LoadRunner Cloud (previously named StormRunner Load) is a product under constant development with multiple releases every year. With each new release comes new or updated functionality, which means that many of customers simply do not notice what is new or what has been improved, hence this series of blog posts.
The following features are the focus of this blog post:
- Pause Scheduling during a test run.
- Troubleshooting by downloading Script and Vuser logs.
- Goal oriented run mode.
- On-premises load generator configuration using dedicated sub-domain for LRC control components.
- Schedule test runs.
If you missed Volume 1 of this series, you can read it here.
Pause Scheduling During a Test Run
It is always good practice to make regular pauses during the Virtual User ramp-up, when running a load test against an AUT where it is not known how it will react to the load. By making these pauses, it is then possible to check that the AUT is stable under the load and that no degradation of e.g. response times or throughput is occurring.
Enabling the Pause scheduling feature is done on the General tab when defining the load test, and a total pause up to two hours is possible. Multiple pauses can be done during the ramp-up, but the total pause time can’t exceed the configured maximum duration.
The selected pause will then be visible next to the Run Test button.
During the ramp-up of the running test, the Pause scheduling button is then available at the top.
If clicked, the ramp-up will pause and the remaining pause time will be displayed until clicked again.
See more at:
Troubleshoot test issues by downloading Script and Vuser logs
Best practices recommend disabling all logging due to the overhead that it will create, if not done in a sensible fashion. But there are times when controlled troubleshooting tests with a low number of Vusers are needed, and that requires that logging is enabled. Not only in the runtime settings of the scripts, but also on the load test configuration page.
Please note that a support ticket is required to enable the collection of Vuser logs from on-premises load generators (OPLGs).
In addition to the support ticket, each OPLG will also need to have the Vuser Logs Collection enabled, by clicking Edit on the OPLG.
The Enable Vuser Logs Collection switch must be set to ON for that OPLG.
There is also the option to enable Store script errors on the load test configuration page, and this will generate an aggregated CSV file containing all the errors with timestamps. That same information is also available in the Vuser logs above but there it will be divided into one file per Vuser/Emulation/Location.
Run the troubleshooting test as normal and once finished, click the three dots and select to download the Script errors to CSV and the Logs.
The Notification icon will light up and once generated, the log files are available for download.
See more info on enabling logs!
Goal Oriented Run Mode
LoadRunner Cloud has three different Run Modes, and whilst Duration and Iterations are easy to understand, the third option might need some additional explanation.
The Goal Oriented Run Mode was introduced some time ago and allows for setting a goal value and let LoadRunner Cloud automatically ramp-up Vusers until the goal is reached. The Goal is set by clicking the Goal Settings button on the load test’s scripts page:
There are two types of goals to choose from; Hits/second and Transactions/second. Choosing the latter requires that one of the named transactions, defined in one of the scripts, is selected as the target transaction. Using a TPS goal is often easier to define, since a transaction always contains a defined number of server requests, while using a Hits/second goal, each defined server request can result in any number of hits.
Define the Goal by entering the Goal value and the minimum and maximum amount of Vusers to be used for achieving the goal, meaning that some calculations might be required by the user in advance to provide guidance.
There are three options for how the ramp-up to achieve the goal should be done:
- Ramp-up automatically… The test will try to ramp-up as quick as possible.
- Reach target number… The test will try to achieve the goal according to the set timing.
- Step up by … The test will ramp-up according to the defined setting.
The test will always start a batch with the defined minimum amount of Vusers and run those for two minutes. LRC will then calculate how many TPS each Vuser contributes with and use that number as a base for the rest of the batches.
In option #1 above, the test will then run the calculated amount of Vusers needed to hit the goal in the second batch of Vusers.
In option #2, the test will then calculate how many two-minute batches are possible within the time limit and how many Vusers are needed in each batch, in order to achieve a linear ramp-up to achieve the goal.
In option #3, the test will ramp-up Vusers, according to the initial calculated TPS per Vuser, every set time interval.
