Define a load test

A load test is a test designed to measure an application's behavior under normal and peak conditions. You add and configure scripts, monitors, and SLAs to a load test definition.

In this topic:

Get started

From the Load tests page, you can select a project or create and edit a test.

Action	How to
Select a project	Select a project from the dropdown in the banner.
Create a test	To create a test, perform one of the following steps: On the Load tests page, click . On the Home page, click Create a test.
Edit a test	Highlight a test in the grid. Click or click the test name link in the test grid.
Duplicate a test	Click to copy a test definition to a new test. Note: This feature requires the test name to be comprised of 120 characters or less.
Give your test a label	Organize your tests by assigning them labels. For details, see Assign labels.
View test settings	Use the left or right facing arrows in the top right to show or hide the Summary pane. This pane shows information about the last 5 runs, and lists test settings such as the number of Vusers per type, the duration, and the test ID. Tip: You can resize the pane by dragging its border.

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Navigation panel

After selecting or creating a test, the Load tests navigation panel on the left provides the following options:

	Test settings. Configure basic, run configuration, log, and load generator settings. For details, see Define test settings.
	Load profile. Show a list of the scripts and lets you set a script schedule. For details, see Configure a schedule for your script and Manage scripts.
	Load distribution. Choose the load generator machines for your Vusers. Optionally, assign scripts and the number of Vusers for on-premises load generators. For details, see Configure cloud load generator locations or Configure on-premises load generator locations.
	SLA. Show the SLA for the test. For details, see Configure SLAs.
	Single user performance. Collect client side breakdown data. For details, see Generate single user performance data.
	Rendezvous. Set up a rendezvous for your Vusers. For details, see Configure rendezvous settings. Note: This tab is only displayed if a script containing rendezvous points is included in a load test.
	Monitors. Show a list of monitors. For details, see Add monitors to your load test.
	Streaming agent. Show the streaming agent for the test. For details, see Data streaming. (This option is only visible when data streaming was enabled for your tenant via a service request.)
	Disruption events. Add disruption events to the load test. For details, see Configure disruption events.
	Test scheduler. Set a schedule for the test run. For details, see Schedule a test run.
	Runs. Opens the Runs pane listing the runs for the selected test along with run statistics such as run status, regressions, and failed transactions. For details, see View test run status.
	Trends. For details, see Trends.
	History. Lists the changes made to the load test, along with a timestamp and the user who made the changes. For example, you can determine who made changes to the test's settings, who modified the script, and who changed the ramp up time. The following are not included in the history: Network emulations, runtime settings (RTS), script assignments for on-premises load generators, schedules, cloud LG Vusers configuration, and WebPageTest report settings. Changes made outside of the load test. (For example, script reloading, script editing, removing or deleting agents from the project.)

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Configure a schedule for your script

In the Load profile page, you configure a schedule for each script.

There are three modes of script schedules: Simple, Manual, and Advanced. For all modes, you configure basic settings, which may differ depending on the run mode that you selected in Test settings.

To configure the Simple, Manual, or Advanced mode settings, click the arrow adjacent to a script to expand its details.

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Configure a goal for a load test

You can configure a load test to run in Goal Oriented mode. If you select this option, you configure a goal for the test and when the test runs, it continues until the goal is reached. For more details, see How LoadRunner Cloud works with goals below.

To configure a goal oriented test:

1. In the load test's Test settings page, select Run Mode > Goal Oriented. For details, see Run mode.

2. In the load test's Load profile page, configure the % of Vusers and Location for each script. For details, see Configure a schedule for your script.

3. In the load test's Load profile page, click the Goal settings button . In the Goal Settings dialog box that opens, configure the following:

   Setting	Description
   Goal type	Select the goal type: Hits per second. The number of hits (HTTP requests) to the Web server per second. Transactions per second. The number of transactions completed per second. Only passed transactions are counted.
   Transaction name	If you selected Transactions per second as the goal type, select or input the transaction to use for the goal.
   Goal value	Enter the number of hits per second or transactions per second to be reached, for the goal to be fulfilled.
   Vusers	Enter the minimum and maximum number of Vusers to be used in the load test.
   Ramp up	Select the ramp up method and time. This determines the amount of time in which the goal must be reached. Ramp up automatically with a maximum duration of. Ramp up Vusers automatically to reach the goal as soon as possible. If the goal can’t be reached after the maximum duration, the ramp up stops. Reach target number of hits or transactions per second <time> after test is started. Ramp up Vusers to try to reach the goal in the specified duration. Step up N hits or transactions per second every. Set the number of hits or transactions per second that are added and at what time interval to add them. Hits or transactions per second are added in these increments until the goal is reached.
   Action if target cannot be reached	Select what to do if the target is not reached in the time frame set by the Ramp up setting. Stop test run. Stop the test as soon as the time frame has ended. Continue test run without reaching goal. Continue running the test for the duration time setting, even though the goal was not reached.
   Duration	Set a duration time for the load test to continue running after the time frame set by the Ramp up setting has elapsed. Note: The total test time is the sum of the Ramp up time and the Duration.

