How could I show performance issues on other servers compared to load test results

I have some Unix machines that we need to monitor performance on while we run our load tests. Is there a good methodology on how this should be done?
Thanks- Claucher
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Hi CLaucher

There's no support to collect Unix/Linux performace information in the Visual Studio load test. I wish I had a more helpful reply.
-Bill.Wang(MSFT)
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Hi CLaucher,

I am guesing your database residing on those unix/linux servers. In this case, you can run some unix commands(performance related) on those unix machines to monitor the performance. You can tell DBA who administer those severs to send you the performance matrix(by unix command) during the period of ur load test.

I hope it helps.
Thanks -- Jaeed
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VSTestHost.exe uses only one CPU

I recently noticed that while running a load test, VStestHost.exe uses only one CPU. Trying to change the affinity through task manager has no effect and it continues to run on CPU0. Is that expected behavior or there's something wrong in the way I am executing the load.
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Hi Pawan,

This is by design in Visual Studio 2008. To drive additoinal load, and utilize all CPUs, you need the Test Load Agent / Controller to create your test rig.

Robert
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Thanks George,

so what it indirectly means is that I'll have to procure additional licenses for Load Agent and Controller.
Just wondering if both of em are shipped as part of the MSDN subscription?

Pawan

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Hi Pawan,

Each Load Agent license covers a controller, so the controller is part of the Load Agent purchase. For MSDN, they have a trial version, but be warned its double time bombed - I think its 60-days or 25 test runs, whichever comes first.

Robert

Monitoring and Analyzing a Load Test Result

Please visit the following link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730850(vs.80).aspx

Web and Load Test FAQs

Please visit the following link:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vstswebtest/thread/bd3b1caf-ca7b-408e-b415-3b8e3465bb03

Web Test Authoring and Debugging Techniques for VS 2008

Please visit the following link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/edglas/archive/2007/12/02/web-test-authoring-and-debugging-techniques-for-vs-2008.aspx

Web Test Authoring and Debugging Techniques--Visual Studio 2005 Technical Articles

Please visit the following link:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms364082(VS.80).aspx

How to capture multiple browser windows using WebTest?

Dear All,

We have a web application when we click on a hyperlink it opens in a new browser window.i want to check functionality of that hyperlink.but, webtest not recording the hyperlink window.

Please guide how to capture it?

Thanks,
Swaroop
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Are you saying that when you click in the new window the requests are not recorded in the origningal window?


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Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/slumley/default.aspx
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Hi Kasireddy,


"Web Test Recorder" cannot record more then one browser at a time.


If you want to record both browser request you may want to use Fiddler - Please erad this post on how to Recording Web Test Using Fiddler


Good Luck
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After you record the first webpage(a.webtest), you can also also record the second page (b.webtest)
Just put all of the webrequests in b.webtest into a.webtest.
Besides fiddler, it is another way.

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Ray
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Hi Slumley,

Copying new browser URL into Record browser window solved the problem.

Thanks,
Swaroop

List separator for csv files in web test

I use csv files in my web tests as data source. On my PC those tests run fine, but sometimes on other PC there is a problem with list separator. Where can I change list separator as I like (it didn't work with computer regional settings)?

Thanks!
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Do you mean that you are running on a machine with a different language. Check for this registry key and see what values you have for the 2 different machines:
Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International
Name: sList


Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/slumley/default.aspx
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This issue wont help. When I ran my test from VS, list separator isn't taken from regional settings (this reg key). I'm running my tests on machines with one language (in key sList separator are equal), but in VS on some PC a different list separator is needed...
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If you are still having trouble, I suggest using a different datasource such as xml, excel or a database.
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Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/slumley/default.aspx

IP Switching Question

Hi,
When setting a range for the IP switching feature, does it have to be a range of IP addresses that are not in use already? I know about not using an address already configured on the chosen nic from Bill's blog, I am talking about addresses that may be in use by other physical hosts on the network.

The reason I am asking is that common sense says they should be free otherwise there will be a conflict, but I ran a test the other day using a range that I later found out had loads of real hosts! And while none of the IP's were actually used during the test (they were not web tests), the agent logs show that all the binds succeeded with no problems. And then today I ran the same load test with no changes and the moment I started it, the agent went off the network! I checked the event log when it came back and the reason was that on the very final IP address bind of the range, it had a duplicate IP conflict with another box on the network and as a result, disabled its own nic!

So I am really confused now as I did a ping scan and found that virtually all of the addresses I used in my range do have real hosts allocated and also, why did it work first time round, then second time round only fail on the very last one it tried to bind?

Cheers
Dan

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can anyone confirm whether the ip addresses for ip switching need to be free ones or if it doesn't matter if they are in use?

i really need to know this as i cannot chance using this again as if it goes bad i have to call out a support guy to physically reset the network card!
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They need to be free.
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Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/slumley/default.aspx

Need to get all urls from a web page

Hi ,

I m doing my first webtest using VS i m trying to get all urls from the page and them later use those urls.but i tried different things to get urls for example when i place extrace rule for html tag.start tag = a and attribute = href then it returns only first this is main issue.

2nd how i can get my my context variable value .following is the code.

