Manage Vusers during a run

This topic describes the runtime options for managing the behavior of Vusers during a performance test run.

View Vuser details

You can view status details of individual Vusers, and run/stop a single Vuser currently in the down/run state, irrespective of its defined schedules.

On the Performance Test Run page, click Vusers Details (available in the Graphs view, Groups view, and Transactions view). The Vusers dialog box opens, enabling you to run or stop individual Vusers.

User interface elements are described below:

UI Elements

Description

Select All. Selects all displayed Vusers.

Deselect All. Deselects all selected Vusers.

Invert Selection. Inverts the current selection of Vusers. That is, the non-selected Vusers are selected, and the selected Vusers are cleared.

Run Selected Vusers. Runs the selected Vusers.

Pause Selected Vusers. Pauses the selected Vusers.

Stop Selected Vusers Gradually. Stops the selected Vusers gradually. The Vusers complete the current iteration before stopping.

Stop Selected Vusers Immediately. Stops the selected Vusers immediately.

Reset Selected Vusers. Resets the selected Vusers to the Down state.

Show Selected Vusers Log. Opens the Vuser Activity Log, which displays runtime information for the selected Vuser. The log displays the following information:

  • Activity log for Vuser. The selected Vuser.

  • Refresh. Refreshes the information displayed in the log.

  • Download log. Enables you to download the log.

  • Close. Closes the log.

  • Log Message. Displays the logged Vuser messages.

  • Snapshot. Generates a snapshot (a graphical representation of the Web page) which contains the data generated by the traffic between the client and the server when the script is replayed.

    Note: Before using this feature, you must enable the Generate snapshot on error option in the script's runtime settings. For details on the runtime settings, see Configure runtime settings.

Refresh. Refreshes the information displayed in the dialog box.

Elapsed Time

The amount of time the Vuser has been running.

Group

Filters displayed Vusers by Vuser group.

ID

The Vuser's ID.

Load Generator

Filters displayed Vusers by load generators.

Status

Filters displayed Vusers by their status.

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Run Vusers

You can initialize, run, or stop any number of Vusers irrespective of their defined schedules. In addition, you can add new Vusers to the performance test.

On the Performance Test Run page, click Run Vusers (available in the Graphs view, Groups view, and Transactions view). The Run Vusers dialog box opens, enabling you to run additional Vusers.

User interface elements are described below:

UI Elements

Description

Distribution Mode: by Vusers. The Vusers being given an instruction are distributed according to Vuser groups.

Distribution Mode: by Load Generator. The Vusers being given an instruction are distributed according to load generators.

Vuser by: Number. Enables you to give an instruction to a specific number of Vusers per Vuser group/load generator.

Vuser by: Percentage. Enables you to give an instruction to a specific number of Vusers, which are then distributed among the Vuser groups/load generators according to a percentage which you define.

Example: If you choose to run an additional 200 Vusers, among three Vuser groups, A, B, and C, and you define the percentage distribution as A = 75%, B = 20%, and C = 5%, then the Vusers would be distributed as follows:

A. 150 Vusers

B. 40 Vusers

C. 10 Vusers

Note: When selecting this method, you enter the number of Vusers to run in the box adjacent to the by Percentage button.

Enter the number of Vusers per Vuser group/load generator.

Enter the percentage distribution per Vuser group/load generator.

Apply

Performs the selected instruction.

Group

Lists the Vuser groups in the test.

Load Generator

Lists the load generators in the test.

Perform the following Action

Give the desired instruction to the defined number of Vusers. The possible actions are:

  • Add new Vusers to Down state. Add the desired number of Vusers to the Down state.

  • Add new VUFDs to Down state. Add the desired number of VUFDs to the Down state.
  • Initialize Vusers from Down. Initializes the desired number of Vusers currently in the Down state.

  • Run Vusers from Down. Runs the desired number of Vusers currently in the Down state.

  • Run Vusers from Ready. Runs the desired number of Vusers currently in the Ready state.

  • Stop Vusers. Moves the desired number of Vusers from the Run state to the Gradual Exiting state.

  • Reset Vusers. Moves the desired number of Vusers from the Stopped state to the Down state.

Note: You cannot perform an action on more Vusers than are currently in a particular state. For example, if you define 10 Vusers and select Initialize Vusers from Down, but there are only five Vusers in the Down state, only those five Vusers are initialized.

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Add or edit Vuser groups

You can add Vuser groups to a running performance test, or edit existing Vuser group settings during a test run.

Action Description
Add a group

On the Performance Test Run page, select More > Add Group (available in the Graphs view, Groups view, and Transactions view). The Add Group dialog box opens, enabling you to add a Vuser group. Enter a group name, select a script, enter the number of Vusers to run.

Edit a group

On the Performance Test Run page, open the Groups tab, and place the mouse cursor over the name of the group you want to edit. Click the down arrow that appears adjacent to the name, and select Edit Group. The Edit Group dialog box opens, enabling you to edit the group's details.

  • Group Name. The name of the Vuser group.

    Note: Do not use non-English characters in group names.

  • Load Generators. The load generators on which the group is running.

  • Protocol. The Vuser script's protocol.

  • Script. The name of the Vuser script.

  • Vusers. The number of Vusers assigned to the group.

Note: You can edit Vusers when they are in the Down state only.

View/edit runtime settings
  1. On the Performance Test Run page, open the Groups tab and place the mouse cursor over the group whose runtime settings you want to edit.

  2. Click the down arrow that appears adjacent to the name, and Edit Group.

  3. In the Edit Group dialog box, click Runtime Settings to view and change the runtime settings for the Vuser script. For details, see Configure runtime settings.

Send parameter
  1. On the Performance Test Run page, open the Groups tab and place the mouse cursor over a group name.

  2. Click the down arrow that appears adjacent to the name, and Edit Group.

  3. In the Edit Group dialog box, type the name and value of the parameter you want to send in the Command line box using the format, <Parameter_Name> <value>.

    For information about the command line parsing functions, or for details about including arguments on a command line, see the LoadRunner Online Function Reference, provided with Virtual User Generator.

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View Vuser scripts

You can view the code for each action in a running Vuser script.

  1. On the Performance Test Run page, open the Groups tab and place the mouse cursor over a group name.

  2. Click the down arrow that appears adjacent to the name, and select View Script .

    The View Script dialog box displays the script details including script name, type, the last updated date and time, and the actions included in the script.

  3. To edit parameters in the script, click Edit Parameters. For details on editing parameters, see Edit script parameters.

  4. To download the script to the Downloads folder of the client user, click Download.

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Release Vusers from a rendezvous

You can manually release Vusers from a rendezvous before the Controller releases them.

On the Performance Test Run page, select More > View Rendezvous (available in the Graphs view, Groups view, and Transactions view). The Rendezvous Policy dialog box opens. For details, see Set rendezvous policies.

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See also: