rpcd running instances greater than pool size

jgor's Avatar

jgor

04 Oct, 2017 10:22 PM

I may be misunderstanding the option, but isn't arachni_rpcd's --pool-size option supposed to limit the number of running instances on that dispatcher? Here's what I'm trying:

Launch a dispatcher with --pool-size 1.
Initiate a scan with arachni_rpc.
While that scan is running, initiate another scan with arachni_rpc, and so forth.

Watching it with arachni_rpcd_monitor, I see "Initial pool size: 1" and "Current pool size: 1", but every scan starts running and I see for example "Number of running instances: 3". Shouldn't the additional scans have to wait until the first one completes, given a pool of 1 available instance?

Thanks,

  1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Tasos Laskos on 05 Oct, 2017 10:28 AM

    Tasos Laskos's Avatar

    No, that option doesn't do that; it doesn't limit the amount of running instances, it sets the amount of pre-spawned ones so that dispatch calls don't introduce large latencies, which can happen depending on system resources.

    What you're describing is a very useful feature though, which is why it's implemented in the new engine which will replace Arachni, hopefully sooner rather than later, and in addition to that it'll also have a default auto setting that makes the scanner adapt to available system resources, thus allowing you to run as many parallel scans as possible without shooting yourself in the foot.
    And it also includes some really cool queuing and grid magic that lets you schedule as many scans as you desire while scaling the grid of scanners up and down on demand depending on priority and available nodes etc. while never worrying about overwhelming your machines.

  2. Tasos Laskos closed this discussion on 05 Oct, 2017 10:28 AM.

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