Before you set up the mabl Link Agent on a machine in your network, make sure that the machine that will run the Link Agent meets the requirements and recommendations outlined in this article:
System requirements
Mabl Link works best when the Link Agent is installed and running on an always-on server or VM on your network. If you cannot install the Link Agent on an always-on server or VM, choose a machine that runs with minimal disruptions and downtime. Any mabl tests scheduled to run when the Link Agent is disconnected will fail to connect to the application under test.
If you are testing out mabl Link for your team to see how it works or testing localhost, feel free to set up the Link Agent on a personal workstation.
System resources
While there are no strict minimum system resource requirements, we recommend at least 1 vCPU, 4GB RAM and 2GB storage.
When running in the cloud, we recommend avoiding burstable instance types, which may experience periods of significantly reduced CPU and network performance. We recommend the following instance classes:
Software
The Link Agent should run on a JVM that supports Java 11 or later. We recommend the OpenJDK 11 for Linux, Windows, and MacOS.
For easier setup and maintenance, run the Link Agent inside a Docker container. The mabl Link Docker image comes with the proper Java version already installed on it.
High availability configuration
If your workspace runs a large number of tests over mabl Link, you can set up a high availability (HA) configuration by running multiple Link Agents with the same name on different machines. In a HA configuration, if one Link Agent becomes disconnected, mabl tests continue to connect to the Link Agents that are still running. Traffic is automatically load balanced across Link Agents with the same name
Network requirements
When your tests run over mabl Link, traffic appears to originate from the machine in your network that is running the Link Agent. In a container setup, your container host is the traffic's point of origin.
The machine that is running the Link Agent must be able to resolve the DNS addresses in your mabl tests. DNS addresses can be non-public FQDNs, private IP addresses, and /etc/hosts entries such as https://app-local.example.com. As long as the machine running the Link Agent can resolve the DNS addresses and access all resources used in the application under test, so can your mabl tests.
Most browsers have security restrictions that limit our ability to route connections to link-local addresses, such as localhost and 127.0.0.1, through the Link Agent. See Testing localhost with mabl Link to learn how to configure mabl tests to work with localhost URLs via mabl Link.
Outgoing traffic
Mabl Link connects to the mabl cloud over a TLS encrypted websocket connection at port 443 to <agent-host>.link.mabl.com. The <agent-host> is dynamically generated based on your workspace and agent name. To orchestrate the connection process, provisioning, and automatic updates, mabl Link also connects to mabl APIs: api.mabl.com.
If your company firewall has restrictions on outgoing traffic, you may need to work with your networking team to ensure the Link Agent can connect to the mabl cloud:
- If your corporate firewall blocks outgoing traffic, ask your IT admin to add
*.link.mabl.comandapi.mabl.comto an allowlist so that mabl Link traffic can connect to the mabl cloud. - If your corporate network blocks outgoing connections to port 443, contact your networking infrastructure team about putting an exemption in place for the Link Agent.
- If your network uses HTTP forward proxies, see the article on forward proxies for more information on routing Link Agent traffic according to the selected proxy mode and exclusions.