In each option, at the end of each 2-minute batch, LRC will calculate the 90th percentile of the TPS of that batch, and if the goal is achieved, then the final Duration setting starts.
Running a load test using option #1, with the following settings, results in these graphs:
After the initial 2-minute batch, where it’s calculated that each Vuser contributes 2 TPS, the second batch is set to 50 Vusers. During that batch, the goal of 100 TPS is achieved, and the 2-minute duration starts, resulting in a total test time of 6 minutes.
Running a load test using option #2, with the following settings, results in these graphs:
After the initial 2-minute batch, it’s calculated that each Vuser contributes 2 TPS. The test then ramps-up in another four 2-minute batches in order to achieve the goal at the 10-minute mark, and then continue for another 2 minutes for the final duration, resulting in a total test time of 12 minutes.
Running a load test using option #3, with the following settings, results in these graphs:
First the initial 2-minute batch, where 2 TPS per Vuser is calculated. Then each following 2-minute batch adds 5 Vusers (10 TPS), which repeats until we achieve the goal after 18 minutes, resulting in a total test time of 20 minutes.
See more about configuring a goal for a load test.
On-premises load generator configuration using dedicated sub-domain for LRC control components
There are normally two different use cases related to the need of dedicated IP addresses.
- Using LRC cloud load generators and having the AUT located behind a firewall.
- Using LRC on-premises load generators (OPLGs) or agents located behind a firewall.
In the first case, it is about allowing the cloud load generators access to the AUT, by allowing inbound communication from the dedicated IP addresses in the firewall. That can be achieved by:
- Allocating the cloud LG IP addresses in advance (by opening a support ticket).
- Obtaining the IP address ranges used by the cloud provider for the specific region and allowing those for inbound communication.
- Obtaining the cloud LG IP addresses during a test run and allowing them for inbound communication ad-hoc.
In the second use case, where the OPLGs or LRC Agents are behind a firewall, it’s a matter of allowing outbound communication with the LRC application and the LRC control components.
The LRC application is hosted at https://loadrunner-cloud.saas.microfocus.com and accessing that from a browser should result in the Micro Focus MyAccount login page. If not, then the LRC application URL would need to be opened in the firewall for outbound connectivity.
The LRC control components, which are dynamically created in the cloud for every test, must also be accessible from the OPLGs or LRC Agents. LRC hosts a static test domain at oplg-test.loadrunner-cloud.com to which connection testing can be done, and if unsuccessful, further firewall configuration for outbound connection might be needed, which can be achieved by either of the following:
- Obtain dedicated IP addresses for LRC control components by open a ticket with the support, requesting one IP address for each number of concurrent runs required.
- Obtain a dedicated sub-domain for LRC control components by open a ticket with support. Note, you would still need to specify the required number of dedicated IP addresses to be allocated for your tenant for LRC control components, one per each concurrent run.
The latter eliminates the need of maintaining a list of IP addresses, which allows any firewalls to be opened to any control components part of the sub-domain.
The format of the sub-domain is *.t-<Your TenantID>.loadrunner-cloud.com and a support ticket is required to enable this option on your tenant.
See more about dedicated IP addresses.
Schedule test runs
While many customers start their load tests either manually or by making it part of a DevOps tool chain, there is also the option to simply set a date and time for a test to be started. This is defined on the Schedules tab of the load test. While it not yet possible to set recurring schedules, it is possible to set up to 50 schedules for a load test.
The Timeline tab will only be available for VU licence mode tests, and not for test using the Iterations run mode, and will highlight any possible conflicts.
Once a load test has been scheduled, there will be a Schedules ON icon next to the Run Test button, and on the Load Test overview page, there will be a small icon next to the Status indicating the same:
If the tenant has Project Management enabled, then it is possible to get an overview of all the scheduled test runs in all projects.
See more at:
That's it for now, please check back for further volumes if you enjoyed reading this.
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