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This Web page have been last updated on
January 6, 2013.
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End User License Agreement |
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General FAQs about Licensing
FAQs about the
instantly available
cloud-based load generators
Licenses and Prices for local and cloud-based Load Generators
Since the 4th June 2012, we have a new pricing and licensing model.
GUI licenses with full functionality are now generally available for free (former "Professional Edition" of GUI).The free GUI contains also a free "limited local load generator" capable of executing 20 virtual users for 10 minutes per load test job. You can instantly download, install and use the GUI on any machine without any costs - and you can execute small load tests for free before purchasing a license.
You only need licenses for your load generators (Exec Agents).
Each GUI is capable of triggering and monitoring several load test jobs at the same time, and each load generator is capable to execute several load test jobs in parallel at the same time.
The licensed load generators accept load test jobs from any machine (from any GUI), and can be combined to form a load generating cluster.
Prices for Local Load Generators, installed On-Site at your Company
Yearly Subscription.
| Rent per Year | Number of VU | Yearly Subscription ¹ | Premium Support | Notes & Ordering | ||||||||||
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| Local Load Generator | 20 VU | free - n/a | n/a | |||||||||||
| Local, stand-alone Load Generator | 200 VU | 999 USD | +22% of rental price | Node locked license(s) Email to Sales@apicasystem.com or use our contact form to receive a binding offer or invoice. |
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| Local, stand-alone Load Generator(s) | 1,000 VU * | 2490 USD | +22% of rental price | |||||||||||
| Local, stand-alone Load Generator(s) | 5,000 VU ** | 6999 USD | +22% of rental price | |||||||||||
| Local, stand-alone Load Generator(s) | 10,000 VU *** | 11999 USD | +22% of rental price | |||||||||||
| Local Site License Unlimited number of local load generators and unlimited number of VUs per load generator |
Unlimited VU **** 1,000,000 VU or even more |
price on request | price on request | |||||||||||
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Basic support (included in yearly rental prices) Basic product support includes: - Installation email support for first 30 days (subscription license required) - Bug reporting and web access FAQ technical support access - Extended how-to videos describing step-by-step on how to use the tool - Tutorial screenshots describing how-to-use - New releases, Major and Minor upgrades. Premium product support includes: (+22% of rental price per year) - Technical e-mail support with Apica experts. - E-mail response within 1 business day - Product problem isolation, analysis and resolution |
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Prices for Cloud-Based Load Generators
You can rent up to 20 pre-installed, cloud-based load generators which can be started in an easy way directly from the Proxy Sniffer GUI, and which are ready for use in less than 5 minutes. This allows you perform large load tests "from the Internet" on a pay-as-you-go basis. All cloud-based load generators are automatically combined to form a load-generating cluster.
Rent per Hour
| Number of Simulated Users (VU) per EC2 Load Generator | Price per Load Generator ² | Notes |
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| 100 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 6 USD per hour | Instantly Available: No ordering process for licenses required. Further Information |
| 200 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 12 USD per hour | |
| 500 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 24 USD per hour | |
| 1,000 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 48 USD per hour | |
| 2,000 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 95 USD per hour | |
| 5,000 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 225 USD per hour | |
| 10,000 VU / from EC2 data center ¹ | 420 USD per hour | |
² The quoted price includes the Amazon costs for running the instance (load generators) as well as the Proxy Sniffer license costs. Only the network traffic is not included in the price. Additional costs: 0.20 USD per GB of network traffic. At least one full hour of usage is charged each time when you start a EC2 load generator. Parts of partial hours are charged as full hours.
