How to add IE7 to the Browser Mix

Hi,

Load test creation is wizard based. When you define your scenario, you select Browser Mix. In th Browser Mix you select all the browsers that  are to be use in the load scenario. Basicly after you install the VSTS for testers, there are several browser types that you can choose from. However, this might not be enough.

Considure a situation where some of your users use IE7. By default it is not supported in the Browser Mix. The good news is that you can add, modify or delete browsers from the Browser Mix list. Follow these steps in order to add IE7 to the Browser Mix:

1. Browse to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\Templates\LoadTest\Browsers.
2. Select one of the files (for example: IE6.browser) and open it for edit with Word Pad or Note Pad (This is actualy an xml file) .
3. Change "<Browser Name="Internet Explorer 6.0">" to be "<Browser Name="Internet Explorer 7.0">".
4. Change "<Header Name="User-Agent" Value="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)" />" to be "<Header Name="User-Agent" Value="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)" />".
5. Select "Save As.." and name the file IE7.browser.

This is it. Now when you will create a new load test scenario, you will see that newly created browser type in the Browser Mix.

How to configure your load test environment

Hi everyone,

This is the first of several posts I intend to submit about the team system for testers.

In this post I will talk about configurating the load test environment.

Load test environment consists of several applications:

• SQL Server
• Visual Studio Team For Testers
• Controllers
• Agents

Let me explain briefly about each.

SQL server - will hold the load test results. When you are installing the VS Tester you install an SQL server Express. The Express version is limited in the data content it can hold which is 4GB. 4GB in disk space will hold around 20 -24 hours of load test data. So if you designed a load test that will run longer then 20 - 24 hours you must consider installing SQL server Standard or Professional edition. You also need to think if the SQL server will be hosted on a stand alone machine or on a combined machine that will also hold the Visual Studio (for example). Keep in mind, the SQL server is CPU consumer. My advice is that if you got a machine that can host the SQL server alone, use it!

Visual Studio Team For Testers - will be use to develop tests, select tests to run, and view test results.

 Controllers & Agents - Group of computers, which consists of single controller and one or more agents called in terms of VSTS Rig. You can read more about it in the following link. The Rig will be use to Scale-out load generation, or simply saying it will be use to generate more load on the application under test. By default when you are creating a load test you are in local mode, meaning that you will not be using a Rig. In other words, you will use the local computer for load generation. You can verify the mode you are running by simply go to the Test menu and selecting the Administer Test controller. If in the Controller combo selected value is local and the Agents box is disabled, you are running localy. So, the first question will be when should I use a Rig? To answer that you first need to answer a few other questions:

• Is there a load balancer?
  • Yes - You need a Rig.
  • No - continue to the next question.
• Can the Visual studio machine generate sufficient load?
  • No - You need a Rig.
  • Yes - continue to the next question.
• If you run the load test in a local mode, is your CPU usage above 80%?
  • Yes - You probably need a Rig.
  • No - continue to the next question.
• If you run the load test in a local mode, do you have enough cache memory?
  • No - You probably need a Rig.
  • Yes - continue to the next question.
• Is the operating system a factor in the web/load test?
  • Yes - You need a Rig.
  • No - continue to the next question.
• Can users connect the application under load form different locations?
  • Yes - You probably need a Rig.
  • No - continue to the next question.
• Do you want to examine the client computers (agents)?
  • Yes - You need a Rig.
  • No - continue to the next question.

So, if you decide that no Rig is needed, here are the configurations available to you:

1. One machine for SQL server and VS Tester.
2. One machine for SQL server and another machine for the VS Tester.

My best pick will be number 2. Both the SQL server and load generation are CPU consumers. Running them both in the same machine can have a big impact on the loading that the machine generates and the data sampling during the load. So by seperating them to two defferent machines, I assure that the CPU will be used in one machine to generate load and in the other to insert sampling data to the SQL server.

However, if you do need a Rig, here are your options:

1. One machine for the SQL server, VS Tester and the controller. One or N machines for the agents.
2. One machine for the SQL server. One machine for the VS Tester and the controller. One or N machines for the agents.
3. One machine for the SQL server. One machine for the VS Tester. One machine for the controller. One or N machines for the agents.

I recommend you to use option 2 or 3. I already explained why it is important to Seperate the SQL server to a stand alone machine, but what about the controller and the VSTS? The controller is used to administer the agents and collect test results and It can be a CPU and memory consumer.The VSTS is used to view and monitor the test results and likewise can consume memory and CPU. So, to sum things up, for something on a small scale leaving the controller on the same computer as VSTS would be fine, for more serious load testing moving it on to a seperate computer may be better.

ALM User group - first meeting

Finally, ALM is on the communities’ page on Microsoft site: 
http://www.microsoft.com/israel/communities/usergroups/

Unfortunately, there isn’t a direct link to register to the meeting and you’ll have to click here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032326767&Culture=he-IL

New TFS Utility - TFSBuildManager

Dudu Shmaya is an experienced codesmith who is recently focusing on TFS customization and tooling. Dudu has published a new utility  on CodePlex called TFSBuildManger. The utility manages build types outside the IDE and includes some very usefull feature like:

• start and stop a build
• change the build quality
• delete or backup a build
• edit the build type

The utility is a substantial edition to the growing list of community TFS utils.

DB Dude as Team Suite Add-on

Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals (DB Dude) available now in form of Add-on for Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite. This small (27Mb) download can be installed on both trial and registered versions of Team Suite. See Brian Keller's post for details.

Note: DB Dude related MSDN topics are not included with Add-on download. You can browse them online here or download from here and install locally.

Customization Problem after Editing WSS Project Portal with FrontPage

I was trying to customize project portal by dragging the required web parts to the page.
As a result I got an error message indicating "An unexpected error has occurred".
After some research, I found this Microsoft KB.

It appears that this problem can occur after editing WSS portal or template with FrontPage or some other editor. In our case, we used customized template. After installation of hotfix (no reboot required), problem was gone.

It's a shame this kb is not open to everyone. You need to contact Microsoft to get it, probably because it has not been tested thoroughly enough.