The following do not support the Goal Oriented run mode:

• Adding Vusers

• Generating single user performance data

• The Timeline tab when scheduling a load test

• Network emulations for cloud locations

• Changing the load in a running load test

• TruClient Native Mobile scripts

How LoadRunner Cloud works with goals

LoadRunner Cloud runs Vusers in batches to reach the configured goal value. Each batch has a duration of 2 minutes.

In the first batch, LoadRunner Cloud determines the number of Vusers for each script according to the configured percentages and the minimum and maximum number of Vusers in the goal settings.

After running each batch, LoadRunner Cloud evaluates whether the goal has been reached or not. If the goal has not been reached, LoadRunner Cloud makes a calculation to determine the number of additional Vusers to be added in the next batch.

If the goal has been reached, or there are no remaining Vusers to be added, the ramp up ends. Note that the value can be greater than the defined goal value. LoadRunner Cloud does not remove Vusers to reduce the load.

During run time, if the goal was reached, but subsequently dropped to below the configured value, LoadRunner Cloud tries to add Vusers (if there are any remaining to be added) to reach the goal again.

LoadRunner Cloud does not change think time and pacing configured for scripts.

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Configure cloud load generator locations

For each script in the test, you configure a location—Cloud or On Premise. This is the location of the load generators that run the script. For details, see Configure a schedule for your script.

To configure the settings for cloud locations:

For cloud locations, you configure the distribution of Vusers and the network emulation.

1. In the Load distribution pane , click the Cloud tab.

2. Click Edit locations and select the locations to add to your test. For details, see Vuser distribution locations.

   Tip: Click Group by to group the load generators by location, vendor, vendor region, or geographical area.

3. In the Cloud tab, click Edit network emulations and select up to five emulations for your test. For details, see Network emulations.

4. For each location that you selected:

   1. Enter the percentage of Vusers you want to distribute to this location. The Vuser distribution must total 100 percent.

      

   2. Enter the percentage of those Vusers distributed to a location for which you want to assign a network emulation.

The distribution of locations and network emulations is equally applied to each of the test scripts.

Example

In the following example, in the test's Load profile page, 15 Vusers are deployed for a TruClient script and 100 Vusers for a Web HTTP script.

The location is set to Bahrain for 50 percent of the Vusers, and Ireland for the other 50 percent.

When the test starts in the Bahrain region, 7 Vusers are launched for the TruClient script and 50 Vusers for the Web HTTP script.

In Ireland, the test launches the remaining Vusers: 8 Vusers for the TruClient script and 50 Vusers for the Web HTTP script.

Load distribution templates

Load distribution templates are entities that you can apply to your load tests. You can customize an existing distribution (locations, distribution, and network emulations) and save it as a template for future use within the same project.

To create a new distribution template:

1. In the Load distribution pane of a load test, click the Cloud tab.

2. Configure the locations, distribution, and network emulations you want to save as a template.

3. Click Templates and then click Save as.

4. Enter a name and (optional) description and click Save.

To use an existing template:

1. When creating or editing a load test, select the Load distribution pane and click the Cloud tab.

2. Click Templates and then click Template management.

3. From the list of available templates, select the template you want to use and then click Select. The distribution settings from the selected template are added to the load test.

To delete an existing template:

1. In the Load distribution pane of a load test, click the Cloud tab.

2. Click Templates and then click Template management.

3. Click the trash can icon for the template you want to delete and confirm the deletion.

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Cloud LG infrastructure capacity

By default, LoadRunner Cloud assigns a maximum number of Vusers for each cloud load generator per protocol. For example, the default configuration for Vusers running Web HTTP scripts is a maximum of 2,500 Vusers per load generator. In this case, if you choose to run 10,000 Web HTTP Vusers in a single location, LoadRunner Cloud provisions four cloud load generators in that location.

