Assign roles to a test controller and test agent

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

This article demonstrates how to create and configure a test setting that uses a test controller and test agent to distribute testing across several machines using Visual Studio. It also demonstrates how to add diagnostic and data adapters to the test setting.

Note

Web performance and load test functionality is deprecated. Visual Studio 2019 is the last version where web performance and load testing will be fully available. For more information, see the Cloud-based load testing service end of life blog post. To reduce the impact on users some minimum support is still available in Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3 or later. Users should also note web performance and load test functionality only supports Internet Explorer which is not available on Windows 11 and some versions of Windows 10. Read more on Internet Explorer Lifecycle policy.

Prerequisites

  • Create unit tests or coded UI tests to run with the test setting.

  • Install a test controller and test agents. For information about how to install a test controller and test agents, see Install and configure test agents.

To create and configure a test setting

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click Solution Items, point to Add, and then choose New Item.

    The Add New Item dialog box appears.

  2. In the Installed Templates pane, choose Test Settings.

  3. In the Name box, type TestSettingDistributedTestWalkthrough.

  4. Choose Add.

    The new test TestSettingDistributedTestWalkthrough.testsettings file appears in Solution Explorer, under the Solution Items folder.

    The Test Settings dialog box is displayed. The General page is selected.

    You can now edit and save test settings values.

  5. Under Name, type the name for the test settings.

  6. Under Description, type Distributed test settings.

  7. Leave Default naming scheme selected.

To assign roles to a test controller and test agents

  1. Choose Roles.

    The Roles page is displayed.

  2. To run your test remotely, use the Test execution method drop-down list and select Remote execution.

  3. In the Controller drop-down list, type the computer name of your test controller.

    Note

    If this is the first time that you are adding a controller, there are no controllers listed in the drop-down list. The list is populated by previous controllers that you have specified in other test settings.

  4. Under Roles, choose Add.

  5. In the highlighted row under the Name column, type Distributed test.

To assign a diagnostic and data adapter to your test setting

  1. Choose Data and Diagnostics.

    The Data and Diagnostics page is displayed.

  2. Under Role, verify that the Distributed test role is selected.

  3. Under Data and Diagnostic for select role, select the IntelliTrace and System Information adapters.

    For information about these adapters and other adapters that you can use in a test setting, see Configure unit tests.

  4. Choose Hosts.

  5. (Optional) If your machine is running under a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows, and you compiled your test using the Any CPU configuration, use the Run test in 32 bit or 64 bit process drop-down list and select Run tests in 64-bit process on 64-bit machine.

    Tip

    For maximum flexibility, you should compile your test projects with the Any CPU configuration. Then you can run on both 32-bit and 64-bit agents. There is no advantage to compiling test projects with the 64-bit configuration.

  6. To save the new test settings, choose Apply.

  7. Choose Close.

  1. On the Test menu, select Test Settings > Select Test Settings File and then choose the TestSettingDistributedTestWalkthrough.testsettings file.

  1. Run your test as usual.

    When the test controller processes unit tests and coded UI tests, the test controller divides the tests into groups of 100 and sends them to a test agent machine. For example, if you have 250 unit tests and three test agents, the first 100 unit tests will be sent to agent1, the next 100 unit tests will be sent to agent2, and the remaining 50 unit tests will be sent to agent3.

See also