System and Network Requirements for Sauce Connect Proxy

Sauce Connect Proxy system requirements vary, depending on the number of parallel tests you plan to run. Keep in mind that these are guidelines. Most environments have their own workload requirements for optimal performance. Test and profile your own environment using these recommendations as a baseline.

See the following sections for more information:

System Requirements

Configuring Your System to Use Sauce Connect

In the table below, select a cloud provider to view the recommended system requirements:

To help optimize your tests running through Sauce Connect tunnels:

• When running 100 or more parallel tests, we recommend a minimum network bandwidth of 750Mbps to support the high volume of network traffic
• When running 200 or more parallel tests, we recommend launching more than one tunnel and using the High Availability Sauce Connect Proxy Setup
• When running a high volume of parallel tests on Unix-based operating systems, you may need to increase your open file limit (for example, ulimit -n 8192)
• For optimal reliability, performance, and security, we recommend using a dedicated server (see Sauce Connect Proxy and Network Security)

Network Requirements

Setting Up Sauce Connect Proxy on Your Test Device(s) Network

Sauce Connect Proxy must be set up on the same network as your test devices. It does not, however, need to be set up on the same machine as the website or app you're testing.

What Not to Do: Common Mistakes in Sauce Connect Proxy Network Configurations illustrates some examples of network architectures in which Sauce Connect will not be able to create a tunnel or will be too slow to carry out effective testing.  

Configuring Your Network to Use Sauce Connect

Firewall Restrictions

Before getting started with Sauce Connect, we recommend checking with your network administrator about updating firewall or proxy settings on your organization's network. Firewall restrictions may interfere with testing.

During Sauce Connect Proxy tunnel startup, the Sauce Connect client that runs on your network needs to make three types of outbound connections:

1. To request a new Sauce Connect tunnel: Communication to the Sauce Labs REST API tunnels endpoint

2. To validate the REST API certificate: Communication to third-party web sites of Certificate Authorities

3. To establish the tunnel: Communication to Sauce Connect Tunnel VMs in the Sauce Labs cloud 

When your tests are running through a Sauce Connect tunnel, the client on your network needs to make two types of outbound connections:

1. To pass status information: Communication to the Sauce Labs REST API tunnels endpoint 

2. To connect with the site or app under test: Communication to the sites or apps you specify in your tests

Whitelisting for Restricted Networks

If you're testing in a restricted network setting, you may need to whitelist the Sauce Labs domains below to allow outbound communication to Sauce Labs Selenium and Appium endpoints. Whitelisting for inbound traffic coming into your network is not necessary. To check if your setup is successful, see Validating Your Basic Sauce Connect Proxy Setup. 

You'll need to use the set of domains for the Sauce Labs Data Center you are using: US Data Center (US-West-1), Headless Data Center (US-East-1), or European Data Center (EU-Central-1). To find out which Data Center you're connected to, you'll see it indicated in your Sauce Labs main navigation menu.

For more information on our data centers and how to choose the right one for you, see Data Center Endpoints.

Sauce Labs REST API Endpoints

The Sauce Labs REST API is a requirement for using Sauce Connect Proxy. Select your relevant data center:

Sauce Connect Tunnel Service Domains

The following domains must be whitelisted for outbound communication from you network in order to make connections to Sauce Connect tunnels. Select your relevant data center:

Transport Layer Security (TLS) Requirements

Here are the Sauce Connect Proxy network requirements for TLS and SSL traffic:

• TLS version 1.2 or higher
• TLS/SSL library (e.g., OpenSSL)
• Network port 443, through which all traffic between your site and a Sauce Labs tunnel endpoint must pass

Certificate Management

Public key certificates are used to manage the security of Sauce Connect Proxy communication to both the Sauce Labs API and to the Virtual Machine hosting your tests in the Sauce Labs cloud. For information on saucelabs.com certificate authentication, see Sauce Connect Proxy Certificate Handling.

Additional Resources

• Video: Setting Up Sauce Connect Proxy