The following table lists the default maximum number of Vusers for each protocol:

Protocol	Maximum number of Vusers
Citrix ICA	25
DevWeb	1500
.NET	500
Gatling	2500
Java	1500
JMeter	2500
Kafka	1500
Mobile HTTP	2500
MQTT	2500
ODBC	100
Oracle NCA	2500
Oracle Web	2500
RDP	25
RTE	25
SAP GUI	25
SAP Web	2500
Selenium	15
Siebel Web	2500
SP Browser-driven	15
SP HLS	500
SP Web Basic	2500
SP Web Page-Level	2500
SP Web Services	2500
TruAPI	2500
TruClient Mobile Web	15
TruClient Native Mobile	15
TruClient Web	15
Web HTTP	2500
Web Services	2500
Windows Sockets	500

In certain instances, you may want to change the default configuration:

• High CPU or Memory utilization. Lowering the number of Vusers per cloud load generator may help reduce the CPU and memory utilization. For details, see LG alerts.

• Environment limitations. Some environments do not allow you to load the system with more than a certain amount of Vusers originating from a single IP address. You can circumvent this issue by reducing the number of Vusers per cloud load generator. Another option is to enable the Multiple IPs feature. For details, see Enable multiple IPs for cloud and on-premises load generators.

To customize the configurations per protocol (admins):

1. Make sure you have access to Tenant Management. Go to LoadRunner Cloud banner > Settings > Tenant management > Projects.

2. Click a project and go to the Load Generators page.

3. Click the Cloud tab. If no data is visible, you must enable this capability with a service request.

   

4. Activate or deactivate a protocol for end users by toggling the switch in the Active column.

5. Optionally, modify the maximum number of allowed Vusers for the active protocols.

6. Click Apply. Note any pop ups or information messages indicating how the changes affect your tests.

Set the Vuser limit per test

In the load test's Test settings options, you can set a limit to the number of Vusers that can run on a cloud load generator, per protocol, for each test.

This capability is disabled by default. To enable it, your admin must submit a service request. After this capability is enabled, your admin can activate or deactivate protocols for each project, and set the lower limit of Vusers per protocol. For details, see Cloud LG infrastructure capacity.

After this feature has been enabled, follow these steps to configure the Vuser limits for your test:

1. Set the Enable Cloud LG Vusers configuration option to Manual in Test settings. For details, see Load generators settings.

2. Click the Edit button adjacent to the Manual option. The Vusers per cloud generator dialog box opens.

3. Specify the maximum number of Vusers that you want to be able to run in the Vusers per cloud load generator dialog box.

   

4. Click Apply. Note any pop up windows and informational messages describing how your changes affect Vuser multipliers and costs

5. In the Load Tests > Load profile pane, click the License button to learn about your license consumption. If the multiplier was changed due to your changes, the button name indicates 'Multiplied'.

   Potential implications of modifying the default values

   The following potential implications may apply when modifying the maximum number of Vusers:

   License consumption. License consumption may increase depending on the actual configuration. Pay attention to the pop up windows and information messages issued when you apply your changes.

   Dedicated IPs. When using dedicated IPs for cloud load generators, reducing the maximum number of Vusers per cloud load generator increases the number of dedicated IPs required for your future tests.

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Configure on-premises load generator locations

This section describes how to choose on-premises load generators for your test. For details about script permissions, see Configure a schedule for your script.

To configure the settings for on-premises locations:

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Configure disruption events

You can include chaos testing in your load test by adding disruption events. To add disruption events, you must first configure your Gremlin account in LoadRunner Cloud. For details on configuring your Gremlin account, see Disruption events.

To add disruption events:

1. In the Load Tests tab, select a test and open the Disruption events pane . Disruption events already assigned to the load test are displayed. You can delete an event, or toggle the Active button to make an event active or inactive.

2. To add new disruption events to the load test, click the Add button to open the Add events dialog box. All the available disruption events are listed. You can filter the list by attack type and can search for a specific event.

3. Select the events you want to add to the load test and click Add. The selected events are added to the load test and are displayed in the Disruption events pane.

4. In the Disruption events pane, for each disruption event set the start time (when during the test run the event should start).

   Note:  

   • Disruption events must end before the completion of the load test run. This means that a disruption event's start time + it's duration cannot be greater than the total load test run time.
   • The same disruption event cannot run concurrently in a load test. A disruption event must end before another instance of the same event can be started.

Disruption event data can be viewed in the Dashboard. For details, see Dashboard metrics.

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Configure rendezvous settings

When performing load testing, you need to emulate heavy user load on your system. To help accomplish this, you can instruct Vusers to perform a task at exactly the same moment using a rendezvous point. When a Vuser arrives at the rendezvous point, it waits until the configured percentage of Vusers participating in the rendezvous arrive. When the designated number of Vusers arrive, they are released.

You can configure the way LoadRunner Cloud handles rendezvous points included in scripts.

If scripts containing rendezvous points are included in a load test, open the Rendezvous pane and configure the following for each relevant rendezvous point:

• Enable or disable the rendezvous point. If you disable it, it is ignored by LoadRunner Cloud when the script runs. Other configuration options described below are not valid for disabled rendezvous points.