Weekly 20,000 VU Cloud License
| Rent per Week | Number of VU | Price | Ordering | |
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Weekly 20,000 VU Cloud License
| 20,000 VU | Rent for 7 days ¹,²: 1499 USD Note: After purchase such a license you will have access to our registration menu where you can generate license by yourself - in the time you need it. The 7 days' validity begins when you generate the license - not when you purchase it. If you purchase more than one weekly license you can generate them later separately - at different times. |
Email to Sales@apicasystem.com or use our contact form to receive a binding offer or invoice. |
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| ¹ | The price quoted do not include VAT. |
| ² | The license price quoted does not include the price for renting the Amazon instances (cloud computers): Additional Amazon costs: USD 1.60 per hour for each load generator, plus 0.20 USD per GB of network traffic. |
Weekly Unlimited Site and Cloud License - 1,000,000 VU or even more
| Rent per Week | Number of VU | Price | Ordering | |
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| Weekly Unlimited Site and Cloud License
Note: Depending on your test scenario, up to 10,000 Web users can be simulated per load generator. |
Unlimited VU: 1,000,000 VU or even more ¹ |
Rent for 7 days ²,³: 3999 USD This license allows you to perform large high-end load tests for a reasonable price. Many of our customers are ordering this seven day option frequently on actual demand. Note: After purchase such a license you will have access to our registration menu where you can generate the weekly unlimited license by yourself - in the time you need it. The 7 days' validity begins when you generate the license - not when you purchase it. If you purchase more than one weekly license you can generate them later separately - at different times. |
Email to Sales@apicasystem.com or use our contact form to receive a binding offer or invoice. |
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| ¹ | Technical Limit: Max. 400 load generators per cluster. |
| ² | The price quoted do not include VAT. |
| ³ | The license price quoted does not include the price for renting the Amazon instances (cloud computers): Additional Amazon costs: between 0.38 USD up to 3.20 USD per hour for each load generator, plus 0.20 USD per GB of network traffic. By default, the Amazon EC2 Service restricts the maximum number of simultaneously started load generators to 20, but you can request an increase to your Amazon EC2 instance limit. |
How to Buy Licenses - Binding Offer and Bank Transfer
Please send an E-Mail to Sales@apicasystem.com, or use our contact form, to receive a PDF document containing a binding offer or invoice. For the delivery of licenses, we require a written order by letter to our company address, - or a bank transfer.
Licensing Models
The following licensing models are available:
1. Local, stand-alone Load Generators
The standard licensing model allows you to install differing number of GUIs and Exec Agents on separate computers, and to use them in a combined manner.Features:
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2. Local Site License A Local Site License allows the installation of an unlimited number of load generators on any computer in your company or department, and allows you to run load tests with an unlimited number of simulated users. The standard site license contains a generic license key which works on any Windows and Unix-like system located on-site at your company. |
3. Hourly Rented Cloud-based Load Generators
Cloud-based load generators can also be rented by the hour.
That can be done instantly, meaning that no ordering process for a license is required.
To use such load generators you need only a credit card which will be debited by Amazon.
If you don't have yet an Amazon AWS account please take look at the handbook of
Generating Load from the Cloud (PDF)
that guides you through that process in a step-by-step fashion.From within the Proxy Sniffer GUI you can seamlessly run your load tests from one or multiple Amazon data centers while monitoring its progress in the Proxy Sniffer GUI, as you would for a locally run test. Note: in case if you make extensive use of the cloud-based load generators it might be more cost effective to order a "Weekly 20,000 VU Cloud License" or a "Weekly Unlimited Site and Cloud License". On the other hand, when you have to perform load tests only for a couple of hours, using this licensing model is very cost-effective. |
4. Weekly 20,000 VU Cloud License
A Weekly 20,000 VU Cloud License allows you to start up to 20 pre-installed load generators running in Amazon's EC2 Cloud - each one capable
to simulate 1'000 VU.The load generators are automatically combined to a cluster that allows you to simulate up to 20,000 virtual users for 7 days. |
5. Weekly Unlimited Site and Cloud License
A Weekly Unlimited Site and Cloud License allows you to operate an unlimited number of local load generators and
to simulate an unlimited number of virtual users for 7 days.In combination with renting this kind of license, you also will be able to start within a few minutes a large number of ready-to-operate load generators running in Amazon's EC2 Cloud. Using the Amazon EC2 Cloud service is optional, as you can also use a Weekly Unlimited License solely on your internal computer systems or - within the same license period - on internal systems as well as simultaneously in the Amazon's EC2 Cloud. The Unlimited Site and Cloud License contains a generic license key which works for any Windows and Unix-like system. The load generators can be combined to form load-generating clusters. |
