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# Automatic Timeslots

Some tests might require a lot of time and many resources. The Timeslot feature enables you to reserve these resources when resources are more readily available, and/or when you might not be available to run the test manually. This allows for maximum resource usage because your resources can then be used around the clock.

Example:

Suppose a project has a total of eight hosts for allocation and the employees assigned to the project work a standard 09:00-17:00 day. The hours between 09:00 and 17:00 are peak hours for host usage, during which time all the hosts are usually reserved for testing, data processing, and maintenance tasks. Because of this, there may be periods during the day that employees cannot perform tasks because there are no available hosts. In contrast, the non-standard work hours pass with very little host resource usage.

To extend host resource usage, employees might come in early or stay late to run tests, but this only extends the peak usage by one or two hours at the beginning and end of the day.

Reserving timeslots during non-standard work hours and setting the tests to run during these timeslots allows for maximum resource usage.

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## Best Practices for Reserving Automatic Timeslots

This section describes some best practices to follow when reserving an automatic timeslot:

- Where possible, run the test manually first to get an indication as to how long it takes for the test to run. This information can assist you when selecting the timeslot duration.

- The following suggestions apply to running automatic Performance tests:

  Note: When a performance test is added to a Build Verification Suite timeslot, the performance test runs only after all included functional tests have completed running.

  - Always ensure that the Scheduler is set to stop as soon as all the Vusers have stopped running. This allows more time for post-run actions during the duration of the timeslot. For details on setting test options, refer to the LoadRunner Enterprise documentation.

  - If you want to analyze the test results straight after the run, take into account that the analysis process can take a long time, so be sure to reserve enough time for this operation.

  - If you want to perform auto-collate and analyze operations at the end of the run, you should take the time required for these operations into account when reserving the timeslot.

    Note: To prevent loss of run data, it is recommended, whenever possible, to collate the results immediately after the run finishes. If your timeslot ends before result collation is completed, collation continues as it does not require reserved resources.

  - 15 minutes before the end of a timeslot, ALM automatically stops the test run. Five minutes before the end of the timeslot, even if all the Vusers have not yet finished running, ALM aborts the run. To ensure that the test ends properly as designed, make sure that you reserve more time than defined in the test schedule.

Parent topic: Reserving Timeslots Overview

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