Connection capacity, anonymous bind and RootDSE search with the replies checked, plus the connect-per-login pattern.
Category DirectoryStack OpenLDAP, 389 Directory Server, Active Directory, FreeIPAJobs 19
About this LDAP / Active Directory load test
Load tests a directory server such as OpenLDAP, 389 Directory Server, Active Directory or FreeIPA: plain and LDAPS connection accepts, an anonymous bind, a bind followed by a RootDSE search with the replies checked, a connection ramp and a ten-minute bind-and-search soak. It models the connect-per-login pattern many applications use.
It holds 19 ready-made jobs: 6 single scenarios and an enterprise test plan of 13 stages to run in order, 9 of them with pass/fail targets (SLOs). Each job is a plain request pattern you can change before running.
Scenarios include connection accept, LDAPS connection accept, anonymous bind, bind then RootDSE search and connection ramp.
How to load test LDAP / Active Directory
Open the template in BLASTA.
Set host to point at your own LDAP / Active Directory system, ideally a staging copy.
Pick a job and choose the rate and duration.
Start the run and watch requests per second, latency percentiles and errors live; the result is saved to your history.
What you set before running
host
LDAP server host name
port
LDAP port (389). LDAPS on 636 needs TLS, which only the connect test covers.
Sends a real LDAP v3 anonymous bind and checks for resultCode success. Many servers refuse anonymous binds on purpose: unexpected_reply errors then mean the hardening works, not that the server is down.
Bind plus a base-scope search of the RootDSE, the cheapest realistic query (what applications run to discover server capabilities). Checks the bind succeeded and a search entry follows. Every request is a fresh connection, which is also how many apps and Keycloak user federation behave per login.
Enterprise plan, step 1 of 10. One request a second for 30 seconds. Run this first, every time: it proves the address, credentials and headers are right and that the environment is up before any real load is applied. Gate: zero errors. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 2 of 10. About a fifth of normal traffic for 5 minutes: the uncontended latency of this request. Every later result is judged against it, so record p50 and p95. Gate: at most 0.5% errors and the default latency targets. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 3 of 10. Normal busy-hour traffic for 10 minutes. The rate is the reference job's rate: raise it to your measured production peak-hour rate. This is the run that proves (or breaks) your SLO. Gate: at most 1% errors, p95 and p99 inside the targets. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 4 of 10. Twice the average for 10 minutes: the busiest hour of the year plus headroom. Latency may rise, but must stay in SLO; if it does not, you have no headroom. Gate: at most 2% errors, latency targets doubled. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 5 of 10. Ramps to four times average over 10 minutes, then holds for 2. Finds where it degrades and HOW: gracefully (latency rises, errors stay low) or badly (errors, timeouts, crashes, restarts). Observation only, no gate. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 6 of 10. Reaches ten times average within 10 seconds and holds for 2 minutes: a campaign email, a news link, a failover. Checks autoscaling, queue limits and load shedding. Gate: at most 5% errors, because shedding load is acceptable and crashing is not. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 7 of 10. Run IMMEDIATELY after the spike, at average load for 5 minutes. Latency and errors must return to the baseline from step 2. If they do not, something is stuck: queues, connection pools, GC, an autoscaler cool-down. Gate: same as average load. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 8 of 10. One hour of steady load. Finds leaks and slow decay in memory, connections, file descriptors, disk, log volume and cache churn. Watch the resource graphs: any line that climbs and never flattens is a finding. Gate: at most 0.5% errors. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 9 of 10. Ramps to twenty times average over 20 minutes. Stop it when errors pass about 5%: the rate at that moment is your ceiling, and ceiling divided by peak is your capacity margin. Use a production-like environment, never production. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Step 10 of 10. Average load for 15 minutes. About 5 minutes in, cause the event you are testing: kill a pod or node, fail over the database, roll out a new version, drain a zone. Errors in the window are your real availability loss. Gate: at most 1% errors overall; read the time series for how long the dip lasted. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Ramps new connections per second to ten times normal: a fleet reconnecting after an outage, a deploy that restarts every pod, a network blip. Shows accept-queue, file descriptor and handshake limits. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
Applications authenticate users against the directory on every login. Three times normal for 10 minutes. Watch connection counts and replication lag. Reference request: bind then RootDSE search.
A fleet of applications reconnects after a restart. Ramps binds to ten times normal over 2 minutes. Reference request: anonymous bind.
Frequently asked questions
What does the LDAP / Active Directory load test cover?
The LDAP / Active Directory template has 19 jobs: 6 single scenarios and an enterprise test plan of 13 stages (smoke, baseline, load, stress, spike, soak, breakpoint and failover window). Scenarios include connection accept, LDAPS connection accept, anonymous bind and bind then RootDSE search. 9 of them have pass/fail targets (SLOs), so a run can be judged against limits you set.
How do I load test LDAP / Active Directory with BLASTA?
Open the template in BLASTA and set host, then pick a job and start it. Results stream live: requests per second, latency percentiles and errors, and the run is kept in your history. To run from the command line, use blasta preset new ldap with your address.
Is it safe to run the LDAP / Active Directory load test against production?
All 19 jobs in this template are read-only: they request pages or data and do not change anything. Even so, a load test can slow a live system down, so start with a low rate and prefer a staging copy. Only test systems you own or have permission to test.
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Load generator resources
CPU used by BLASTA % of capacity
RAM used by BLASTA
Requests per second
Latency p95 lower is better
Response time
Status codes
Errors
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