Starting a DDoS concurrent session flood test

FortiTester tests the DUT's ability to handle attempts to deplete the DUT's resources. FortiTester floods the DUT with HTTP attacks and then puts the session on hold for an extended period of time.

To start a DDoS concurrent session flood test:

1. In Security testing, expand DDoS and click concurrent session flood.
2. Click Create New.
3. Configure the network or select a network template. See Using network configuration templates for how to create a network template.
4. Select a Certificate Group, if applicable.
5. Click OK.
6. Configure the test case options described below.
7. Click Start to run the test case.

FortiTester saves the configuration automatically so you can run the test again later. You can also click Save to save the test case without running it.

Tip 1: You can copy an existing case and change its settings to create a new case. In the case list, click Clone to clone the configuration. Only the case name is different from the original case. Tip 2: You can add or edit a comment when the test is running. This comment can be used to search for the test result in the Results page. This is useful especially when the test runs for a long time.

DDoS concurrent session flood test case options

Settings	Guidelines
Basic Information
Name	Specify the case name, or just use the default. The name appears in the list of test cases.
Ping Server Timeout	If a FortiTester connects to a DUT via a switch, the switch might cause a ping timeout, resulting in the test case failing to run. If this occurs, increase the timeout. The default is 15 seconds. The valid range is 0 to 600. NOTE: You can disable this end-to-end connectivity test by entering a setting of 0. If the DUT is unable to return packets, it is recommended you do so.
Number of Samples	Select the number of samples. The default is 20, which means the web UI will show the last 20 sample data (about 20 seconds) in the test case running page. You can select 20, 60, or 120.
Script Config	Select the script that will run before/after the test. To create a script, see Using script object templates.
Steady Duration	Specify the test duration. The default is 10 minutes. The test stops automatically after the duration you specify.
Stopping Status in Second	The maximum time out in seconds allotted for FortiTester to close all TCP connections after the test finishes.
DNS Host Group	Select the DNS host group to look up the IP address of a domain name. To create a DNS host group, see Creating DNS host group.
DUT Monitor	Select to monitor a FortiGate device under test (DUT). If selected, you can monitor the DUT from the DUT Monitor tab on the management interface. To create a DUT monitoring, see Using DUT monitoring.
Network Settings If you have selected a network config template, the network settings automatically inherit the configurations in the template. See Using network configuration templates for the description of network settings.
Load
Simulated Users	Number of users to simulate.
Maximum Concurrent Connections	Determines the maximum number of concurrent TCP connections supported through or with the DUT/SUT. This test is intended to find the maximum number of entries the DUT/SUT can store in its connection table.
DDoS Type	DDoS attack traffic: Single Packet Flood. After you select a type, selection boxes for subtypes are displayed below. To change the percentage mix of subtypes, double-click the pie chart and adjust the percentages.
Client Profile
Source Port Range	Specify a client port range. The valid range is 10,000 to 65,535, which is also the default.
IP Change Algorithm/Port Change Algorithm	Select a change algorithm: Increment or Random. This setting determines how the system changes source/destination IP addresses and ports to simulate multiple client requests. The Increment option uses the next IP address or port in the range, for example: 10.11.12.1 -> 10.11.12.2; port 10000 -> 10001. The Random option selects an IP address or port in the range randomly.
Server Profile
Case Server Port	The server port where the test case traffic arrives.
Client/Server TCP Options
TCP Receive Window	The receive window in which you want the TCP stack to send TCP segments. The receive window informs the peer how many bytes of data the stack is currently able to receive. The supplied value is used in all segments sent by the stack. The valid range is 0 to 65535.
Delayed Acks	Select to cause the TCP stack to implement the Delayed ACK strategy, which attempts to minimize the transmission of zero-payload ACK packets. Acknowledgments will be deferred and should be piggybacked on top of valid data packets. If successfully deferred, these acknowledgments are free, in the sense that they consume no additional bandwidth.
Delayed Ack Timeout	If you select Delayed ACKs, use this timeout value to specify the maximum time the TCP stack waits to defer ACK transmission. If this timer expires, the stack transmits a zero-payload acknowledgment.
Timestamps Option	Select to add a TCP time stamp to each TCP segment.
Enable Push Flag	Select to set the TCP PSH (push) flag in all TCP packets. This flag causes buffered data to be pushed to the receiving application. If deselected, the PSH flag is not set in any TCP packet.
SACK Option	Select to enable TCP Selective Acknowledgment Options(SACK).
Enable TCP Keepalive	Select to enable TCP Keep-alive Timer.
Keepalive Timeout	If you enable TCP Keepalive, use this timeout value to specify the maximum time to send your peer a keep-alive probe packet
Keepalive Probes	If you enable TCP Keepalive, use this value to specify the maximum probes to detect the broken connection.
Override Internal Timeout Calculation	Select to override the TCP stack calculation of the retransmission timeout value.
Retransmission Timeout	If you select Override Internal Timeout Calculation, use this value for the first transmission of a particular data or control packet; it is doubled for each subsequent retransmission.
Retries	The number of times a timed-out packet is retransmitted before aborting further retransmission. If the client does not receive a response after the configured number of retries have been attempted, the error is logged in the results. CSV file as a TCP timeout when a SYN or FIN is sent, and no SYN/ACK or FIN/ACK from the server is received.
FinACK Timer	This value measures the amount of time that a SimUser waits after it finishes its actions and before it directly breaks all of its TCP connections (that is, the time to wait to receive the LAST_ACK message for a FIN request). A value of 0 disables the timer. Note: Setting this timer can adversely affect TCP performance.
Client/Server Network
Network MTU	The maximum transmission unit size.
IP Option DSCP	Provide quality of service (QoS).