How to: Bind a test controller or test agent to a network adapter

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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

If a computer that has the test controller or the test agent software installed has multiple network adapters, then you must specify the IP address instead of the name of the computer to identify that test controller or test agent.

Warning

When you try to set up a test agent, you might receive the following error:

Error 8110. Can not connect to the specified controller computer or access the controller object

This error can be caused by installing the test controller on a computer that has more than one network adapter. It is also possible to install agents successfully, and not see this problem until you try to run a test.

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.

Bind a test controller to a specific network adapter

To obtain the IP addresses of the network adapters

  1. From Microsoft Windows, choose Start, choose in the Start Search box, type cmd, and then choose Enter.

  2. Type ipconfig /all.

    The IP addresses for your network adapters are displayed. Record the IP address of the network adapter that you want to bind your controller to.

To bind a network adapter to a test controller

  1. From Microsoft Windows, choose Start, choose in the Start Search box, type services.msc, and then choose Enter.

    The Services dialog box is displayed.

  2. In the results pane, under the Name column, right-click the Visual Studio Test Controller service and then choose Stop.

    -or-

    Open an elevated command prompt and run the following command at a command:

    net stop vsttcontroller

  3. Open the QTCcontroller.exe.config XML configuration file located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\<edition>\Common7\IDE.

  4. locate <appSettings> tag.

    <appSettings>
  <add key="LogSizeLimitInMegs" value="20"/>
  <add key="AgentConnectionTimeoutInSeconds" value="120"/>
  <add key="AgentSyncTimeoutInSeconds" value="300"/>
  <add key="ControllerServicePort" value="6901"/>
  <add key="ControllerUsersGroup" value="TeamTestControllerUsers"/>
  <add key="ControllerAdminsGroup" value="TeamTestControllerAdmins"/>
  <add key="CreateTraceListener" value="no"/>
</appSettings>

  5. Add the BindTo key to specify which network adapter to use in the <appSettings> section.

            <add key="BindTo" value="<YOUR IP ADDRESS>"/>
</appSettings>

  6. Start the test controller service. To do this, run the following command at a command prompt:

    net start vsttcontroller

    Warning

    You must run the test agent installation again to connect the test agent to the controller. This time, specify the IP address for the controller instead of the controller name.

    This applies to the controller, the agent service, and the agent process. The BindTo property must be set for each process that is running on a computer that has more than one network adapter. The procedure to set the BindTo property is the same for all three processes, as specified earlier in this topic for the test controller.

To bind a network interface card to a test agent

  1. From Microsoft Windows, choose Start, choose in the Start Search box, type services.msc, and then choose Enter.

    The Services dialog box is displayed.

  2. In the results pane, under the Name column, right-click the Visual Studio Test Agent service and then choose Stop.

    -or-

    Open an elevated command prompt and run the following command at a command:

    net stop vsttagent

  3. Open the QTAgentService.exe.config XML configuration file located in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\<edition>\Common7\IDE.

  4. locate <appSettings> tag.

    <appSettings>
  <appSettings>
  <add key="LogSizeLimitInMegs" value="20"/>
  <add key="AgentServicePort" value="6910"/>
  <add key="ControllerConnectionPeriodInSeconds" value="30"/>
  <add key="StopTestRunCallTimeoutInSeconds" value="120"/>
  <add key="CreateTraceListener" value="no"/>
  <add key="GetCollectorDataTimeout" value="300"/>
</appSettings>  </appSettings>

  5. Add the BindTo key to specify which network adapter to use in the <appSettings> section.

            <add key="BindTo" value="<YOUR IP ADDRESS>"/>
</appSettings>

  6. Start the test agent service. To do this, run the following command at a command prompt:

    net start vsttagent

See also