Thanks
awais


WebTestRequest request1 = new WebTestRequest("http://www.worldgolf.com/courses/usa/alabama/");

ExtractAttributeValue extractionRule1 = new ExtractAttributeValue();

extractionRule1.TagName = "a";

extractionRule1.AttributeName = "href";

extractionRule1.MatchAttributeName = "";

extractionRule1.MatchAttributeValue = "";

extractionRule1.HtmlDecode = true;

extractionRule1.Required = true;

extractionRule1.Index = 0;

extractionRule1.ContextParameterName = "";

extractionRule1.ContextParameterName = "values";

request1.ExtractValues += new EventHandler(extractionRule1.Extract);

//string a = this.Context["address"].ToString();

yield return request1;


aq
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Hi Awais,


Here is a complete coded webtest that shows retreiving all URL's from anchor tags that contain hrefs. The urls are all stored in a List, and will only add unique urls.



1 //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 //
3 // This code was generated by a tool.
4 // Runtime Version:2.0.50727.3521
5 //
6 // Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
7 // the code is regenerated.
8 //
9 //------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10
11 namespace TestExperimentMar09
12 {
13 using System;
14 using System.Collections.Generic;
15 using System.Text;
16 using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.WebTesting;
17
18
19 public class WebTest3Coded : WebTest
20 {
21 List urlList = new List();
22
23 public WebTest3Coded()
24 {
25 this.PreAuthenticate = true;
26
27 }
28
29 public override IEnumerator GetRequestEnumerator()
30 {
31
32 this.PostRequest += new EventHandler(WebTest3Coded_PostRequest);
33 WebTestRequest request1 = new WebTestRequest("http://msdn.microsoft.com/");
34 request1.ExpectedResponseUrl = "http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx";
35 yield return request1;
36 request1 = null;
37
38
39 }
40
41 void WebTest3Coded_PostRequest(object sender, PostRequestEventArgs e)
42 {
43 //lets make sure that we have a valid HTML response before we start to work on the Response.HtmlDocument
44 if (e.Response.IsHtml)
45 {
46 //check a filtered list of html tags that are anchor tags
47 foreach (HtmlTag htmlTag in e.Response.HtmlDocument.GetFilteredHtmlTags(new string[] {"a"}))
48 {
49 //makes sure our htmlTag has some attributes, otherwise no need to continue
50 if (htmlTag.Attributes != null)
51 {
52 //loop through all the htmlTag.attributes to see if what we need is there
53 foreach (HtmlAttribute attributeTag in htmlTag.Attributes)
54 {
55 //lets make sure we dont have a bad htmlTag
56 if ( !string.IsNullOrEmpty(attributeTag.Name) )
57 {
58 //we are only concerned with href attributes , other checks could be done here
59 if (attributeTag.Name.Equals("href", StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
60 {
61 //if the list has the url we dont need to add it again
62 if (! this.urlList.Contains(attributeTag.Value))
63 {
64 //add the url to our master list
65 this.urlList.Add(htmlTag.GetAttributeValueAsString("href"));
66 }
67
68 }
69 }
70 }
71 }
72 }
73 }
74 }
75 }
76 }
77
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Thanks a lot :)

awais
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aq

Analysis on 1000 Vusers

Affuu - Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 1:50:06 AM

I want to do an analysis by loading an application with 1000 users and the SUT,controller,agent are on the same system will I be able to do it,if yes I want to know what will be the Run time settings i need to do,I want to go for constant load of 1000 users,please help me by providing more information on this,I need to check out the CPU utilization,RPS,Memory utilization etc.What counters exactly i need to select so that I can come to a conclusion that how many agents i need to add if I increase the load from 1000 to 2000 to 3000....

What will be the best configuration i.e the number of agents,controller,SUT(its only one system) and SQL express(load store)

One more thing when I run the webtest before adding it to load few of the dependant requests are failing but the mail request page is displaying fine do i need to rectify/make it pass completely before adding to load or is it fine as long as the main requests are rendered successfully

please help me as I am new to VSTS 2008 tool
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Hi

For hardware sizing and the number of required agents, please refer to Performance Considerations section in Load Agent and Load Controller Installation and Configuration Guide for more information. In a test rig, you just need 1 controller.



There are many performance counter category available by default. You can use counters in Processor and Memory category to check the CPU and memory usage. If you are testing an ASP.NET application, Performance Counters for ASP.NET might also be helpful.



It's correct to fix web tests before adding them in load tests. About the failing of dependent requests, please take a look at Masking a 404 error in a dependent request. If you are in a different situation, could you give us more details?
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Hi Aff,

you basically need more than 1 computer.. try to get such as 1 computer for Controller and a few PCs for Agents.. by putting agent and controller at the same computer, the result will not be accurate.

To load 1000 users for a simple system, that will be fine.

But, make sure you start at small number of users, and check the CPU load if it can handle such number of users.

YOu can check the CPU utilization and etc from the perfmon in ur server.

Run time setting is based on what is ur need. If you think all this 1000 users will be using the system for 1 hour flat, then set it as 1 hour.

Benny.
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Hi Affu,

Let me clairfy one part of your question. Are you saying that your Application you want to test (the System Under Test) will also be on the same box as your Controller, Agent?

This would invalidate the testing given that you want to monitor the CPU utilization, Memory consumption, etc.

The controller, agents also require memory, cpu, etc. Also, if you are executing the load test in the local configuration, not using a controller, agent, then your test process will only use a Single CPU on the system, even if you have more. Thats why its important to size your Controller, Agent(s) correctly so you will not skew your results by overloading your client.

Hope this helps.
Robert