IBM Support

Traffic flow when Rational Performance Tester records secure traffic

Preventive Service Planning


Abstract

This technote explains the traffic flow when IBM Rational Performance Tester records secure traffic using a proxy server. Also explains what Rational Performance Tester does differently in playback.

Content

In detail, when Rational Performance Tester is recording secure traffic with a proxy server, the traffic flow is:

  1. The browser will make a connection to the Rational Performance Tester recording port (1080) and send a CONNECT request similar to "CONNECT <servername>:443".
  2. The Rational Performance Tester recorder will make a connection to the actual proxy server and send a similar CONNECT request.
  3. The proxy server will respond with a "200 Connection Established" to the Rational Performance Tester recorder.
  4. Rational Performance Tester will send a similar "200 Connection Established" response to the browser.
  5. The browser will then initiate an SSL connection to the Rational Performance Tester recorder.
  6. The Rational Performance Tester recorder will initiate an SSL connection to the actual proxy server.
  7. The browser will send encrypted traffic to the Rational Performance Tester recorder. Because Rational Performance Tester is a an endpoint for this communication, it is able to decrypt the traffic and record it.
  8. The Rational Performance Tester recorder will re-encrypt the traffic and send it to the actual proxy server.
  9. The proxy server will send the traffic to the server; the server will respond and this response will be passed back, through the Rational Performance Tester recorder, to the browser.

During playback, the Rational Performance Tester playback engine mimic the browser. It connects directly to the actual proxy server and behaves just like a standard browser/client. There is no "extra" set of connections in this case. Likewise, there is no need for modification of the traffic.

[{"Product":{"code":"SSMMM5","label":"IBM Rational Performance Tester"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU053","label":"Cloud & Data Platform"},"Component":"General Information","Platform":[{"code":"PF033","label":"Windows"}],"Version":"8.0;8.0.0.1;8.0.0.2;8.0.0.3;8.1;8.1.0.1;8.1.0.2;8.1.0.3","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB45","label":"Automation"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
16 June 2018

UID

swg21417652