General FAQs about Licensing
| Q: | What is a "Virtual User" ? |
| A: | A virtual user is a simulation of a real user created by our software. Each virtual user emulates an own web browser in such a way that a web application can not see any difference between a real user and a software-generated virtual user. |
| Q: | What does "Simultaneous Virtual Users" mean ? |
| A: | Depending on your license, an Exec Agent (load generator) limits the number of virtual users which can be simulated at the same time. For example, if an Exec Agent license allows you to simulate 1000 virtual users - and you have already started a load test job with 600 users on the Exec Agent - you can also start in parallel another load test job with 400 users, but not with 500 users (500 + 600 > 1000) on the same Exec Agent. As soon as a load test job has been completed, or is manually aborted, the corresponding number of virtual users is automatically enabled again. The number of virtual users is counted locally on the Exec Agent over all concurrently executed load tests jobs - irrespective of whether the load test jobs are triggered by the same GUI or by different GUIs. |
| Q: | How are the "Simultaneous Virtual Users" counted when executing cluster jobs ? |
| A: | There is no cluster-wide managed counter for the number of virtual users. Each cluster member (Exec Agent) controls locally the number of free virtual users. |
| Q: | What does "The license can be split up over a max. of <number> Exec Agents" mean ? |
| A: | For example, if you purchase a Standard Exec Agent license for 5000 virtual users, it is not recommended for you to install only one Exec Agent on one computer system, because the CPU load or the number of available TCP/IP connections of the operating system may be limited in such a way that you will not able to simulate 5000 users from the same computer. Therefore starting from 1000 users, we recommend that you subdivide the Exec Agent license over several systems. The license price remains the same. |
| Q: | What does "node locked license" mean ? |
| A: | The licenses - or split up licenses - are bound to the computer name (hostname) - or alternatively to the TCP/IP address of the computer - on which the corresponding load generator of Proxy Sniffer is installed. One license transfer per computer per year is free; for example if a computer is replaced by another one. We also accept license transfers for out-dated Proxy Sniffer versions - even if you do not have a valid maintenance contract. However a license transfer requires that you uninstall/delete Proxy Sniffer load generator on the old computer. |
| Q: | Can a strong load generator be installed on the GUI machine ? |
| A: | Yes, however, because notepad and desktop machines are often not so powerful, we recommend that you don't try to simulate more than 200 VU from such a machine. There is no extra installation required. You can just purchase a license for a 200 VU load generator, register it to your machine, and put the "Exec Agent License Ticket" into a file named "ExecAgentTicket.dat" which is located in the installation directory of Proxy Sniffer. Please note that the GUI by itself uses also CPU, memory and (local) network connections. Therefore we strongly recommend not to purchase a 1000 VU or even a stronger license for the machine where the GUI is running. Instead of this, starting fom 1000 VU, we recommend that you use dedicated machines for generating the load. |
| Q: | How are Major and Minor Releases labelled ? |
| A: | We use a conservative enumeration for new major releases by only adding a new number after the decimal point. For example, version 4.3 is a new major release compared to version 4.2. Minor releases are labelled by alphabetic characters after the major version. For example, version 4.3-J is a minor release compared to version 4.3-C. The number before the decimal point is only incremented if some core functionally did change substantially. Note: until now, all test results (*.prxres files) since version 3.8 can be loaded with the latest version of Proxy Sniffer. |
FAQs about running the pre-installed Exec Agents on Amazon EC2 Instances:
Instantly available Cloud-based Load Generators
| Q: | What are the additional costs for renting the Amazon's EC2 instances (cloud computers) ? |
| A: | See the rows "Licensing Costs" and "Additional Amazon Costs" in this table to learn more about our actual prices. |
| Q: | Where can I enter the Amazon Activation Key ? |
| A: | This is not required. The Amazon Activation Key is not used by Proxy Sniffer. |
| Q: | Do I have to Install the Exec Agents (load generators) manually ? |
| A: | No, this is not required. They are already pre-installed in the cloud. You have only to select and start (launch) the Amazon-based load generators by using the Proxy Sniffer GUI. Normally the launched load generators are ready-to-use in less than 3 minutes. |
| Q: | Do I get Root Access on pre-installed Exec Agents ? |
| A: | No. You cannot login on pre-installed Exec Agents. |
| Q: | Can I access a pre-installed Exec Agent via an Outbound HTTP/S Proxy of my company ? |
| A: | Yes, but not in every case.
