Performing Tests

1. Performing Benchmarks

After you have prepared Login VSI and the target platform, you can run the benchmark:

• Pre-create the local profiles.
• Run the Test sequence.
• Use the analysis tool to determine the virtual session indexes.

1.1. Configuring the MMC

Start the “VSI Management Console”. The first time you start the launcher it will ask you to install a license. If you do not yet have a license file you can request one for free. You can also choose to continue without a license file but then you cannot initiate more than one user session. This way you can already start testing and setting up Login VSI while you wait for the license to be approved.

1.2. Prepare the first test - Create Profiles

When you configure Login VSI using the management console to prepare your target system or image, enable the option “Create Profiles” on the first run. The Launcher machine creates the profiles on the designated target server. This will not perform a benchmark, but quickly pre configure the local profiles required for testing. To pre-create local profiles, only a single Launcher is required as the amount of concurrent open connections is minimal.

Before the actual Load Tests are started, it is important to first create the local user profiles on the target machines. When you are using images for your target system, it is highly recommend to prepare and include the local profiles within the image. This will save you a lot of time, as you are not required to run the pre-create profile phase on each new system before you can benchmark.

All active launchers will start initiation sessions to the target devices now; when profiles are created sessions will automatically logoff. After preparing the user profiles reboot the Login VSI environment including all launcher and target machines. This preparation has to be executed only once.

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1.3. Perform a benchmark

• Before you start a benchmark run, ensure the “Create Profiles” box is unchecked. If the “Create profiles” checkbox is checked, no results will be logged.
• It is recommended to configure the “Auto Logoff” option to automatically stop the benchmark after all sessions have been started. However, if a server is truly saturated it is very likely that not all sessions will be logged off because they hang.
• Always reboot the target platform and launchers before starting a new test run. This ensures that the system has no locked files and sessions left that can impact the performance.

1.4. Starting the test

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2. Advanced settings

This chapter describes how to configure the MMC If your test requires a more advanced configuration.

2.1. Sequential vs. parallel launching

Sequential:
By default Login VSI initiates sessions in “Sequential” mode, this mode is designed for small scale tests (or single host tests). Each launcher will initiate the assigned sessions before continuing to the next launcher as shown in the image below where each green arrow is representing a session.

Parallel:
When performing large scale tests the sequential mode testing would take too much time or the interval in-between sessions might be too low for one launcher to handle. In this scenario use the parallel launch mode. When launching sessions in parallel mode the sessions are “Load balanced” over all launchers and all launchers will start initiating sessions immediately.

2.2. Custom Command Line

The Login VSI launcher is platform and protocol independent with the introduction of the “Custom” and “Custom with CSV file” connection options. As long as the client allows the use of a command-line to automatically launch sessions, Login VSI will support that platform. The “Custom” function is really simple, you may use variables specified as setting in the Launcher: %input_servername%, %input_username%, %input_domain%, %input_password%, %count%. This example (dummy code) will connect multiple users to a broker:

Dummy Example:

ExampleClient.exe /user:%input_domain%\%$input_username%%Count% /Broker:%input_servername% /Password:%input_password%

RDP Example:
To setup a RDP connection Login VSI uses LaunchRDP.exe created by Remko Weijnen to setup remote RDP connections because the default MSTSC.exe provided by Microsoft does not allow passtrough off a password parameter.

LaunchRDP.exe %input_servername% 3389 %input_username% %input_domain% %input_password% 0 0 0

2.3. Custom Command Line with CSV

For added flexibility you can create CSV for input of your custom command line. There is no limitation on the amount of columns (variables) and the naming of the parameters. Use a comma “,” as a delimiter. The setup of the CSV is straightforward, the launcher will process the second row and use the name specified in the first row as variable name. Save the custom CSV file in the Login VSI share.

RDP Example:
To setup a RDP connection Login VSI uses LaunchRDP.exe created by Remko Weijnen to setup remote RDP connections because the default MSTSC.exe provided by Microsoft does not allow passtrough off a password parameter.

LaunchRDP.exe %CSV_Workstation% 3389 %CSV_User% %CSV_Domain% %CSV_Password% 0 0 0

2.4. Starting a test unattended (command-line)

To start a test fully automatic start the Login VSI Management console with the "Silent" parameter, this will force the management console to start a test with the last updated configuration and the specified testname on the command-line. This scenario is usefull in enterprise environments where tests are executed fully automatic. To start a test commandline use the following commandline:

"VSI Management Console.exe" silent "Name of Test"

This approach still requires all of the VSI launcher agents to be running (and ready) before a test is started.

2.5. Using Multiple Launchers

When performing large scale tests, ploblable multiple launchers are required. Setting up mulitple launchers is easy.

• First configure all setting in the Management Console Launcher and save the settings.
• Reboot all launcher machines
• Make sure the Login VSI-Agent is started on all launcher machines
• Start a test in the Login VSI Management Console
• The Login VSI-Launcher agents will start the test run. The Slave Launcher(s) will automatically wait until the session total has reached their starting point.

2.6. Launcher Considerations:

• Before you start a new test run, always reboot or re-logon on each launcher, to fully reset the sessions
• To stop a launcher while it is running, right-click the Login VSI system tray icon and choose “exit”.
• Always start with session number 1 on the master launcher, any other starting number will skew the logging results.
• To reset test settings, delete VSItarget.ini & VSIlauncher.ini located in the central Login VSI share.

If you did not tune GDI limits on Windows, do not configure more than 45 sessions per launcher to be safe.

2.7. Launcher Settings