• Set the percentage of currently running Vusers that must reach the rendezvous point before they can continue with the script.

• Set the timeout (in seconds) between Vusers for reaching the rendezvous point. This means that if a Vuser does not reach the rendezvous point within the configured timeout (from when the previous Vuser reached the rendezvous point), all the Vusers that have already reached the rendezvous point are released to continue with the script.

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Configure SLAs

Service level agreements (SLAs) are specific goals that you define for your load test run. After a test run, LoadRunner Cloud compares these goals against performance related data that was gathered and stored during the course of the run, and determines whether the SLA passed or failed. Both the Dashboard and Report show the run's compliance with the SLA.

On the SLA page, you set a percentile, the percentage of transactions expected to complete successfully, by default 90%, and the following goals :

Goal	Description
Percentile TRT (sec)	The expected transaction response time that it takes the specified percent of transactions to complete (by default 3 seconds). If the percent of completed transaction exceeds the SLA's value, the SLA is considered "broken". For example, assume you have a transaction named "Login" in your script, where the 90th percentile TRT (seconds) value is set to 2.50 seconds. If more than 10% of successful transactions that ended during a 5 second window have a response greater than 2.50 seconds, the SLA is considered "broken" and shows a Failed status. For details about how the percentiles are calculated, see Percentiles.
Failed TRX (%)	By default, the percent of allowed failed transactions is 10%. If the percent of failed transaction exceeds the SLA's value, the SLA is considered "broken" and shows a Fail status.

You can set a separate SLA for each of your runs. You can also select multiple SLAs at one time and use bulk actions to apply one or more actions to the set. For details, see Configure SLAs.

You configure one of more SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for each load test:

To configure the SLA:

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Generate single user performance data

When enabled, this feature lets you create client side breakdown data to analyze user experience for a specific business process.

Select one or more of the following report types:

Report type	How to
NV Insights	Generate a comprehensive report based on the selected script that provides information about how your application performs for a specific business process. Generate an NV Insights report: Select the Single user performance pane. Under the Client Side Breakdown tab, select the NV Insights check box. Click Select Script and select a script for the report. Note: It can take several minutes for the NV Insights report to be generated when viewing it for the first time in a load test. The NV Insights report does not support scripts in which WinInet is enabled. The TRT Breakdown and NV Insights reports use different ways to calculate times. The TRT Breakdown report analyzes the full transaction response time, whereas the NV Insights report refers to resources within a transaction. For details, see The NV Insights report.
TRT Breakdown	Generate TRT breakdown data: Select the Single user performance pane. Under the Client Side Breakdown tab, select the Transaction Response Time Breakdown check box. Click Select Scripts and select up to five scripts. To display the results, from the Dashboard > , select the Breakdown widget. For details, see Transaction response time breakdown data.
WebPage	Generate a WebPage report: Select the Single user performance pane. Under the WebPage Test Report tab, enter a URL of your application. You can add up to 3 URLs. Select a network speed. Network speed Description Cable 5/1 Mbps 28ms RTT DSL 1.5 Mbps/384 Kbps 50 ms RTT FIOS 20/5 Mbps 4 ms RTT 56K Dial-Up 49/30 Kbps 120 ms RTT Mobile 3G 1.6 Mbps/786Kbps 300ms RTT Mobile 3G- Fast 1.6 Mbps/786Kbps 150ms RTT Native Connection No traffic shaping For details, see WebPage Test report data.

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Set a load test as a favorite

When you have configured a load test and it appears in the list of tests in the Load tests tab, you can set the test as a favorite.

To set a load test as a favorite

To set a load test as a favorite, do the following:

1. In the Load tests tab, hover over the load test you want to set as a favorite. A hollow yellow star appears.

2. Click the hollow yellow star and it changes to a filled yellow star . This indicates that the load test has been added to your favorites.

To view and select favorites

To view a list of your favorite load tests and to select a favorite, do the following:

1. In the LoadRunner Cloud banner, click the favorites icon. A list of your favorite load tests is displayed.

2. Click a load test in the list to open it for editing in the Load tests tab.

To remove a load test from favorites

To remove a load test from your list of favorites, use one of the following options:

• In the LoadRunner Cloud banner, click the favorites icon. A list of your favorite load tests is displayed. Place the cursor over the test you want to remove and click the trash can icon next to it.

• In the Load tests tab, click the yellow star of the load test you want to remove from your favorites. The yellow star disappears, indicating that the load test has been removed from your favorites.

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See also:

• Run a load test
• Define test settings
• View results
• Report
• Blog: Five LoadRunner Cloud features every user should know about