Adding a user group to VU Schedule

By defining user groups, you can group related tests and run the tests in parallel. Tests belonging to different user groups run in parallel.

Procedure

  1. In the Test Navigator, double-click the VU Schedule.
  2. Right-click the name of VU Schedule, and then click Add > User Group.
  3. In Group name, type a descriptive name for the user group.
  4. Under Group size, select Absolute or Percentage, and type the number of users or a percentage of users in the group.
    OptionDescription
    Absolute Specifies a static number of virtual users. Type the maximum number of virtual users that you want to be able to run. For example, if you type 50, you can run up to 50 virtual users each time you run a schedule. Typically, you create an Absolute user group only if the group does not add a workload. For example, if one test prepared a website for use and another test restored the site to its initial state, each test would be in an Absolute user group that contains one user.
    Percentage Specifies a dynamic number of users. Type the percentage of the workload that the user group represents. Typically, you assign user groups a percentage, rather than an absolute number. For example, perhaps 70.0% of your users browse your website, and 30.0% order an item from your website. Set up two user groups in this proportion. Then, at the schedule level, type the initial number of users to run. You can also add users during the run. The schedule distributes the users among the dynamic user groups according to the percentages you specify.
    Tip: You can specify fractional percentages.
  5. Under Locations, select Run this group on the local computer or Run this group on the following locations.
    OptionDescription
    Run this group on the local computer The user group runs on your computer. Use this option if the workload is small or if you are testing the VU Schedule.
    Run this group on the following locations Typically, you run user groups on remote computers. When user groups run on remote computers, the workbench activity on the local computer does not affect the ability to apply load. Run user groups at remote locations in these cases:
    • When a large number of virtual users are running and the local computer does not have enough processor or memory resources to support this load. You can conserve resources by running the users on different locations, so that fewer users run on each computer.
    • When a test requires specific client libraries or software. The user group that contains this test must run on a computer that has the libraries or software installed.
  6. To declare a remote location:
    1. Click Add > Add New.
      The Add New wizard opens. On the first page of the wizard, you can specify general properties for the remote location.
    2. In Hostname, type the IP address or the fully qualified host name of the remote computer.
    3. In Name, type a descriptive name for the remote computer.
    4. In Deployment Directory, enter a fully qualified pathname of the directory, which is in the remote computer to store the test assets.
      Note: The environment variables such as %TEMP% are not supported in the Deployment Directory field.
    5. In Operating System, select the operating system of the remote computer, and then click Next.
    6. Specify the IP aliasing properties for this location. To make it appear as though each virtual user has its own IP address, click Enable IP Aliasing.
    7. To use IP addresses from all network interfaces at the remote location, click Use IP addresses from all network interfaces.
    8. To use addresses from a subset of network interfaces, click Only use IP addresses from the following network interfaces.
      Tip: Click Add to add the name of an interface and Edit to change the interface name. Specify network interfaces separated by commas, for example, eth0, eth1. If you do not use this form, the connection attempt fails.
    9. Click Next. On the third page of this wizard, you can specify file locations.
    10. In File name, type the name of the file to contain information about this computer, and then click Next.
      Note: The data stored in the file includes information such as the host name and deployment directory. You can change this information later by opening the Test Navigator and double-clicking the file.
  7. To add an already declared location:
    1. Click Add > Add Existing.
    2. In the Select Location window, select the computer on which the user group will run, and then click OK.

Example

The following schedule shows two user groups. Browsers represent 70.0% of the users, and Buyers represent the remaining 30.0%:
tree containing two user groups

What to do next

After you have added user groups to the VU Schedule, add the tests that each user group will run.