Accessing Exec Agents via an Outbound Proxy is only possible if either "no authentication" or
"Basic Authentication" is supported by your Outbound HTTP/S Proxy. All other authentication
methods against outbound HTTP/S Proxy servers are not supported.
Hint: if your stressed web application is located inside your company, you should not use the same leased line to the internet to control the load generating Exec Agents in the Amazon's cloud. In case of overloading the leased line caused by a load test you will no longer be able to control the Exec Agents or to abort the load test. Additionally, all the data traffic of your company to and from the internet may be blocked. Therefore we strongly recommend in such a case that you use a second direct internet connection to control the Exec Agents in the Amazon's cloud by using plain TCP/IP connections (Exec Agent Port 7993). It is also supported to use a slow mobile internet connection such as GSM to control the Exec Agents. |
| Q: | I have recorded my web surfing session by using an outbound proxy, but my load test does not run on Amazon ! |
| A: | Please generate your load test program again, but this time disable the option "Load Test over HTTP(S) Proxy". After that it will work. |
| Q: | How can I verify that the CPU of a pre-installed Exec Agent is not overloaded ? |
| A: | You can monitor the CPU usage of an Exec Agent by entering http://<public DNS name> of an EC2 instance into your web browser. You will see a time chart about the CPU usage. In case of overload you should launch more Amazon instances. |
| Q: | Why always two Exec Agents are added for each started load generator ? |
| A: | This is because on some of Amazon Unix-like cloud machines - at least in the past - the threads of one load generating process could not be be distributed over more than one Amazon CPU core. Therefore to get the full power of the Amazon instances, two Exec Agents are added for each launched instance. |
| Q: | Can I launch several pre-installed Exec Agents ? |
| A: | Yes. Amazon allows you to start up to 20 instances. |
| Q: | Can I build a Load-Generating Cluster of pre-installed Exec Agents ? |
| A: | Yes. This is automatically done when starting the Amazon load generators by using the Proxy Sniffer GUI. |
| Q: | How many web users can be simulated per Amazon load generator? |
| A: | Depending on your test scenario, up to 5,000 - 10,000 concurrent Web users can be simulated per Amazon load generator. |
| Q: | Is it permitted to give other persons access to use the Exec Agents ? |
| A: | Yes, but only for persons of your own company or own organization. You also have to consider
the restrictions written in the End User License Agreement. |
For further information about generating load from Amazon EC2 see also:
- Benefits of Using the cloud-based Load Generators and EC2 Pricing
- Stress Test your Web Application using Unlimited Load
Company Address / Manufacturer
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Correspondence Address & Legal Residence: Ingenieurbüro David Fischer AG c/o Treuhandbüro Geissbühler Murgenthalstrasse 15 4900 Langenthal Switzerland |
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E-Mail: direct@d-fischer.com Sales: Sales@apicasystem.com Swiss Company ID: CH-280.4.005.038-4 Swiss VAT ID: 531 992 CEO: David Fischer |
Copyright 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Engineering Office David Fischer AG, Switzerland
All rights reserved.