iPerf3 — Installation¶

This guide covers deploying iPerf3 on Azure Local cluster nodes (Windows or Linux) and configuring SSH access required by the automation scripts.

Prerequisites¶

In addition to the common prerequisites:

Cluster nodes (Windows or Linux VMs) reachable via SSH (port 22)
SSH key-based authentication configured — the linux_ssh credential must be available via Key Vault or interactively
iperf3 binary installed on each node (see below)
Firewall rules permitting TCP/UDP on port 5201 between all cluster nodes (the default iPerf3 port)

Install iPerf3¶

Linux Nodes (Ubuntu/Debian)¶

# Install via package manager
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y iperf3
iperf3 --version

Linux Nodes (RHEL/Rocky/AlmaLinux)¶

sudo dnf install -y iperf3
iperf3 --version

Windows Nodes¶

Download the iPerf3 Windows binary from the iperf3 releases page and place iperf3.exe in a directory on $env:PATH (e.g., C:\tools\iperf3\):

# On the target Windows node (via PowerShell remoting)
Invoke-Command -ComputerName "hci01-node1" -ScriptBlock {
    $uri = "https://github.com/ar51an/iperf3-win-builds/releases/download/3.17.1/iperf3.exe"
    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $uri -OutFile "C:\tools\iperf3\iperf3.exe"
    [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH",
        $env:PATH + ";C:\tools\iperf3", "Machine")
}

Verify Installation¶

# From management station — SSH to each node
ssh user@hci01-node1 "iperf3 --version"

Expected: iperf 3.x.x on all nodes.

SSH Key Configuration¶

Start-IperfTest.ps1 uses SSH/SCP with BatchMode=yes (no password prompts). The linux_ssh credential must contain a path to a private key that is authorized on all target nodes.

# Interactive credential prompt (for local runs)
.\tools\iperf\scripts\Start-IperfTest.ps1 `
    -ClusterName "hci01.corp.infiniteimprobability.com" `
    -Nodes @("hci01-node1", "hci01-node2") `
    -Profile "tcp-throughput" `
    -CredentialSource Interactive   # Prompts for SSH username and key path

For CI/CD, store the private key path in Key Vault as the linux_ssh secret.

Firewall Configuration¶

By default, iPerf3 uses port 5201 for both the server listener and the data stream. All cluster nodes must allow inbound and outbound TCP/UDP on this port from each other:

# Windows: add firewall rule on each cluster node
Invoke-Command -ComputerName @("hci01-node1", "hci01-node2", "hci01-node3") -ScriptBlock {
    New-NetFirewallRule `
        -Name "iPerf3" `
        -DisplayName "iPerf3 network test" `
        -Direction Inbound `
        -Protocol TCP `
        -LocalPort 5201 `
        -Action Allow
}

For Linux nodes, use ufw allow 5201/tcp && ufw allow 5201/udp.

Remote Directory Structure¶

Path	Purpose
`/tmp/iperf-results/<RunId>/<client>-to-<server>.json`	Per-pair JSON result file

Results are SCP-copied by Collect-IperfResults.ps1 and removed from the remote node after successful collection.

Next Steps¶

Workload Profiles — TCP throughput, UDP latency, or mesh all-to-all testing
Monitoring — Network and CPU alert thresholds during iPerf3 runs