Finding AMI and starting

To use loadUI in Amazon cloud an Amazon EC2 account is required. If you already have launching instances with running loadUI agent is done in few steps:

1. Log in into the AWS Management Console
2. Choose Amazon EC2 tab, it should be selected by default
3. Click on Launch Instance
4. Select Community AMI's
5. Next to Viewing: choose Public Images from drop down and write loadui in text box

Now you should see filtered images:

Select loadUI image and follow instructions to start it.

How to connect loadUI controller to Agent

If you successfully managed have to find and start an instance with a loadUI agent from the EC2 Dashboard, go to the the section My Resources and open Running Instances. Select the instance with a loadUI Agent and check its properties. Look for Public DNS, this is the public name of the instance. In the loadUI controller right click on the Agent panel and choose New Agent. As the Agent URL enter the AMI's public DNS and port 443:

loadUI will now add the Agent. That is all you need to be able to run Agents in the Amazon Cloud.

What is a distributed test?

A distributed test is a single test that is run from several different computers at the same time.

Why do I want to use a distributed test?

Running load tests often involves generating a lot of traffic to simulate a large number of users. This can become physically difficult to do using a single computer, due to the required amount of computer resources needed to handle this vast amount of requests and responses.

This will also provide a more realistic test, since it is unlikely that all access to your system would come from a single computer, so running distributed tests servers to make the simulation closer to actual user behaviour.

How does loadUI support running distributed tests?

In loadUI, we've made distributed testing easy to do. Each loadUI TestCase can be distributed out to a number of loadUI agents (a loadUI agent is simply another machine on the network which is running the loadUI agent software), where it will be executed just like in the desktop loadUI application. The physical location of a loadUI agent can also be remote, which more accurately simulates traffic coming from outside the network. You can even deploy a loadUI agent AMI (Amazon Machine Image) to the Amazon EC2 service, allowing you to outsource the traffic generation to the "cloud", without needing to run and maintain the hardware for it yourself.

One of the most powerful features of loadUI is the ability to distribute a TestCase to agents, to better model the type of load that the system you are testing can expect.

I this tutorial, we will learn:

1. How to create a TestCase
2. How to place that TestCase on an agent

Before doing this tutorial, you will want to create a project and connect to at least one agent, as detailed in Your First loadUI Project.

1) How to Create a TestCase

1. Double click on a project to open it.

2. Drag a TestCase from the Component Bar onto the Canvas to create it

   

   TestCase

3. You can double-click on the new TestCase to open it. There you can create and control your Load Test like you would in a project except that you cannot create TestCases within a TestCase (you can have as many TestCases as you need within a single Project, though)

   For more information on how to configure a Load Test, you can see Load Testing with loadUI. You can run and stop the TestCase as normal.

Now that you have your TestCase ready, it is time to put it on an agent.

2) How to Place a TestCase on an Agent

1. While in a project which contains a TestCase, possibly one created by following the previous section, click on the inspector panel (on the bottom of the workspace) to reveal it. You will see the Agents inspector.

   On the left, you can see the Ghost Agent, which shows all the TestCases on your current project. To the right of that, you can see all the external agents that the controller is currently connected to.

   

   Agent Inspector

2. In order to place the TestCase on an agent, simply drag and drop it from the Ghost Agent to the agent that you want it to be on.

3. To control the TestCase, you will need to click on the "On Agents" button to switch to the agent controlling mode. You can now start and stop the testcases on the agents. You can also double-click on the testcase in an agent in order to see its configuration and work on it further.

Working with Web Load Tests