Working with agents
If you have a significant workload to test, typically a single computer might not be able to process the load efficiently. You need to distribute the load across multiple computers, also called HCL DevOps Test Performance (Test Performance) agents. The agents are installed on computers to generate the load on the application.
You create VU Schedule to generate user load and you create Rate Schedule to generate transaction load on the agent locations. You use the Test Performance workbench to distribute the load. When you distribute the load among agent computers, carefully consider the load that each agent computer can take efficiently.
To view the health of the agent computers, see Agents Health Report.
Test Performance agent, also known as load generation agent, is used to generate load for the application under test by creating simulated connections.
When you install Test Performance Agent, you can specify the host name of the workbench to poll. After the installation, the agent automatically connects to the workbench. If you want to share the agent with multiple workbenches, you can either manually add them to the majordomo.config file at installationDir/Majordomo or use the Share Agent with New Workbench option that is mentioned in the Checking status of agents topic.
When you run a schedule with multiple agents, an agent might be lost, especially during the long load test run. Losing an agent is not common and occurs during some extreme cases such as when computer's memory is exhausted. When an agent is lost, by default, the schedule is stopped. When the schedule is stopped in this manner, you must fix the reason of agent loss or add more agents before running the schedule. To continue to run the schedule without the lost agent, in the Schedule editor, click the Advanced tab and clear the Loss of an agent halts execution check box.
- You can install Test Performance Agent and Test Performance on any of the supported platforms that are mentioned in the System Requirements for DevOps Test Performance 2023.12 (11.0.0). It is not necessary that both are installed on the same platforms or the bitness of the platform must be same.
- If you are creating load on the Test Performance Agent computer, ensure that, in the workbench, you point to the agent computers.
- If you are using Test Performance workbench 8.3 or later, you must use Test Performance Agent 8.3 or later. Also, it is recommended to use the same release version for both.
The Test Performance workbench automatically deploys test assets that are required for execution to participating agents. For more information about the deployment directory, see Managing deployment directory.
A typical setup of Test Performance workbench, Test Performance agents, and the system under test is shown here:
