How to use tcpflood for rsyslog testing?

First of all tcpflood is a testing tool of the rsyslog testbench which is able to send a lot of messages via tcp.

This tool is included in the local rsyslog folder in ‘tests’. Before you can use tcpflood you have to build it first. Just switch in the mentioned folder and type

make tcpflood

Now you can use tcpflood by using the following command

./tcpflood -"options"

as example, just insert -m10000 as “options” to send 10000 messages.

./tcpflood -m10000

Please note that tcpflood uses port 13514 by default, so you have to adjust your tcp listener in your rsyslog config (or the port of tcpflood using the option -p).

tcpflood and the testbench

Following up, we assume that tcpflood is present in the current directory but not the system search path. The tool has many command line options. Many of them have defaults, but these defaults are mostly suitable for use inside rsyslog’s testbench. For performance testing, a proper set of options must be selected. It is suggested that tcpflood, together with its option set, is kept inside a script file for easy test reproduction at later times.

The table below lists tcpflood command line options present at time of this writing. Note that tcpflood is still not a tool meant for average user consumption and thus under heavy development based solely on the needs of the rsyslog developers. We suggest that you open the tcpflood.c source code. Right at the top, there is a comment block describing the actual options available with the version you obtained.