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SOASTA Conductor Connectivity Options

In many corporate settings, a proxy server regulates traffic from one side of the corporate firewall to another. SOASTA Conductor supports both SOCKS and HTTP proxy servers. Conductor offers configuration options to specify SOASTA services installed in non-default locations, as well as to name specific SOASTA tenants.

There are two basic scenarios that require the use of Conductor proxy services:

  • CloudTest hosted environment with test sites inside a firewall
  • In this scenario, your organization is using the hosted edition of SOASTA CloudTest, and your network configuration requires that you use a proxy to access our server. However, you might be creating HTTP(S) recordings, or WebUI tests, against web sites that are inside your network. For these internal sites, you may need to bypass the proxy.

  • SOASTA appliance inside firewall with test sites outside the firewall
  • In this scenario, CloudTest is inside the firewall, while test sites are outside the firewall. Additionally, there may be services such as Coordinator installed on additional machines. These must be specified, if so, and added to the bypass list if a corporate proxy is in use.

 

During the installation of SOASTA Conductor (see Installing SOASTA Conductor), the Identify Your Conductor and CloudTest Site screen is displayed so you can enter a SOASTA Conductor name and SOASTA CloudTest URL.

Click the Advanced button to access Advanced settings.

The Advanced Connection Properties screen appears.

The Advanced Connection Properties screen supports the following settings:

  1. Do not use a proxy (this is the default)
  2. SOCKS Proxy Configuration
  3. HTTP Proxy Configuration
  4. Specify Web Service locations for SOASTA Coordinator URL and SOASTA Repository URL
  5. SOASTA CloudTest Tenant

Configuring a SOCKS or HTTP Proxy

  1. To configure a proxy click the radio button for either proxy type (SOCKS or HTTP) .
  2. Enter the proxy server address.
  3. Enter the proxy server port.
  4. As noted above, some environments require the use of a proxy to support the use of a firewall. Your IT department should be able to tell you the Proxy server and port if this setting is necessary. If you do need to set up a proxy configuration, you will need to enter the proxy server name and port number in the appropriate boxes.

  5. If required, enter the proxy server user name and password.
  6. In the Bypass proxy for field, specify any server in a comma-delimited list of IP addresses (or host names) to be excluded from the proxy. In either the hosted scenario or the appliance scenario from above, this would be a list of any appliance, service, or other internal site to be accessed for recording.

The second portion of the screen allows you to specify Web Service Locations. Most SOASTA CloudTest installations use the same server for all SOASTA Web services. It is possible, however, to have the SOASTA CloudTest UI, the SOASTA Coordinator (the server side of SOASTA Conductor), and the SOASTA CloudTest Repository on different servers. Use these two settings to specify the URLs for these services in this case. In cases where a corporate proxy is also in effect that prevents Conductor from seeing these services, include their locations in the Bypass proxy for field.

The last portion of the screen allows you to specify a SOASTA CloudTest Tenant for login. Every SOASTA CloudTest login consists of a user ID and password. In addition, every login must identify a tenant. In hosted SOASTA CloudTest environments, different organizations can use the same SOASTA CloudTest but have their own data kept private. Normally, a tenant can be inferred from a user ID and password. If, for some reason, two tenants share the same user ID and password, it may be necessary for the tenant to be specified.

Changing Proxy Settings from SOASTA Conductor Preferences

  1. To change the existing proxy settings for an existing Conductor, first access Conductor Preferences.
  2. When you do so, the Preferences dialog box appears with the My Conductor tab in display.

SOASTA Conductor Preferences, My Conductor tab

  1. Click the Internet Connection tab. if no proxy settings were in effect, the Proxy Settings field shows "Direct connection to the Internet" as on the right.

SOASTA Conductor Preferences, Internet connection tab

  1. If proxy settings were already in use, the Proxy server and port fields are displayed. If not, click the Proxy settings drop-down to display these fields.
  2. Enter a proxy server and port. Your IT department should be able to tell you the Proxy server and port, if this setting is necessary. If you do need to set up a proxy configuration, you will need to enter the proxy server name and port number in the appropriate boxes.
  3. If necessary, enter a proxy user name and password.
  4. In the Bypass proxy for field, specify any server in a comma-delimited list of IP addresses (or host names) to be excluded from the proxy. In either the hosted scenario or the appliance scenario from above, this would be a list of any appliance, service, or other internal site to be accessed for recording.

SOASTA Conductor Preferences, Internet connection tab with settings

Discovering the HTTP Proxy Listener Port

The default HTTP proxy listener port is 4442. If you have configured an HTTP client, such as an iPhone, and it is not performing as expected this may be due to a non-standard HTTP listener port. You can inspect or modify the HTTP listener port for a Conductor installation by opening the Preferences dialog box > Capabilities tab.

See SOASTA Conductor Capabilities for more information.

SOASTA Conductor Preferences, Capabilities tab