This section provides an overview of using timeslots to reserve resources for running your performance tests.
Note: For details on reserving timeslots for maintenance (administrators only), see Manage timeslots.
Timeslot overview
When running tests, or performing maintenance on host machines (administrators only), the resources needed for these tasks must be available, and must fall within the project and license limits.
LoadRunner Enterprise's timeslots feature enables you to reserve resources in advance to ensure that the required resources are available when you are ready to perform these tasks. LoadRunner Enterprise itself also reserves resources needed for data processing tasks.
Available in LoadRunner Enterprise 2020 SP1: You can also link tests with Elastic (Cloud and Docker) load generators to a timeslot.
Types of timeslot reservation
Timeslots can be reserved for immediate use or they can be reserved in advance for future use. This section describes these two types of timeslot reservations.
Immediate timeslot reservations
Scheduling an immediate timeslot reserves resources for a task at hand.
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Performance Testing: When you start running a performance test, before the test starts to run, you specify the time and resources you need for the test. LoadRunner Enterprise checks if the required hosts and Vusers are currently available for that amount of time, and that the license and project limits are not exceeded, in which case, you can reserve the hosts and Vusers for that timeslot. If the hosts and Vusers are not available, or license/project limits have been exceeded, you cannot run the test at that time and need to try again at a later time.
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Data Processing: When working with LoadRunner Enterprise projects, tasks such as test result analysis, SLA status publication, and trending are performed on a data processor host. LoadRunner Enterprise estimates how long a data processor host is needed for the task at hand. As soon as a data processor becomes available for this task, an immediate timeslot reservation is automatically made.
If you know which testing resources you need for running a test, or you know the hosts on which you need to perform maintenance, you can reserve the resources for your test in advance for a specified amount of time.
When reserving a testing timeslot, you can request either specific hosts or automatch hosts. That is, you can specify the exact hosts which will run your test or test set, and if those hosts are available, LoadRunner Enterprise reserves them for you. Alternatively, you can request automatch hosts, which allows LoadRunner Enterprise to allocate any available host with properties that match your selected criteria.
When you add a test instance to a test set, LoadRunner Enterprise automatically allocates hosts linked to the test instance based on the test type.
For performance test timeslots, you must select at least one Controller. For details, see the Distribute load generators.
A timeslot can be reserved successfully only if all of the requested resources are available.
Tip: All users in your project can use the timeslot that you have reserved.
It is important to note that many conditions and changes in the system can affect host allocation, and can cause a shuffling around of the hosts. For more details about host allocation and examples of resource shuffling, see Allocate hosts.
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.
Best practices for reserving automatic timeslots
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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.
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The following suggestions apply to running automatic Performance tests:
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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, see Configure test options.
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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.
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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.
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15 minutes before the end of a timeslot, LoadRunner Enterprise automatically stops the test run. Five minutes before the end of the timeslot, even if all the Vusers have not yet finished running, LoadRunner Enterprise 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.
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Change timeslot duration
If you see that a performance test will reach the end of its timeslot before it completes, you can manually extend it while the test is running to allow your tests to finish running.
To extend or shorten the current timeslot:
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During runtime, on the Performance Test Run page, click
Timeslot Duration. -
Select Prolong/Shorten Timeslot by X minutes and enter the number of minutes by which to extend or shorten the timeslot.
Note:
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If the Vusers are in the process of stopping gradually, the system will prolong the timeslot automatically for 15 minutes, provided the resources are still available.
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To extend a timeslot, all necessary testing resources must be available during the extension time. If any of the testing resources are reserved for a different timeslot immediately following yours, you cannot extend the timeslot and tests stop without completing properly.
Timeslot failure
Timeslots can be reserved successfully only when all the requested resources are available for the requested duration of time.
Many factors render a timeslot invalid. Such factors include:
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Changes to the LoadRunner Enterprise licenses (this does not affect maintenance timeslots)
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Resources become unavailable
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A test linked to a timeslot becomes invalid
In some cases, such as where there is a conflict between hosts, the system can perform a reshuffle of hosts to try to rectify the situation and revalidate the timeslot. For details, see Allocate hosts. Other factors, such as test invalidation, can be corrected manually.
See also:
