want to give customers an ability to use their existing hardware and/or to purchase cheaper drones from other sources, but we cannot afford to support those configurations for free.

Please contact us if you want to pay for custom drone support.

PolyBox lets you run state-of-the-art standard workloads (e.g., PolyMix-4 and WebAxe-4) with virtually no knowledge of Polygraph software.

If you want to write your own workloads, you will need to learn PGL (Polygraph configuration language). Learning PGL may take a few days or a few weeks (depending on your background and abilities). Plenty of examples and documentation are available.

The Measurement Factory also provides training and consulting for Web Polygraph.

Yes, you can. Web Polygraph is available at no charge in source code form. If you are a savvy Unix user or administrator you can install Polygraph and have simple tests running in minutes.

On the other hand, it is difficult to manage Polygraph tests, especially when several load-generating hosts are involved. Savvy users usually end up writing elaborate management scripts to control remote test execution and result collection.

Should you use PolyBox? The answer depends on whether it is cost effective for your team to develop and maintain a complicated test management environment compared to paying for PolyBox.

You would want to use PolyBox if you continue to spend resources maintaining your custom environment and those resources are more than the PolyBox price. Another reason for you to get a PolyBox is to protect your investment from arbitrary changes in Web Polygraph interfaces while staying current with Web Polygraph releases.

You sure can. We do not intentionally disable or customize our hardware to make it impossible to be used for something else should your satisfy your testing needs or change plans. We even use the same kind of hardware to for other purposes ourselves.

If you use PolyBox or drones for non-intended purposes, we cannot support them, of course.

PolyBoxes and drones are available in two form factors: A small (8inx7inx10in) sexy "cube" and a rack mountable enclosure. Please specify your preference when ordering. Rack mountable enclosures cost slightly more.

Yes. International orders are accepted. Please contact us for international pricing and availability.