July 31, 2017

How many source addresses are involved in the DDoS testing?

We recommend using 200 attackers and 4 monitors for an initial test. This is the number included in managed test bundles. Additional agents can be purchased if required. In subsequent tests, depending on how the first test went, the number of agents should be increased from between 500 to 1000.  The more agents used the more realistic the DDoS attack.

The number of attackers used in a test is variable, up to 20,000. Each attacker costs a fixed amount per hour and can be placed in any supported cloud provider (Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Rackspace, Upcloud, Oracle, and others).

The following table suggests current (2017) best practices for # of agents to use.