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Prerequisites

Category: Getting Started

Before deploying the Azure Local Load Testing Framework, ensure the following common prerequisites are met. Individual tools may have additional requirements — see each tool's prerequisites page.

Azure Local Cluster Requirements

Requirement Details
Azure Local Version Azure Stack HCI 23H2 or later (22H2 supported with limitations)
Cluster Nodes Minimum 2 nodes; recommended 4+ for meaningful fleet testing
Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) Enabled and healthy (Get-StorageSubSystem shows HealthStatus: Healthy)
Cluster Shared Volumes At least one CSV for VM fleet storage; additional CSV for results collection

Network Requirements

Requirement Details
Management Network IP connectivity from management station to all cluster nodes
PowerShell Remoting WinRM enabled on all cluster nodes (default for Azure Local)
RDMA (Optional) Required for storage network performance validation with iPerf3
Firewall Ports 5985 (WinRM HTTP), 5986 (WinRM HTTPS) open from management station

Management Station Requirements

The management station is where automation scripts execute. This can be a physical workstation, jump box, or CI/CD runner.

Requirement Details
Operating System Windows 10/11 or Windows Server 2019+ (PowerShell 7.2+)
PowerShell Version 7.2 or later ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion)
PowerShell Modules Az.KeyVault, Az.Monitor, powershell-yaml, ImportExcel
Asciidoctor Ruby 3.0+, asciidoctor, asciidoctor-pdf gems (for report generation)
Pandoc Version 3.0+ (for DOCX report generation)
Git Version 2.30+ (for repository management)

Ansible Requirements (for Linux-Based Tools)

Ansible is required only if using fio, iPerf3, HammerDB, or stress-ng on Linux VMs.

Requirement Details
Ansible Version 2.14+ (installed via pip install ansible)
Execution Environment WSL2 on Windows, Linux jump box, or CI runner (see installation guide)
SSH Access Key-based SSH authentication to target Linux VMs
Python Version 3.9+ on the Ansible control node

Azure Requirements (Optional)

Required only if using Azure Monitor integration or Azure Key Vault for credentials.

Requirement Details
Azure Subscription Active subscription with Contributor access
Azure Key Vault Provisioned Key Vault with secrets for cluster credentials
Log Analytics Workspace Provisioned workspace for Azure Monitor metric ingestion
Service Principal or Managed Identity For non-interactive Azure authentication in CI/CD
Azure Local custom location Required for marketplace image acquisition (azure_local.custom_location_id)
Azure Local storage container Required to resolve VHDX path (azure_local.storage_path_id)

Validating Prerequisites

Run the pre-check script to validate all common prerequisites:

# From the repository root
.\src\core\powershell\helpers\Initialize-Environment.ps1 -ValidateOnly

This will check:

  • PowerShell version and required modules
  • Cluster connectivity and S2D health
  • Required volumes availability
  • Azure connectivity (if Azure features enabled)
  • Ansible availability (if Linux tools enabled)

Tool-Specific Prerequisites

Each tool may have additional requirements beyond the common set above:

Next Steps